Overwhelming poor SPAG

[MagpiePi]

The proliferation of poor SPAG that I see on this site is just overwhelming, and I despair (or should that be dispare? 🙄)

Their/they’re/there, your/you’re, to/too used randomly and interchangeably, loose instead of lose, advise instead of advice, not to mention the abuse of ‘s.

I know we are all supposed to be forgiving and not correct anyone’s errors as not everyone is well educated or has dyslexia, or will be given an inferiority complex, or, we just have to accept that language evolves and meanings change. But there has to be a limit otherwise how do you know what anyone actually means?

100000% agree! I too despair and wonder if perhaps the method used to teach SPAG is insufficient?

Oh and before anyone blames smartphones, most of us were adults long before smartphones & social media became as prominent as they are now!

Huv ye scene phasebuke?

It took me quite a while to work out, in reply to a post about the much missed, dear departed, teacher from the local school, that someone is trying to say he was the best English teacher

People on MN will generally tell you that if you can get the point of what someone is posting about, then the rest doesn’t matter.

I think that’s wrong. There are so many aids to help people to use correct spelling and grammar, that they must deliberately be ignored.

A wall of text, with no capital letter at the start of a sentence, no full stops and no paragraphs, makes it well nigh impossible to read.

Did you mean Overwhelmingly poor SPAG, @MagpiePi ?

Drives me mad, especially since with smartphones and tablets someone can easily check or look something up.

Though I did see something that amused me the other day 'OMG he's the double of him, they're total double gangers!'.

Now, I think it would be better to correct the mistake rather than let it perpetuate but of course, that would make me a big meanie and it doesn't matter if no-one can spell, use correct words, pronounce things correctly or be functionally literate..

Thing is, I think it’s mostly homonyms. You know the saying about being cautious about correcting someone’s pronunciation because possibly they’ve only ever read the word? I think a lot of this is the opposite: people mishear words and fit what they’ve heard to what they already know.

Plus autocorrect.

It is depressing because often people don’t understand what it is that they are saying.

Have you been outside? Have you not seen the lack of manners, social responsibility, and basic respect to others? This is the dominant culture where I live.
Bad SPAG is just part of it.

I noticed that too😅

@YourFluentQuoter , I don't think they realise that they are making a mistake, so they won't think to check.

It is depressing because often people don’t understand what it is that they are saying. I agree.

Double ganger makes no sense.
doppelgänger - a supernatural double of a living person
ganger - foreman (foresperson?) on a building site.

... being cautious about correcting someone’s pronunciation because possibly they’ve only ever read the word...
I'd prefer to be corrected. Far better than continuing to make an embarrassing mistake.
If it happens to me, i say 'Thanks. I've only seen it written down.'

Exactly. I'd prefer for someone to tell me.

I think i'm pretty good at Irish names but was stumped by Caoilfhionn last week watching a Netflix programme so what did I do? I looked up how to pronounce it.

I didn't go around assuming my idea of how it should be pronounced was correct and get pissy if people pointed out it was wrong.

Especially if it's another language. So if anyone is not sure how macaron, bao bun, gelato or any names or anything else is pronounced, they should look it up.

I didn't go around assuming my idea of how it should be pronounced was correct and get pissy if people pointed out it was wrong.

The Irish and Welsh baby names threads are like that. I think there are a few posters who insist that the local or learner pronunciation is correct, when it would only be said like that in a strong accent. A bit like if you had a poster from Aberdeen insisting that Carl is pronounced Carrul or a poster from Neath insisting that Ceri is Cair-ree then getting stroppy if someone disagrees

Caoilfhionn - either 'KEE-lin', or 'KWEE-lin'. (Source: Caoilfhionn Dunne's name pronunciation explained - Irish Mirror)

I thought this would be a thread about flavourless ragu. Guess not.

@Erin1975 , it's in Pedants' corner and it's ragù.

Well played 😃

No, I meant overwhelming poor SPAG, which is why I wrote overwhelming poor SPAG. The poor SPAG is overwhelming.

(I knew someone would have a go at my SPAG! )

The thread reads as if you are attempting to overwhelm instances of poor SPAG.

I’ve a recent graduate join my team. I am by no means an expert at SPAG but this girl is on another level.

Cannot spell even the simplest of words, doesn’t know the meaning of certain words and cannot use words in the right context.

I have to dictate emails to her she puts the gist of it into ChatGPT and that has to write her text for. I then need to recheck her emails to make sure that they make sense.

I’ve never seen anything like it! This is someone with a recent 2:1 degree!

@alantitchmarshswife , one of my niblings is a recent graduate, 2:1, and has poor spelling and grammar.

Yup that’s what the OP should have written.

Obvs the “overwhelming” is pertaining to threads on this site, and should be referred to as overwhelmingly.

Otherwise, as a pp mentioned, it has dual meaning.

Rookie error, lol.

I was using overwhelming as an adjective, not an adverb otherwise I would have used overwhelmingly.

Eg. Overwhelming noise vs overwhelmingly noisy.

@MagpiePi , for clarity you could have written overwhelming and poor grammar or grammar that is poor and overwhelming.

It is well-educated not well educated.

Jeez!

I’m off to stand in the corner and reflect on my failings.

It’s web chat not an English exam.