Well we all knew this about people who correct grammer on line

[Metoodear]

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/news/amp42354/people-who-point-out-typos-are-idiots-so-says-science/

Are they a 'thing' now?

Always been fairly prevalent around here but more vociferous in recent years.

I have a first in English literature and teach English at FE level. I make grammatical errors online. It’s a casual affair, it’s not a marriage .

I have an extremely pedantic colleague though and you have to ensure accurate grammar in emails to him at all times else he will raise it when you see him .

Lockheart, before this thread does go - where did you get that Oxford comma page, it's great!

@Tomatoesrock: for most people, I have found the simplest way to remember is to ignore the other name and imagine that you are talking about yourself.

'Fifth and I are going swimming' is the same, grammatically, as 'I am going swimming'. You would not say ' me am/are going swimming'. And you wouldn't say ' Myself am going swimming'.

'He gave it to Fifth and me' is the same as ' He gave it to me'. You would not say 'He gave it to I' (unless you were in Somerset). And you shouldn't say 'He gave it to myself', though unfortunately many people do these days.

'Myself' should be used only in sentences like ' I washed myself' or 'I can do it all by myself!'

Hope that helps.

Fifthtimelucky I get it. Thank you.

Tomatoes here is a guide on myself, himself, etc (reflexive pronouns).

en.oxforddictionaries.com/grammar/when-to-use-myself-and-yourself

Happy reading. I might go and refresh my own memory!

I never correct grammar because mine is terrible. I'm 'clever' and educated. I write for a living. I know the difference between where, were and we're but my phone doesn't, nor do my fingers when I'm typing a post on an informal internet chat forum, at speed, for entertainment.

I do think the people who correct grammar on serious posts are twats but the ones who do it on posts like 'AIBU to think wimmins shuld stay in the kichen?' I find funny.

And Facebook language makes me cringe. Wtf does gawjuss mean? And why use it? It has almost as many letter gorgeous, anyway.

I wouldn't tell someone who comes on to ask if their bubs luks gawjuss they're a twat but I would quietly think it.

Well if it's in Cosmo then it must be true...

I don't think it's just about scrabbling around for something, anything, to say. Yeah it's not a sophisticated or ethical way of arguing, but from a cynical angle, if the person you're trying to persuade over to your point of view is invested in trying to gain your respect and as such is sensitive to how you're seeing them, then ridicule can still be very effective in subtly wrongfooting someone, momentarily winding them and making them doubt themselves. You can then, knowing that your 'opponent' is feeling a bit chastised, go on making your point, maybe not even having to develop it further, because you know the person's defences will be temporarily maimed. So not sophisticated, and obviously manipulative, but effective and so hardly 'idiotic'. I guess people must know this on a subconscious level.

I don't care about obvious typos - anyone can do that! I have no problem with things like "you was" either, as to me these are legitimate regional variations in spoken English and their extension to informal written use - on Mumsnet, for example - makes the online world more interesting.

I'm content to overlook generally hit-and-miss spelling and grammar too. Generally the only time I'd correct grammar is if someone generally writes well as the error is somehow more jarring and it feels like there's a chance they'll appreciate/learn from the information. It's easy to misjudge this, though, and I'd only do it on a thread with a lighter topic.

Thing is forums aren't the place to educate people. 9 times out of 10 we're all doing several things at once or in a rush. Often I fumble or don't notice auto correct. Mistakes are made. I proof read everything that counts and online when I can. I'm perfectly capable of doing it and don't need educating so posters who choose to correct just look silly. One of my posts today has the wrong there,not sure how as I damn well know how to use both correctly,sometimes if I can be arsed I apologise( incase of judging). Today I can't be arsed so it's pointless anybody hauling me over the coals for it.

Adroit post that, velourvoyageur

Facebook language makes me cringe too, Frequency, I see it here and I just post around it. I'm interesting in improving my own SPaG but I wouldn't impose that will on other people.

Attacking people who correct their children's spelling and grammar is a cheap shot at other people's parenting.

Ensuring your children are able to write correctly is teaching them a skill which will help them be successful at school, at work and in life. Not doing so is the very nature of bad parenting.

