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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Bought vs Brought

286 replies

Curiosity101 · 29/02/2020 22:43

AIBU to cringe every time someone uses 'brought' when they mean 'bought'?

"I went to the shop and brought a ^^"

I don't normally care about things like this. Never ever correct anyone (even in this case). But for some reason this one really makes me cringe.

Is brought rather than bought always wrong? Or AIBU and it's regional or something?

OP posts:
MrHodgeymaheg · 01/03/2020 08:03

We clearly don't have enough problems in our lives if we worry or get angry about this crap.

motherheroic · 01/03/2020 08:05

I just don't care to be honest.

MrHodgeymaheg · 01/03/2020 08:07

Although I would use 'bought' myself.

I do find these thread odd. Surely it is obvious that we all have different strengths and weaknesses? We don't treat people who don't know their multiples of 23, or the atomic number of lead with this much contempt.

Sux2buthen · 01/03/2020 08:10

Adopt, I think that's an autocorrect

lazylinguist · 01/03/2020 08:10

I wish it wasn’t perceived as mean to correct grammar.

Sorry, but you are mistaken if you think that the perception of meanness is getting in the way of us all kindly correcting errors and improving the spelling and grammar of the nation.

People don't get spelling and grammar wrong because they are waiting forsomeone like you or me to come along and show them the light. They get it wrong because it's lots of little rules and examples and many people simply find it impossible to retain that type of information. Plus it's simply not a priority for lots of people.
So, quite justifiably, they would regard your intervention as patronising and pointless. People know if their spelling and grammar are poor, they really don't need you to pont it out.

FamilyOfAliens · 01/03/2020 08:13

We clearly don't have enough problems in our lives if we worry or get angry about this crap.

Can’t speak for others but I’m perfectly capable of worrying about Brexit and climate change and feeling irritated by poor grammar.

OlaEliza · 01/03/2020 08:22

AIBU to cringe every time someone uses 'brought' when they mean 'bought'?

NO yanbu!

FlamingoAndJohn · 01/03/2020 08:26

There was a thread a few days ago where a woman had be bought a house to rent by her parents. The whole thread was full of the word ‘bought’.
Until one poster who used brought all the way through. I don’t understand that. Surely she saw that everyone else had used bought.

I don’t get worked up any other spelling and grammar really*, but bought and brought annoy the hell out of me. It’s nothing to do with education, accent or anything like that for those two words.

*I do get worked up with posts that are just a stream on consciousness with no full stops but I just don’t read them and move on.

Floramcfluff · 01/03/2020 08:27

I see this and find it annoying, but the ‘of’s’ give me the rage! I don’t know why it bothers me so much but seeing ‘would of, could of and should of’ drives me insane 🤯

BookMeOnTheSudExpress · 01/03/2020 08:47

Well said Lazy.

WelcometoCranford · 01/03/2020 08:55

I used to work in accounts for a high street company. We often received internal post addressed to the "Brought Ledger" dept.

longwayoff · 01/03/2020 09:01

I haven't heard 'I brung it' for a very long time. Has it died out now?

TrickyD · 01/03/2020 09:01

hokolo, thank you for your very interesting posts. Flowers

AngeloMysterioso · 01/03/2020 09:16

I don’t think the i before e rule is taught in schools any more. There are actually more words that are exceptions to that rule than there are that follow it!

Sonichu · 01/03/2020 09:24

"Carnt" makes me seethe every time I see it!

alltakingandnogiving · 01/03/2020 09:26

I assumed that bought/brought was just a typo/spellcheck error. I've never heard anybody actually say it.

But 'I was literally climbing the walls' makes me literally want to scream.

Kastanien · 01/03/2020 09:31

'If I was you' annoys me, and also if I use the correct wording 'if I were you' people have corrected me because they don't realise that it is actually correct. I blame Midge Ure and his 'If I was' song.

Carn't and arsk are pretty common where I live, but I live in an area where Rs are often pronounced in words even though they do not appear in the written word. Just a regional thing I suppose.

There was a thread on here a while ago about 'you have another think coming' as opposed to 'thing coming'. Opinions were very divided!

clary · 01/03/2020 09:31

tararara nooooo

Your second example, where you use practise, makes no sense.

It's like saying "improved medical advise" - you wouldn't say that, you need advice. You cannot modify a verb with adjectives.

Piapea · 01/03/2020 09:31

I work in primary education. The number of people who will correct really pedantic errors while using the phrase 'I was sat/stood... ' really baffles me. It just sounds so wrong. The worst part is that most people think it's correct.
For anyone interested, read up on aks vs ask. The former is historically correct but now is rooted in race identity, especially in the US.

DollyDoneMore · 01/03/2020 09:34

Non instead of none.

And none instead of non.

PhoneLock · 01/03/2020 09:36

I'm not convinced that isn't regional, centred on the West Midlands.

It's better than arks instead of ask.

CountFosco · 01/03/2020 09:38

What makes my teeth itch is pronouncing ....."er"instead "a".....as

Emmer...instead of Emma..

Can't think of examples but it makes me itch for sure.

I know a woman called Linder. I assumed it was a name from a different language but no, her very British parents just couldn't spell.

Some are old dialect, I come from somewhere it's still more common to say 'she learnt me' than 'she taught me'. But my personal annoyances are people mixing up affect/effect and chronic/acute.

ByAppointmentTo · 01/03/2020 09:41

My pet hates:

Could of, should of, would of

Using itch instead of scratch

Less than/fewer used incorrectly

Prostate/prostrate Ectopic/eptopic. Etc/ect

Plenty more that I can't think of at the moment.

lazylinguist · 01/03/2020 09:41

Until one poster who used brought all the way through. I don’t understand that.

It happens because this kind of thing simply doesn't ping up on lots of people's radars. They don't notice other people's spelling mistakes and they don't notice their own. Some have dyslexia or other processing problems. But many just aren't very 'wordy'. Their brains don't work that way.

I find it very strange that people are quite happy to accept that some people have a problem with numbers, or spatial awareness, or might be tone deaf or have a poor memory for dates or events, but somehow being bad at spelling or grammar is judged in a far harsher way, and people feel 'duty bound' to point out their failures. It's usually not helpful.

I teach grammar and spelling (in other languages) as part of my job. Yes, there are mistakes in English that grate on me, but that is my problem.

PhoneLock · 01/03/2020 09:42

I know a woman called Linder.

I was expecting a limerick to follow.