Honestly, to all intensive purposes you will thank me for this one day

[MutePoint]

I'm in no position to join the grammar police but some MNetters might be grateful to learn that

all intensive purposes should actually be: all intents and purposes

per say should be: per se

mute point should be: moot point

So do you go round correcting people in every aspect of their lives then Mute? Tell fat people how to lose a few pounds, suggest a young Mum puts mittens on her baby maybe? Or do you you confine your rather insolicited advice to people's vocabulary?

Lack of education Rita, but hey, if felling superior gets you through the day...

Seeing it makes my teeth itch and I momenterally think 'why?' but I move along and don't give it another thought. No way do I think I'm superior to anyone over the use of words, or anything for that matter.

Unsolicited ffs

But written language does matter! The more it's accepted in everyday life the more meaning is eroded, and standards slip. Not everybody with poor spelling and grammar has an SEN, so that excluded: it really fucking matters because the dumbing down of such things doesn't lead to anywhere good.

You've supported the point that it can be about education in your own post Livia or are people with EAL not being educated when they're taught English "in more detail"?

And I most certainly do not have that attitude Mute, I just don't think judging people on an Internet forum meant for recreation is the place to tackle the deficits in our education system.

Or to phrase it properly "ah bless em they don't know any better so leave them to it" attitude

Wow. I didn't know this. I'm going to write it down on a peice of paper and put it safely in my chester draws.

The most annoying one is 'been' instead of 'being.' Really really winds me up, that one!

Oh and 'another thing coming' should actually be 'another think coming' as in "If you think __ then you've got another think coming..."

I've just finished reading a free kindle download book, which was actually pretty good, but throughout, the author used glass's, guess's, abuse's and pass's, which was a tad irritating. She also used loose, not lose. It's a shame because I will remember the book for the bad grammar, and not the storyline. I'm not going to name and shame the author, but most of her reviews on Amazon concentrate on the grammatical errors and not the plot.

Ahem. You should of known it's the grammer police!

SHOULD HAVE!!!!

'Could of' 'Should of' 'Would of' - NONE of these are correct in the English language.

The correct terms are 'Could have' 'Should have' 'Would have'

Mama I wouldn't have a problem with "loverly," I imagine they are using it to mean a certain kind of "lovely," eg you sit down to a cup of tea and a nice bit of cake, rub your hands together and say "Ooh, loverly!"

Also the song from My Fair Lady is called "Wouldn't it be loverly" which is all about the comforting sort of lovely.

Do we really want people with less than perfect English to be deterred from posting on Mumsnet?

I have form for getting annoyed at what I consider to be basic mistakes in written English. But earlier this week someone sent me a link to this blog (4th March entry) which has made me re-think.

I don't know what EAL is. Being taught a second language is always more detailed than learning your own.

The fact that people spell words like 'drawers' incorrectly just shows that they aren't well acquainted with the written word. Nothing wrong with that but like I said, if I have gaps in my knowledge I like to fill them!

I agree with Livia- it's not just about education, though that should help- reading makes the real difference. I wasn't taught to use a semi-colon, for instance. But I do use them correctly as I've absorbed the rules from reading. I'm a name-changer, but I'm also not first language English: the majority of errors here are not EFL ones but poor grammar ones. I know from here Gove's demands on grammar in the curriculum went down like a lead balloon, but it's not just about "making yourself understood". In all likelihood, the errors this thread are about aren't only made on social media, but are replicated in daily life also (autocorrect not withstanding!) Now, most important of all: I don't have a return carriage key on my 'phone: so how do I do paragraphs when using the app?!

Oh lord the grammar police are alive well and in action.

I have NEVER heard an EAL speaker say 'would of' or 'could of' or 'pacific' or 'defiantly'

And mortified means severely embarrassed, not angry or pissed off.

This winds me up. (It does not mortify me, however).

Twatty. I have a return button on my cheap and old Sony phone.

As a horsey person the constant muddling of reigns/reins/rains makes my teeth itch.

As does misuse of confirmation/conformation.

Low and behold, it's another one of these posts!

Nobody is sneering but if someone writes 'would of' and someone else points out it is 'would have', then they get all defensive. There are a lot of things I know little about and I'm happy to be corrected so that I don't make that mistake in the future.

See this is what I don't understand.

Most people here are adults, who will have had at least 11 or 12 years of schooling as a minimum.

They will have been taught that at school. They will no doubt have been reminded at some point since leaving school. They will have repeatedly read the words 'would have' in books/news reports/when helping with DC's homework.

So why on earth do some Mumsnetters think that they are going to be that one person, who 'makes a difference' by pulling that person up on an internet chat forum?

Do they really think they're so special, that the person will suddenly remember it for evermore, because a random name on the internet has told them it's would have?

No, imo it's far more about the fact some people won't take responsibility for their own irritability when they see other people using poor grammar.

It's all about them and not the person they claim to be 'helping'.

I also think this sort of thing (being done to death) probably puts a lot of lurkers off of posting here for support, because they may worry their grammar is not up to scratch and they don't want to embarrass themselves.

Shame, considering Mumsnet should be for anyone who needs it.

Twatty

What sort of keypad are you typing on?

And YY to absorbing rules

Here's your badge op, for when you get off your peddle stool