I'm not a grammar Nazi, but...

[shrekfan246]

I agree completely. Is't jsut plane rydikuloos.

Ridiculous is a ridiculous word. Every single time I type that word I have to stop and think about how it is spelled. For some god forsaken reason, every time I go to type ridiculous - I want to type rediculous. I think it has to do with people putting emphasis on the "ri" to make it sound like "reeee" all the time.

Eugh, really? I've always pronounced it with the "ri-" sound.

OT: I tend to not put any effort into correcting people anymore. It's not worth it, it makes you seem like a douche and honestly most of the time people don't get any better.

I've been tempered by growing up around plenty of people who don't care about spelling and grammar, though. It annoys me when the simple things get screwed up; "Then/Than", "Their/There/They're", "Your/You're", "It's/Its", and by this point I don't know if people know what "I could care less" means or not, but none of it is really bad enough to get me worked up and raging at people.

I make plenty of simple grammatical errors myself when it comes to posting in forums. Typically, I type in a fashion more akin to actual spoken dialogue so I'll over-use commas, have nasty run-on sentences, and I do occasionally end sentences with prepositions. Of course, there is nothing actually prohibiting ending a sentence in a preposition so I don't understand why we are taught that.

 

[bluepilot]

I am really really bad at spelling so I cannot really comment.


I studies Japanese as a second language and I got on really well because Japanese has no spelling (yay). However, currently I am learning German but I am really struggling with the spelling.

I find that a lot of people tend to miss out the small function words needed for grammar. But I guess that a lot of people these days are in the habit of listening to music and typing on the same time. So small mistakes are to be expected.

 

[Phantomess]

"I could care less..."

That means that you do care, at least a little bit. It's not what you think it means. One dude tried to justify it by saying that although the British say "couldn't" and the Americans say "could", it means the same thing. I don't think he's ever heard the word "opposite".

Ah, David Mitchell. How I love your ranting...

Definitely.

It's not definately. It's not definatly. And HELL FUCKING NO, it is SO NOT 'DEFIANTLY'.

I'll leave you with a quote that does not reflect my views or opinions- "If you spell 'definitely' with an 'a', you're definitely an asshole."

Also, this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.302051-ITT-a-Grammar-Nazi-on-common-grammar-mistakes] and this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.303246-ITT-a-Grammar-Nazi-on-MORE-grammar-mistakes].

In primary school, they taught us to remember it by defi-nite-ly and defin-daily. Nite and Day. Always stuck in my head, for some reason.

 

[Polarity27]

"I'm so afraid I'm going to loose him, I can't breath! It really makes me made! I'm just going to go to my alter and pray to my diety that it doesn't happen! But I promise I'll be discrete about it."

That covers most of the ones that drive me batty. The lose/loose one especially, it's so common now that if I see it written correctly I'm actually surprised. And mad/made... it's THREE LETTERS, people! How do you fuck up a three-letter word?

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

It does irk me sometimes. The forum has spell check. Use it. "Your" where it should be "you are" or "you're" is my pet peeve.

 

[Polarity27]

"I could care less..."

That means that you do care, at least a little bit. It's not what you think it means. One dude tried to justify it by saying that although the British say "couldn't" and the Americans say "could", it means the same thing. I don't think he's ever heard the word "opposite".

No, I think he's actually right. Or at least, he was. "Could care less" is a spoken colloquialism where the "n't" is elided. My guess is that over the years, the spoken expression just slid the letters together until they weren't heard at all, and people wrote it as they heard it. There are a couple of these where I think the sound changed over time as a spoken expression and it turned into a different written expression. "If you think that, you have another think/thing coming" is another one.

 

[maxmanrules]

I AM a person who takes grammar seriously.
Screw the Nazi part

 

[PeePantz]

Definitely.

It's not definately. It's not definatly. And HELL FUCKING NO, it is SO NOT 'DEFIANTLY'.

I'll leave you with a quote that does not reflect my views or opinions- "If you spell 'definitely' with an 'a', you're definitely an asshole."

Also, this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.302051-ITT-a-Grammar-Nazi-on-common-grammar-mistakes] and this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.303246-ITT-a-Grammar-Nazi-on-MORE-grammar-mistakes].

Definitely is my writing kryptonite. I always want to write "defiantly" even though I know damn well that it's incorrect.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

"I could care less..."

That means that you do care, at least a little bit. It's not what you think it means. One dude tried to justify it by saying that although the British say "couldn't" and the Americans say "could", it means the same thing. I don't think he's ever heard the word "opposite".

i think you like David Mitchell...

OT: i get a bit annoyed at america using so much z, not s. simply because i get the red squiggly for organise.

i also hate dropped letters, such as a sad amount of youtube comments

I once heard a good and wise man say "Nothing said before the word 'but' really counts."

but what if youre writing an essay, or in a discussion?

 

[GeorgW]

I'm not a native English speaker and I find that I can spell better than approximately 90% of the US population. That's not an assumption based on the Internet, that would be around 99%.
Your/you're and their/there/they're are the worst. Schoolchildren should know that!

 

[Astoria]

It would be hypocritical of me if it bothered me because I'm awful with spelling and grammar. What does annoy me though are the idiots on facebook that have statuses like 'atual soooo anoyed'. There are A LOT of them.

