Is it wrong to correct someone who uses the wrong there, their or they’re

[Faerie87]

Or Your and you’re?

I know of a few friends who use the wrong ones and I’ve always had the urge to correct them, but never do because I feel it would make me look like I am being mean.

What do other people do?

There are a couple of utter bores on MN who do it because it makes them feel superior. Utterly tiresome and makes them look like dicks especially as they often make errors themselves.

Generally no I wouldn’t correct unless I had been asked to or it was in a work capacity.

Some of these common mistakes annoy me intensely, but I wouldn’t comment unless it was difficult to understand the message, because of poor punctuation, grammar and spelling.

Otherwise, especially if it is someone posting for advice or support, I’d try to focus on the message.

If someone asked me to check, I would and would point out mistakes if necessary.

Badly educated
It is just ignorance
I honestly just fail to see how or why people can't understand this
So few people care about whether they're using the wrong word
Annoys me intensely
presumably their teachers did try to tell them, and they didn't pay attention or retain the information- or they just don't care
I hate when I see/hear grammar errors but I bite my tongue. It just makes the writer/speaker look badly educated.

All of these are direct quotes from this thread. I have just posted on another thread to say I used to be a stickler (in my own head as I'm not a twat!) but have lost some of my language and SPag due to a brain issue and subsequent medication.

How do you think people like me feel when we see the above comments? Genuine question for those who have posted them?

If you don't have the grace to come back and answer this, I'll tell you. It makes me feel even more sad and shit than I already feel, struggling so much with the basics. Please don't take stuff for granted as it hurts to lose it and hurts even more when you're judged as ignorant for losing it.

And thank you to those who understand, or who just are nicer and kinder people!

The less/fewer one catches me out. Could someone explain it in simple language please?

As others have said, it depends on context.

In informal communication, I'd not correct, such as facebook posts, texts between friends/family etc.

But in a formal/business setting, hell yes, game on. Incorrect grammar, spelling or punctuation can have a big impact, so yes, whenever I'm reading/reviewing any work or formal communication, I'm like a teacher with a green pen.

In my job, detail matters, as it's written word/law/numbers based, so things have to be 100% correct.

A prospective employee/subcontractor won't even get an interview if their CV, covering letter or email contains spelling or grammatical errors.

No, it is not wrong to correct. There are different words and phrases because there are different meanings and concepts. If we lose the ability to express those differences in language then eventually we can lose the concept.

If we lose the ability to express those differences in language then eventually we can lose the concept

Oh come on.

Are you really suggesting that a poster writes “really upset, my DD had an accident and broke there leg” that (a) the meaning is lost and (b) it’s ok to correct the spelling?

Context is everything.

I don't usually mind that much, I think it helps English is my second language, but there was recently a poster who spelled 'thought' as 'thort' and it irrationally annoys me .

What's worse, I've seen posts where they used perfectly correct English so even more irritating.

Didn't correct them though as it wouldn't have served any purpose.

PositivelyPERF
If you can count something (e.g. pen), use fewer.
If you can't count something (e.g. water), use less.

I had fewer pens.
I drank less water.

Ohh MongerTruffle, that makes so much sense, now that you’ve explained it. Thank you.

I was looking at some pretty birthday cards at a craft fair, and some had lines from song lyrics on. I picked up one that said "How wonderful life is while your in the world!" Couldn't decide whether to say something. In the end, I said "Actually, 'your' should be 'you're'.......hope you don't mind me saying." Poor girl looked mortified, but removed the cards in question straight away. I moved on pretty quickly.......

Of course it's rude. And half the time the person doing the correcting isn't half as knowledgeable as they like to think they are. They only do it to make themselves feel superior.

Whenever I see someone on MN needlessly nit-picking about someone's SPAG, I feel like grilling the nit-picker to find out how much they really know about grammar (I'm a language teacher). Up for a grilling, OP?

My mum used to correct speech, not written but spoken; she would actually interrupt me as a child when I was trying to tell her something and it inflamed me. I can still feel the pain of it!

What was so ironic was the fact that her grammar and speech was awful, she strung her vowels out on a clothes line. She said things like, "Them", instead of "Those", oh I could go on forever. If I went out with her as a child and we met someone she vaguely knew, she'd put on a fake accent which was dreadful. She was just pretentious, a typical working class snob.

I wish I'd said nothing now, it's upsetting me to remember.

I didn't do that to my son, nor did I allow her to do it to him, but obviously we have to gently guide our children into understandable speech (nothing to do with 'posh' whatever that is), and a reasonable standard of grammar. School does that too, I've no complaints. My son has grown up to be himself.

This will sound odd to many but I am quite upset now and it was all a long time ago. Of course she was good in lots of ways, please don't think I didn't love my mum.

Annother pet annoyance of mine are people who make things more complicated than they need to, i.e. using a long word when there's a shorter/simpler one that does the same job. I'm sure they do it to make themselves appear smarter, but I just think they're idiots. Keep it short and simple - you're also less likely to make spelling and grammatical mistakes! It's not an English GCSE exam!!

@jessstan2

It drives me nuts when people correct others spelling on debate threads. As if wrong spelling or grammar completely takes away the validity of their opinion.
I'm pretty heavily dyslexic and have worked hard to overcome it. Quite frankly it annoys the hell out of me if people pull me up on the occasional error (particularly as the people who do the correcting seem to prefer doing it publicly)