So all these pedants who correct posters grammar

[MamaMaiasaura]

Seen posters correcting grammar on here, do they do so in RL situations?

You learn to speak from a very young age. You are taught grammar in school. You are using language on a dialy basis.

It is not unreasonable, therefore, that it is done correctly. It is hardly as if it is new to you.

Daily damn keyboard

Well yes I do (know of the tale) Habbibu, but I don't know what the display is trying to tell me.

Is it identifying the pigs (who are also present beneath the house) OR is it telling me that the picture of the house is their house (apostrophe after) which in itself troubles me as I prefer the original pig story, in which pigs one and two get gobbled up and are never present in the brick house (featured).

Somewhere in there should be some question marks but I'm never quite sure where to place them in a list.

I know I should be networking or doing mental arithmetic while I stand there waiting but that bloody apostrophe...

LikeAnAdentCandleButNot - what the actual fuck! Are you joking or really really patronising?

But Like, your exposure to language can throw up a huge variety of forms, which may be "correct", or at least not challenged, within a given context. "Correctness" is a bit of a misnomer wrt language.

What I find interesting is the fact that pedants will happily explain issues of concord etc when discussing the mistakes of others, all the while happily glossing over anomalies within their own standard. The curiousity of "aren't I?" is a case in point - many Scots would say "amn't I?" which is more satisfying in terms of concord, and you could argue that "you was" is also communicatively clearer, in that it distinguishes between singular or plural addressees. But over history the plural form has evolved to be the accepted simple 2nd person past for both singular and plural - perhaps more "accepted" than "correct".

Actually, Like, your last sentences jar syntactically, somehow.

Slubbers, ok, fair enough. But yes, you need to look at Another Wall.

LikeAnAdventCalendar - did you read my post? Does that not even make you think a little bit?? How many languages do you speak? Do you realise that for many on here English isn't even their first language - sometimes a 4th or 5th.

... and - let's not forget it's a casual chat forum, that's all.

oh, belfast - it happens. A lot.

I've seen it very very very many times.

Along with many posts where the OP is in a right state about a problem that is upsetting them and they have committed the terrible crime of not putting paragraphs in their post and they get comments along the lines of

I'm not reading that
one word - paragraphs
got bored halfway through that
etc etc

It happens, unfortunately. I wish it didn't.

Grammar etc doesn't really matter on a board such as this, as long as you can understand what the person meant.

hmmmm, even though I find grammar and punctuation important, I can see from what other posters have said that it could be annoying to be corrected. I will be visiting pedants corner more often though, I love it!

Actually, I'm just reading a professionally printed programme for a panto we're at and the number of errors is making my eyes bleed.

If 1,000 people think I am rude and continue to write wrongly, but 1 person....

Titters at "1" a grammar pedant's fail. It's very difficult to be a smarty bum and perfect with your own grammar, that's why I'd never be smug enough to correct anyone elses. It usually ends with egg on faces.

I also find grammar and punctuation important, though I would not correct anyone on an informal chat board. I might, however, have a judgy internal voice that screams ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH when I see some of the posts.

I have been know to blurt out ''FEWER'' when people have said less, when it ought to be fewer, IYKWIM. It's like a tic, I can't help it. Really CAN'T!

We're not pedants. It matters. Do you know how many speculative letters I've received that contain no capital letters or are in text speak? This from young people trying to break into an industry where an excellent command of English is paramount.

This is what we will sleep walk into if nobody gets on their high horse about spelling and grammar.

And if one more person writes 'should of' instead of 'should have' or 'your' instead of 'you're' (in context), I will scream.

I think it is breathtakingly rude.

I always think 'well done, you can spell. Your manners are awful'

My mother is a fantastic woman. Pulled out of school at 10 because her father died and she had to care for her brothers. If you correct her she will be humiliated.
People have a back story. It is unpleasant and shitty.

a friend of mine markers papers for an Oxford College Law course undergrads - she is ed at the level of ability to write cogent sentences and punctuate properly ( i've seen some of them!) - and this in a professional field where written communication is at a premium from one of the 'finest' colleges in the country.

I don't mind at all being corrected - I appreciate the input. And I don't want us to be communicating by a series of grunts eventually. [taking preparatory steps to being a grumpy old man..]

Which misses the point, though in perfect English, that the person who complained about grammar made a basic grammatical error. To be a pedant who wants to "educate" others they need to be perfect most of the time and very few are.

There is also the point taught in basic writing courses that the writer needs to consider their audience, so if you were writing a job application and your potential employer requires perfect English, you'd better spend a lot of time making sure it is perfect.

However if people are chatting on message boards then the readers have no expectation of perfection so the odd errors are immaterial. It's basic stuff we were taught in the early days at college prior to university. I'm not perfect, not many are, therefore better not to correct others IMO, until we achieve that level of smug superiority greatness.

Proudnscary... If chatboard life-in-posts matters that much to you then i'm sorry for you. You and your ilk are not the guardians of language nor are you the final bastions of the board.

There's nothing more ill-mannered than to pick holes in how somebody else composes their post, it's divisive and dismissive.

Agree with Hecate's post and Pagwatch's elegant post. Those posters here insisting on their 'right to censure' should feel humbled... but probably lack the grace to feel anything but their own self-righteousness.

I actually do not believe people would correct others in real life. I really don't! I ran it past DH, he works with some pretty rude characters and even he was agog. I just can't picture the scene.

Say, a toddler group for example. Someone says 'should of'. Would anyone really jump in and correct a fellow adult? Well, do so and expect not to be roundly ridiculed and ignored at least?

In the workplace that is different, I used to be a marketing manager so would oversee any collateral going public, yes I would correct people in that circumstance. I am also an English teacher, so of course I correct everything then. But socially? Amongst my peers? No chance. I have manners.

ach it depends how it's done n'est ce pas? I don't post a lot so probably miss the 'nasty' smug correctors that are referred to here, and I can't remember 'correcting anyone on MN.

You learn to speak from a very young age. You are taught grammar in school. You are using language on a dialy basis.

.......................................................

sniggers..................

I saw that, sitenadnatter... I thought that whole post was very carefully constructed... a bit like trying to talk posh when one isn't. I inwardly sniggered too.

Lying If I knew how to do a search when they weren't concentrating on their written English I would bet a tenner I'd find mistakes in them. Just don't know how and can't be arsed to find out.

I wouldn't take that bet, sitandnatter, I'd lose!

I think that if somebody wants to read a post and understand it, they will. It's as simple as that.

The thread this one is about - the posters who critiqued the OP's post really took the shine off her thread. For what purpose, I don't know. It was mean and petty and I imagine that they bore the shit out of people in RL so they have to exert their 'superiority' here to a captive audience.

I couldn't care less about posters grammar on a chat board tbh

I think the posters who correct grammar are a bit sad tbh