Pet Peeves: Language Abuse

[Hyve]

The second line you typed out is the part that upsets so much. I see people I went to school with 15 years ago typing like that.

And I agree that it does irritate me, but I don't get all dramatic about the future of humanity ...

Some stupid kids somewhere are going to end up just becoming part of some system, where they'll work 9 - 5, retire at the age of 75, and spend the final few years 'Living the Dream', while they're too old to actually go and do something.

I don't weep for those idiots, I'm glad it is them, and not me.

Plenty of people have a fine education when it comes to proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar; they're just lazy as hell and don't want to bother correcting themselves. Writing pen to paper leaves little room for error unless you have a bottle of white-out handy.

I still don't see where this intellectual twaddle about being able to spell makes you intelligent. If I took a little longer, I could construct far nicer sentences, use a much wider vocabulary and incorporate a much nicer flow into my paragraphs, but I don't, because this isn't my final exam paper, this is a gaming forum.

[psycon]

I'm not making excuses, I'm detailing why some people don't have the correct information, or make proper use of grammar. I'm quite a stickler for grammar myself, and more often then not my mistakes are genuinely because i'm typing too fast to even really notice them.

I corrected it for you

[Cariboulou]

I'm not making excuses, I'm detailing why some people don't have the correct information, or make proper use of grammar. I'm quite a stickler for grammar myself, and more often then not my mistakes are genuinely because i'm typing to fast to even really notice them.

Asking people to have a proper grasp on English isn't a jerk move, but asking people to understand it perfectly is, simply because this is a gaming forum, not a literature society. There will be thousands of people around the world who would deem all of our uses of grammar, and punctuation as appalling, so it really comes down to who is reading.

If I see someone make a mistake or two, I generally put it down to typing to fast, or not really proof reading their stuff. If however it is riddled with mistakes, I just put that down to them not having English as their mother tongue. If they are however from an English speaking nation, I just put it down to their poor upbringing / education.

This being a gaming forum has nothign to do with people not knowing their own language. You don't have to be from a literature society to know your own language. Letting all the blame fall on the educational system or upbringing is retarded. As an example, I learned English by reading books, playing games and going on different forums as a kid. My school didn't teach my anything because it was so bad. That didn't stop me from grasping a language that isn't even my own meaning native speakers not knowing it comes down to lazyness and nothing else.

[Hyve]

Same with "Paficially" instead of "Specifically".

I will admit though, my previous boss would say pacifically rather then specifically, and it made me want to rage so hard every time. That is the only thing that irks me like no other.

- - - Updated - - -

I corrected it for you

I looked back on that one, noticed it, and I face palmed. I decided to leave it in there, just to see if someone would pick it up

[schwank05]

I have never been one to do well with Grammar, Nor have I ever cared how crappy it is. My spelling and grammar mistakes that are not taken care of with spell checker are a meah thing to me. I have an Engineering degree, and one of my favorite shirts our school had were from the 2009 Engineering Day which read.

I m Engneer which was then crossed out
Im a Enginer Which was also corssed out
I'm an Enginer again corssed out

And then on the bottom of the shirt in bold letter it just said "I'm really good at Math"

Pretty much sums up my feelings on spelling and grammar in general.

[Darsithis]

I still don't see where this intellectual twaddle about being able to spell makes you intelligent. If I took a little longer, I could construct far nicer sentences, use a much wider vocabulary and incorporate a much nicer flow into my paragraphs, but I don't, because this isn't my final exam paper, this is a gaming forum.

Perhaps you could also take your time to be a little less rude. No one here is enjoying your sparkling wit.

Nowhere did I say that writing properly makes you intelligent. I argued that the reason a lot of people who had a good eduction and type like they're five do it because they're just too damn lazy to correct themselves for the exact reason you just proposed: it's a gaming forum, not a final exam paper.

Cut out the rudeness.

[Deleted]

I really don't understand how people manage to make it through the educational system with such a poor understanding of basic words, such as there, their, they're, your, you're etc. Do kids not get marked on their spelling any more?

[Hyve]

I have never been one to do well with Grammar, Nor have I ever cared how crappy it is. My spelling and grammar mistakes that are not taken care of with spell checker are a meah thing to me. I have an Engineering degree, and one of my favorite shirts our school had were from the 2009 Engineering Day which read.

