English as she is spoke ?

[Weedon]

There are far more cringeworthy (sorry pedantics) forums than this one, as I am sure you all know.  There is a sport forum that I particularly like, but I am loathe to look at it very often as the spelling and grammar is so appalling.

Using an ampersand instead of and is a bit sloppy, isn't it?[:D]

[Cat]

[quote user="tegwini"]

 I am reminded of the BBC's  'The Apprentice'  when the apprentices spent hours trying to work out where to put the apostrophe and phoned all over London, and to seriously senior people.

Sad, one wonders how they were supposed to the 'cream of the crop'  !

tegwini

[/quote]

Often it's a style thing.  For example, a lot of  people would frown over the use of single inverted commas in the way that you have used them, as scare quotes (above).  They would not normally be recommended in a writing style guide, unless you were nesting one quote inside another.  In an informal setting however, a forum for example, only sticklers would bother to comment on them, and I'm sure that no one would actually take you to task over them.

[Judith]

[quote user="ErnieY"]  also those who write rambling messages without any capitals or punctuation except perhaps for the odd full stop or comma frequently where not neccessary and also write without line breaks the cumulative effect being that the message becomes incomprehensible and almost impossible to make sense of to the point where I just give up[/quote]

Those who may write fairly good English, but persist in using large blocks of text - no paragraphs etc, so that you cannot easily read and separate out.  I give up too.  Also those who use such small type.  Poor grammar can be understood (sometimes) but it is much easier to do so when there is space between and around, especially since we are reading from the screen;  so much harder.

Fewer / less - indeed, also quicker instead of more quickly when used as an adverb - AND even the BBC are allowing that (shock, horror).  Every time I hear someone say that, I have to shout "more quickly" so that I can understand it - it is just SO wrong.

[AnOther]

[quote user="Patf"]Husband had an email from our oldest grand -daughter (aged 12) on his birthday with a lovely message, but in "text" spelling. I know she's doing well at school, quite a star, so why write like this? I wouldn't dream of correcting her though, as it would obviously upset her, and it's good to keep in touch by email.[/quote]

Now you see I probably would Pat. Diplomatically and in a positive fashion of course, explaining exactly what is wrong in communicating in that way and the potential consequences of it and the way others might percieve her because of it.

If nobody tells the kids that this is wrong and impolite, and god knows the schools don't seem to care, how will they know ?

That seems to be one of the fundamental problems for kids today, it's become politically incorrect to tell them they are wrong or that they have failed at something.

[valB]

Speak proper like what I does   INNIT YEA .

[Russethouse]

Perhaps she thought she was being 'cute' ?[:)]

[tigerfeet]

[quote user="tegwini"]

 I am reminded of the BBC's  'The Apprentice'  when the apprentices spent hours trying to work out where to put the apostrophe and phoned all over London, and to seriously senior people.

Sad, one wonders how they were supposed to the 'cream of the crop'  !

tegwini

[/quote]

did you mean "supposed to be the 'cream of the crop'  !

english as spoke ? [Www]

[tegwini]

Thank you Tigerfeet

Typo - obviously!

Regards

tegwini

[Dick Smith]

[quote user="tigerfeet"][quote user="tegwini"]

 I am reminded of the BBC's  'The Apprentice'  when the apprentices spent hours trying to work out where to put the apostrophe and phoned all over London, and to seriously senior people.

Sad, one wonders how they were supposed to the 'cream of the crop'  !

tegwini

[/quote]

did you mean "supposed to be the 'cream of the crop'  !

english as spoke ? [Www]

[/quote]

Capital letters omitted for purposes of irony?

Whenever this topic is raised there is always someone who:

a) posts messages with obvious errors, and;

b) corrects a typo by the OP, usually including egregious errors themselves.

Why do people prefer that other people see them as being less cultured, educated, intelligent than others?

[Dick Smith]

[quote user="ErnieY"]People who start a sentence or a message with right or OK get my teeth grinding. Invariably a teenage failing and an indictment of an inadequate education system.

also those who write rambling messages without any capitals or punctuation except perhaps for the odd full stop or comma frequently where not neccessary and also write without line breaks the cumulative effect being that the message becomes incomprehensible and almost impossible to make sense of to the point where I just give up !

Eats leaves and shoots [blink]

[/quote]

I disagree. Both here and on another forum there are posters who frequently start with OK - and in both cases these are people of proven good sense and advice for whom I have a good deal of respect. I see that as a stylistic choice, probably because the poster sees the medium as being fairly informal.

[mint]

[quote user="tigerfeet"][quote user="tegwini"]

 I am reminded of the BBC's  'The Apprentice'  when the apprentices spent hours trying to work out where to put the apostrophe and phoned all over London, and to seriously senior people.

