To say it's QUEUE, not QUE?

[ImWearingReallyJudgyPants]

Every time I see "que" on here, all I can think about is Manuel in Fawlty Towers.

It's a sodding QUEUE.

Pedants' Corner can actually be a really helpful resource for people who want help with a SPaG issue which is confusing them.

It's also a place where Muphry's Law frequently can be seen to operate.

I know Pedants’ Corner can be very interesting - as well as useful - but it doesn’t get much traffic, really. I posted on a thread about “ect” being used wrongly instead of “etc” - thinking it was current - until somebody helpfully informed me it was a Zombie!!

The same can be said of many boards - a lot of posters don't know they exist, or CBA to find specialist topics, or 'post for traffic' on AIBU.

(OT, but the invisibility of the Petitions and Activism board is a bugbear of mine.)

I saw a funny one yesterday. It was an advert for a takeaway service and they were offering Mould Wine.

LazyLinguist - I also often skip a lazy, incoherent post if it's littered with 'would/should/could of', 'bare with me', 'loose/lose' type mistakes. If they can't be bothered to write it intelligibly, I just can't be bothered to decipher it.

Firstly, you are (probably wilfully) mistaken if you think that this is caused by people being deliberately lazy.

Secondly, in my many years of reading lots of threads on MN, I have seen maybe one or two occasions when poor grammar actually impeded comprehension. The vast majority of the time, posters who claim to be unable to understand a post for this reason are simply being superior and snide because they enjoy it.

The posters who claim that picking on people's grammar on MN is some kind of altruistic act for the public good are the worst of all. Nobody learns grammar or becomes an articulate writer by being picked on by strangers on a forum.

@YellowandGreenToBeSeen

Misusing ‘take’ and ‘bring’ makes me violent.

‘Shall I bring my dad to his hospital appointment next week when I am vulnerable to Corona?’

TAKE! IT’S SHOULD I TAKE MY FATHER!!

‘DP says he won’t bring me to my sisters house next week. Is he BU?’

Yes he is.

BUT SO ARE YOU IF YOU’RE ASKING SOMEONE TO BRING YOU TO THE FUTURE.

Ahh. That’s my day off to a good start.

Actually, that does depend. In Ireland it is often that you bring someone somewhere. I really like it in an Irish accent.

Should of, would of - no excuse in any dialect.

Do you remember when "You was" was in? I blamed Hollyoaks 😂
Haven't seen it for a while. As I said, imo it changes like trends.

Branding somebody as lazy for not wanting to devote a lot of time and effort to mending their grammatical ways so as not to offend the petty sensibilities of people on a bloody chat forum is mean-spirited and ridiculous.

Hear, hear! (So tempted to write "here, here.")

Also although Pedant's corner doesn't get a lot of traffic, for the most part, it also doesn't get a lot of supercilious snark about posters' grammar and punctuation mistakes on the forum.

It's bloody barbecue.

Speaking as an American Southerner, only if it's a whole hog cooked in a pit in the ground over indirect heat for multiple hours is it barbecue. Throwing burgers and steaks or whatever on an outdoor grill is not a barbecue, no matter how many people you invite.

Also although Pedant's corner doesn't get a lot of traffic, for the most part, it also doesn't get a lot of supercilious snark about posters' grammar and punctuation mistakes on the forum.

Very true. Also, in my experience, the people who genuinely know a lot about grammar aren't usually the ones who take pleasure in mocking other people's. The ones who do so are usually people who are very pleased with themselves for speaking and writing nicely because of the mc upbringing, decent schooling they were fortunate enough to have, and the reading habits they were encouraged to cultivate. Don't get me wrong - I had that too, in spades, but that doesn't make me blind to the fact that most people didn't.

Also although Pedant's corner doesn't get a lot of traffic

Oh come on, there's more than one pedant on MN.

I better not post on here anymore. Didn't realise you needed perfect spelling to post on MN.

Oh come on, there's more than one pedant on MN.

Although it's a bit tricky to get more than one person in a corner at a time. Maybe they should change the name to the Pedants' Pub.

@ErrolTheDragon

Also although Pedant's corner doesn't get a lot of traffic

Oh come on, there's more than one pedant on MN.

😛

Should of, would of - no excuse in any dialect.

👏🏻

@curtainsfort

Had to check we were not in pedants corner, but nope, you have gone for it in AIBU...

Yes YABU. People just don't all have the same level of education. They are not all as able academically. They have struggled through tough childhoods and not been given a chance.

It's quite hard to see this kind of thing posted repeatedly. It's shows a serious level of ignorance to other people's life experiences.

This post has become a sad example. People piling on to laugh and mock others.

(next time, post in pedants corner )

No, not Pedants Corner. They don't want OP and her ilk blethering on. Nobody wants them, they just are... like a virus. Not going away anytime soon.

