To be so irritated by poor spelling and vocabulary?

[Positivevibesonlyplease]

OK, it could be weeks of lockdown having finally got to me, but when I just read two posts with the phrases, ‘couldn’t get passed,’ (meaning ‘past’) and ‘by her own omission,’ (meaning ‘admission’), I felt compelled to start an AIBU. It’s bad enough reading the FB ‘Your doing great’ and ‘I love you’re new dog’ posts. Oh, ‘their’ much worse at spelling on FB...etc. Yes, in these turbulent times, I know I shouldn’t be wasting my energies on such crap, but sometimes focusing on trivia keeps us sane. So, AIBU? Anyone else as irritated as I am?

It's worrying when it's people who claim to be teachers, which I see a lot of.

That's true!

Although the head at our DDs primary some years ago used to send out newsletters with some real spelling humdingers.

I'm particularly against teachers not correcting spelling, which as you say was quite a thing in some places in the past. There may be all sorts of reasonable theories about it, but that doesn't help the child in a future job application.

'If I come across a grammatical error I stop reading'

@candilemon....do you have any idea how.....thick that statement makes you sound?

For all the people saying it's just spelling, it doesn't matter - yes it does matter. As noted above omission vs admission have totally different meanings. Loose and lose - again totally different meanings. The wrong spelling means you have to reread all the time and substitute words to try and work out what is being said.

I wish everyone had spent lockdown learning the difference between less and fewer.

YABU. I think it's rude to look down on people who might not have had a very good education or struggle with spelling and grammar.

Aah yes 'less and fewer' watch people's eyes glaze over when you try and explain that one.......then they confidently parrot some self confessed 'grammar nazi' nonsense like 'never split an infinitive'. Yawn.

Ha ha - it grates on me too. However I find the people who correct grammar online more irritating and cringeworthy ((‘it’s should HAVE, OP’) , and sometimes notice people being attacked pompously for badly expressed posts when all they’ve done is a couple of typos. There are often errors in the ‘corrector’s’ grammar too.
Like some above, I correct SPAG as part of my job, so I’m certainly not going to do it online. However, like you, I do quietly wince at some errors.

I mostly just assume that autocorrect has been having some fun and they haven't proof read!

Effect(ed) instead of affect(ed) is one error I frequently notice in mumsnet posts

You sound so horrible and bitchy though . Not everyone can spell , it doesn't make you a better person because you grasped the concept at school !!🙄🙄( and yes I can spell but know many bright people who struggle with grammar and spelling for whatever reason )

Being good at spelling g and grammar and being spiteful about those that are not is definitely not the sign of a brilliant mind is it?

YANBU I absolutely appreciate that many people can't spell, nor do they feel being able to spell properly is a problem. I am relaxed about friends' spelling errors and wouldn't ever call them out. However my frustration is with professionals and businesses who don't take the time to proofread marketing material or facebook ads. "Sneak peak" is one I've been noticing more and more, or apostrophising a plural like "Hello, Mummy's and Daddy's". I do find that inverse snobbery exists with vocabulary and having general knowledge. If I use a "fancier" adjective in conversation to describe something I get "Ooh, get you with your fancy words" or "that's a big word for a Tuesday".

I read a comment on a football forum predicting an upcoming result: "were loose". Obviously makes no sense but if you say it out loud in a slightly lazy fashion it could feasibly sound like "we'll lose".

I think some of it is down to how much you read during your grammatically formative years. You just absorb it over the years.

I also remember our scary primary school headmaster holding an assembly on the evils of "could of/would of" etc. No child who was there that day would ever get that wrong

I went to primary school in the late 90’s from the age of eight, I wasn’t taught any SPaG, I also wasn’t taught any SPaG at secondary school.

English is not my first language, I started learning English when I was eight so I will never be fluent.

If I want to write something I can’t just think in English in my head then write/type it out. I have to think it in Urdu then translate it into English as best as I can.

When I first joined MN I used an incorrect word in a post and two people were fairly nasty in their replies. I apologised, explained that English isn’t my first language and asked what the appropriate word would be as I didn’t know. I went off to do some googling and found I had used the correct word, when I returned to the thread there were several replies suggesting I was either too thick or I had purposely used the wrong word to goad people. I hate to imagine the replies if I had posted a screen shot showing the word I had used was the correct choice.

I did reply asking if any of the unpleasant posters spoke another language, none of them would answer that question.

Different things annoy me more. My mum spent my whole childhood correcting "less" and "fewer" and I spent my whole childhood thinking "no one cares!" But now I seem to have turned into her and less/fewer now really annoys me when it's wrong - less so on fb or mumsnet, but when, for example, journalists get it wrong it bugs me.
"Should of" annoys me where ever I see it. It takes 2 seconds of using your brain to work out why that is wrong. I've never seen anyone write "I of done that" or "should I of done that" but people seem to think "I should of done that" is somehow correct.

My mum writes ARE instead of OUR a lot and for some reason that makes me get a headache 😂

On the whole though I Just ignore it. My spelling and grammar isn’t the best but it’s not too bad. I just can’t be too bothered when people are trying their best and communicating as well as they can. I have a friend whose text I can barely understand sometimes but she struggles with writing, so why would I think badly about that?

I get more annoyed by people who randomly comment on spelling, even though the other person has only made a minor mistake in an otherwise coherent comment. Just....why?

@Meredithgrey1 I’m not sure I know the corrrect use of less and/or fewer.

YANBU OP ☺️
Very frustrating...

I'll confess to not having read the full thread...

I'll also confess to having had similar uncharitable thoughts to the OP in the past...

However, maturity (great age), a job in education and a dyslexic daughter have taught me how very, very hard such things are for some people and these days I try to bite my tongue/ step away from the keyboard and cease judging other people.

I hate it when people put que. it’s queue!

I find it painful, but we just have to put up with it. Some people find these things very difficult. I also find it painful to have a conversation with someone whose personal grooming is not to my taste. It's just life, I'm afraid.

It does annoy me when work colleagues spell words like eczema incorrectly even though there are tools available to obtain the correct spelling.

Yanbu at all OP. But please don't refer to correct spelling, vocabulary and punctuation as 'such crap'! It's vitally important. If people wish to communicate in the written word, then they would benefit everyone by getting it right.

A poster once remarked that people are so keen on self improvement in many areas of their lives, but just get defensive instead of receptive to the idea of improving their written English. I couldn't agree more.