Unashamedly a TAAT!

[JudgeRinderSays]

AIBU to think MN should ban grammar and spelling pedantry on all forums except the one explicitly for this purpose.
It is so F*cking tedious!

I felt really uncomfortable with those posters repeatedly driving home their point thinking how superior and clever they were. It shows how pathetic bullies are.

YANBU, it's rude, obnoxious, it adds nothing to the discussion and makes the pedant look like a huge massive bellend. Especially when they start smugly congratulating each other.
I think MN should colour their posts a shitty brown for a week as punishment, out them as the wankers they are.

YABU. If someone was to correct my grammar I'd take it on the chin and learn from it. Don't assume everyone is so precious that they can't take a bit of correction.
As for this -

It's thick, dumb fuck, ill mannered and oafish to correct grammar or spelling on a thread

Thick people who don't know how to behave

And that's not rude? Really? If you're going to take the high ground over something you might perhaps want to make sure you're doing it from a somewhat more reasonable standpoint.

Love love love the shitty brown post idea Metallic

I reported some last night. There were so many on one thread I got fed up after reporting the first 3 pointing out the same mistake.

Yanbu.

The most annoying is when people use others mistakes to try to discredit them when the mistake is irrelevant to the topic in question.

Unless the mistakes mean you can not understand the post at all I don't see why anyone needs to comment on it. It is rude to do so, especially when you don't know if that person struggles in general with spelling and grammar.

I think the majority don't use MN for grammar education purposes.

I knew I should of hidden this thread.

But it's never just one person Far it's a whole chain of them, one after the other with nothing constructive to add.
If it is necessary one correction would do. So why do so many others feel the need to add their "have"? Is it just to show how clever they are? How superior and intelligent because it makes their "eyes bleed", while us mere mortals just, y'know, deal with it and address the op.

It also must make some ops feel like crap, and that isn't what MN is for, life will do that for you quite nicely.

Could we have a quick run down on common grammar mistakes please?

My trouble is two things:

1. I passed through the esteemed British education system in the '80s when it was all 'oh, let them learn the language naturally, not stifle them with these rigid rules and boring lessons'. So the only English grammar i have ever been taught was in the first year of secondary school, in a panic by our Enlish teacher in a solid two week block immediately before our end of year exam. She was new and have very obviously just looked at the paper the year would be set and realised she'd not taught us any of that!

2. Despite being veh clever (obvs) I am a bit dyslexic. So I tend not to see my mistakes.

I've tried various 'grammar for dummies' books over the years, including Eats Shoots and Leaves (something about the comma position) but they make it too complicated to follow. THe Guardian did an article on common and basic grammar mistakes recently but I was totally lost by paragraph two.

So, please, you grammar pedants, as simply as you can manage, give me a run down on:

• what is the of/ have thing?

Is that we're in speech we abbreviate to should've but then in writing write should of, not should have (i.e. if you took the 'should' out the sentance wouldn't make sense)?

• affect / effect

I never know which to use when

-who / whom
ditto

I'm ok on the its / it's thing, thanks. (only it's when it is an abbreviation for it is, whereas its is the possesive, like his or hers)

and any other common mistakes you see?

I know someone who once dumped a girl for her poor use of grammar in a text message. Now that's pedantic.

had very obviously. Sorry that was a typo

Farfrom

I'm perfectly happy to take the moral high ground.
My comments are aimed at the superior arseholes who are sneering at someone who simply posted a thread.

I am responding to their rude behaviour.
They were simply mocking someone for fun.

Do you really equate those two?

I am not obliged to be polite to people who have already illustrated that they get their fun from laughing at someone on the internet because they made a grammatical error.

Sparkling.

BUT it would be rude of me to correct anyone. For all I know English may not be their first language or they may have dyslexia etc etc.

Or maybe they simply were not taught it, in which case go and be angry at their teacher, school and gov at time who said its not important

It bugs me to distraction, the "of" / "have" thing in particular. I can't concentrate on the contents of any thread where there is really poor grammar. I'm usually relieved when someone has pointed it out before me so I don't have to face the flack of doing so.

YANBU if Mumsnet was written Maths I believe I would be able to have a pedantic field day . I think it is horribly smug to post about someones spelling or grammar. My daughter is dyslexic and thankfully well able to stand up for herself I would think it was shameful if people were picking on her spelling and grammar if she were to post on a forum like MN.

So many of the posters who take offence at people correcting grammar and accuse them of being rude, have been MUCH more rude and offensive. They have resorted to name calling and personal insults....yet seem to believe they are the ones with manners?? Why do people get so annoyed on other people's behalf anyway?

I can't concentrate on the contents of any thread where there is really poor grammar.

I can't believe you just posted that.

If it distracts you that much that your eyes turn inside out (or something dramatic like that), close the thread and hide it. Easy peasy no need for the smelling salts.

The posters who point out the grammatical errors are not doing it to be helpful.

And if they say they are, they are lying. They do it to make themselves look oh so clever.

P.S. Dougal - apparently in very modern English we don't need to bother about the "who" or "whom" thing, quite ok to use "who" throughout. "Whom" is viewed as being archaic. My manager "corrected" a report from our industry regulator on this front and was trying to insist I went along with her changes until I did a little research and was able to point out she lived in the dark ages :-)

Not only do you find that there are repeated posts "correcting the op", but a fair few of them come from the same fucking poster. They're is a tendency ATM for the same person just rephrasing their original complaint - it's not even as though it's an accidental multiple post.

I don't know if it's done to make the complainant feel better, or if it's to drive a point home, or to try and educate. What it actually does is make the complainant look completely pathetic.

Why do people get so annoyed on other people's behalf anyway

I hate to stand by and watch someone being treated unfairly or in some cases what I would see as bullying if it were happening elsewhere. I do get annoyed if I see that even if it is not happening to me.