Is anyone bothered by people using bad grammar?

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I used to not mind people using bad grammar because it didn't bother me. I started hearing it a lot when we first moved to Montana. Lot of people there used bad grammar so I started to think the grammar had changed but my mother told me the grammar rules have not changed. She told me just because they are speaking it doesn't mean I should too.


Well my boyfriend uses bad grammar because he was never taught it in school because he was in special ed and the fact his parents also use bad grammar so they never taught him to use correct grammar. Lately I have been bothered by him using poor grammar. He is talking like a Montanian and I certainly don't want to have a child and have him or her learn bad grammar too. So I have been a grammar nazi lately. He says it bugs him sometimes but I told him the only way to get rid of them is to start using correct grammar and he laughed. I said, "I'm serious."

HEY, WAY TO GO Spokane girl! YEP! In fact, I've been looking at a few problems I have, though I speak better than most. But it REALLY bugs me when I hear such bad grammar.

It bothers me to hear it, but I've learned not to say anything. Sometimes I still do, with people I know.
It really bothers me to read it, though. It's like at least speech isn't permanent, but if it's written down, it has to be written down correctly. I'll change it in something I'm reading.

I've been feeling like a grammar Nazi, myself. I know that I've got to stop.

Somewhat. But I'm a lot more pissed when the content sucks.

Everyone makes mistakes.
A certain leeway is understandable.

But I will generally draw the line at about two typos in a sentence, assuming there isn't a whole paragraph full of them (sentences with at least two typos each).
I am mercilessly critical of anyone who overuses internet abbreviations likewise. I got booted from a Guild on Guild Wars soley for getting in an argument over someone saying "lol" at me.

Generally speaking though, those who can't take the minimal effort required to speak and type correctly, are either exceptionally lazy or exceptionally stupid. Either way, they are beneath any need for respect and to be treated merely as unpleasant obstructions.

Yeah, I'm a grammar nazi. I have been one since I was about six. I'm not too bad in this kind of setting, with a lot of people using the written word, but with spoken English I'm terrible. I will correct the grammar of anyone who is speaking to me, regardless of who they are. I just feel awful if I don't - it really gets to me. I also loathe text message English - if it is worth saying, it is worth using all the letters in the word.

No.

My main issue is the slang that the typical person under the age of 30, seem to use. I am not any body's homey, and I can't stand the way that homeys dress, in their baggy clothes and their baseball caps, and my personal opinion is that they're a lot worse than hippies. In fact, is makes me appreciate the Flower Children. I don't get the slang of today's mainstream youth. I also can't understand why typical youth have to change their speaking style, as society and trends change, instead of just talking to the written word. By talking to the written word, I mean speaking in the context that books and magazines are written. I enjoy listening to different regional accents that are real, but not the Valley Girl one which is phony. A Texas drawl would be a true speech pattern, the Valley Girl dialect sounds phony to me.

Last edited by CockneyRebel on 15 May 2008, 8:28 am, edited 2 times in total.

It's nice that I like accents, because I have one.

I admit I get the opposite mostly.

People typing things incorrectly gets on my nerves, but they can vocalise it pretty much however they like... provided it isn't the american way.
As such, I tend to alter the way I speak from one moment to the next through any number of variables, regularly switching between accents, slang or non-slang, Victorian or Elizabethan English... BUT I'll always type exactly the same way: Mostly accurate, but with an overabundance of dots.

I'm a big grammar Nazi. When somebody says something grammatically incorrect like "we was doing that" or "I'll borrow you some money" or "when someone does this they should..." it is just painful on the ears. The correct grammar would be "we were doing that," (correct grammatical tense) "I'll lend you some money," (you borrow FROM someone and lend TO someone) and "when someone does this he or she should..." ("They" and "their" are plural and should never be used as singular pronouns).

Make no mistake, I'm not some English language puritan, I have no problem with someone using either "got" (like they do in the UK) or "gotten" (a more archaic usage preserved in US English), for example. My main concern is clarity, mixing up tenses and mixing up singular and plural forms of words is distracting and hard on the ears.

The most common thing I hear from my boyfriend is, "It don't work like that." "It don't work." last night, he said, "I'm cooking me some breakfast." He uses other bad grammar I can't think of right now.

Oh yeah, a few days ago I picked up the suspenders I gave him from work that was from lost and found asking him about them because he has never worn them yet and he said "One of the straps don't work."

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 say things like that sometimes, but I'm usually putting on an accent at the time... as though doing an impersonation of someone indeterminate.

You'd hate me when I speak Lolcat though. ^_^
I do that quite often... with intermittant meowing.

I have a very obvious Upper-Midwestern accent.


My long Os are rounded (Minne-SOH-ta)

when A is before a G (as in flag or bag) it sounds like the AY sound in bay or ray not the A as it bat. This is called the Flag-Plague merger, in my accent flag and plague rhyme.

Merry, marry, and Mary sound exactly the same.

"Root" rhymes with "boot."

Cot and Caught sound the same.

I often use the Scandinavian "Ya" instead of "yeah."

I use the Canadian "eh" on the end of sentences.

I have a mild degree of Canadian Raising