Sad, one wonders how they were supposed to the 'cream of the crop'  !

tegwini

[/quote]

did you mean "supposed to be the 'cream of the crop'  !

english as spoke ? [Www]

But why "cream of the crop"?  What type of crops produce cream?

[/quote]

[Dick Smith]

That's a very interesting question!

I suspect that 'the cream' has been an expression meaning the best for a long time. So the cream of anything is the best. The crop part - could it have something to do with advertising? This is the best of whatever you are thinking about at the moment?

Apparently it dates back to at least the 1890s, in reference to the best part of fruit crops.

[mint]

I do like the explanation, Dick.  I just would not have associated "cream" with crops though I could see perfectly well that the cream has got to be the best part.

[Dick Smith]

My favourite is the reference to the toffs as being the 'cream of the regiment'.

White, thick and clotted.

[mint]

You'll get into trouble for that remark which could be construed as being racist.  I thought it was rich, thick and clotted.  At least that's more PC, non?

[AnOther]

Dick, I meant right and OK when used as meaningless prefix - e.g. opening a new thread with Right, I want to move to France or OK, my mum and dad want to move to France etc. I'm sure you get my drift.

As a response to a question or agreement to a comment in an ongoing dialogue it's perfectly alright of course.

[Dick Smith]

I understood what you meant - I just have less of a problem with it than other egregious errors. I can accept it as a stylistic device, and it probably reflects how the poster speaks.

[tigerfeet]

[quote user="Dick Smith"]


Why do people prefer that other people see them as being less cultured, educated, intelligent than others?
[/quote]

Sorry sir , I did not realise I was in the presence of a cultured, educated, intelligent person.

Blame Archant they let riff raff like me in.[;-)]

[AnOther]

Apologies then but of course we are all different and have our own pet likes and dislikes.

How about fingernails down the blackboard [:D] or [+o(]

[:D]

[Dick Smith]

"Sorry sir , I did not realise I was in the presence of a cultured, educated, intelligent person."

Yes, actually you are.

Why should I be ashamed of it or hide it, so as not to be ridiculed by posts like this?

That is exactly the sort of attitude I was referring to.

(And yes, before anyone needs to point it out, I know what a split infinitive is, and that certainly is one.)

Is it a peculiarly British thing, that we can take advice from someone who tells us about plumbing, and show respect to that person, but someone who has any form of 'academic' knowledge is instantly ridiculed? To what inadequacy does it speak?

[Dick Smith]

[quote user="ErnieY"]Apologies then but of course we are all different and have our own pet likes and dislikes.

How about fingernails down the blackboard [:D] or [+o(]

[:D]

[/quote]

I used to be magic at the fingernails on the blackboard. Known and feared for it. Then they gave me an electronic Smart board. Great stuff, but makes no nasty noises at all...

[Dick Smith]

[quote user="sweet 17"]You'll get into trouble for that remark which could be construed as being racist.  I thought it was rich, thick and clotted.  At least that's more PC, non?[/quote]

I forgot the rich.

More PC to point out that in our better regiments there is a marked lack of ethnic diversity in the ranks of the officers...

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

[quote user="tegwini"]

 I am reminded of the BBC's  'The Apprentice'  when the apprentices spent hours trying to work out where to put the apostrophe and phoned all over London, and to seriously senior people.

Sad, one wonders how they were supposed to the 'cream of the crop'  !

tegwini

[/quote]

They're not supposed to be the cream of the crop. They are only salesmen. You don't need a high iq to sell things, just the gift of the gab. Sir Alan Sugar probably has a lower iq than you would imagine.

Back on topic, the mistakes that annoy me the most are the use of 'there', 'they're' and 'their'. Also I see 'were' being written as 'where'.

On a forum, these things are forgiveable. In the national press when you frequently see these errors, it is quite disturbing as these are supposed to be the 'cream of the literary crop', and really there is even less reason to get these things wrong due to things called spell checkers and grammer checkers on computers!

[Dick Smith]

I just heard a reporter on the BBC referring to the cyclone in Burma causing 'indiscriminating' damage. A new one for me.

Or it may have been Sky.

[KathyF]

[quote user="LyndaandRichard"] Back on topic, the mistakes that annoy me the most are the use of 'there', 'they're' and 'their'. Also I see 'were' being written as 'where'.

On a forum, these things are forgiveable. In the national press when you frequently see these errors, it is quite disturbing as these are supposed to be the 'cream of the literary crop', and really there is even less reason to get these things wrong due to things called spell checkers and grammer checkers on computers!
[/quote]

The problem with spell checkers is that if the wrong word used (e.g pail rather than pale) is correctly spelt, the checker won't actually pick it up. [:(] In addition many people don't think to check their grammar, so the grammar checker never gets used. In my experience forum software doesn't offer spell-checking, so no help there, unfortunately. I really don't think there's any substitute for learning spellings by heart when we're young enough for them to stick.