Does bad grammar and spelling annoy you? Why or why not?

[best poni 1,518]

Yes. It makes me cringe more than I did when I saw A Banner Day 

[Ponyboat 62]

Semicolons are for winking right? As long as it shows you put in effort and I can communicate with you I'm cool. If someone says "your dumb" I say "my dumb what?" I am bad about punctuation but I try my best to spell correctly and use good sentence structure.

Also ponies may dislike text talk but back in my day we didn't have voice chat in games. You stood still to type so you needed to use shorthand. Haters hate.

[Justin_Case001 4,882]

Not if it's just a joke or slang, but it annoys me if I can't understand what a person is trying to convey.  It definitely frustrates me to no end when a professional in a customer service position can't communicate effectively.  I just got an email from a tech support person I've dealing with, and I could barely decipher it.  F*ckin outsourced call centers.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

Grammar has always been a stickler for me...I really dislike it when people have bad grammar...

[-Octavia- 1,176]

I have always prided myself on my predilection for proper speech, but that does not mean that I should hold others to the same standard. It can become rather difficult if the grammar is particularly errant, for one then must translate the sentence that is purportedly in the same language. Even in such an instance, however, I would not deign to classify it as annoying unless one is purposefully doing it "for teh lulz."

[Odyssey 5,716]

Yes, but only to a degree. If I see somebody who writes like this "lol u r 2 mad 2 be kewl", then that annoys the heck out of me. But if it's somebody who is just bad at grammar, than I don't see much point in calling them out for how bad their English is. Either they didn't get the amount of research in their English classes or that their native language isn't English. I know I'm not great at grammar either.

[GuyNamedEarl 1,332]

When I see it in a text, fair enough, the keyboard is small and it's easier to abbreviate. But when it's typed on paper or written, it aggravates me to no end because it's just pure laziness.

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

Not really, I sometimes speak incorrectly myself.

[LostButterflyUtau 780]

It depends. If English is not the person's first language, then I don't bother. Because even though I grew up with it, even I know that English is a VERY hard language to grasp. However, these people, from what I see, DO try their best. And use real words. 

 

However, if you are a person above a certain age who simply cannot use proper words/grammar I do get a little ticked. We ALL went to primary school and were taught "you/you're, their/there/they're, and to/too/two." A typo here and there is no big deal, but when the post/text is littered with abbreviations and things like "Ur" and "2" as words, it drives me up the wall and into the next dimension.

 

But, I don't police people on it either unless there's a VERY good reason for it. Like, if they want to debate and I can't take them seriously because their argument is littered with piss-poor grammar and typos and letters that aren't words. I'm sorry, but if you want to make a legitimate argument, please, please, PLEASE use proper speech. I don't know about other people, but I can't take a written argument seriously if it's improper and will assume the person is twelve and not worth fighting with. Or, if I just can't understand WTF someone is trying to say to me. In fact, my ex-friend once told me, "You are the ONLY person I have to text in complete sentences, what is WRONG with you?" Um, I don't speak text? And people using the excuse that the keyboard is small? They're just lazy.

 

The only exception to all of this is when I, or my friends text and I say things like "I has" or "I is" because among our circle it's partly my thing, because I'm small and adorable and I'm usually trying to be cute when I use it. They don't mind and neither do I, but again, these are CLOSE friends who know me well enough to know I'm being cutesy. 

[Moony the Cat 3,702]

Since english isnt my first language and i had problems with spelling to ( and still to today have problems with building some sentences ) , im not annoyed by this.

 

I found it great that others just accepted it and let me talk in topics and forums even if i had problems.

So if someone else has bad grammar and spelling, i can understand that and just go with it.

 

Except this really shortcut sentences that you see on smartphone messages with all this numbers in between...i just think such posts are stupid and annoying  :okiedokielokie:

Edited September 10, 2015 by .hack//SUNSET

[GeekySonic 1,150]

Not really. I'm pretty accustomed to it by now. Besides, I'm a total keyboard klutz myself, and I have to go over most of my posts two or three times to make sure I didn't goof up.

[Rawzy 1,302]

I find it incredibly annoying, I mean....all you want to do is to be able to send back maybe like a quick response or something...but instead...you're forced to piece together what they are actually trying to say....and it's kinda embarrassing if they have spellcheck on as well ahaha

 

COME ON PEOPLE ITS NOT THAT HARD

[Varrack 1,080]

I find it incredibly annoying, I mean....all you want to do is to be able to send back maybe like a quick response or something...but instead...you're forced to piece together what they are actually trying to say....and it's kinda embarrassing if they have spellcheck on as well ahaha

 

COME ON PEOPLE ITS NOT THAT HARD

Your last sentence contains a spelling error. Edited September 10, 2015 by Varrack

[SasQ 1,376]

As to the bad grammar or spelling in itself, yes, it annoys me much, because I love order and harmony. When I see something that disturbs that order (e.g. a misspelled word or a bad grammar), my brain automatically cringes and I cannot help it. Comparing it to music, it is as if you were listening to a beautiful symfony and suddenly one of the musicians played a wrong, disharmonious tone, ruining the entire experience for you.

