Spelling/Grammar pet peeves

[Jessper 735]

Well, when a person writes and uses things like u, u2, rolfmao, lol, 4, cuz and many, many others without a good reason (let's say short text messages or a chat in a hectic game session for example), it makes me raise an eyebrow and consider them a "lesser" person or a stupid kid, which in turn causes me to either be slightly aggressive towards them or completely disregard whatever they are trying to communicate. Can't help it, just happens.

 

Other than that, it's probably the way how some people use the word literally. 

"That guy literally exploded with rage!"

Yeah... I really doubt that. Unless there is some new disease that makes people explode in a splash of blood and guts when they get angry. Yes, you can use it as an intensifier as many great authors of the ages past used it, the problem is those people don't mean that, they simply think it makes them look smarter, even tho it does the opposite. 

Things like exploding rage, jumping out of skin, mouth on fire and many others are figurative speech, you don't have to specify that, but if you put literally there, then you are suggesting it is NOT figurative, which is just amazing.

[Silver Letter 1,832]

 

 

But English is constantly manipulated and molded to suit specific geographies. If a large group of Japanese left Japan and started their own nation, I would fully expect them to 'bastardize' it to suit whatever differences they felt they had compared to the 'mother' country.

But the analogy doesn't fit. At least the Japanese ex-pats would own their language. Americans don't own English. Can Americans also change other languages and if not then why?

 

 

Okay, here's the thing about English. It changes, constantly. We don't say "thou art" anymore, we say "you are." We don't write 'auld' anymore, we write 'old.' So what exactly is it the Americans are supposed to be respecting?

That's true that English changes but maybe Americans should not be the ones doing the changing? Like I said, I wouldn't think to add or alter words to Japanese. I would see it as disrespectful.

[uml4mj4m 134]

Being the Grammar Nazi that I am, I usually get angry at the people who use horrible grammar. If it's either just to be an ignorant person, or just a misspelled word.

 

1. "no punctuation andor capitols"

 

This one really rustles my jimmies. This is when people just decide to not use capital letters, or any type of punctuation. If it were on a chatting website, like Cloudsdale.org, then I could accept that. But if it's on a website like the Pony Forums, I don't understand why people cannot go back to use capital letters, or fix their spelling.

 

2. Not using a space after commas.

 

I know that a lot of people do not mean to do this one, but I get a bit peeeved off when I see that someone has type a sentence like this, "I went to the store,in Connecticut,while talking on my cellphone". I don't know why, I just feel like I can't read a sentence like that.

 

3. OMGLOLTTYLXOXO

 

Holy Fudgemuffin. This is the one that makes me feel irrated towards social media. The people that use things like "LOL' kind of make me angry. If you use the occasional "LOL" in a sentence like this, "I just saw my grandfather fall asleep. LOL." then I could accept that. But if there's some sort of six-year-old girl talking like this, "LOL i just saw something totally FUNNY XOXOXOXOLOLOLOLOLOLROLOLO", then I might as well plan the killing. What ever happened to simple communication? We don't need a bunch of UPPERCASE letters floating around the internet.

 

4. Usernames with numbers.

 

Meh. I'm in the middle with this one. If it's something like "mitchfizz05", then I'd be okay with that. But if it was something attrocious like, "XxXIdiotMotherXxX19284849309384757572929284747", then it'd be an offense to the internet. I mean, REALLY? Do you need to put all of those numbers in one name?

 

(No offense to mitchfizz)

 

5. Minecraft-addict language.

 

Just to make something clear, Minecraft is an awesome game. But it's not great to see this everytime you go into a chatroom, "LOLOL MINECRAFT IS DUH BEST" and then kep seeing idiotic Minecraft talk for about five hours.

 

6. Exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I'm really getting tired of seeing a bunch of effing exclamation points everytime I see the title of a YouTube video. Do you really need all that spam?

 

 

 

And that's about it.

[decoherence 183]

But the analogy doesn't fit. At least the Japanese ex-pats would own their language. Americans don't own English. Can Americans also change other languages and if not then why?

 

 

 

That's true that English changes but maybe Americans should not be the ones doing the changing? Like I said, I wouldn't think to add or alter words to Japanese. I would see it as disrespectful.

 

 

OK, well this is OT and it doesn't look like we're going to get a resolution soon, so we'll just have to agree to disagree for now. Simply put, I don't see respecting the roots of a language as being necessary, so long as it is still able to serve its purpose and allow people speaking (more or less) the same language to communicate. That's my position in a nutshell. People see things differently and that's fine I'm happy to discuss this in another thread if you want to start one but I fear it would become inflammatory (not from either of us, I don't think, but it's an issue people might have strong opinions on.)

[Silver Letter 1,832]

OK, well this is OT and it doesn't look like we're going to get a resolution soon, so we'll just have to agree to disagree for now. Simply put, I don't see respecting the roots of a language as being necessary, so long as it is still able to serve its purpose and allow ponies speaking (more or less) the same language to communicate. That's my position in a nutshell. Ponies see things differently and that's fine I'm happy to discuss this in another thread if you want to start one but I fear it would become inflammatory (not from either of us, I don't think, but it's an issue ponies might have strong opinions on.)

