Grammar

Jade&Evie

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How important is it to you?

Sometimes when I have E crawling all over me I won't use capitals or punctuate properly but, on the whole, grammar is really important to me. I get really irritated by emails, texts, facebook status' written in some other language. I got a letter from HSBC the other week which was pretty god damn awful... I might have sent the letter back corrected in red pen accompanied by another letter asking them to write to me in English :oops:

My cousin is 15 and all I ever get from her is "hi bbz" and " what u bin up 2"- she never uses ? or , or . or '- she just starts a new paragraph instead. It worries me that she actually doesn't know how to compose a sentence properly :? I'm not being pernickity but I'd love to see how she writes at school. I've never written like that- I use predictive text when I text someone so have to put the right punctuation in.

Also There, Their and They're... It irritates the hell out of me when I read it in the wrong context :lol: :talkhand:

SO how important is 'proper' grammar to you... or are you billingual and able to understand da txt spk?
 
Not everyone is the best speller (myself included) so will never put others down because of it.
 
Morganuk said:
Not everyone is the best speller (myself included) so will never put others down because of it.

Im not talking just about spelling- just grammar in general.
 
with you on this one, I can't tell you how much txt speak annoys me (but this is because I am as old as the hills and can't understand a single word of it and it takes forever to work them out). If people do use txt speak I wish they would limit it to phone txt, wish people would not use it for emails when they have a full keyboard at their finger tips.
 
It drives me up the wall! I have a very slow PC and am awful for typos myself so the odd spelling error doesn't bother me, but consistent errors get on my wick a bit.

I love language, it's one of my interests. I love to read, write and I even teach it to a degree.

I think I fall one generation short of 'txt spk' and it's a pet hate, especially on a forum where there is no character limit on the price of a post! My other big hate is no paragraphing. In fact, if I click on a post and it's one enormous block of text with loads of abbreviations I never bother reading it :shhh: :lol:
 
I am a big sinner in terms of lazy grammer and spelling on here - my excuse is my keyboard on my laptop is not the best after Seren attacked it one day (especially my space bar and n and c), plus I usually am nursing Cally whilst typing and I get all sorts of typos. So I personally don't sweat it, even the odd bit of text speak doesn't bother me. It does however when it is a long post full of it, or a whole post without punctuation as I tend to read it and am out of breath at the end.
 
I don't even use text speak in texts, as I can't stand it, and I get positively irritated if someone uses it in a work related e-mail. But then I'm a pedant.

As for the they're/there/their confusion - I never used to have the problem before I moved to the UK and got properly immersed into the language, it must be a phonetic thing. But all it means that I have to check my postings more thoroughly before hitting "send". There's nowt wrong with the occasional mistake, everybody makes them, but I kind of find it impolite if it's blatantly obvious that someone hasn't even bothered to re-read their post or email before sending it.
 
widowwadman said:
but I kind of find it impolite if it's blatantly obvious that someone hasn't even bothered to re-read their post or email before sending it.

lol that'd be me then.
 
beanie said:
widowwadman said:
but I kind of find it impolite if it's blatantly obvious that someone hasn't even bothered to re-read their post or email before sending it.

lol that'd be me then.

:lol: FWIW your not on my list of illegible posters :lol:
 
widowwadman said:
I don't even use text speak in texts, as I can't stand it, and I get positively irritated if someone uses it in a work related e-mail. But then I'm a pedant.

I hardly ever use text speak in texts either. Usually resort to it if I run out of room for the entire text. I never use it anywhere, not here, email, texting, or on IRC chat.
 
Sherlock said:
widowwadman said:
I don't even use text speak in texts, as I can't stand it, and I get positively irritated if someone uses it in a work related e-mail. But then I'm a pedant.

I hardly ever use text speak in texts either. Usually resort to it if I run out of room for the entire text. I never use it anywhere, not here, email, texting, or on IRC chat.

I have a friend who insists on saying 'LOL'... actually saying it....

Surely if she was LOL'ing she would be actually laughing... :think: :think: :think: :doh:
 
I'm the same, definitely.

All of that text speak or whatever it is drives me mad, it makes my eyes bleed.

Even when I write 'LOL' it has to be capitals otherwise I just think it looks like a weird 3 letter word that's been randomly placed in a sentence :lol:

Even my texts are like that, I just can't help it. I won't even write 'U' instead of 'you' :oops:
 
Jade&Evie said:
beanie said:
widowwadman said:
but I kind of find it impolite if it's blatantly obvious that someone hasn't even bothered to re-read their post or email before sending it.

lol that'd be me then.