Agree entirely with you about the serious ignorance that some posters have and freely display to everybody, without any kind of shame.

Vicious Jackdaw,
Ref 'embarrassed of', instead of embarrassed by or embarrassed about.

It's not just with embarrassed. I've noticed 'of' being used in place of every other preposition, particularly online. I put this down to texting on phones. Everything is abbreviated, words are chopped and the shortest preposition seems to serve for everything. It's speculative but I don't know if anyone else has a different explanation.

@lazylinguist

Also although Pedant's corner doesn't get a lot of traffic, for the most part, it also doesn't get a lot of supercilious snark about posters' grammar and punctuation mistakes on the forum.

Very true. Also, in my experience, the people who genuinely know a lot about grammar aren't usually the ones who take pleasure in mocking other people's. The ones who do so are usually people who are very pleased with themselves for speaking and writing nicely because of the mc upbringing, decent schooling they were fortunate enough to have, and the reading habits they were encouraged to cultivate. Don't get me wrong - I had that too, in spades, but that doesn't make me blind to the fact that most people didn't.

That is very true. I like going to Pedants Corner, it's a great and informative board even if the traffic is slow. I think they'd be really disappointed to have the level dragged down by posts like OP's.

Should of, would of - no excuse in any dialect.

Of course there are excuses and explanations. For one thing, this mistake is often based on the way these expressions (and their contractions) are pronounced in many accents and then written by people who may not be highly accomplished in written English. My adult son, who has developmental disabilities, makes this mistake. Considering the struggles he has had over the years to become even basically literate, I am quite happy to "excuse" it.

@SenecaFallsRedux

Oh come on, there's more than one pedant on MN.

Although it's a bit tricky to get more than one person in a corner at a time. Maybe they should change the name to the Pedants' Pub.

Clever wriggle...

@SenecaFallsRedux

Should of, would of - no excuse in any dialect.

Of course there are excuses and explanations. For one thing, this mistake is often based on the way these expressions (and their contractions) are pronounced in many accents and then written by people who may not be highly accomplished in written English. My adult son, who has developmental disabilities, makes this mistake. Considering the struggles he has had over the years to become even basically literate, I am quite happy to "excuse" it.

Apologies to your son.

Why does everyone always have to be offended to the nth degree on here? It's getting boring. My severely disabled brother writes to us occasionally - how the postman reads the envelope I don't know but he does. Of course I don't criticise his writing, I'm delighted he's managed it. There are exceptions. For the most part however, people are just using things incorrectly and I stand by what I said, in what I thought was a jokey manner. But crack on and be offended if you must. I hope it helps get through the day.

@YellowandGreenToBeSeen

Misusing ‘take’ and ‘bring’ makes me violent.

‘Shall I bring my dad to his hospital appointment next week when I am vulnerable to Corona?’

TAKE! IT’S SHOULD I TAKE MY FATHER!!

‘DP says he won’t bring me to my sisters house next week. Is he BU?’

Yes he is.

BUT SO ARE YOU IF YOU’RE ASKING SOMEONE TO BRING YOU TO THE FUTURE.

Ahh. That’s my day off to a good start.

Interestingly the use of bring and take differs between English spoken in England (possibly all of Britain) and English spoken in Ireland (including Northern Ireland). Look up Hiberno English on Wikipedia - it explains it more fully but basically in Ireland the “mistakes” you’ve identified are perfectly correct.

Niche one for me but my newborn had jaundice recently and I saw so many posts on forums saying “my baby is jaundice” rather than “is jaundiced” - obviously coming from a mishearing.

@Emeraldshamrock I think you make a fair point most of the people I know who comment on grammar etc have been fortunate enough to have an excellent education. I don't normally comment on grammar etc - partly because mine is far from perfect - but you seem to want to know so I am going to (kindly I hope) correct the "critic" in your post. Critic is a noun so refers to a person who criticises - so what you wanted was to stop posters from criticising your post. Alternatively, a critic writes a critique. In the spirit of the OP - a critic is a single person who writes a critique that lots of people can then queue up to read.....

@ComingtoKent

What about the new mystery of the missing “to be”?

E.g. It needs done, it needs cleaned, it needs gone.

I see this on MN all the time, but I don’t hear it in speech. Where has it come from and why? It irritates me beyond reason.

In Irish and saying something “needs done” is standard. My English DH would saying something “needs doing”.

Interesting about the "embarrassed". I would say "embarrassed by" someone mean, and "embarrassed about" something I have or did, or my company at the time did or have.

I better not post on here anymore. Didn't realise you needed perfect spelling to post on MN.

You definitely don't, Rosebel. The vast majority of MNers either don't have perfect spelling and grammar themselves, or do have really good spelling and grammar but fully understand why not everybody else does, and that it's not terribly important on a chat forum. The snarky posters who like to use it as an excuse to look down on people are best ignored.