Grammar

[widowwadman]

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.

You're actually quite readable...

 

[kalia]

ps i hope my grammar is ok and i haven't made too many spelling mistakes!!

I mean this in a friendly way so please don't be offended but that really made me laugh because you didn't use a single capital letter!

Sorry, I checked back and that is a lie - you wrote 'HATE' in capitals

 

[Manda&Thomas]

im not bothered by it but then im terrible for everyting mensioned about
i cant spell for anything, i never no when to use puntuation so i ust chuck it in anywhere and i just hit the spacebar after sentences not knowing if they are to long to read or not
proberly why most of my posts dont get many replies haha
but nevermind it doesnt bother me im not about to start taking my time over a post on here just so its a bit easier for others to read
xx

 

[kalia]

You're actually quite readable...

Is that the forum equivalent of "You're actually quite good-looking..."

Sorry, I think I'm having an odd day

 

[beanie]

You're actually quite readable...

Is that the forum equivalent of "You're actually quite good-looking..."

Sorry, I think I'm having an odd day

Great, I'm an illiterate pig

 

[muppetmummy]

I can be quite lazy on here and often my punctuation and spelling is dodgy!
When I was breastfeeding and typing one handed I didn't bother with capital letters at all.
I haven't got time to re-read everything I post.
I always use predictive text on my phone as it's quicker than using text speak, which I don't understand very well anyway.

 

[siany]

Great, I'm an illiterate pig

I should fix you up with my OH you would get on great!!!

 

[kazzie-bo]

ps i hope my grammar is ok and i haven't made too many spelling mistakes!!

I mean this in a friendly way so please don't be offended but that really made me laugh because you didn't use a single capital letter!

Sorry, I checked back and that is a lie - you wrote 'HATE' in capitals

hahahahaha that is sooooo funny!! i know, i never use capitals when writing on the computer, not even on emails etc only if i am using word!! i just can't be bothered to keep pressing shift i will try in future to use them, just for you I can make it my new years resolution!! at least it should be easier to keep!!

 

[pilkers]

I'm quite pedantic when it comes to grammar and spelling

I can excuse mistakes made by others with a simple shake of my head and a roll of my eyes but if I post something that is spelled incorrectly I have to give myself a severe mental beating.

I cannot abide "text speak" in any way, shape or form. It drives me insane. This is probably down to the fact that I find it almost impossible to decipher. When I get texts and emails from my 16 year old brother it can take me all day to crack the code

They're, their, there and we're, were and you're, your and others (of which I cannot think of examples at the minute) have to be correct.

Oh and my current bug-bear is "Americanisation"... There is a shop near me which bears the name "Children's Play Center".... since when did we swap centre for center?!

Another one... "Do you want it personalized?" Ermmm, nope actually I'd like it personalised, thank you!

It makes my blood boil!

 

[emeraldsroses]

I, too, am a stickler for good grammar. I should be. I studied English Linguistics and Literature at university. I often find myself checking everything I write a few times before sending it off. I also end up going back and correcting while typing. I only use text speak with my DH (dear husband ) because he's basically the only one I text speak with. For the rest I tend to keep text messages to a minimum length so I rarely run out of room.

I've also had e-mails from native English speakers where I have to decipher the meaning of the mail or find where a sentence begins or ends just to make sense of it. It's difficult and sometimes I just want to give up, but I don't. Thankfully for those who send the e-mails to me otherwise they'd never get a reply

What I don't like is that my students don't know the difference between text speak and grammatically correct English. At university I used to tell my students not to use "u" when they handed in an English paper. Many of them didn't realise it when they typed out their work. By the way, I should mention I teach English to Dutch students, so their spelling and/or grammar tends to be bad anyway.

I should mention that although English is the first language I learned how to speak, it is the second language I learned to read and write (Italian being the first), so my spelling and grammar had always been better than my classmates' spelling and grammar. I find that native speakers are usually the worst when it comes to both. I also find myself correcting the Dutch spelling and grammar of my students, and I'm not even a native Dutch speaker

 

[pilkers]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Sh*t I sound like my FIL

Oh my God! I am officially old

 

[Julie84]

I am a stickler for grammar and punctuation but don't get annoyed if someone forgets or something is spelt incorrectly. It's very easy to do and proof reading your own text is often difficult as you often read what you intended to put rather than what is actually there anyway.

My gripe is with people who blatantly go out of their way to not use proper spelling, grammar or punctuation. I refuse to speak to my sister on MSN as it took me ages to try and work out what she was actually saying. She wasn't abbreviationg words necessarily, she was just making things difficult for me to read and saving herself no time in writing it (like kewl instead of cool etc). She's 15 and I dread to think what her school work is like.

