AIBU: Re the grammar police on this board

[RedRoosterLondon]

AIBU to think that the grammar police on here sanctimonious cunts?

Yanbu.

doesn't seem to matter what a person is posting. even if they are going through something really tragic. they just pile in and pick apart the grammar.

these smart phones are notorious fir changing words/auto correct errors. as long as you cab figure out the gist of what a post means just accept there will be typos sometimes.

I hate how what's happened is completely lost as people argue over spellings.

YANBU
Thread grammar police are pathetic unless it's done politely and kindly IYSWIM

Love all the text speak haters, what with all the MN abbreviations

I agree it's bad form to point out grammar mistakes.

Bad punctuation annoys me more though, especially when a question has been asked without a question mark.

I would certainly want someone to tell me if I was making grammar or spelling mistakes (and incidentally can we stop using "grammar" to mean all aspects of language?) but I would be embarrassed about doing it to someone else. I realise that's totally illogical!

I saw people do it recently to someone who clearly wasn't a native English speaker. Was really cringey . "Maybe you should learn to speak properly" etc

Bad grammar irritates me, like a bad smell or an irritating background noise. I can't help it, I always know what's 'right' and if it feels 'wrong' it grates. I don't tend to comment on others' grammar though as it's rude and a bit unkind to correct someone publicly if it's not relevant to the discussion.

Grammar and spelling are about the only thing I consider myself to be good at and it's hard to explain to non pedants how irritating really bad grammar is to those of us afflicted by pedantry- I was in a meeting the other day and there were notes left on the white board from a teaching session which was full of spelling mistakes (to be fair, they weren't words that people would use every day). I was absolutely itching to get up and correct them.
However, I would never correct anyone's grammar on here unless they were being incredibly sanctimonious and judgemental.

I like them so I can distinguish the tears from everyone else.

I see them as the head girl/prefect types. Boring then and boring now.

When my grammar was corrected I looked to see it was actually auto correct that had changed a word (f u Apple) and resisted the urge to call the person correcting it a sanctimonious cunt.
Because it was quite clearly auto correct and they were nit picking. And they obviously have no life if that's how they get their jollies

and incidentally can we stop using "grammar" to mean all aspects of language?

This.

Also, I totally get that some people are using text-to-speech software due to a disability, or aren't native English speakers, and I totally understand that. But if you want to make yourself understood, it's important to put an effort into communicating. There are plenty of free courses online for people who just haven't been educated - educate yourself. And instead of getting angry that people have pulled you up on it, realise that as the communicator, the onus is on you to make yourself understood, not on the communicatee. (Yes, I think I made up a word.)

Also, when you're trying to debate and are acting higher-than-mighty and you say something like "it's a mute point" or put spaces before question marks, or use the dreaded "should of", it just makes you look lazy and stupid. My dad has a habit of saying "very prolific" when he means "very profound". It's a habit impossible to break him of, and it's just embarrassing.

Twats not tears obviously!

What is always rather lovely is that the people who go crashing onto a thread just to point out an error always, without exception, make far more glaring ones themselves. Always. I do a bit of community service and point them out publicly if someone is being a total cunt about it, but y'know, not being a sad fuck who gets my rocks off by belittling others I try and be the better person.

I suppose we should be magnanimous and think that their little lives must be so devoid of praise and self-worth that they somehow feel better about themselves having pointed out that it's not "should of". (Have you noticed how they always think they're the first person on Planet Earth to have spotted it as well, bless)

There are some people on MN who write beautifully, succinctly, and with enormous wit. Strangely, you never see them putting other people's use of English down. Whilst the people who do it, and do it regularly, have a command of English which generally seems to be adequate at best, and somewhat mediocre at worst.

The "oooh, it's getting like Nethuns" comments aren't necessary either. Although possibly true, in that I believe Netmums has a reputation for bullying mean girlz pulling pigtails in the playground, which is, after all, what the Grammar Police are doing.

It's rude to point out someone's mistake unless they ask in my opinion. I hate text speak etc but wouldn't dream of saying anything. I have a friend who calls me hun but I've yet to draw blood

TheGrammerPolice (tm) can be v useful when someone needs taking down a peg or two, but not deployed when someone obviously just needs help or a rant.

The usage that really brings steam from my ears though is 'loose' and 'loosing' for lose and losing. Posters using those, particularly in thread titles, make me want to loose eterrnal fire and damnation upon them!

That said, I make far more mistakes than in the past, as safari seems to be far too 'helpful'.

I dont think i make too many mistakes in grammar

I dont punctuate and sometimes make a typo but thats because i turned my autocorrect off as it was annoying me

i know i am perfectly capable of punctuating, so i dont care if someone thinks that i am not.

I agree that most of the time i only see the grammar police when someone is having a go at someones grammar and theirs is wrong as well

The worst thing is when a poster is clearly distressed and someone corrects them. It is so unnecessary and rude.

I worked as a copy editor for some years, so I would say my writing isn't bad but I still make mistakes, especially when I'm writing informally on a website (and on my phone too!). Very few people make no mistakes, and I tend to think that it's best not to pull someone up on their errors unless you are positive that you've made none.

Also, sometimes I'm staggered by how insensitive people can be - someone posts e.g. "I could of said goodbye to my dying father if it wasn't for the hospital parking policy" and some utter arse comes on and corrects the grammar.

I agree that would be ridiculously insensitive, but does it actually happen? It's the sort of thing people quote on threads like this but, though I've seen one or two that are mildly insensitive, I've never seen anything as bad as that.

I don't think they're sanctimonious. How can one be morally superior with grammar?

I do think that being lazy and not bothering to try to write something reasonably coherently and clearly is in itself rude. If I see a paragraph full of textspeak, frankly I'm not even going to bother to try to decipher it. And I'm afraid that, if I see a post full of "could ofs" and "So myself and X were going to..." etc, it just grates and again spoils the sense of what the poster is trying to say.

I'm glad you find that funny, Itsmine. Personally I think with the internet available in practically every home these days, I despair of the amount of people who can't Google something to find it out before asking stupid questions on Facebook or can't take 5 seconds to check the spelling of a word, or who bemoan their fate and say "i can't get a job cos i can't write good" when there are thousands of free resources available to help them at the touch of a button. I'm not sure why it's such an amusing or radical idea to suggest that people get off their asses and make use of the readily-available FREE resources that my generation never had access to growing up.

It says more about the arses that do this then the posters that make mistakes.
By the way, it should "than". HTH, hun.