are you a grammer nazi

[Dreaming.]

I hate bad grammar and spelling with a passion.
It's somewhat more lax on forums, because it's less formal - but for basic things like "there/their/they're", I just don't understand how you can not know the difference, or why you don't want to know the difference.
And double negatives! "there ain't no way I'm doing that" - oh, ok, so you will do that then. :)

It does irk me, frustratingly.
So often I have to bite my tongue to stop myself from making a grammar-related comment.

[someoneiusedtoknow]

I don't care, provided that I understand what's written and it's an intelligent comment. There is a slight correlation between bad grammar and idiocy, hence I am sometimes irritated by those issues, but it's always a by-product of annoyance at the content.

I think people who spend all their time stating how much they hate bad grammar back themselves into a corner. Everyone who's said they're a "grammar Nazi" has made at least one error in accordance with traditional English grammar in their post in this thread. It's a stupid, indefensible position to adopt, really.

[Asura]

You spelled 'grammar' wrong in the thread title...

Yup, I'm a grammar nazi. Our younger generations are becoming too comfortable with using bad grammar.

[Day Tripper]

Noticeable mistakes bother me when it shows pure laziness on the person's part. It isn't difficult to add punctuation or to check your spelling is correct if you know you spelled something wrong.

As long as the person tries I can tolerate it, though.

My space bar is broken so this short post took me ages to type and any errors in it I have left out of frustration.

[lydia.]

i always see it, it annoys me, but i rarely comment.

[lungs locked lips locked]

If you don't type out or write properly because of lazyness, it bugs, if it's a mistake then fair enough, though proof reading helps no?

[flying[star]]

i'm more annoyed by wall-text

almost all spelling errors can geta break, and i never use caps so it'ed by hypocritcal to comment on that but yes, lacking in paragraphs is the most annoying thing

followed by text-speak, which i wont even trry to do.

[Leo Pard]

I cannot stand it when people type in text language or with random capitals.
The odd mistake is okay but when things are full off really obvious mistakes it pisses me off.

[[Purple_Rain]]

Ok, so, reading this thread has irritated me slightly. I for one don't like lazy typing. Where people Ommit capital letters, full stops etc. But I don't make a big deal of it because 1; it's not my place to, 2; that person may have had learning difficulties; 3 whats the point? it's not going to kill anyone. I also don't like walls of text, but thats simply becuase I struggle with reading black on white as it is.

Also, the point of dyslexia has been brought up. I myself am dyslexic, and at verious points in the thread people have said dyslexia isn't an excuse for bad grammar/spelling. I hate to break it to you, but I think it is. For starters, When dyslexic, unless you go to a good school and get good support, chances are you spend your English lessons either being treated like an idiot or a 3 year old, or, learning the very, very basics over and over and over again. You simply arn't taught the more complex grammar/sentence structures, and definatly not spellings! I was very unlucky in English lessons untill year 9 (age 13/14) where throughout comprehensive school I had sucsessfully maintained the reading age of 8 (Y). Once into GCSE years, I had an excelent teacher who just gave me that little bit of extra help when I needed it, (and extra lessons to help me catch up due to the abysmal teaching I'd had previously) but aside from that taught me what everyone else was learning, but maybe used different teaching methods, and I got two A*'s at english GCSE. I was lucky. A common missconception is that you can't be dyslexic and clever. People would actually often tell me I coudlnt be dyslexic. My reply to that is Einstien was dyslexic.

For those who said that there 'is always spell check' thats all well and good if when reading you can tell what's right and what isn't. A prime example is the word 'Definitly' . Untill recently I have no been able to spell this word, and the way I would write it would be Definatly. Spell check would then change this to Defiantly, which completely changes the meaning of the sentence! In my oppinion having the spellin gmistake there, and having people still understand what you mean, is better than changing the meaning of what you have written. Also i regulalry write/type 'form' instead of 'from' and as this is a word, spell check does nothing. Reading back over my work I don't see it.

Also, Jo

Quote:

but for basic things like "there/their/they're", I just don't understand how you can not know the difference, or why you don't want to know the difference.

I still struggle with those three (and even writing this post I've had to go back and change one to one of the other two). It's quite easy to not know the difference, because they sound the same. A lot of people (not just those who are dyslexic) can only go on the phonetic spelling of words. I get confused between 'loose' and 'lose' and then 'chose' and 'choose' becuase lose and choose sound the same, so in my head, loose should be the correct spelling... but it isnt.
In addition, it's not about not wanting to know the difference, it's struggleing to learn it, because again, the words sound the same. Another example would be two, to and too. I spent years getting those sorted in my head.