I m Engneer which was then crossed out
Im a Enginer Which was also corssed out
I'm an Enginer again corssed out

And then on the bottom of the shirt in bold letter it just said "I'm really good at Math"

Pretty much sums up my feelings on spelling and grammar in general.

Pretty much, I agree with this.

The belief that spelling and grammar makes you intelligent is basically saying people are as intelligent as their spell checkers. The same way people who pretending being able to read a book means you're smarter then the average person, or that going able to do complication maths makes you smart, despite the fact all industry applications of Maths, Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation and more are triple-checked by technology.

I wouldn't excuse that saying that we should allow poor math and literacy skills, but once we stop pretending that people should have their intelligence measured by such trivial bullshit, and my by the person they actually are, the better.

[psycon]

I looked back on that one, noticed it, and I face palmed. I decided to leave it in there, just to see if someone would pick it up

Hehe i just couldnt resist on that one

Somehow as a not English speaking person, i find seperating 'to' and 'too' very easy.
You use 'too' when something is too much. For example when your coffee is TOO hot to drink. (so too much heat)

If that makes any sense.

edit: looking back at my post, the word 'too' keeps looking weirder and weirder

[BatteredSausage]

How many of you did spell check and/or read out your posts multiple times, checked it a couple of times so you didnt get caught out making a mistake in such a thread as this....
yea i bet everyone here.
I didnt as you can probably see because things like this is quite comicle,also i couldnt give a shit either, simple reason that you all know of...Anonymity!!
Its great, i could be some english major, solicitor/lawyer etc etc for all you know (but im quite sure some shallow bastards on here like to label others anyway) but i havnt got anything to prove to people i dont no nore give 2 shits about over the internet. its great!

[Deleted]

One thing that worries me more is the amount of people sitting online correcting peoples language on gaming forums.
Ive seen scary individuals with 90% of their posts on this forum that consists of "its not _your_ you idiot.. its _you're_".

Some people have very little going on in their lifes. Its sad really :/

[ovm33]

Be it through the written or spoken word, the ability to properly communicate ones’ thoughts is an excellent benchmark when judging another’s intelligence.

And while it may be your right to communicate like a dyslexic chinchilla, just know that those of us who can properly communicate think you're stupid. Typos or other such mistakes are forgivable as no one is perfect, just know, that people are judging you.


liek relly, liek u no?

[Deleted]

A missing Capital letter can be fun too.

I helped my Uncle Jack off a Horse.
I helped my Uncle jack off a Horse

and there's certainly a difference between "Knowing your shit" and "Knowing you're shit" point this out to the next person that calls you a Grammar Nazi!

You also have the "Lets eat grandma" and "Lets eat, Grandma" (comma's save lives)

Each time one of my children sends me a text in "teentalk" or "textspeak", i reply to them "now re-send that message in a language that an adult could understand".

Last time one did that it took her 5 minutes to spell each word correctly. It's a sad state of affairs that the youth of today have problems spelling words correctly because of the lack of time to form sentences using properly crafted words, and these are our future leaders in the world?

[Cariboulou]

Pretty much, I agree with this.

The belief that spelling and grammar makes you intelligent is basically saying people are as intelligent as their spell checkers. The same way people who pretending being able to read a book means you're smarter then the average person, or that going able to do complication maths makes you smart, despite the fact all industry applications of Maths, Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation and more are triple-checked by technology.

I wouldn't excuse that saying that we should allow poor math and literacy skills, but once we stop pretending that people should have their intelligence measured by such trivial bullshit, and my by the person they actually are, the better.

But bad spelling DOES make you look a bit less intelligent if the language you're using is your native one. It's not hard at all and it only means you're too lazy to make yourself understandable. No one wants to proof-read some gibberish just to comprehend what you're talking about.

[Twoddle]

One thing that worries me more is the amount of people sitting online correcting peoples language on gaming forums.
Ive seen scary individuals with 90% of their posts on this forum that consists of "its not _your_ you idiot.. its _you're_".

Some people have very little going on in their lifes. Its sad really :/

Complaining about people complaining...

If I mention something like that it's because I am helping someone to improve themselves as a person. What's wrong with that? I don't insult anyone in the process and you can take it or leave it, why do you have a problem with that?

[Deleted]

Complaining about people complaining...

If I mention something like that it's because I am helping someone to improve themselves as a person. What's wrong with that? I don't insult anyone in the process and you can take it or leave it, why do you have a problem with that?

