I've eased off from my older grammar nazi ways. I've taken a step back and no longer go out of my way to correct people and all in all wave around my internet-only elitist narcissism in their face.
However, it still makes me twitch a bit every time I see something terribly misspelled not because they made a typo, but because they honestly don't know how to spell it but try anyway.
The worst is when people use "of" instead of "have". It just...ugh. It makes my brain contort in uncomfortable ways because I have to go back and say it aloud in my head because I just can't wrap my mind around it.
"could of", "should of", "would of", etc -> NOT correct.
...could HAVE...
...should HAVE...
...would HAVE...
etc...
could've should've would've etc...
I don't know why, but this one error disproportionately bugs me more than any other. Please stop, guys. If your location says United States, or any other country with English as its native common language there's really just no excuse. Stop warping my brain in uncomfortable ways.
What's really interesting here is that "grammar nazi" is a term that vilifies the actual proper use of English while maintaining that it's perfectly okay for people to not write/speak the language correctly. Talk about the decline of civilization.
Anyways, I think your making a good point. I get pissed off about these things to. Although, I could of sworn their was a thread about this not to long ago.
On June 11 2011 15:49 Dalguno wrote: I'm a closet grammar Nazi and I support this message.
Me too.
too= in addition to, also to= preposition 'I want to go to!'
Your= possession You're= You are 'Your my favorite person in the world!'
Their= possession They're= They are There= adverb (or whatever part of speech it is) 'I wish I was on there team!'
These are the most obvious ones and the most commonly butchered (but in general people have absolutely atrocious grammar). Every time I see someone with 'United States' (or Australia, or the UK) for their location who misuses these I hang my head and weep for the decline of humanity into a savage and barbaric people who don't know the proper usage of third grade grammar. And the thing is, I know a lot of these people are in colleges or universities. . .
But then again people who couldn't be taught in school aren't going to change their ways because I made a post on TL
On June 11 2011 15:49 Dalguno wrote: I'm a closet grammar Nazi and I support this message.
Me too.
too= in addition to, also to= preposition 'I want to go to!'
Your= possession You're= You are 'Your my favorite person in the world!'
Their= possession They're= They are There= adverb (or whatever part of speech it is) 'I wish I was on there team!'
These are the most obvious ones and the most commonly butchered (but in general people have absolutely atrocious grammar). Every time I see someone with 'United States' (or Australia, or the UK) for their location who misuses these I hang my head and weep for the decline of humanity into a savage and barbaric people who don't know the proper usage of third grade grammar. And the thing is, I know a lot of these people are in colleges or universities. . .
But then again people who couldn't be taught in school aren't going to change their ways because I made a post on TL
Worst one I've ever seen, while texting my friend. He says:
The one that irks me to no end is "alot". I had a teach who drilled it into us that "A Lot is 2 words, it is always 2 words, it is never 1 word. A Lot - 2 Words!"
On June 11 2011 16:19 TheAmazombie wrote: The one that irks me to no end is "alot". I had a teach who drilled it into us that "A Lot is 2 words, it is always 2 words, it is never 1 word. A Lot - 2 Words!"
Yeah I do that alot (lol), and then I see the red squiggly line and I have to go back and add a space in between a and lot.
On June 11 2011 16:28 Barrin wrote: You could of just posted this in one of the other grammar nazi threads. Anyways, these kinds of things bother me to. Though, there not necessarily bad persay. Bare in mind that not everyone's first language is English, though it is for alot of us. Your the one who brought this up, but will talk about this more if you want.
The could of should of bullcrap gets to me as well. Most other common misspellings/grammatical errors I find acceptable in informal internet-speak. I don't get on anyone's case for saying "alot" instead of "a lot", obviously.
Confusing "their" with "there" can be annoying too, especially if it occurs multiple times in the same paragraph. Hmm, it seems as long as it doesn't look awfully and outright wrong I'm fine with it.
On June 11 2011 21:10 deathly rat wrote: How do grammar Nazis feel when they (inevitably) make mistakes themselves?
Oh look, I made a mistake, better fix it.
lol what sort of attitude is that? "Hey teacher, why are you here when you make mistakes? Get out, you obviously shouldn't be teaching".
I prefer my own mistakes, honestly. I can edit my posts and fix them. Frequently, if I'm not sure if I got something right while typing, I'll go back and look at it two or three times, and if I figure it out, I fix it.
That being said, sometimes I'm less worried about grammar than technical accuracy. If I'm discussing computer stuff, I'm much more concerned about my facts than spelling or syntax. I feel way worse getting that stuff wrong, too.