 

[lionsprey]

The constant abuse of your and you're and when people confuse the words newb and noob with each other. The misuse of the word irony irritates me a bit but not nearly enough as the previous example.

 

[Avistew]

The mistakes that annoy me the most are those that prevent me from understanding a sentence, because English isn't my first language.

Some examples I can remember:

"So she gave the gift to my brother and I." (And you what? What did you do? Is your sentence over? Why did you finish a sentence with a subject? What is that supposed to mean?)
Took me a while and a lot of people making that mistake before I understood that they used "I" instead of "me".

"I didn't do nothing" "Oh, so what did you do?" "I told you. Nothing." "What? No, you said you did NOT do nothing." "That's the same thing!"
Seriously, how can anyone think that saying something and its opposite are actually the same thing? This one confused me a lot. It still does do the extent that I never know which the person meant when they used a double negative.

Otherwise, spelling-wise I get annoyed when people misspell rouge and rogue because it makes me want to explain the rules of French pronunciation to them and how these two words are spelt very logically for the way they're pronounced. Other mistakes that involve misspelling French that come from French are similar. I don't get annoyed with the person, just frustrated that if I tried to explain the rules to them, they probably wouldn't care.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

two to too
they're there there
where were we're
i think i've made myself clear
i do miss the spell check on firefox

 

[Buzz Killington_v1legacy]

What drives me insane is people using "where" when they mean "were". They're not even the same damned part of speech--how is it possible to confuse them?

 

[Ruwrak]

Yes, sadly not everyone has the best english education there is on this planet. [/sarcasm]

Anyway... You have to understand that for foreigners (like myself) it can be quite puzzeling. To you it might come natural to know the difference between wich, which, witch, whitch etc (yes I am aware that they are not spelled correctly, it's on purpose.), but the average person with mediocre english lessons might not.

It's the same as someone raving on about the pronounciation on wether it's the or tha.
Also, captcha agrees: "Some IdealP"

 

[thelastone]

I am a total grammar nazi but I understand that it isn't a strength for some people. I'm not usually too bothered if things are incorrect in an informal context like a friendly email, an internet forum or a text. That isn't to say that I don't notice the mistakes and wince a little.

When things on a professional level are incorrect, however, it drives me nuts! Signage, articles, official paperwork... I cannot handle it! If the manager in the store I work in makes a mistake on an internal document or sign, I don't mind too much. But if something is wrong in a sign displayed to the public, it grinds my teeth.
Luckily, this doesn't usually happen - my manager is aware that spelling and grammar are not her strengths so she gets the rest of us to proof-read anything that is going public.
My main problem is with colleagues of mine who are terrible spellers and refuse to swallow their pride and let me proof-read!

Also, there's a macadamia bar sold in Australia that looks absolutely delicious, but I can't bring myself to eat them as it incorrectly says "Macadamia's" on the wrapper.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Yes I'm one of those people with spelling and gammer errors so sue me! Seriously yes I'm sorry for making those errors in my past, present and future posts (I took English again to improve my grade). While I do check my spelling with Word doc but I'm fully aware it's not that reliable and sometime I'm too lazy to check (usually during night time).
At least I try to get my opinions across that topic and I feel my spelling shouldn't be that much of a problem to hinder my opinons.

 

[gritch]

Here's an idea you might find radical to say the least:

How intelligent and rational a person truly is, ISN'T determined by their willingness or ability to always use proper spelling and grammar at all times.

A persons intelligence and ability of rational thinking is best seen through how they reason, argue and meet the arguments coming from others, in a conversation (written or verbal, doesn't matter).

So what is all of this with the supposed "importance" of correct spelling an use of grammar? It's just etiquette, and that's all there is to it. It's about as important as knowing what fork to use at a high-class restaurant, in order to eat the food brought in (i.e not very important at all really).

And you know what? I for one don't really care much for people who are actually trying to judge my or anyone elses intelligence based purely on matters of etiquette. In fact, the very action of doing so just proves that their own intelligence is quite dubious and thus they invalidate themselves as useful parties of an intelligent conversation, since they are completely irrational by thinking that they could ever judge someone elses intellect through something so trivial.

And you would like to assume that etiquette plays absolutely no role in human interaction? I agree, in an ideal world things such as spelling and grammar shouldn't matter in the least so long as the person can convey their point.

The problem is we don't live in this ideal world. Society has expectations and proper spelling is one of them. For society it's not always important if someone can understand you but rather how you present your thoughts. Judging someone based on their spelling is natural and it's not likely to change no matter how desperately you want it to do so. It may not be ideal but it is what it is.

But I can understand your aversion toward spelling - I myself can't spell worth shit (and a speech impediment at an earlier age has left me still unable to pronounce several words). If one were to look at handwritten pieces I've written one would undoubtedly run across many spelling errors. But given the time I proofread, I check for mistakes I might have made. I take it as a courtesy to those who would read my writings.

When one comes across a forum post or something of the like lousy with grammar/spelling errors I can't help but get a tad bit upset. I can forgive a mistake or two but when one repeatly makes mistakes it comes off as lazy, as if they couldn't even bother to proofread it.

 

[Random Encounter]

I'm sure this has been said but people who say "I could care less" instead of I could care less. Also don't say it's meant to be sarcasm, it's not, it's just wrong.