Some posters are also very uninformed re colloquialisms and superciliously correct people who are using expressions that are perfectly normal where they come from. For instance here in Ireland it's perfectly normal to say 'myself and Mary went to.....' , but I have seen Irish posters bring rudely told off for typing this in a casual post. So really, when you don't know someone best to keep your beak out. The vast majority of posters do not want typos and errors pointed out and have made this clear over and over. But the pedants refuse to listen and continue to excuse their behaviour by insisting they're just being helpful

OP started a thread to slag off a whole group of people. She was quite vile about them (swearing etc) and then went one about their terrible parenting and teaching of their children. In her post, she used there and their, alternating them throughout but used them the wrong way round.

If she had only used one version then it would probably have been ignored, but she obviously knows there are different uses as she tried but she got it wrong. So she was corrected. That seems quite important since she would just continue using them the wrong way round. And since her post was going on about others teaching their children something she disagrees with whilst swearing about them, it seemed like a fair trade for her to be corrected.

A good point velourvoyageur.

However, you would have to judge your opponent carefully. If they immediately snap back by saying "Yes that was a typo / I struggle with homophones / I am dyslexic, don't you have anything of substance to add?" it can undermine you instead.

One should never - NEVER - correct people when they are in the process of talking.

Not exactly never ever.
I learned a lot by having people correct me. They did know that I want them to correct me though. To the outsider it must have look bloody rude but to me it was an invaluable help when working on my English.

I'm not trying to make myself feel better or superior to other people in any way. I correct people because spelling and using the correct words is something you're supposed to learn in primary school. The most basic of skills. I think it's important to learn to use the right words and be able to spell them properly. I always correct myself if I've made a mistake and wouldn't be precious about someone correcting me either.

Actually manners and tact is also a basic skill Goth, and correcting another adult's grammar shows neither.

You lost me at Cosmopolitan article and 'grammer'. Someone does need to go back to school, and maybe read better websites.

I don't correct posts often- usually only if the person is being rude and trying to make someone else feel bad. Then it's pretty funny, in my opinion. Also, I wouldn't correct a serious post where the poster is in distress because that's rude. But on Facebook, for example, I hate reading all of the wrong uses of the words 'there' and 'their' or 'to' and 'too'. It gets under my skin. And while I don't correct them when I see them (I'd be there all day), I am itching to do it.

*drnectarine

Soozc - IME shit teachers always blame the results of poor teaching on laziness.*

Wow, judge people you don't know much?

*Birdinthetree

SoozC was reflecting on your laziness comment too - dd is an awful speller, imo, but she is not lazy and she is not dyslexic - she is apparently "average".*

I was talking about grammatical errors made by pupils who know their mistakes once they look through their work properly (sorry if that wasn't clear). Spelling is a whole different ballgame, with rules and exceptions enough to flummoxe most pupils!

I don't correct people on posts, but I certainly notice.

I am always a bit surprised at how oblivious some people are to learning something. I understand they feel angry, annoyed, defensive etc about their error if it's been picked up on by someone, and they might refuse to correct it just because of that. But even if you felt 'got at' for doing it, when someone has told you that you've spelled something like 'grammar' wrong, it seems strange to then keep on spelling it wrong. Ii understand that it might not go in long term, that they might not remember it later that day or whatever, and I also understand that sometimes it's not a simple point (knowing which of the 'there/their/they're' words to use requires a bit more knowledge and simply pointing out that someone has done it wrong won't necessarily fix). But often when it's a simple spelling, the person seems to just totally ignore it in the very next post when they're replying. It seems like they are deliberately refusing to learn something. And no matter how angry I was at someone for pointing something out, I think I'd find it hard to not care/not be interested/not even vaguely try to remember.

Apologies for the bold fail.

Everytime I see a smug poster correcting someone else's grammar, usually by way of belittling them, I feel angry and sad that my dyslexic ds is going to have to put up with this shit when he is older.

Imagine going through school and always being behind your peers no matter hard you tried, coming last in most subjects, feeling stupid in the classroom and constantly feeling like a failure. Then to think ds might decide, as an adult, to go onto an online forum to ask for advice or offer his opinion only for some wanker to go "it's their, not there". Wow well done for not having any learning difficulties and having the privilege of a decent education.