Furthermore, saying that someone who is dyslexic and has bad grammer shoudl simply 'work a bit harder' is like telling someone with a broken leg to run faster in a 100m sprint. It's simply not that easy. The difference also is that a broken leg can heal, you can't get better form dyslexia; yes, you can improve your reading a writing ability, but you can never get better from it.

Sorry. I know some of what I have said may have over-stepped the mark, and was not really the point of the thread, as the thread is not about people with dyslexia. But dyslexia is variable in severity. I know I could be a lot worse than I am, but I also know there are people with much less severe dysxleia.

I would also like to say in writing this post, I have combed through it several times trying to find mistakes, simply becuase this thread (or, more to the point, the replies to it) has made me even more self-concious about my spelling/grammar, reading and writing than I already was.

[Snow White.]

I think all your points Liz are very valid, and highlights a lot of things I hadn't previously considered. Knowing that you are dyslexic I've always made that allowance when reading your posts, it's just not bothered me if you've spelt a word wrong or what-have-you.

Same goes with others. In fact, I often get upset when people feel the need (particularly here) to criticise people on spelling, it's usually always unfriendly and uncalled for. Not everyone has great English skills. End of.

However, laziness in regards to things like punctuation/grammar etc is frustrating, but I still don't say anything. It's your prerogative if you want to write like that, I don't have to read it and if I cannot understand it due to lack of grammar, etc, I won't.

[Day Tripper]

Liz, I hope my post wasn't something that made you uncomfortable. It wasn't meant for those who genuinely have reasons for it but more about those that don't try.

People know when a sentence ends. It isn't hard to put a period at the end of the thought. When someone chooses to omit the period I find it difficult to read their post. A sentence like "i went to the store and bought frog food i also had pizza with my friend she wanted pepperoni but i wanted mushrooms we got into an argument" is something that frustrates me.

[GlitterandSparkles.]

The only time I get really annoyed by the way people are typing is if it's in text speak, and only because it makes it really difficult for me to be able to understand and takes longer to read. I don't mind the occasional misspelling, because I'm not the best at spelling either. People who capitalize every letter also kind of annoy me, but I can overlook it. In general, I think the only time I get really annoyed is when people type in text speak, for a whole entire paragraph, and are insulting others for how they're typing is. It's just kind of like, alright, have you not seen how you just typed a whole paragraph, yet you're going to sit here and insult somebody else because they spelled a word wrong?!?!

[shadow-light]

This may be long, bear with me lol. I read the whole thread and it took a long time so I may as well make a full reply

Firstly I completely agree with Purple Rain on the dyslexia front. I am also dyslexic, and I hate it.
I type out all of my posts in word and then spell check them before posting as I am so scared of being ridiculed(though this is mainly as my mum used to be an english teacher so I have come to expect comments on my spelling/grammar), but even that is not perfect as sometimes the spell checker is unable to recognise the word that I am attempting to spell, or it will give a list of possible spellings and I will have no idea which one is correct.
I also have little to no understanding of full stops, capital letters, paragraphs, etc. this is not laziness nor stupidity as I have attempted on several occasions to learn and to be be taught but my brain just cannot grasp it...

though my dyslexia is more apparent in hand written text as I will add in extra letters automatically even when I know that they are not there, for example I will always add an "e" to the end of "with" despite knowing that there is not one there.
I also get “b” and “d” confused :/


I hate addreviations with a passion too, it's taken me a long time to work out what most of them mean, even such things as turning "cannot" to "can't" often confuses me


Text speak I just plain and simple cannot understand... seriously, if people text me using it I have to send one back asking for a translation...


I dislike it when people use upper case letters randomly too, but that is a selfish criticism as I cannot read uppercase!



Also... I got a B in GCSE English despite being put in the “special needs” class and not having being diagnosed with dyslexia at the time, so I don’t think that GCSE English grades really say that much about someones ability with grammar :P

[Dreaming.]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Day Tripper

Liz, I hope my post wasn't something that made you uncomfortable. It wasn't meant for those who genuinely have reasons for it but more about those that don't try.

This.

