to tell you it is downright and not "damn right"?!

[Needanewhat]

As in, "she was being downright rude" NOT "she was being damn right rude".

I see this one all the time on Facebook groups at the moment and it's silently doing my head in. Why?!

@picturesandpickles

And as with all these threads, the people who feel superior based on spelling come out to show how clever they are!

Can't stand the spelling police.

Very few of the examples here are about spelling. It's getting sayings and grammar wrong, although the incorrect sayings bother me far more.

Its very funny when the grammar police make errors when explaining things to others. It’s quite satisfying

It isn't even really about grammar. It is incorrect sayings!

I completely accept that there may be genuine reasons for spelling errors etc such as dyslexia, and never pick people up on poor SPAG on things like social media, except perhaps in the context of someone claiming superiority themselves. However, I do find it pretty offensive when people use dyslexia as an excuse for errors which are blatantly non-dyslexic in origin. I also think it's pretty bad manners to decide that you can't be bothered to write properly and that other people wil just have to fight their way through bad writing to work out what you mean

I wouldn’t get worked up about this

I'm not "worked up" about it. Again, I just started a thread on something that vaguely irritates me. As many others do on this site every day!

Or should I only write "annoyed" threads about the situation in the ME or Brexit? Is there some kind of check I can make to see if something is worthy enough to be irritated by?

And I couldn't care less if someone writes "uni"!

@groovergirl

"Damn right" is very effective in the right contexts. For example, Theme From Shaft (1971):

Isaac Hayes: Who's the black private dick who's a sex machine to all the chicks?
Ladies: Shaft!
Isaac: DAMN RIGHT!

But yes, a bit urgh on FB etc.

But that's nit the same as "down right". It means totally different things, so you can't substitute one for the other, which the op seems to suggest dome people are doing. Never seen that one myself though.

I ahould be clear that I don't actually correct others, just inwardly seethe and post on threads like this.

IME some of the best writing actually comes from people with dyslexia, as they are very conscious of making mistakes and therefore go out of their way to double check their writing.

Apologies for typos (definitely not spelling mistakes ). I'm typing with my right wrist in a cast and on my phone. Recipe for disaster.

The "damn right" that prompted this thread was from a woman posting about her misbehaving child.

"She is damn right naughty!"

We live in an age where there is major focus on correct spelling and grammar, to the extent that it will affect the level of qualifications our children achieve if they don't get these right.

Not sure I agree with that judging by the poor quality job applications I receive from recent graduates.

I think that's because the focus on SPAG in schools is relatively recent in origin and hasn't yet filtered through to graduates.

In my area of work, job applications with poor SPAG will go straight into the rejects pile unless the problem is due to a condition like dyslexia that is remediable by reasonable adjustments, because clear communication is absolutely vital.

I think that's because the focus on SPAG in schools is relatively recent in origin and hasn't yet filtered through to graduates.

I think again this is lack of reading though. I wasn't taught grammar at all when I was at school, but I did read voraciously.

The PPs who said it's down to people not reading are right. My gran always used to say "Never be ashamed of pronouncing a word wrongly - it shows you learned it from reading." I say the same to my kids now, because it's true.

This (what's being described in this thread) is the opposite.

Autocorrect, wrist in cast.....the excuses of pedants getting it wrong. Do these things stop you checking your posts? 😂

A woman I knew once pointed out on FB that I’d written “bear” wrong. As in “I can’t bear it”. I disagreed and she kept going, saying that it was a hilarious error and that the word was “bare”. Eventually she looked it up and was super embarrassed. I thought it served her right but now I always double check before arguing about spag and try not to correct people unless vital (e.g. I am proofreading their CV).

@LeonardLikesThisPost I say that to my kids. It's true.

@Needanewhat @BelleBlueBell You are right. Damn right! Thanks for clarifying.

Meanwhile, I reckon we Australians would have some spag to make your socks rot. A colleague and I came up with what we thought was the ultimate Strine mangulation: "Youse shouldn't of never of went and been and gone and done it, but."

Do you like that one? And yes, we'd heard it in RL.

@NinjaJunkie

Americanisation

🙄

Someone I know puts 'here here' instead of 'hear hear', she also writes (and says) would, could, should of instead of have.
Two of my pet hates (there are many) is 'need gone' and 'is anyone gifting' on Facebook sites. I need to get out more 🙂

I think that the mistakes people write are often a reflection of their reading material, but equally readers are often guilty of atrocious errors of pronunciation. That doesn’t seem to elicit the same vitriol though.

I also think that many people don’t seem to realise that writing style is supposed to change with context - a scribbled note on the fridge doesn’t need to be as formal as a letter to a bank manager. On social media, and in forums like this one, the writing style tends to be informal and more like a transcription of spoken language. So in that sense the use of “I wouldn’t of known” could be argued to be more appropriate than “have” because “I wouldn’t ‘ve known” requires an extra apostrophe, a visual irritant, and a battle with the auto correct function.

Its the height of bad manners to publicly correct someone's spelling, grammar or diction. If my friends have picked up an error on my business page they will privately point it out, which is really appreciated. People who correct publically show lack of empathy and bullying tendencies. Language evolves constantly; how many new words are added to the Oxford Dictionary each year?

I think the kindest way to draw attention to a clanging grammatical error is to repeat back part of their sentence with the correct term.
E.g., You should of told me you were in town, you could of popped in
Reply: Thank you that's nice of you, I should have.

E.g. She's damn right naughty at the moment
Reply; Perhaps she's tired or frustrated rather than downright naughty.

No one wants to be perceived as a bit uneducated or stupid in their written messages so it's doing them a favour to show them the correct way.

@KaleSlayer

Autocorrect, wrist in cast.....the excuses of pedants getting it wrong. Do these things stop you checking your posts? 😂

Since those are obviously typos rather than spelling mistakes I can't see the relevance to this thread.

Youse shouldn't of never of been and gone and done it but

Where to start?

Since those are obviously typos rather than spelling mistakes I can't see the relevance to this thread.

Of course you don’t. 🤪

Its the spelling of 'definitely' as 'defiantly'. How do those people then spell defiantly? This makes me irrationally angry!