Grammar and spelling police

[philsussex]

I usually do anyway just because if the handful of pedants.

But not that time!

 

[Pot noodles for everyone]

I usually do anyway just because if the handful of pedants.

*winner*

 

[8ace]

I usually do anyway just because if the handful of pedants.

Are you speaking Afrikaans?

 

[bhaexpress]

But not that time!

I don't know, this country gets more and more like America every day, no sense of irony

 

[chez]

This is probably the most annoying thing on here. It seems that whenever somebody disagrees with somebody elses opinion they have to have a go at the spelling & grammar rather than explain why they disagree with what is being posted.

In my opinion anybody that chooses to have a go at somebody for poor grammar and spelling is a prick.

 

[Mr Everyone]

Are there more spelling and grammar mistakes made today compared to, say, thirty years ago? If so, who it is to blame? The family, the educational system or the individual concerned?

Students from non-speaking countries, from my own casual observations, appear to have a better understanding of the English language. Does that mean their schooling has been of a higher standard than our own?

 

[essbee]

Mr everyone -

Hate to point this out - but

Is there really a "non-speaking country"

wow! Pray tell where!

 

[strings]

It does annoy me, and it doesn't annoy me. As has already been said, NSC is a melting pot of people with different educational backgrounds and also different work backgrounds. In some jobs spelling and grammar is important whereas in other jobs, as long as you can understand your own notes, you will be fine. Therefore different users will have differing attitudes to, and mastery of, spelling and grammar.

As long as people make an effort to not use txt spk, ALL CAPS or all lower case, I'm happy.

 

[Soul Finger]

Mr everyone -

Hate to point this out - but

Is there really a "non-speaking country"

wow! Pray tell where!

The Isle of Mute.

 

[Mr Everyone]

Mr everyone -

Hate to point this out - but

Is there really a "non-speaking country"

wow! Pray tell where!

Ha ha, one eye on the telly! I meant to put, non-English speaking country! Perhaps I should have said, a country that doesn't use English as it's first language.

 

[essbee]

Mr everyone,

I'll let you off this time.

 

[Scampi]

Most of the time i find the spelling and grammar brigade tedious. it's the way most of them choose to do it that is so annoying. People respond well to a little bit of gentle encouragement, they don't respond to someone belittling people to make themselves more important.

 

[Simster]

Secondly grammatical pedantry, by it's very nature, requires a high level of understanding in the subject.

Quite right.

You shouldn't have used an apostrophe in 'its' in the third sentence of the second paragraph, for instance.

Not disputing what you say, but is this the case? Doesn't the "it's" refer to something belonging to "grammatical pedantry"? I thought the apostrophe came into play when describing something belonging to something?

 

[essbee]

Leave it Simster!

)

 

[Uwinsc]

Are there more spelling and grammar mistakes made today compared to, say, thirty years ago? If so, who it is to blame? The family, the educational system or the individual concerned?

Students from non-speaking countries, from my own casual observations, appear to have a better understanding of the English language. Does that mean their schooling has been of a higher standard than our own?

Or is it that the people who have poor spelling abilities etc are now confident enough to realise that it doesn't make them stupid and they may still have a valid point to make- isn't this a good thing?

 

[SULLY COULDNT SHOOT]

I am afraid I don't agree with you. Just for the record, I have yet to trawl through other threads so may well find something else to argue with, I usually do.



So, in your 25 years etc etc, do you think language should evolve to the lowest common denominator. Are you satisfied that white kids think it hip to mimic black gangland dialect and do you think that is how language evolves or is it more to do with education. Text speak is fine in the right place as it serves a purpose. But people need to know how to convey their message so that it is understood fully. I fear that, as the rest of the world seems to be accepting English as the international language and their youth are learning correct grammar, our own kids are abandoning it.

Language doesnt have a lowest common denominator ! Language is an organism and any description of a language is just that.... a description. Every time someone opens their mouth they change the language we speak and there is abslutely nothing anyone can do about it... its called evolution. In fact what you are speaking now would have probably been called the lowest common denominator 100 years ago. So what does that make you?

Before you become a language fascist, find out a little about the topic.

 

[SULLY COULDNT SHOOT]

Punctuation distinguishes meaning in many instances.

Are people supposed to assume what a sentence means?

I didnt say ALL punctuation... I was using its as an example... when meaning is affected it may well not change.

If you want to hear something really 'shocking'... the only PROGRESSIVE dialect (one that predicts how we WILL speak, not how we used to speak a la standard english) is SARF LAHNDON! Particularly the dropping of word final g in -ing and the glottal stop relacing the t sound in many words..... 'pu: i: on the window sill', for example.

 

[philsussex]

Or is it that the people who have poor spelling abilities etc are now confident enough to realise that it doesn't make them stupid and they may still have a valid point to make- isn't this a good thing?

Sounds like a good thing to me.

 

[The Large One]

Not disputing what you say, but is this the case? Doesn't the "it's" refer to something belonging to "grammatical pedantry"? I thought the apostrophe came into play when describing something belonging to something?

It does for a noun, but not for a pronoun.

The eight cases are...

Pronoun  Possessive adjective   Possessive pronoun
Me         My                           Mine
You        Your                         Yours
He         His                          His
She        Her                          Hers
We         Our                          Ours
It         Its                          Its (hardly ever used)
They       Their                        Theirs
Who        Whose                        Whose (hardly ever used)

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The word but should never be used after a full stop.

But is it alright to start a sentence with it?