I very almost complained to the council about a sign they recently put up that said "No access to HGV's" as apostrophes just seem to appear everywhere nowadays. I didn't though as I suppose it isn't the end of the world, but I bet they paid a fortune for that incorrect signage from my council tax!

And as a last point, I hate joining in with these sorts of discussions as everyone will go through your responses with a fine tooth comb and no doubt my fat fingers have managed to sneak some extra letters into words somewhere!!

 

[ninjawomble]

Blah "text speak" I know its quicker to type, but I cant understand what it bloody says!
So it takes twice as long, as I have to reply with, "Say that again? In english this time"

 

[Lou]

My punctuation sucks But I think its what you are saying thats important. If you needed advice and somebody replied who couldn't punctuate and spell so you didn't bother to read their post because of it then I'm sorry but thats just rude snobbery!

 

[Squiglet]

I'm often NAK so I don't really have the ability to type so to speak with the correct fullstops and capital letters. Also a lot of my posts recently have had words which don't have spaces in between them but that is because lil miss ripped the space bar off the laptop and now it doesn't work properly.

I don't think there is any excuse for poor spelling on the Internet anymore...thats what spell checkers are for.

But I have to say that in general native English speakers seem to have a terrible grasp of their own grammatical language, which in turn hinders them from learning other languages. My DH never lived in the UK and only has the equivalent of GSCE level in English as a foreign language and his grammar and spelling is far superior than my own.

 

[Lou]

I'm often NAK so I don't really have the ability to type so to speak with the correct fullstops and capital letters. Also a lot of my posts recently have had words which don't have spaces in between them but that is because lil miss ripped the space bar off the laptop and now it doesn't work properly.

I don't think there is any excuse for poor spelling on the Internet anymore...thats what spell checkers are for.

But I have to say that in general native English speakers seem to have a terrible grasp of their own grammatical language, which in turn hinders them from learning other languages. My DH never lived in the UK and only has the equivalent of GSCE level in English as a foreign language and his grammar and spelling is far superior than my own.

I don't agree. Jeds grammar and spelling is far worse than mine but he can speak other languages better than me.

I also don't think good grammar and spelling is a sign of intelligence.

 

[Squiglet]

I don't agree. Jeds grammar and spelling is far worse than mine but he can speak other languages better than me.

I also don't think good grammar and spelling is a sign of intelligence.

Think you misunderstood me Lou...well I didn't make it overly clear either

The kids here in Spain have far more in depth teaching into their own grammar than my friends kids do in the UK and any further languages they learn they learn it heavily on the grammatical side. The same way we learnt French at school.

But I never said it was a sign of intelligence I don't think it is.

 

[daftscotslass]

I can't stand text speak. To be honest it doesn't take me any longer to type it out properly than it would to write it out in text speak or without capital letters etc. I suppose it's just been etched onto my brain and become a habit just the same as writing in text speak has for a lot of people 10 years younger than me. But when I see a post written in text/chat speak I just don't bother reading it. I'm not bothered about spelling mistakes or typos, though.

When I was at university doing my (postgraduate) teaching qualification we actually had a lecture on how to write an essay that was over an hour long. Now, everyone on that course had to have a degree of some sort. Minimum of 3 years at university. Very few I'd imagine would involve no essay or report writing. We were told that we were strictly "not allowed to use text speak in any written assignment". Does that mean someone actually HAD?

 

[emeraldsroses]

But I have to say that in general native English speakers seem to have a terrible grasp of their own grammatical language, which in turn hinders them from learning other languages. My DH never lived in the UK and only has the equivalent of GSCE level in English as a foreign language and his grammar and spelling is far superior than my own.

I also don't agree with the hindering from learning a foreign language. I find that if you learn a foreign language your native language improves. It's because you learn the rules for grammar in the foreign language that allows you to "learn" the ones in your own native language. At least that's how it was for me. My English grammar improved more once I learned other languages.

 

[Lou]

I don't agree. Jeds grammar and spelling is far worse than mine but he can speak other languages better than me.

I also don't think good grammar and spelling is a sign of intelligence.

Think you misunderstood me Lou...well I didn't make it overly clear either

The kids here in Spain have far more in depth teaching into their own grammar than my friends kids do in the UK and any further languages they learn they learn it heavily on the grammatical side. The same way we learnt French at school.

But I never said it was a sign of intelligence I don't think it is.

I didn't misunderstand you, you didn't explain it! tut tut

And the comment I made about intelligence wasn't directed at your post, thats why I left a gap and put it down a bit. It was just me saying something extra in general