:lol: FWIW your not on my list of illegible posters :lol:

should be 'you're' :wink: :wink:


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
beanie said:
widowwadman said:
but I kind of find it impolite if it's blatantly obvious that someone hasn't even bothered to re-read their post or email before sending it.

lol that'd be me then.

and me beanie! i'm constantly typing one handed (note the lack of capitals!) as i have ollie on me most of the time!

i do worry about the younger generation though.. i think grammar will go out of the window soon.

one thing i try not to do though is judge anyone that isnt good with spelling or grammar as my brother is dyslexic.
 
i am a bit of a fuss pot when it comes to grammar and also spelling mistakes, but not on forums and stuff just letters that are supposed to be official and also i HATE spelling mistakes in books that i am reading.

i find it hard to take companies seriously when they can't put together a letter properly and think it is very important to have the spellings checked before printing (especially as most computers have a spell check on them :lol: )

on forums i don't personally get on with text speak but don't mind some abreviations as i understand some people are typing one handed/on their phone etc and it makes it easier for them, i also don't bother reading posts that are one big block of writing as i find it hard to keep my place :oops: and it gives me a headache :lol: :lol: .

i see people make the same spelling mistakes in lots of posts (on another forum i go on one girl spells gorgeous/obvious/serious with an e on the end every time she writes them.....she obviously thinks thats how it is spelt) and i wonder if they would take offence if the correct spelling was pointed out, i know if it was me then i would prob appreciate it!!

i don't mind typos as i often make them......smae for example....my fingers just go to fast and one hand ends up overtaking the other!!

ps i hope my grammar is ok and i haven't made too many spelling mistakes!! :lol: :lol:
 
I can type at speed and don't see the need for using text speak when writing posts here for example. I don't mind spelling mistakes as we can all make those from time to time, but text speak annoys me and I generally won't read or reply to posts using it. Its hard work on the eyes I find. Also for any non native English speakers it can be hard to work out what is being said. As I post and chat on other forums and IRC (chat servers) that have many non native English speakers I find it easy to write full words and use correct grammar where possible.

My other pet peeve is as has been mentioned the lack of paragraph breaks in bigger chunks of text. It makes it bloody hard work to read a post if there are no breaks and I give up and don't bother usually. A shame but using a computer screen makes it hard work to read chunks of continuous text so its much nicer to break it up for people reading it.

It also is not any quicker to read text speak on here than it is to read proper words and sentences. So its not saving any time really by typing text speak. Its even a pain to type on a qwerty keyboard.
 
Sammystar said:
Jade&Evie said:
beanie said:
widowwadman said:
but I kind of find it impolite if it's blatantly obvious that someone hasn't even bothered to re-read their post or email before sending it.

lol that'd be me then.

:lol: FWIW your not on my list of illegible posters :lol:

should be 'you're' :wink: :wink:


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

:wink: I will blame that one on Evie... :moon:
 
Im absolutely hurrendous for it, its only when i reread i notice typos, anagrams, poor grammer etc, etc etc Usually nursing Flo !

I just write things out quick and press send, im not sure why anyone would be offended about it though, annoyed maybe but im not lazy in rereading to be impolite, i suppose my reasoning is someone would rather receive a logical if ungrammatic resopnse than none at all :lol:

Anything formal or that im going to have to see more than once or twice il go back and redo but if its something thats only going to be read once and never again, id rather just get the main point across as quickly as possible :oops: :oops:

But saying that it really really irritates me when corporations, slogans, bank letters, films where educated characters are speaking with terrible grammer and lexis etc it drives me absolutely INSANE !
 
Minxy said:
In fact, if I click on a post and it's one enormous block of text with loads of abbreviations I never bother reading it :shhh: :lol:

I'm like that.

I find it irritating when I see bad grammar and spelling, but I don't judge people, I just want to edit it for them. Then again I am pretty crap with both my spelling and grammar sometimes, depending on what I am doing and how much sleep I've had.
 
I am exactly the same. I even have The Good Word Guide as the book I keep in the bathroom and I regularly read in and find it fascinating :oops: I did a lot of linguistic courses at university and love the whole subject!

I am also really embarassed by my posts recently as I have a new laptop and hadn't realised that the dictionary wasn't coming up to scold my tying errors so I've posted some shocking disasters! Plus I don't think I hit one of the shift keys properly and sometimes miss capital letters. Now I realise it is happening I'm checking more but it was still embarassing :oops:

Good on you for sending the letter back to the bank!

Sadly at school a number of pupils do put in text speak. This doesn't happen at the school I am in now but pupils in my last school would often write '2' instead of 'to' or 'too' without showing any realisation that this was inappropriate in the classroom. If people feel text speak is appropriate when they message their freinds then that is fine. It is a real problem though when they don't realise or understand that this level of language is not appropriate in more formal contexts. I would hate to think of people applying for jobs and genuinely not thinking about it and using language that could mean their application is rejected.

MorganUK, I don't think she was really putting others down for it. She is stating that some of us find it hard to understand what people mean when they abbreviate things and don't use punctuation. Actually, she was putting the bank down but I think that is appropriate if they cannot write correctly.
 

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