My post wasn't in reference to those who really do struggle with it, but those who simply don't bother to try and know the difference. It's just laziness in a lot of (but not all) cases, and that's when it bugs me.

[[Purple_Rain]]

I wanted to add, after re-readign the thread and seeing this

Quote:

when I got to college they said my dyslex ia was really servere and that the school was stupid for not believing it.

that it's quite common for schools not to accept peopel are dyslexic, which means no extra help at all, which also results in what i describe above about being treat like an idiot or a 3 year old.

Quote:

for example I will always add an "e" to the end of "with" despite knowing that there is not one there.
I also get “b” and “d” confused :/

I'm the same, with 'b' and 'd' and also, 'b' and 'p' (I mirror them horizontally for some reason). i also somtiems double the wrong letter when typing/writing, and extreme example would be room becomes romm. I also creat hybrid words where i'm trying to think ahead to what i want to write, so i ad the ending of the next word onto the one i'm currently writing.

I also don't always understand 'can't' simple because 'can't you' becomes 'can not you' which isn't good enlglish as it should be 'can you not' ...

[[Purple_Rain]]

Quote:

My post wasn't in reference to those who really do struggle with it, but those who simply don't bother to try and know the difference

I don't mean to pick on you Jo, but the way I read your post is in the same tone I read a lot of other people's; 'people who can't use grammar/spell irritate us' . Now, people may then say 'oh, but we didn't mean you, you have an excuse/reason why you can't ' but the truth is, the way we type/spell will still irriate you, it's just you may be slightly more understand about it. The fact that people have said they find bad grammar/spelling irritating is what makes me feel self concious, whether they mean this statement to exclude dyslexic people or not.

NB: whether is also a word i struggle with. Usually ends up being wheather.

[.x.Kaz.x.]

Text speak can annoy me, it's hard to read and just being plain lazy in my eyes. I'm dyslexic (Stupid word to spell for us, ha) and text talk just drives me crazy when every word is written in it. TyPinG LiKe tHiS is also stupid, pointless, capital letters on every word is hard to read >.<

I was never really given help on grammar and spelling in school until i hit my GCSE years and that never really helped me. Now at college, they haven't picked up on my dyslexia. It's not as bad but i still need extra help. In most of my assignments i get back, they are always marked with hudge big red circles everywhere on the page, and they do question marks next to alot of my words and always say watch your spelling, but they never help on how to actually spell the freaking word, which is quite annoying. I know theres such thing as spell checker and a dictionary but when spell checker doesn't understand your mistakes it can get frustrating.

I only learnt the difference between 'where' and 'were' last year, and i still don't know the difference between quiet and quite (If they are both words) there and their and many more. Also shadow-light, B and D also confuse me, p and q, and a and e confuse me and i like to add e on alot of my words too. Ooh and another one i have just picked up on whilst being at work is 2 and t, which is a pain, i also went through a fase of having Z and 7 mixed up >.<

But yes, text speak is annoying and confuses me so much and should be banned full stop! *Evil laugh*

[shadow-light]

Quote:

Originally Posted by [Purple_Rain]

I also creat hybrid words where i'm trying to think ahead to what i want to write, so i ad the ending of the next word onto the one i'm currently writing. .

I do that too, or my hands cannot keep up with my brain and I end up missing the middle of a sentance out completely.



The problem is; if you were to just look at someones post how could you tell if it was laziness or iif the person actually has difficulty with the writen wword?


("How" and "who" are another two that I get mixed up)

[[Purple_Rain]]

Quote:

i still don't know the difference between quiet and quite (If they are both words)

Quote:

How" and "who" are another two that I get mixed up

I do boththese things.

I also struggle with the letter 'j' and 'J' because for some reason, I think that one of them should be mirrored vertically and face the opposite way :/

[Gone.]

Now I am re-reading my post and other things and feeling really stupid. I do hate bad grammar or bad spelling etc but I dont do it excessively. For instance, I dont bother with apostrophes on the internet, and I wrote that list meaning to continue but then forgot therefore emitted the 'and'. I know the former is what you call lazy, but I do add them offline and as long as people can read it and it is not a massive amount of text speak then thats fine.

And in response to what others said; I also write what I am thinking therefore miss out the middle of a sentence or I just write a one letter word, just by thinking ahead. And I often add an 'e' to the end of words like with too... but I dont know why.

So yeah, just thought Id put that in there.