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?

I feel I'm providing an education when I pick up on mistakes on here, it isn't always received well grin but I can't help myself sometimes

An education in what?

How to be a dick?

A poor woman commented on a thread the other day saying she was sorry but couldn't read the ops comments due to the massive paragraphs and no punctuation. She got absolutely flamed for it but her comment was polite, she wished the op well etc but politely pointed out if she break up the text she may get more responses. I wanted to agree with her but people really ripped into her. I'm with you here op

I haven’t read the full thread, but would signpost you to pedants’ corner. I think it says a lot more about the pettiness and lack of empathy of anyone correcting Spag than the ability of the person with bad grammar.

I was not taught proper spelling and grammar at school, the emphasis was too much on creativity. I’m careful at work but MN/FB are just Internet forums.

God I hate these threads. So bloody what if there are spelling or grammatical errors. Maybe these people are amazing mathematicians or painters. Everyone is good at something.

Stopping being so bloody snooty looking down your nose at others. Are you good at EVERYTHING?? I'm sure you aren't.

While I notice spelling and grammar errors, I try to read past them. The message posters are trying to get across is more important than their spelling. Focusing on the latter makes you look a bit of a dick.

That. I find grammar and spelling errors very jarring. But that's my problem. I'm lucky to have had a good education, good role models, and the ability to learn these things relatively easily. I'm not going to judge other adults who didn't have those advantages.

I think it's absolutely shitty to pull posters up on these things, however irritating one might find 'would of' or whatever. What they have to say is more important in the context of a forum.
As for the pp who says she doesn't read on if she sees an error...words fail me.

If someone is not capable of reading a long paragraph with inadequate punctuation, it says far more about their own English comprehension skills than the writer of the paragraph.
Of course it's easier when posts are paragraphed and punctuated correctly. But it takes a special kind of twat to correct people on a mammy forum. Unless, of course they are smugly writing about other people. In which case, all bets are off.

Yes, sadly over the years Pedants' Corner has turned into a rather nasty area of MN. It used to be mainly used by people interested in language, now it's been taken over by people who like to talk about other posters' mistakes. Horrid.

Yanbu.

One of the worst ones is 'brang' instead of 'brought'.

"Just read through all the posts on here having a chuckle at 5 or so smug posters who've made mistakes in their own posts."

Oh go on, please point out which posts - they've made themselves fair game

[quote AIMD]@Meredithgrey1 I’m not sure I know the corrrect use of less and/or fewer.[/quote]
I think the easiest way to remember, is if you can count it, it's fewer. If you can't, it's less.

So fewer items in your basket, less water in your glass. Fewer children in the classroom, less mashed potato on your plate.

Limit- I've only read the first two pages, but there are 6 posters criticising others, all of whom would get my red pen. (Actually, it's a purple pen, but YKWIM)

The fewer/less distinction is not quite as simple as that- long thread about it on PC back in the day when language was the topic under discussion and not other posters. David Crystal also has a paper on it.

Actually, it's a purple pen, but YKWIM

It's the green pen to point out the mistake. The person that made it then uses the purple pen to fix it. Fun times.

Is it? I'm in Italy, so can use what colour I want, go me!

I used to be a civil servant in pre- computer days, and only very important people could "red pen" (it was even a verb!) and the head of department was the only one who could "green pen".

Yes and no.

At a personal level I find this irritating.

I also recognise that this is a kind of snobbery and superiority on my part and I think others ought to be big enough to recognise it too.

People say its hard to read something with very poor spelling and grammar. Up to a point. But I think if you're really honest with yourself you will admit that it is rarely so bad you can't work it out. In the vast majority of cases when someone has written "passed" instead of "past" its pretty apparent what they are trying to say.

The reality is that the writer for whatever reason doesn't find it as easy as you do. Be big and honest enough with yourself to admit that your reaction is based on a sense of superiority, rather than any genuine inability to comprehend. And be grateful that you had the advantage of a good education. And then keep a graceful silence on it.

Damn now I'm jealous.

I write for a living and know how to spell. In fact, it is important that my spelling is accurate otherwise I would lose credibility. However, I still accidentally write things like 'your' instead of 'you're'. It's so easily done even when you are used to thinking about these things.

My colleague and I always check each other's work before it is sent to the client and he makes silly mistakes too.

So, I'm actually fairly relaxed about these things although it grates in situations where I think somebody should have checked - for example on a sign or advert.

The reality is that the writer for whatever reason doesn't find it as easy as you do.

This . No one who finds spelling natural and easy will go out of their way just to make mistakes. There's obviously an issue there,even if that issue is "I write how I speak/the sounds I can hear".

Game of Thrones certainly helped me with the fewer/less thing😂

I do copywriting/proofreading for a living. I am mortified when I spot an error I’ve made myself, which I do from time to time, usually in threads like these where I’m typing quickly and have half an eye on the kids! In other people though, it really doesn’t bother me at all. Lots of people either struggled with it at school, or didn’t get taught it very well. I can’t paint, or draw, or sing, but I don’t expect people who are good at those things to belittle me for being bad at them. It really isn’t the most important thing in the world, and I value people who are kind and loyal and fun and honest, whether they can spell or not, over those who feel morally superior because they know how to use an apostrophe.

Sometimes I find it annoying, but we are human beings, not robots. I went to a school on a rough council estate, so didn't have the best education I could get, yet people on here who have had a private education expect me to have the same standard of grammar as them. I do wish my grammar was much better and I have looked at how to be better at it, but my brain doesn't seem to follow it in practice, probably because I have issues processing language. I recall only one grammar lesson from a supply teacher at school. It was disrupted every five minutes because the other pupils were bored.

Grammar snobs just seem pretty and oblivious to the fact that learning disabilities can be mild and exist in adults as well as children. If you want to write grammatically perfect posts on forums and then print them and frame them, feel free, but don't expect me to regard it with the same level of importance. There are other things I want to be better at and I would rather focus my energy on something less trivial.

If a prospective employer decided that they want to overlook my other skills and didn't want to employ me because of a single error, I probably wouldn't want to work for them anyway. A lot of the senior people in my organisation have terrible grammar, but they are also very busy. Perhaps some people have too much time on their hands.

I also recognise that this is a kind of snobbery and superiority on my part and I think others ought tok be big enough to recognise it too.
But Mumsnet and UK society lives and absolutely thrives on that. How would they live without it?

We should try and read more books and papers, and less from the internet.

Yes to books, but if you mean newspapers rather than research papers then no, I'm not sure I want that bullshit in my life, even if it is grammatically correct!

Totally with you OP.
As for verbs - nobody seems to be able to conjugate them any more, let alone use the correct participles.

I think the easiest way to remember, is if you can count it, it's fewer. If you can't, it's less Great tip shared with kindness every day is a school day on MN.