Is anyone bothered by people using bad grammar?

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SabbraCadabra
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15 May 2008, 1:07 pm

I'm pretty tolerant of poor grammar in speech, especially now that I'm not in school anymore and don't hear it very often. Slang never bothered me much, but ebonics just makes me laugh.

Improper grammar in text just drives me nuts, but I'll try to avoid correcting people unless we're having an argument. Nothing like some guy trying to prove his incorrect point while butchering contractions in the process, then I throw it back in their face and they go silent. Passive aggressive, I guess?

I think what I hate the most is when people try to spell things KIND OF like how they sound...my latest pet peeve is "would of" instead of "would've", and etc. :x I've even seen it in two professionally published works :x It's in this little comic book that comes with the special edition of Escape from New York, and I also found it in one of Thomas Harris's books...can't remember which one.

SotiCoto wrote:
Upper-Midwestern YANK accent.


Is there a different upper-midwest accent we might be confusing it with?



Last edited by SabbraCadabra on 15 May 2008, 1:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

SabbraCadabra
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15 May 2008, 1:09 pm

Tormod wrote:
Why is it that so many people assume that just because you can't type well it mercenarily means you're stupid? My skills in the English language may leave much to be desired. English is not my first language.


I tend to find that people who are not native speakers often have better English than natives.



2ukenkerl
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15 May 2008, 1:11 pm

SabbraCadabra wrote:
I'm pretty tolerant of poor grammar in speech, especially now that I'm not in school anymore and don't hear it very often. Slang never bothered me much, but ebonics just makes me laugh.

Improper grammar in text just drives me nuts, but I'll try to avoid correcting people unless we're having an argument. Nothing like some guy trying to prove his incorrect point while butchering contractions in the process, then I throw it back in their face and they go silent. Passive aggressive, I guess?

I think what I hate the most is when people try to spell things KIND OF like how they sound...my latest pet peeve is "would of" instead of "would've", and etc. :x I've even seen it in two professionally pubished works :x It's in this little comic book that comes with the special edition of Escape from New York, and I also found it in one of Thomas Harris's books...can't remember which one.

SotiCoto wrote:
Upper-Midwestern YANK accent.


Is there a different upper-midwest accent we might be confusing it with?


GEE, The midwest and california sound the same! In fact, MOST of the US sounds the same(if you throw out the foreign accents.)



Tormod
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15 May 2008, 1:13 pm

Flaggy wrote:
the thing i hate most when people speak is if they try to be 'the professor' and choose the most complicated sounding words that are just unnecceary to use in that situation


I do that. Not in English because I don't know enough words, but when speaking my own laungage I love using old, unusual and overly formal speech in all kinds of situation. I find it fun.

It's not because I want to sound intelligent though, because I don’t. It’s just my sort of humour. In situations where I'm supposed to sound intelligent I have a terrible habit of using way too informal language.



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15 May 2008, 1:19 pm

SabbraCadabra wrote:
Tormod wrote:
Why is it that so many people assume that just because you can't type well it mercenarily means you're stupid? My skills in the English language may leave much to be desired. English is not my first language.


I tend to find that people who are not native speakers often have better English than natives.


I don't understand. Am I supposed to be better at English because I am not English? :? That sounds really backwards to me.



2ukenkerl
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15 May 2008, 2:06 pm

Tormod wrote:
SabbraCadabra wrote:
Tormod wrote:
Why is it that so many people assume that just because you can't type well it mercenarily means you're stupid? My skills in the English language may leave much to be desired. English is not my first language.


I tend to find that people who are not native speakers often have better English than natives.


I don't understand. Am I supposed to be better at English because I am not English? :? That sounds really backwards to me.


SabbraCadabra,

I WISH that was true! It is probably true of a lot of western europe and, to a lesser degree, eastern europe, but certainly NOT of india, china, japan, etc...

Tormod,

I think he means because you learned to speak another language, and then may try to speak english according to rules, etc... MOST speakers of a language tend to repeat remembered phrases, and speak according to FEEL, and memorized fragments. That is GREAT and leads to speech that can be almost perfect UNLESS the past experience was WRONG! Unfortunately, a lot of people in the US, and probably elsewhere, hear a LOT of bad/wrong stuff. So they tend to make very DUMB mistakes.



craola
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15 May 2008, 2:09 pm

I don't like bad grammar, but I am not a grammar nazi.
I don't mind grammar being corrected to much but I do not like it when people pick on others because of small mistakes or simple mistakes or any type of mistakes really, not many people seem to take into consideration that some people struggle or have learning disabilities etc. There can be some really mean people.
But yes, I do get annoyed by bad grammar, particularly by double negatives and things like 'baby lambs' which doesn't make sense.



SabbraCadabra
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15 May 2008, 2:31 pm

2ukenkerl wrote:
It is probably true of a lot of western europe and, to a lesser degree, eastern europe, but certainly NOT of india, china, japan, etc...


