To wonder how people make it to adulthood without knowing

[Staffy1]

That a Christmas tree decoration is called a "bauble", not "ball ball"? Or how they make it through junior school without knowing the difference between "his" and "he's"? What happens in schools these days and don't people ever read anything?

French and German lessons were a surprise; grammar was taught there.

Yes, it's absurd that we MFL teachers (and Latin teachers in schools where it's still taught) have had to teach English grammar 'by the back door' in order to teach our own subjects for generations.

At least since the new Spag SATs test was introduced we do get kids who know what a noun, verb, adjective etc are, but it's ditched as soon as SATs are over, so there's not much continuity.

My bf is dyslexic. When he texts me I love the fact that I can recognise his style so easily.

It only really annoys me when it is in an official communication. These should be checked my someone that does have literacy skills as it makes a very poor impression of competence. The school sent an email in November to state, 'There are Remembrance Poppy's for sale in school today'. I confess I replied, 'Poppy's what?'

My cousin recently stated, 'I conquer', when agreeing with me, but I wouldn't dream of correcting her.

@PickAChew castor sugar isn't a mistake, it's the traditional way to spell it in British English and is in the dictionary. Caster is also an acceptable spelling, neither are incorrect.

by lol! Should have checked!

Knitted, I learned Grammar from modern languages, too.

I am embarrassed that the link between Liam and William wasn't made by me for far too long.

@RaspberryCoulis

The internet has a lot to do with it. Nobody reads paper newspapers any more. Lots of people don't read anything.

So if all you're seeing on your computer screen is a stream of content from poorly-educated "influencers" writing about their "ball balls" or "how it's definately gonna sno" this year, then you think that's the right way of spelling. There's no subeditor, no-one with a red pen crossing out mistakes and making you redo work which is poor.

My own DD is bad for this - she constantly mixes up "were" and "where" and writes things like "The Jacobites where defeated at Culloden". At least she gives me things to check before handing them in. Have to say, the teachers rarely pull them up on this sort of error though.

Even newspapers have fired all the subeditors. Our local rag is a comedy of shit grammar and spelling most weeks. In a way I sympathise - it used to be that relied on newspapers and things like the BBC website to take pride in being correct; now they just reflect the "who cares" views that many people have. In a way we're returning to the era of Shakespeare when the limited numbers of people who could write just made up their own spellings.

A girl I went to school with was in a near-miss situation at a roundabout, and she commented saying 'He pulled out, even though it was my right-away'.

She has a law degree.

his and he's is very Sunderland in my experience haha

If no one has ever told them that ball balls is wrong, why would they think to google the correct spelling? confused they think that’s how it’s spelled.

..... but when you buy a box of baubles, it will say 'baubles' on it plain as day. The penny should drop then really!

I bought some baubles on my Tesco online order, I'm sure if you type in 'ball ball' they will know what you mean and throw up results for 'baubles', but I don't know if they should really Maybe that's the point, the world is geared now in such a way that you don't actually need to know how to spell, computers will do it for you.

I'm not sure you can completely blame education in adulthood though. If I don't know something I Google it.

Googling the occasional thing when you know you don't know it, or are unsure, is not the same as trying to correct a lifetime's lack of knowledge when you don't know what you don't know.

Someone on MN said she'd been balled out at work, recently.
Also many MNers keep a tight reign on things! What on earth do they think that means?

@lazylinguist

French and German lessons were a surprise; grammar was taught there.

Yes, it's absurd that we MFL teachers (and Latin teachers in schools where it's still taught) have had to teach English grammar 'by the back door' in order to teach our own subjects for generations.

At least since the new Spag SATs test was introduced we do get kids who know what a noun, verb, adjective etc are, but it's ditched as soon as SATs are over, so there's not much continuity.

You have my eternal gratitude -- I'm one of the ones who acquired grammar via French, German and Spanish and retrospectively applied it to English. I agree it's mad that you should have to do so.

My favourite recently was an anti vaxxer saying:

"There [the vaccine] manatory now but what when they become compulsory?"

Some poor lad had to point out that the word he was looking for was "mandatory", and they mean the same thing.

@microscopicbastard

What bugs me is "fine toothcomb" Do people really clean their teeth with a comb?

I think it is true that people just rhyme off the sayings and do not really think about the true meaning.

The teeth of the comb are fine.

I want to tear my hair out when I see bare with me (seriously?) or baring in mind. Reigning it in is another one. But I’m a self admitted SPAG fascist.

My partner was never read to as a child, he never developed any interested in books (or any part of learning) at school, he was never encouraged to expand on his education and he really struggles with certain spellings and pronunciations. My cousin is severely dyslexic and has often recieved abuse and been told he is stupid because he can't spell, or sometimes uses the wrong word. Neither of them are unintelligent, but people who insist of constantly correcting them (and it is never done in a nice way) and laughing at them has completley stripped away their confidence in themselves and so neither one of them has any desire to try and better themselves.

What bugs me is the judgemental attitude that seems to have infiltrated Mumsnet. Oh wait, 'twas ever thus.

I'm going to use this opportunity to whine yet again about the fact that it's spelled "Bolognese" and NOT "bolognaise". Bolognaise makes me want to rip my skin off.

See also: Spag Bowl

Mumsnetters just love balls, there's no other possible explanation.

but when you buy a box of baubles, it will say 'baubles' on it plain as day. The penny should drop then really!

Why would they need to read the words on the box? How many times have you seen a box of baubles and thought “I better check the writing to make sure they actually are baubles”? You don’t need to. You can see they are baubles. And usually the number of baubles is the only info you need to read if it isn’t clear from the way they are packed.

I can spell fine but I don’t always catch my autocorrect changes!

As a child I read all the time and had a dictionary next to my bed for unfamiliar words. Learned more by doing that than I did from school.

I was married to a man with Dyslexia, and have two children with SEN
I myself 'benefited' from a very poor 1970's comprehensive 'education' but to see their struggles has been really sad for me.
I'm well aware that it is not a sign of intellectual or moral worthiness.

However I know a number of teens with no SEN who are at Grammar schools and whose middle class parents have supported their reading from Day one whose SPAG and indeed general knowledge is surprisingly poor. eg, not being able to read an analogue clock, not knowing if Scotland is 'above or below London', not knowing who the President of America is (really!), having no mental arithmetic skills.

My parents, now mid 80's, both left school aged 14 and their basic Maths / English / gen knowledge is better than most kids I know.

@TeenyTinyDustinHoffman makes a good point though.
Regardless of level of educational opportunity a person has had, ignorance and lack of willingness to learn from experience / others (like our own dear PM!) is not admirable in any station of life.

Surely we all know people who have learning differences?

but when you buy a box of baubles, it will say 'baubles' on it plain as day. The penny should drop then really!

No, lots of people find spellings hard to retain, or to notice unless they are really concentrating on them (which you don't tend to be every time you look at anything with writing on). An adult going about their business is unlikely to be looking for opportunities to correct their spelling deficiencies every 5 minutes.

People are very snooty about poor language skills in a way that they don't tend to be about weaknesses in other areas. Yes, language might be more important than a lot of other things, but that doesn't automatically make more people good at it. Nobody would choose to have poor language skills.

@NewtoHolland

Surely we all know people who have learning differences?

The problem is, a lot of people who I see making mistakes actually benefitted from a fantastic education.

Mixing up 'why' and 'while' is one that I just don't understand. I can't see why you wouldn't have spotted that at some point in your life, even on someone else's social media if you don't read, and thought to yourself 'hang on...'

I know a family with three grown up girls and their mother who all make that same mistake consistently. 'Babysitting Georgia why her mummy is at work'. No.