To say the word is CUE and if you don’t know that then why not use a different word?

[UnsolicitedOpinions]

So many people on here want to use the word “cue” as in “cue DS throwing his toys out of the pram.” People seem to want to use this phrase much more often in writing here than I would hear people use it in real life.

But why use a word when you don’t understand what the word is or how to spell it?

I’ve seen so many different versions in posts on MN - “queue,” “Q”and just now “qué,” which is the most ridiculous yet.

AIBU to say the word you are looking for is “CUE” and if you are not sure then maybe use a different phrase?

You have 12 punctuation mistakes and one grammar one.

For someone so keen on correct English that's a pretty poor show.

My final paragraph has no mistakes.

But I'm pleased that you have understood that writing for a publication is arguably more important than writing a post on a parenting forum. That's the point many of us are trying to get across here. Aside from snarking about someone else's English (unless of course, that person started it first) being deeply unpleasant.

I agree! Also fazed/ phased. I'll meet you in the bar in Pedant's Corner...

You have 12 punctuation mistakes and one grammar one.

Doesn't sound right

That's my usual position.

Though I once had someone berate me for my use of 'exercised' which she spent several posts telling me I was misusing, and that what I meant was 'exorcised'.

I didn't. I was saying something 'wasn't worth getting exercised about', not suggesting she shouldn't call in the diocesan exorcist with holy water and a crucifix.

In her defence, she then presented several instances where random people on line (blogs, FB etc) were using 'exorcised' when they meant 'exercised'. She explained to me in detail how the expression meant that you shouldn't get so agitated about something that you needed an exorcist to cast out your agitation.

In fairness, she did seem like a fairly irascible person.

It really does need to be Pedants' Corner if you want to meet up.

@ErrolTheDragon 😂 I'm barred now!

“If it's the former, and with people like you, it always is- might I suggest that your punctuation (when present at all) could do with some correcting? You could thank me later.”

That is your final paragraph. For a start, the sentence should make sense without the part between the commas. If you removed “and with people like you” your sentence would read “If it’s the former it always is” which does not make sense.

You would need a comma after the “and” to make your sentence without the “with people like you” read “If it’s the former and it always is,” which I believe is what you mean.

If you are going to use a dash in that sentence, you should have a space before it.

But, anyway, none of these are the same kind of error as the one I’m talking about.

If a post isn't aimed anyone, and someone sees it and is happy to learn something new, I see no harm.
If someone posts an unpleasant remark then that is something else, and is not acceptable. Enough of that on here as it is.

And, yes, there are places in this post which should have commas before quotation marks and I’m sure other errors. I’m not perfect, I’m just answering the assertion that you have no errors.

This is the case for me to. If someone says "you want to..." I understand that there's a desire to do it. When they say "...you should..." I understand that there is a requirement (as opposed to a wish) to do it.

could be worse, they could have said Kew

Thanks @Zimunya - I was genuinely not trying to be an arse

I don’t mean “want to” in the sense of a colloquial phrase like, “you want to mind your own business,” which should really be, “you should mind your own business.”

I mean that people want (as in desire) to use the expression eg, “cue me getting angry.” They must want to, because they are writing something that sounds like it, eg, “queue me getting angry.”

The problem is that what they are writing is not what they want to say. It is, of course, just a spelling error, but it seems a bit different from a basic spelling error, because they are misspelling the word in a way which makes it look like another word which has a different meaning.

Sorry though if I could have made my meaning clearer.

Yes but both could be right in this particular case.

Op does mean people SHOULD use a word correctly but want is equally valid because presumably most of the people using the wrong word do WANT their sentence to be understood in the way they intended it -I doubt they are using queue knowing it's wrong for a laugh or because they think it's a better word! So OP is saying "if you want to suggest (or people to understand) "and then something else happened" then you should use the word cue."

I do agree that you don't know what you don't know, and don't think it necessarily has any links to intelligence -I had an adult reading age at about 8 but it took me absolutely ages until I realised words like quay and gaol were the same words as those I'd heard said as key and jail, for example. It's just a matter of exposure. Butttt....to play devil's advocate doesn't that mean it's better to correct people when you see the wrong thing? As a pp said, the more someone sees others writing "queue" or "que" on mumsnet or twitter the less likely they are to realise it is wrong, compared to if every time they saw it in that context it was written as "cue," most people would hopefully catch on.

Obviously there's a time and way to correct someone though....if the sentence is "queue my third miscarriage" then compassion should be prioritised over grammar. If it's "que the seagull stealing my ice cream 🤣🤣" then a post saying "haha that's so funny I can just imagine it...BTW I think the word is "cue" though" could be seen as a bit pedantic but shouldn't cause offence.

Oh if you want to correct someone then just saying so is infinitely preferable than the faux-misunderstanding people do on here, as per my above example "queue the seagull? (Confused emoji)....do you mean the birds were waiting in a line to steal your icecream?" Or "queue your miscarriage? I don't understand what you mean? Were you waiting in a line for the checkout at tesco when it happened?"

Just seen the sweaty sofa thread which contains the phrase, “led on the sofa!” I’m pretty sure that whole thing is a joke though…

I do know spelling is difficult for some people, but sometimes I just think what planet are you on.

Saw someone on Facebook yesterday, saying there was a dog loose on the 'jewel carriageway'. Jesus.

Not correct, I'm afraid. Those aren't bracketing commas.

I once read a post where someone said they had inherited “obesity jeans”……but maybe she meant denims jeans passed down the generations 😁

Not sure why you are so passionate about someone misspelling the word cue?

I mean are you bored or what?

That's got to be terrible comma splicing in that first sentence of yours OP. If my autistic ds saw that he'd probably say if you don't know how to structure a sentence then you shouldn't write at all.

Personally I couldn't get any more upset about that then I do about someone misspelling cue. Draw instead of drawer though really does my head in.

There are a couple of options which could be correct. The one I suggested could be, but also the other option is that the main sentence should read “If it’s the former might I suggest…

In this case, the comma between “you” and “it” is not needed. There should, however, then also be a comma instead of the dash between “is” and “might,” ie “If it’s the former, and with people like you it always is, might I suggest…” A pair of dashes could also be used, if you like that kind of thing, but not one comma and one dash.

My point is that this poster’s punctuation is not as perfect as they believe it to be.

Give me a mis spelt word over a clumsy, difficult to read OP any day of the week.

Like a few others on here, I do wince a bit when I see some of these mistakes. But I also think that none of us are perfect, and I can pretty much guarantee that after posting this, I'll notice a mistake or typo. Such is life.

I write reports for a living, and am used, even now after 20 odd years of working, to my boss red-penning them. I also, like a PP, grew up in a household of pedantic parents, who were absolute sticklers with language and encouraged reading and use of a dictionary to check words wherever possible. As others have said, reading widely helps you to see words in context, and understand how to use them and that was also encouraged. But that was just my folks. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Presumably the people using the wrong word don't know they're using the wrong word though.

Its an "unknown unknown" as Donald Rumsfeld would have put it. If you know you don't have the knowledge, then you wouldn't use the word, but if you don't know you're using the wrong word, then why wouldn't you use it?

I say this as the man who spent 39 of his 40 years on this planet using "nonplussed" to mean the complete opposite of its actual meaning.