Bought vs Brought

[Curiosity101]

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?

I try not to get worked up over things like this. After all, nobody has a monopoly on language - it is a tool for us all to use as we see fit. And is probably one of the many ways in which language evolves and why we don’t speak the same now as we did centuries ago.

However, ‘could of’ just gives me the rage.

Agree. Peoples use of grammar is appalling.....

Examples.....

‘I done it’ makes my piss boil. You mean it did it’

Too lazy to say the word ‘three’ so pronounce it ‘free’.

I could go on....

Principal isn't difficult to remember. It's referring to a person , not an idea. A pal is a person.

That's the way I've explained it to my children, which makes my post even more embarrassing

Having said that I also don’t correct spelling errors on MN.

Or anywhere else actually unless it’s my DC’s homework.

That's the main thing Juan.

It's ok to scream inwardly and spontaneously combust. I've done it many a time

lazylinguist excellent post

Thank you, Worra. I feel quite strongly about this. I'm all for children being taught at school how to use their own language correctly. It has been hardly or badly done for many decades and that has a big impact on the teaching of my own subject (MFL).

But like anything else, even if it is generally taught well, some people (even otherwise pretty intelligent ones) find it hard to learn and retain. Being kind and tolerant is more important than demonstrating your linguistic superiority. Although I don't correct others unless asked to, I've contributed my share of bugbears to the pedants' threads. I guess that's ok as that's what that board is for.

clary Yes, he is a favourite of mine. Thank you

Oh but the one time I do make unsolicited corrections is when sneering pedants make mistakes in their own posts.

For example:

Agree. Peoples use of grammar is appalling.....

longwayoff

Being kind and tolerant is more important than demonstrating your linguistic superiority.

Definitely.

Also, it's not just about what kids are taught in the classroom, it's also about the language they hear around them every single day.

I've sat through many a parents evening listening to teachers and TAs, saying things like "Where was you last week?" Or "Shall I sit you on a different table?" to give just two examples.

If you're not brought up within a family who speak correctly and you're taught by teachers who don't speak correctly, then it can often become ingrained but it doesn't always indicate a lack of overall intelligence.

Having said that (especially WRT Mumsnet), people are also allowed to lack overall intelligence. It's not something to hang them for. It's just the way it is.

Good points, Worra. Do people honestly think that a child who is intelligent but brought up by parents with poor English is likely to grow up to be an adult with impeccable grammar? Sure, they can try to improve it later in life if it bothers them, but ingrained habits are hard to change, and people have other worries and life stuff to concentrate on.

"free reign" instead of "free rein" seems to be everywhere I look...

@billy1966 yes!! I get so enraged when hearing people on TV talking about JessicaRennis and RebeccaRadlington! Also I hear a lot of people saying drawring for drawing and things like that.

If you're not brought up within a family who speak correctly and you're taught by teachers who don't speak correctly, then it can often become ingrained but it doesn't always indicate a lack of overall intelligence

It's sad indictment on our society if teachers can't speak correctly, what chance do the pupils have?

What makes me mad is people saying "Everythink" or "Anythink" instead of everything or anything. There is no K! But it seems acceptable as you hear it on adverts (the child in the current Virgin one) and Ruhma in Doctors is always saying it - it makes my ears bleed

To me, confusing brought and bought makes no sense. Two totally different words and they don't sound the same. It's not a mistake I see people making in speech or writing in Scotland that often.

Lose/Loose though - all the time. And those two words don't sound the same in my accent either. Lose has more of a Z sound. Loooz.

The other one is been/being. "What's the worst thing about been a parent"? OK, they sound similar-ish. But come on.

I’m pretty darn good at speech and grammar but for some reason tend to confuse brought and bought when speaking. Maybe it was my late mum’s fault, don’t know. I try and think before I say them since I realised it.

It's sad indictment on our society if teachers can't speak correctly, what chance do the pupils have?

The range of correctness of speech in teachers will to a certain extent reflect the range of correctness of speech in society at large. Not all teachers will speak with perfect grammar even if they might manage it when writing. Many will use regional variations. Teachers who are amazing at teaching maths, science etc may make grammar and spelling mistakes when speaking or when writing on the board. This is pretty much unavoidable, I'm afraid. It would be great if all teachers had perfect SPAG in addition to their other important skills, but that's not going to happen.

I work with a lady who gets so many words wrong that she would actually say " My boyfriend *brought he's coat when he been to River Island. He would of brought two if he could ofafforded it. He arksed me for advise , and I offered to borrow*him some money for another one."

There once was a woman called Linder
Who’s toast got burnt to a cinder
She ate it all up & then got a cough
And that was the end of poor Linder

@Daffodil55 you'd hate me then because I always get corrected for saying "I've sinit already".

I have no idea why it comes out like that , my sister also does it! I do have a habit of speaking before thinking though so I will make a conscious effort from now on

Is the he's/his confusion regional? Or adopted from another culture? I had never encountered it until about two years ago (and I've encountered all the other atrocities mentioned on this thread).
For example: "He got into he's car". Where on earth has this come from? When did it start?

I hate when people point others errors on MN.
I love it when the person correcting the mistake makes a mistake themselves... It happens a lot!
I'm dyslexic. I really didn't get the support I needed while at school. It takes me a lot of effort to write, and try my very best not to make mistakes. I've noticed people point out my mistakes on threads, if they disagree with something I've said. Seems to make them feel superior. Although I try not to let it irritate me, it does.
Also hate when people point out an op or other posters lack of punctuation. Pointing it out won't help them understand how to use it correctly, just makes them feel like shit.

Totally agree with all your points Lazy (and Worra)
It is jolly satisfying to go through the posts (on this thread alone) of the pearl clutching soi-disant pedants and pity them for the fact that their keyboards must not have the comma button though. Time to upgrade to one that does? Because they couldn't possibly be making mistakes arguably as "teeth itchy" as the ones they're banging on about, could they? One poster in particular doesn't seem to know how to use a comma, or even that they exist. Shall I offer a punctuation lesson? Or would that be very twatty of me?

To the poster hyper-correcting "if I was". It's been accepted in both spoken and written English for a good 20 years. David Crystal uses it as one of the examples of people thinking they know the rules but really, they don't. There's a similar interesting paper he contributed to on "few" and "less" and why, very often, the people who "get their Sharpie out" are, quite simply, fools themselves, and, wrong.

Yy to all that, SudExpress, including the genuflection.