But regarding people, I'm not that obsessed with correcting them. If I see someone making a mistake just once in a while, I can easily wave it. The problem starts when they make the same mistake over and over, because then I know that they will continue doing it, because someone taught them the wrong way.

In such case, I start with simply correcting them politely. I not only tell them what did they do wrong, but also why is it wrong, so that they could understand their mistake and never repeat it again. I never try to make it look like as if I were some smart-ass who is better than them.

But even a bigger problem starts when a person refuses to correct their mistake and tries to justify it with some bullshit excuse, like "I always spell it that way", "GTFO grammar nazi!", or "I haz dyslexia" (BTW it's kinda funny that they never do a mistake in that word ). No, you don't, you're just lazy. It's not that hard to actually learn something. It's not learning how to play piano, it's just remembering how to spell a single damn word. Even if you had to memorize it the hard way, it won't take longer than writing it 100 times on a piece of paper in around 15 minutes of your oh-so-precious time Sure, there are people who really have dyslexia, but it is a physical disability (brain damage), and I can bet your brain is fine, because I already "fixed" so many dyslectic people that I know it can be done. It's just a matter of accustoming your brain with enough number of correct patterns, e.g. by reading your favorite Harry Potter books.

An entirely distinct category is people who make mistakes in nearly every single word and their grammar is simply unintelligible. I cannot really understand that, because language is supposed to reflect our thoughts and help us communicate. But how should that person's thoughts look like if his/her writing is so messed up? I wonder if they could even understand themselves. They simply fail in communicating their thoughts if no one can understand them, including themselves    I have absolutely no tolerance for this level of mess. Unfortunately, this disease seems to spread more and more. I wish to know what cause is responsible for that...

As I said, language is not just for venting out. Bad grammar or spelling is a sign that my interlocutor doesn't really care and doesn't have any respect for me. Because if he did, he would at least use a spell checker or proof-read his message before sending it to me. I can see when people care to communicate their ideas without any disturbances, when they carefully choose their words, make sure that we all agree upon their definitions and understanding, use clear descriptions etc. and are willing to correct their mistakes.

 

That's also one of the reasons I edit my posts on this forum so often. I never did it to back off of something I said or hide something that would put me in a bad light, but to improve the communication and correct the errors I spotted later after sending the post.

There's a special case, though, when English isn't someone's native language. (It isn't for me as well, and I know how hard it could sometimes be to express one's thoughts correctly in that language.) In this case, making grammar or spelling errors is at least justified. But it doesn't mean that we should just wave it, because they will continue to live in an illusion that their English is well enough, and continue repeating the same errors. It's better to tell them what mistake they did and what is the correct version. It is actually helping them to improve in their English. I, for one, would be glad if someone corrected my English, because I like to learn and strive for perfection.

Edited September 11, 2015 by SasQ

[SquipyCheetah 449]

Everyone I know calls me a grammar nazi. Recently, I've been agreeing with them. Even the smallest typo can make me cringe and don't even get me started on text talk...

[shynight01 91]

I has the worst grammar. And yas it does annoys it me a lot. 

most of the time my gramer is good but my spelling is horred no it dose not bother me

[jeray2000 111]

It bugs me a lot. About a year ago it wasn't so annoying, but then I spent some time as a fanfiction editor, and now I notice so many mistakes and it bothers me so much.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,377]

It annoys me greatly when it comes from someone that you know can have good grammar but they just don't care enough to. I see this all the time on places like Facebook and it is so...meh. I really want to take pride in the only language I can speak and sometimes it is difficult to be when it is butchered by some people. XD

[Lady Diana 412]

I hate how I speak and I really hate those mistakes.

[Darkly SteamGear 110]

a as cyberpegasus i hat bad grammers. it annoys me totally wen someone decideds to use complete improper grammer. i mean what are you? a foreign foreigner of foreign foreigns. being of logical logicness in my programming it annoy me lots.

[Snow Frostflame 3,568]

bad grammar doesn't bother me unless its Godawful.... but what really annoys me is the people who feel it is the utmost importance to remind you, you fucked up one word...

[shynight01 91]

bad grammar doesn't bother me unless its Godawful.... but what really annoys me is the people who feel it is the utmost importance to remind you, you fucked up one word...

that is so true i will be playing a game mess up on one word and the chat would be filled with the correct spelling of the word

[Jokuc 8,173]

Yes, but only to a degree. If I see somebody who writes like this "lol u r 2 mad 2 be kewl", then that annoys the heck out of me.

 

To me, I don't mind if someone types like that on purpose just to be funny (for example if you're in a super odd conversation like  this: "yooooooo brooo wazzuuuup how r u doin breh")

Also, I don't care much if someone spells a word or two wrong I mean we all do that shit sometimes.

 

However, what annoys me is when people say things like "ur" or when they spell you're wrong as well as when other super simple words are spelled incorrectly all the time.

[ThatOneComrade 1,091]

It depends. Accidental mistakes, or purposeful mistakes for the sake of comedy, are fine with me. I don't mind until someone's screwing up every sentence in a conversation. That gets on my nerves.

[Lord Bradley 1,319]

Yes. Really, really badly. Why? No idea, actually. It just does, and when it does, i almost always say it out loud. Doesnt help that one of my teachers is foreign, so i just silently stew on, not wanting to come off as rude.