So be it. If you desire to speak to me on this subject further then send a message to me and I shall discuss it as long as you are respectful.

[Jelly Raindust 35]

English is not my first language(not my second either  ), so i'm proudly learning grammar from this thread.  For us outsiders, improper grammar is alright, it's nice to make some German or Russian friends, but spelling mistakes pretty often get on my nerves, typing swiftly with a bunch of typing errors doesn't make you a fast typist!

[Clover Heart 978]

One I've been hearing a lot lately that's kinda been getting on my nerves is "without further adieu." "Ado" means a deal, a fuss, something like that. And that makes sense. The phrase implies you're not going to waste any more time and get into what you were going to get into. So, "without making any more fuss about it" makes sense to say in this situation. "Adieu," on the other hand, means "good-bye" in French. "Without further good-bye?" Like, that doesn't even make any sense. 

[Fubz 300]

I have generated a new one.

Misuse of the apostrophe. Happens all the time here. "I NEED OC'S FOR MY PROJECT" or on Facebook "You won't remember as your not from the 90's"

 

Oh! Oh! And one more! Using big words when you don't need to! Happened in this thread already haha. Using big words doesn't make you a good writer, using the correct words does.

Edited October 18, 2013 by Fubz

[ReverseFaller 2,483]

I find many grammatical errors annoying. Especially the more commonly used ones. Some examples of the ones I dislike can be found below. 

 

1. When people talk in text talk. I don't even talk in text talk when I text, and if I do it's very rare. I don't like when I'm talking with somebody else and they respond to my message with "k", "idk", "lol #yoloswag". I'd prefer a real response rather than that BS.
2. When people misuse Their/There/They're. For example, somebody says "Look at they're score! Wow!", or "There new dog is so cute! lol.", or even " The dog ran over their." I understand making a mistake every now and again, but I know some people who are constantly using the wrong variation of the word, and I find it rather annoying.
3. When people overdo things. When people use too many exclamation points, or periods it just gets old quickly......so old, so fast!!!!!!

[CutieMarkChallenged 11]

Their/They're

You're/Your

Too/To

Waist/Waste (It's a really disturbing mix up.)

Four (You'd be surprised.)

Is not (Never ain't. NEVER ain't.)

Not to mention double negatives being used in place of a single negative. It's like math; two negatives multiplied make a positive, not a negative.

Because

Then/Than

Tonight

People (It's not peoples! "People" is plural, and "People's" is possessive!)

Library (*Hits face on desk* Need I even touch on this subject?)

I'd even read someone write "serprised" yesterday. Just..... *sigh*.... just, no.

Don't get me started on present/past tenses. I will seriously sit there and correct published textbooks. I like to read fanfiction, (fimfiction.net among them,) and sometimes it is physically painful. Not to mention when people just tack "er" to the end of literally every word. "Ginormouser" is seriously something I've heard some of my classmates say. Although I will point out, what is the purpose of flammable/inflammable? If the opposite of flammable is non-flammable, why do you even have an inflammable if it means the same thing as flammable? The prefix "in" is used to add the meaning not, lacking, or the opposite of, so why doesn't it work the same on "inflammable" as it does on "incomplete?"

Edited October 18, 2013 by CutieMarkChallenged

[Frith is Magick 1,471]

 

 

Like I said, I wouldn't think to add or alter words to Japanese.

Does this include creating compound words? In my business course, the group I am working with agreed on a name for our company that is a compound that doesn't technically exist. I agree that a group or individual shouldn't modify a language beyond natural evolution or normal colloquialism purely for the sake of convenience, but how far is too far? A person learning a language should respect that language as much as possible. I admit freely that I have butchered languages trying to learn them.

 

I would also like to propose that american English is a different dialect, and cannot be compared to English English, Just like German German and Swiss German are different, or how Japanese has different regional dialects.

 

Now that I am more or less done with distractions, I can post what I intended to post. Canon and cannon are two completely different things. I know that anybody who is reading this knows the difference, but all the same, I want to say it. Canon, when referring to a work of fiction, refers to material regarded as official by the fanbase. The only cannon in My Little Pony is Pinkie Pie's party cannon. I cannot express how frustrating it is to see this error made so often. I have no problem with typos, they hapen, but when people honestly don't seem to be able to tell the difference, I get very frustrated.

 

I tend to overuse commas. I don't comma splice, however, I do use commas where they may not be needed. There are two main reasons. The first reason is that I like to write, or type, the same way I talk, and commas reflect how the sentence naturally flows when spoken. The second reason is exposure to the German language, and one of the things I like about German is the way commas are used to segment information into more definite portions. English also uses commas to add clauses to a sentence, but not to the same extent.

 

And yes, I typed happen as hapen on purpose as a bad joke.