It's a big job, but somebody must correct every single spelling and grammar error on the internet—including YouTube comments.
Seriously, I don't know what you grammar Nazis are thinking. Unless the meaning is unclear or you've been asked to edit, don't bring it up because chances are there's about a thousand errors you make that only writers could correct (but won't, because that's why they're fucking writers: they're better than you at writing). For example, you don't seem to know how commas, ellipses, colons or quotations marks work, especially when they're very close to each other. Which is fine because it's a forum post, not a formal essay. I rarely use proper grammar on forum posts and emails too.
I feel like grammar Nazis always end up being people who learned one or two words that they commonly misspelled as a child, but don't actually know that much about English. As someone whose passion is writing, I've learned that spelling and grammar are very rarely the crux of communication (which is what language is for).
My biggest pet peeve by far is when people use the phrase "I could care less". That doesn't make any sense. Just a tiny bit of thinking about it makes it clear that the correct phrase is "I couldn't care less". I don't know why, but that one always gets under my skin.
All of the misspellings and incorrect word choices annoy me slightly and usually affect the way I think about the author, but none of them annoy me as much as misused idioms.
On June 12 2011 00:47 Torte de Lini wrote: I hate acronyms more than typos.
I can't stand when half of the sentence is a fucking acronym.
Example below: OMG, I cba tbh. Talk to me tomorrow, I have Chemistry iirc.
Why do I have to remember 4 acronyms to understand what you are saying .________.
So things like FBI and ASAP bother you too? That's really weird. Or do you make a distinction between 'lol, omg etc' and things you say out loud? If you read a book and it goes beyond your vocabulary, does that upset you too? Do synonyms upset you? I don't understand if its the redundancy (ironic) that bothers you, or if you just spite language that evolved because of the internet? Either way it sounds really anal. If someone on MSN got upset at me for using 'lol' or 'omg' I'd probably just stop talking to them.
On June 11 2011 16:28 Barrin wrote: You could of just posted this in one of the other grammar nazi threads. Anyways, these kinds of things bother me to. Though, there not necessarily bad persay. Bare in mind that not everyone's first language is English, though it is for alot of us. Your the one who brought this up, but will talk about this more if you want.
On June 12 2011 00:47 Torte de Lini wrote: I hate acronyms more than typos.
I can't stand when half of the sentence is a fucking acronym.
Example below: OMG, I cba tbh. Talk to me tomorrow, I have Chemistry iirc.
Why do I have to remember 4 acronyms to understand what you are saying .________.
So things like FBI and ASAP bother you too? That's really weird. Or do you make a distinction between 'lol, omg etc' and things you say out loud? If you read a book and it goes beyond your vocabulary, does that upset you too? Do synonyms upset you? I don't understand if its the redundancy (ironic) that bothers you, or if you just spite language that evolved because of the internet? Either way it sounds really anal. If someone on MSN got upset at me for using 'lol' or 'omg' I'd probably just stop talking to them.
They all bother me to a degree, I'm not going to lie. It's understandable for widely used acronyms such as FBI or NASA.
But the slang of the internet where everything has to be shortened or pinned to 3 to 5 letters bothers me.
If you want to exaggerate and stretch this idea to vocabulary words and synonyms, you go ahead and do that. I didn't say it, so I won't enable the idea that it is valid.
Personally, I hate the use of "I could give a damn" instead of "I couldn't give a damn". It isn't so hard to think about it for a little bit and realise that you're saying the opposite of what you mean, is it?
On June 11 2011 16:28 Barrin wrote: You could of just posted this in one of the other grammar nazi threads. Anyways, these kinds of things bother me to. Though, there not necessarily bad persay. Bare in mind that not everyone's first language is English, though it is for alot of us. Your the one who brought this up, but will talk about this more if you want.
There are 9 grammatical errors in the paragraph above. Can you find them?!+ Show Spoiler +
Please don't hurt me I swear I'm not trolling and that this is just training for people who struggle with these kinds of things themselves!
I found ten.
Wait, what's wrong with "kinds?"
I couldn't agree more with Chef here. I have a hard time understanding why people are bothered by common sarcastic phrases like "I could care less" or "I could give a damn." For their own interest I usually hope that people know the differences between "your" and "you're" or that "would of" is incorrect. But being annoyed by acronyms and commonly used sarcasms? Haha come on now.
On June 12 2011 00:47 Torte de Lini wrote: I hate acronyms more than typos.
I can't stand when half of the sentence is a fucking acronym.
