To think people should proof read their messages?

[mumtohatty]

Just received a WhatsApp message on one of my many groups about ordering t-shirts for the kids. The football coach has obviously spent time composing the message but it is littered with so many mistakes I just can't look at it. The main one being 'I'm going to put up a pole for everyone to vote'. I've also received a message from a Health visitor coming to visit my baby that was littered with spelling and grammar mistakes. Is the English language dying or am I just being unreasonable and picky?

I don’t mind if message have spelling mistakes or poor grammar as long as I can easily understand them. There are a couple of people whose messages are pretty much impossible to understand - if I read something three times and still have no idea what they want then that’s annoying.

Some spelling and grammar errors do make me shudder but I realise that with informal communications it’s not a big deal.

Plus think we’ve all fallen victim to autocorrect changing our slightly misspelled word to something totally random.

If it was a work email I’d feel differently to a social media or private message tbh

I have much bigger things to worry about

Bit that's a bit bonkers. How do you know that your poor grammar doesn't get on everyone else's tits?!

Lordy. I'm a proofreader by trade and if I'm not being paid to proofread something, errors don't affect me. Life's too short.

I wouldn't say I have any noticeable grammatical errors so I don't think that's an issue. Bad spelling is way more noticeable and makes me feel more uncomfortable.

But if you're not too hot on grammar, then how do you know you're not making noticeable errors? People could be cringing and fainting at things you write (if they are melodramatic).

I work with a lot of people with English as a second d language. Spelling is fine but sometimes I laugh at their phrasing privately. One person asked today if he could put "a suggestive image" on the website.

He meant a suggested image it turns out.

Lol, your spelling might be amazing but your comprehension is pretty poor tbh!

Yes.

One of the good tings about Mumsnet, though, is allowing myself to hear from people who don't share my point of view.

I'm not a fan of adult fussy eaters, for example, but Mumsnet has let me hear from lots of people who don't eat stuff for all kinds of reasons which has helped me change my perspective.

You have to improve your grammar (ever heard of a comma?) and sentence structure before heading there Op

I do try and proofread everything, but sometimes I'll read an email after I've sent it and think "did I write that???"

One of the worst people for crappy emails in my last place was the editor!

Autocorrect and lack of time are probably responsible for most carluss erors.

Could be a man?

I received a quote from a software support company that listed their support hours as “9:00am to 5:00pm Monday to Fryday” 😂I went with an alternative provider!

It’s actually proofreader. One word.

Criticising people for spelling and grammar is at worst quite ableist and at best just really dull.

I wouldn't be bothered as long as they're not teaching my children spelling and grammar. I do get a bit twitchy about some of the stuff I get from nursery. Corrination was a pretty bad mistake, given the correct spelling was plastered everywhere. But it's not like my four year old would notice anyway.

But at aged 4 at nursery… these people surely are doing letters / numbers at least with her?

Some are dyslexic, English isn’t some people’s first language too. I’m an English lecturer and I’ve learnt to be more open minded about poor grammar. I’m awful at maths but it thankfully isn’t something I’m judged on daily, some people just aren’t great at English.

The OP being one of them going by her OP!

I work in my second language. I check everything at work, use the spell check, online dictionary you name it. I still make mistakes that I can't see until the day after. It's sooo annoying. And autocorrect doesn't always help.