To sometimes hate grammar pedants ***message edited by a MNHQ pedant***

[Soubriquet]

There are people pouring out their troubles and woes to have someone come along and say
“Actually OP. Yabu. Because it’s I went to the store not I gone to the store. “

They add nothing to the conversation but just strong arm their grammar into a thread where it isn’t needed

Split infinitive

That said being able to communicate clearly and effectively is an essential skill.

By having perfect SPAG? Give over, it’s usually perfectly clear what even the worst speller is trying to convey.

It’s the ones who don’t use punctuation that do my head in and even after you point out that not using punctuation makes their posts hard to read they still carry on sometimes people do it to troll there was a poster the other day who didn’t use punctuation even when asked to repeatedly and they gave themselves away as a troll by doing so it’s honestly not that hard to put a full stop and a capital letter I mean ll you have to do is speak the sentences out loud and punctuate where you pause.

I’m hoping yours is ironic or I’ve got a surprise for you..

If correcting english mistakes makes you a pedant and its smug and elitist, what about accounting and financial mistakes?
"This cost £10, I gave you a £20 note but only got £5 back"
Oh go away you nasty elitist arithmetic pedant!

@MissAmandaLa1kes

If correcting english mistakes makes you a pedant and its smug and elitist, what about accounting and financial mistakes? "This cost £10, I gave you a £20 note but only got £5 back" Oh go away you nasty elitist arithmetic pedant!

Doesn't it boil down to whether it has any consequences? For example, one of the errors you've just made* is to omit the apostrophe from "its" but I was able to tell from context that you meant "it is", so it didn't stop me understanding.

On the other hand, if I am leaving the shop with £5 missing that has a real consequence for me!

*Footnote: I can arguably see five errors in your post.

@2bazookas

Grammar pendants should be hung by the neck. Or round it.

Errrr, it's "hanged" by the neck, I think you'll find.

(I do urge my fellow grammar pedants to use "I think you'll find" for added smugness .)

Absolutely.
Only a total cunt would correct an upset person's spag.

It’s the ones who don’t use punctuation that do my head in and even after you point out that not using punctuation makes their posts hard to read they still carry on sometimes

I do skip reading posts which are difficult to follow due to poor English, especially punctuation problems. 🤫 Life is just too short to attempt to decipher other people's gibberish!

Actually, I've not noticed many of those kind of posts recently. More where posters use one huge block of text and no full stops - and being asked to change that is fair enough.

@SugarCrash1

@ BIWI That reminds me of a long and acrimonious Boxing Day argument I had about whether it should be Pedant’s Corner (singular like Woman’s Hour) or Pedants’ Corner.

@SugarCrash1

Yes! I did think long and hard before going with the plural, as I assume there is more than one pedant on MN!

It’s the ones who don’t use punctuation that do my head in and even after you point out that not using punctuation makes their posts hard to read they still carry on sometimes

I do just skip reading posts which are difficult to follow due to poor English, especially punctuation problems. 🤫 Life is just too short to attempt to decipher other people's gibberish!

whether it should be Pedant’s Corner (singular like Woman’s Hour) or Pedants’ Corner

Like many pedants, I'm quite capable of starting an argument in an empty room, so this could go either way.

I’m very particular about my own spelling and grammar but I have never had the urge to correct anyone else’s, or understood why it’s supposed to enrage me if other people don’t get it right. Especially in an informal setting like an online forum! I’d only ever correct someone’s grammar if I was* reviewing a document for work, or helping a friend with a job application, or something like that.

I may dislike bad grammar but I hate rudeness even more, and I think unnecessarily correcting someone’s grammar is one of the rudest things you can do.

*I used to have a friend who would correct me every time I said ‘if I was’ and tell me it should be ‘if I were’, which was both irritating and also wrong!

@FirewomanSam

I’m very particular about my own spelling and grammar but I have never had the urge to correct anyone else’s, or understood why it’s supposed to enrage me if other people don’t get it right. Especially in an informal setting like an online forum! I’d only ever correct someone’s grammar if I was* reviewing a document for work, or helping a friend with a job application, or something like that.