Example below: OMG, I cba tbh. Talk to me tomorrow, I have Chemistry iirc.
Why do I have to remember 4 acronyms to understand what you are saying .________.
So things like FBI and ASAP bother you too? That's really weird. Or do you make a distinction between 'lol, omg etc' and things you say out loud? If you read a book and it goes beyond your vocabulary, does that upset you too? Do synonyms upset you? I don't understand if its the redundancy (ironic) that bothers you, or if you just spite language that evolved because of the internet? Either way it sounds really anal. If someone on MSN got upset at me for using 'lol' or 'omg' I'd probably just stop talking to them.
They all bother me to a degree, I'm not going to lie. It's understandable for widely used acronyms such as FBI or NASA.
But the slang of the internet where everything has to be shortened or pinned to 3 to 5 letters bothers me.
If you want to exaggerate and stretch this idea to vocabulary words and synonyms, you go ahead and do that. I didn't say it, so I won't enable the idea that it is valid.
You don't think 'lol' and 'omg' are widely used? Your argument doesn't make sense. Are you just a non-conformist?
funny thing about "could of" is that it's a mistake strictly made by native-speakers.
that being said tho, as long as the meaning you're trying to convey is conveyed, I don't see the problem, especially on the internet. if it's an academic paper or if you're paid to write, then you should write well, but participating on forums or writing on msn or writing in games is almost more like oral communication than about writing - and oral communication is constantly riddled with grammatical fuckups and words that serve no purpose.
On June 12 2011 04:41 Welmu wrote: Yeah that misspelling thing is very terrible. Its like seeing people write "g" instead of "gg". They could of stop doing that >_>
The "g" key on my keyboard is kinda dodgy so often when I press it twice quickly, it only inputs it once.
The one that pisses me off most is people writing 'then' instead of 'than', I just can't fathom how anyone could make such a mistake =/ (well I guess it's understandable for non-native English speakers but for anyone who's first language IS English then they should NOT be making this awful mistake)
I agree with the 'would of' thing as well, it's because it sounds very similar to 'would've' -_-
The problem with your approach is that basically you're defending something from being "desecrated", while very often it's only there, because someone took their time and effort to desecrate it's predecessor in the past. I guess it's how school and parents taught us to think about our languages. It's a bad attitude IMO. You better get used to the fact that languages evolve. You can't stop it anywayS.
On June 12 2011 00:47 Torte de Lini wrote: I hate acronyms more than typos.
I can't stand when half of the sentence is a fucking acronym.
Example below: OMG, I cba tbh. Talk to me tomorrow, I have Chemistry iirc.
Why do I have to remember 4 acronyms to understand what you are saying .________.
So things like FBI and ASAP bother you too? That's really weird. Or do you make a distinction between 'lol, omg etc' and things you say out loud? If you read a book and it goes beyond your vocabulary, does that upset you too? Do synonyms upset you? I don't understand if its the redundancy (ironic) that bothers you, or if you just spite language that evolved because of the internet? Either way it sounds really anal. If someone on MSN got upset at me for using 'lol' or 'omg' I'd probably just stop talking to them.
They all bother me to a degree, I'm not going to lie. It's understandable for widely used acronyms such as FBI or NASA.
But the slang of the internet where everything has to be shortened or pinned to 3 to 5 letters bothers me.
If you want to exaggerate and stretch this idea to vocabulary words and synonyms, you go ahead and do that. I didn't say it, so I won't enable the idea that it is valid.
You don't think 'lol' and 'omg' are widely used? Your argument doesn't make sense. Are you just a non-conformist?
It's not an argument. It's my feelings and views.
No, I don't mind OMG and LOL, but couple that with everything else in there and it becomes overwhelming tiresome and annoying for me.
What do you want me to say? That I'm illogically bothered by something? Okay, then what?
I have always been curious about the level of annoyance by these things on the internet. People don't seem to mind imperfect English if it is being spoken. I see plenty of people who are "grammar Nazis" on the internet, but who rarely if ever say anything IRL to people about it.
The funny thing about "should've", "could've", etc. is that "should uv" is actually more accurate... Still wrong, but it's phonetically replicating "should've." At least that's just my opinion.
On June 12 2011 00:47 Torte de Lini wrote: I hate acronyms more than typos.
I can't stand when half of the sentence is a fucking acronym.
Example below: OMG, I cba tbh. Talk to me tomorrow, I have Chemistry iirc.
Why do I have to remember 4 acronyms to understand what you are saying .________.