The example i stated wasnt about helping others. It was about making yourself seem better than others to feel better about yourself.

Is that why you do it? No? Ok... move along. You are obviously not the type of person i was talking about.

[Adam Jensen]

People always say "well, why is it important?"

Why do Air Traffic Controllers have standard phraseology? To eliminate miscommunication and confusion. In the ATC world, controllers say things precisely in a defined, regulated and practiced manner so that the pilots know exactly what the controller wants.

Writing is not to the same extreme that controllers go, but it's the same idea. Grammar exists to eliminate miscommunication and confusion. It ensures that a writer is understood, that the reader knows exactly what the writer wants. That's why grammar is so important.

Sure, you can understand bad grammar and often work it out, but that takes extra effort for the reader and risks misinterpretation. It also makes the reader lose interest in what you have to say and view the writer as someone who is uneducated and isn't worth listening to.

The occasional typo is fine. Everyone does it. There's probably one in this post right now that some troll will pick up on. I don't think anyone on this forum expects college level papers and perfect grammar. But most of us, especially me, expect that you at least try.

This post is for native English speakers. Strangely I find that people who speak English as a second language here tend to have equivalent or better grammar than a number of the native English speakers.

[Velaniz]

I'm from Venezuela and I currently live on another country who doesn't have english as an official language.

My knowledge of english came from playing WoW and trying to understand the quests and watching 'Friends' with subtitles on the TV... I've never studied english. So I might make a lot of mistakes in regards to spelling and grammar, and for that I'm sorry, it is not my intention to offend any english-speaker native. That being said, I think it is kind of ridiculous to expect that people speak perfect english on the internet, considering that a LOT of the internet population isn't from english-speaking countries, just be glad we try...

Also, consider that a lot of people who is learning english from the internet and pop culture (people like me) use internet slang/pop culture references when communicating because, that's what we know of your language, and that's how your language is presented to the rest of the world.

You learned English purely from tv and wow? Shit, your English is fucking fantastic. Much more so than most so-called native English speakers.

[psycon]

You learned English purely from tv and wow? Shit, your English is fucking fantastic. Much more so than most so-called native English speakers.

I think many people learn it this way, I am one of them. Sure i had English classes on school, but I already had a good knowledge about the language before they started (WoW didnt excist back then ).
We always have subtitles in our own language at movies etc, so you instantly see what they mean with the words they say.
And ofcourse videogames helped a lot. Usually you couldnt set it to my own language, so it was always in English.

[Endus]

The amount of Americans I've heard say "Excape" instead of "Escape" is worrying. Same with "Paficially" instead of "Specifically".

The former, at least, it just a difference in dialect. They still spell it "escape", they just have a different pronunciation. Like how some people pronounce "pecan" as either "pee-can", or "peh-cahn". Or the age old toe-may-toe toe-mah-toe discrepancy. The alternatives aren't wrong, they're just a different dialect, and dialects naturally form with regional variation.

It's a factor that might actually start to vanish with the interconnectedness of the Internet, but it's a process that takes generations.

Nowhere did I say that writing properly makes you intelligent. I argued that the reason a lot of people who had a good eduction and type like they're five do it because they're just too damn lazy to correct themselves for the exact reason you just proposed: it's a gaming forum, not a final exam paper

While that's true, there's a word for people who can't use proper spelling and grammar.

That word is "illiterate". And we need to start using it more. I'm not talking about typos or the like; we're all smacking away at keyboards and missing a letter here or there by accident is natural and normal. I'm not talking about people for whom English (on this forum, anyway) is a second language; I speak French (badly, by which I mean I'm not quite bilingual), am reasonably competent in Latin, and know some German and Scottish Gaelic. But your primary language, there's almost no excuse for such a lack of knowledge. By "almost" I mean things like dyslexia (which isn't really not knowing the language; it's much more complicated and frustrating than that), or growing up as a feral child. If you're a relatively normal person, you shouldn't have been able to graduate High School as an illiterate. And if you don't know why "their putting there backpacks down over they're" is wrong, you're illiterate.

I don't expect people to have a complete understanding of English; it doesn't matter to me if you don't understand what a "ewer" is, or what "lissom" means. But common, everyday words should be pretty much instinct by the time you're out of high school. If it's not, whatever education system you've graduated from has failed you.