True. French-Canadians have really wonky English, too :oops:

2ukenkerl wrote:
I think he means because you learned to speak another language, and then may try to speak english according to rules, etc...


Yes.



SabbraCadabra
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15 May 2008, 2:34 pm

craola wrote:
...double negatives and things like 'baby lambs' which doesn't make sense.


I always take advantage of idiosyncrasies like that for the purpose of humor :oops:

One of my favorites has always been a quote from National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1: "Alone and by myself." ;D

Or things like WCW wrestling (World Championship Wrestling wrestling) or ATM machine (automatic tellar machine machine).

PIN number :roll:



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15 May 2008, 2:59 pm

slowmutant wrote:
Have you ever had someone whom you like & respect speak poor English? I have, and I do. It's a brain-squeezer to hear an successful, intelligent, supposedly well-educated person say things like, "Youse guys," "Go to the libary," and my favourite,

"You're not doing too shithawk, are ya?"

You just have to accept other people's quirks. Kind of like how we insist that they accept ours.


I have I bad habit of saying "I got something" from my parents, it should be I have something. :x


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Odin
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15 May 2008, 3:07 pm

SabbraCadabra wrote:

I tend to find that people who are not native speakers often have better English than natives.


That's probably because people learning English learn the standard grammar while people who grow up speaking English pick up the grammar of the non-standard dialect of the place they live before they start learning the standard grammar in school.


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PixieBoo
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15 May 2008, 3:26 pm

:) It depends on the situation


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15 May 2008, 4:27 pm

I can't tell you how many times several individuals torment me based on the proper and correct use of grammar as, seen through my posts,emails, etc.. I really try my utmost best when composing things to come across clearly in what the meaning of my writings are without causing confusion due to mis-spellings or other verbal wrongs. Simply put, I'm not great at writing things these days nor probably have unless your taking in some people from various web portals whom for reasons beyond my logic think I should be a poet or such. I conclusion of this post may it be known that as long as people try to make themselves understand and known is what really counts...

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tharn
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15 May 2008, 4:45 pm

I admit that poor grammar does drive me up a wall. However, when I hear it, I remind myself that someone may be speaking English as a second language, or has a learning problem, or just had bad teachers in school. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt.

I've also found that non-native speakers of languages tend to use better grammar. That's not to say they have a better command of the language; It's much harder to master the subtleties of butchering a language, than to learn the basic structure. I was often told often in my Russian courses, that a Russian could easily identify a foreigner, because they spoke proper Russian.

When someone online consistantly omits punctuation and capitalization, or writes as though they're text messaging their girlfriend, I usually ignore them. If someone doesn't care enough about what they're saying to communicate clearly, I assume they don't have anything of value to say. This doesn't include deliberate corruptions for the sake of humor (I can haz cheezeburger?).



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15 May 2008, 4:59 pm

I do not get annoyed by 'bad grammar,' whatever that is meant to be. It's human nature to criticise other people for their 'sloppy' or 'lazy' use of language, but we never bother to look at our own. Besides, the main purpose of language is to communicate effectively with other people. I am not condoning wholesale usage of non-standard words or grammar at all times, but understanding what the other person is saying is the crucial thing, not the intricate workings of their way of speaking or writing.

I for one am discouraged by the growth of 'Grammar Nazis' on the Internet. I am also appalled by the claims that non-native speakers can speak 'better' English than native speakers. I have no doubt that many non-native speakers can speak English fluently, but learners of a second language are usually taught a style of language that nobody really uses. Nobody speaks pure Standard English, and they shouldn't have to. Standard English is an artificial concept which is meant to be a middle ground for all speakers, but the dialect of none.

Nobody really talks in leet-speak or txt tlk so any fears that the English Language is going to the dogs are completely unfounded. Hell, the Romans abbreviated when they wrote graffiti, and that's not what killed the Latin language. :P

Odin wrote:
when someone does this they should...


The problem is, it's hard to write some sentences in a way that makes them gender-neutral. They is becoming a singular pronoun in some contexts because it avoids the clumsy sounding 'he or she.' English has no gender-neutral singular pronoun, so I don't see any alternative other than using singular 'they' in some instances.

/end controversial post.


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15 May 2008, 7:13 pm

Odin wrote:
darkstone100 wrote:
I don't like the word y'all, its annoying becuase southern people use it as a cure all for the different form of "you", then they change that into, y'allses, all y'all.


I've read that "Y'all" may be evidence that the 2nd Person Pronoun ("you") is splitting into singular and plural forms, with "you" being used when addressing a single person and "y'all" being used when addressing two or more people.

This also existed in Medieval English, "thou" was singular and "you" was plural

if it's used correctly it doesn't bother me that much, but they use y'all for, a single person and groups of people at the same time.


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