I may dislike bad grammar but I hate rudeness even more, and I think unnecessarily correcting someone’s grammar is one of the rudest things you can do.

*I used to have a friend who would correct me every time I said ‘if I was’ and tell me it should be ‘if I were’, which was both irritating and also wrong!

@FirewomanSam - well said; I feel the same! (except I don't have a friend who tries to correct "if I was").

I think (good) pedants would agree, which is why we have a separate corner to discuss these things - eg:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/pedants_corner/3235416-Being-a-stickler-for-good-English-doesnt-mean-you-should-comment-on-others-grammar-and-spelling-uninvited

@SugarCrash1

@ BIWI That reminds me of a long and acrimonious Boxing Day argument I had about whether it should be Pedant’s Corner (singular like Woman’s Hour) or Pedants’ Corner.

Depends on whether you're in a group of pedants or more likely you're on your own, really.

I freely admit to being a pedant. There really is a time and a place though.

A new hair salon has just opened on my local High Street. Let's say it was called 'Helen's Hairdo's'. The owner posted on SM, announcing that her shop sign would be going up soon. I had no qualms about telling her that 'hairdo's' was incorrect.
I'd do the same if someone posted on MN, telling us that she had 'applyed for alot of jobs but was getting no where'.

It would be cruel not to say something. However, there was a thread a few weeks back where the OP said she was desperate for 'restbite' from her ASD DC. That's when you keep it zipped.

@ThetaSigma

Your not being unreasonable. Me and you are being reasonable. The others, there being unreasonable.

Argh - that made my eyeballs itch!

@CandyLeBonBon

You had to boldly go there didn't you op?

Tbh there are loads of SPAG issues on here that give me the rage, and I have to fight the urge to correct them, but mostly bite my tongue / but there are some which really need pointing out IMO.

Could of instead of could have, for example.

I presume people use the former because they are writing phonetically but it drives me mad nonetheless.

Spelling errors generally should be easier to avoid these days due to spellcheck everywhere. I'm talking about in the wider world, not just MN. If errors don't get corrected, how does anyone ever learn?

And don't even get me started on 'Reign it in' My boss wrote that the other day in an email and she's a copywriter!!!

I’m convinced that the word ‘grateful‘ will eventually be replaced in the dictionary by ‘greatful‘, I see the latter used much more frequently than the former 😑

The one that gets me the most though is the use of ‘brought’ instead of ‘bought’. It’s everywhere lately. ‘I brought a house’ for example. I just don’t understand that one. You have to go all the way over to the left side of the keyboard to add the ‘R’. I’m beginning to think some people genuinely don’t realise they are two different words.

I wouldn’t ever pull someone up for poor spelling (which gets me more riled up than poor grammar does!), but I don’t judge those that do mention it tbh. I’m always pleased if someone teaches me that I’m getting something wrong.

Haven't RTFT but assume I'm not the first to point out you've got a split infinitive there...

@felinelucky

Haven't RTFT but assume I'm not the first to point out you've got a split infinitive there...

No. No you're not.

@felinelucky - but there's nothing wrong in English with inserting a word between "to" and the verb - so why mention the split infinitive?

@felinelucky

Haven't RTFT but assume I'm not the first to point out you've got a split infinitive there...

Why not read the thread though? There are only 71 messages before yours. Could you really not be bothered? Do you really think that no-one else (especially on a thread about pedantry!) would already have made your point?

DadDadDad thank you! People smugly pointing out the ‘split infinitive’ were driving me up the wall. There’s nothing wrong with it!

Only thing worse than correcting people’s grammatical errors is correcting ‘errors’ that are actually perfectly fine.

I have an ongoing battle with my boss over the use of ‘s’ for a possessive plural. He wants to correct James’s to James’ every single time and, despite popular belief, it’s not actually correct!

I have an ongoing battle with my boss over the use of ‘s’ for a possessive plural. He wants to correct James’s to James’ every single time and, despite popular belief, it’s not actually correct

Possibly useless fact: I was taught as a child that the only name ending in 's' where it is inappropriate to add an apostrophe and another 's' is the name of 'Jesus', as we weren't to mess with Jesus' name.

No-one cared about James's name. Poor James.