So things like FBI and ASAP bother you too? That's really weird. Or do you make a distinction between 'lol, omg etc' and things you say out loud? If you read a book and it goes beyond your vocabulary, does that upset you too? Do synonyms upset you? I don't understand if its the redundancy (ironic) that bothers you, or if you just spite language that evolved because of the internet? Either way it sounds really anal. If someone on MSN got upset at me for using 'lol' or 'omg' I'd probably just stop talking to them.
They all bother me to a degree, I'm not going to lie. It's understandable for widely used acronyms such as FBI or NASA.
But the slang of the internet where everything has to be shortened or pinned to 3 to 5 letters bothers me.
If you want to exaggerate and stretch this idea to vocabulary words and synonyms, you go ahead and do that. I didn't say it, so I won't enable the idea that it is valid.
You don't think 'lol' and 'omg' are widely used? Your argument doesn't make sense. Are you just a non-conformist?
It's not an argument. It's my feelings and views.
No, I don't mind OMG and LOL, but couple that with everything else in there and it becomes overwhelming tiresome and annoying for me.
What do you want me to say? That I'm illogically bothered by something? Okay, then what?
The less you understand your own feelings, the less you are able 'to improve.' There is always a reason. Some people pay psychiatrists to discover that reason, but you asked Mr. Chef. I am blunt and unclear. I am firmly uninformative. I am politely rude. I am a clixby.
On June 12 2011 00:47 Torte de Lini wrote: I hate acronyms more than typos.
I can't stand when half of the sentence is a fucking acronym.
Example below: OMG, I cba tbh. Talk to me tomorrow, I have Chemistry iirc.
Why do I have to remember 4 acronyms to understand what you are saying .________.
So things like FBI and ASAP bother you too? That's really weird. Or do you make a distinction between 'lol, omg etc' and things you say out loud? If you read a book and it goes beyond your vocabulary, does that upset you too? Do synonyms upset you? I don't understand if its the redundancy (ironic) that bothers you, or if you just spite language that evolved because of the internet? Either way it sounds really anal. If someone on MSN got upset at me for using 'lol' or 'omg' I'd probably just stop talking to them.
They all bother me to a degree, I'm not going to lie. It's understandable for widely used acronyms such as FBI or NASA.
But the slang of the internet where everything has to be shortened or pinned to 3 to 5 letters bothers me.
If you want to exaggerate and stretch this idea to vocabulary words and synonyms, you go ahead and do that. I didn't say it, so I won't enable the idea that it is valid.
You don't think 'lol' and 'omg' are widely used? Your argument doesn't make sense. Are you just a non-conformist?
It's not an argument. It's my feelings and views.
No, I don't mind OMG and LOL, but couple that with everything else in there and it becomes overwhelming tiresome and annoying for me.
What do you want me to say? That I'm illogically bothered by something? Okay, then what?
The less you understand your own feelings, the less you are able 'to improve.' There is always a reason. Some people pay psychiatrists to discover that reason, but you asked Mr. Chef. I am blunt and unclear. I am firmly uninformative. I am politely rude. I am a clixby.
On June 12 2011 05:48 Rekrul wrote: or maybe you'd realize that language is fluid and technicality isn't what matters and you wouldn't have to make this blog
Sure, but it still bugs me. Besides, I really don't think I'm that much worse off after having spent only a couple minutes to type out what is really a short and ultimately inconsequential blog.
When it all comes down to it, in the end I think "Grammar Nazi" is a term used to define self-centered egoistic people who correct grammar publicly, not motivated by the will to help another person, nor simply the fact that the incorrect grammar annoys them, but due to the satisfaction they get when they can prove to the world they were able to identify someone else's flaw, and are therefore better than that person
alot of people around here frequently confuse 'did' and 'done' and it pisses me off to no end!
"he done it" i can never help myself, always have to interupt and correct it.. he didnt fucking 'done' anything.. he fucking HAS done it.. he DID it.. to me they really sound like a 3 year old when they say it, and i can never get over the fact that people try to argue that the correct way sounds 'dumb'..
Color. It's not your language stop simplifying our words!
I'm not really a spelling or a grammar Nazi, mostly because my grammar is far from perfect, and people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
My real spelling related pet peeve is people that shorten words when they're not texting, if the time I spend trying to read what you've typed is longer than the time you've saved then you should probably stop shortening words and learn to touch type.
Also people who type u2 when I glhf. I've forgotten what subjects I'm ranting about now, but I'm saving the world from these u2 people 1 proxy rax at a time and I encourage you all to do the same. With enough negative reinforcement we can fix these people.