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/

@Lydiaatthebarre: My examples were intended to explain the rules in standard English, though I noted a Somerset variation, so I'm interested in what you say about 'myself' and hope I didn't offend.

If you say ' Myself and Mary went to...' would you also 'Myself went to...' ?

This is a genuine question. I'd like to know whether my rule of thumb about leaving out the other person's name holds true.

I have enjoyed this thread, unexpectedly. I have always been aware that I'm not sure of the use of "Poster and I" and love the rule that you remove "Poster" and see if it still works with just I.

In my job it is quite normal to be given corrections before things are published and I am happy so that I don't send a lot of crap off. I don't feel bad being corrected. This does change how you feel correcting others, it doesn't genuinely feel superior or confrontational, just matter of fact.

OP is quite aggressive in her post and her other thread and I wonder if she is the type of person who really gets angry if anything is pointed out, " can you move your bag off the seat? I was in the queue first? Etc

I think it's within anyone's right to politely point out errors ( I'm looking at you professor) and if you don't like it you are within your rights to disagree. This is a chat forum, for goodness sake.

Probably contraversially, I think it's bullying to say " you can't post X,y,z or I'll report you every time" a) reporting is for abusive and hate filled rubbish or sexual stuff b) MN will not remove a polite poster who points out how to use an apostrophe!

Finally, it's telling that the antigrammar lot have to use such pejorative
language such as 'SPaG police'. How about 'slang jockies' or 'nonsense peddlers? ' You are the ones saying we need to be kind and respectful, how about it the other way round too?

disclaimer: more than happy to be corrected for SPaG!

Hmm. I didn't realise this was a TAAT. And the original one is very unpleasant. From both sides, actually.

Grammer police.

Can't believe no one got there before me

Naked, it's spelt controversially! You did give me permission! 😉

I agree. Unless someone is already being a total tool, I ignore any issues with their spelling etc. unless they ask. It really is just rude and a way to make yourself feel good at the expense of someone else.

If you say ' Myself and Mary went to...' would you also 'Myself went to...' ?

No, because both are grammatically incorrect for at least two reasons.

1 Myself, yourself, herself etc are reflexive pronouns and are used only when the person is doing something to themselves, ie washing, dressing, speaking.

2 The grammatically correct sentence would be "Mary and I..."

nakedscientist, I'm not the only one who will report - and it's on threads where an OP is posting something personal, stressful or upsetting for them. I've seen many instances where a poster feels entitled to wheel up with "Actually OP, it's their, not there". They have no other substantive point to make - just correcting the OP.

MNHQ has said that they want reports to be made and, from my experience, they've deleted those posts. That's not bullying - the initial correction is 'bullying behaviour' if you want to see 'bullying' anywhere. I don't report very often about anything - but if I see the example I've just given, I will. Every time. I'm open about that and I don't care if anybody has an issue with it.

I'm not talking about threads like this, they're interesting and I hope it doesn't go. I won't have reported it anyway.

I've noticed in the thread that people are referring to Facebook posts and blogs. I don't post on any of those so perhaps we're talking about different platforms. I'm only referring to MN. Posters talking about FB or other places have different 'rules' because they're probably friends/family/colleagues - people that the poster knows. You (general) don't know people here and that's the difference.

The other point is that 'slang jockies' will generally not be the ones complaining about the corrections, it will be other posters on their behalf, and most likely they'll be 'compliant' with your 'rules' on how to post. It's not polite to correct other people's language usage of SPaG - unless they've asked you to. You can conflate that to included 'people posting like dicks' or 'bigots' if you want to, but essentially the only beef I have is with people picking on posters who haven't fallen foul of that, they've just had the misfortune to run into a SPaG-dick themselves.

@TerfsUp: thank you. I understand the rules of standard English as I hope my earlier post makes clear.

My question was addressed to Lydiaatthebarre because of her comments about ' Myself and Mary went to...' bring common in Ireland.

Should have said 'being common in Ireland'.

I have to say, there’s a poster who usually posts on threads correcting grammar and then when people object says “they should be grateful I’m doing them a favour”.

They’ve just made a very glaring grammatical error on another thread

Sitting on my hands

OP I enjoyed your OP on the other thread. It was free spirited in a “write it like you say it” way.

But it was a tad unintelligible and I had to read it twice. I still thought it was fun though.

HI fifth

No we wouldn't use myself if just talking about what I singular did.

But an older person might say 'ah it's yourself' if they bumped into someone at the shops.

'Mary and I went to the shops' would come across as quite formal to most Irish ears. It's not that we don't understand the grammar, it's just our traditional way of putting things.

'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).'

Which is a difficulty commonly experienced by pupils with (for example) dyspraxia, dyslexia and/or visual processing difficulties.

How would you decide whether a pupil was 'lazy' or had undiagnosed dyspraxia?

Thanks, Lydia.

I have definitely heard 'it's yourself' before. Hadn't realised it was age related though.

Meh, it depends on context. If you have somebody claiming to be highly educated, and using that to prove a point, and they keep saying "could of" or "there" instead of "their" it's fair enough. Or if somebody claims to be a paleontologist but keeps spelling dinosaur incorrectly.

I don't pick up grammar on social media. I might query something totally unintelligible, but more often if I don't understand a post I simply ignore it.

However, I do think that simple courtesy requires that people at least make an effort to make their posts intelligible. After 11 years' compulsory education, unless someone has a learning difficulty they should have worked out the difference between their and there, and that you don't say things like "could of" or "Myself and her went to ...". I also think it's become more important for parents to get it right in recent years, given the emphasis on SpAG in SATs, GCSEs and other qualifications. It makes life so much easier for children if they use SpAG correctly without effort as a result of the fact that they hear and see it most of the time, both at home and at school.

The posts that really amuse me are those written by people who are barely literate claiming to be highly educated and working in "senior roles". OK, love, whatever.

Now Jacques, I would say that they are fair game...

drnectarine

I'm not going to bother talking about my job with someone who insinuates that my teaching is "shit" based on one post I've made on an Internet forum. I'll save my breath for my colleagues, who respect me. (I'm sure you'll just respond with "You don't think of undiagnosed dyspraxia, do you?" but go ahead, it's quite funny that you now want to discuss teaching issues with me after insulting me!)

Gulenne, Well to paraphrase, "You might think that, you might very well think that... but you couldn't possibly comment".

If you think it's rude of the poster not to comply, you're free not to reply to them, aren't you? Sometimes I read a post here that I can't understand, but it's clear that the OP is in distress about something, so I'll post and just say that "I'm sorry for her upset" or "I hope things improve", something like that, just to acknowledge.

If it's just a jumble of nonsense or gross attention-seeking, I backspace out leaving not a trace...

The "Ah Mary, it's yourself"... I love that. I heard it a lot in Northern Ireland and it makes me smile. I hope regional 'sayings' and colloquialisms will never die out.

I'm away to the washing up now...

I made a sweeping generalisation to highlight the one which you made soozc.

But reflexive pronouns like myself are used for emphasis too.

e.g

OP “Why are you so mean about hippies all the time?”

AnotherP: “But you said yourself that you can’t stand them”

Yourself isn’t meant reflexively here bcs the OP wasn’t talking to herself, but as a matter of emphasis.

Here you go:

www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/01/17/myself_when_is_it_okay_to_use_the_reflexive_pronoun_in_a_sentence.html

Even Shakespeare used “myself” as a subject pronoun.