English as she is spoke ?

[tegwini]

Is it just me - am I becoming a grumpy old git,  BUT is there anyone out there like me who really sees red to read & hear poor quality English?  for example :

 apostrophe 's'   everywhere !!   when plural, or slap one in if there's an  s  - why not? 

 or not knowing the difference between there & their

using 'of'' instead of have - eg I must of made a mistake,

Not knowing the difference between of & off,

matching singular/plural subjects with verbs  eg  A range of goods was available, very common this one

 And loads more, and you can see such silly errors on the BBC, shop signs (we have a Tony's Pizza's nearby),  loads in the classroom, and last but not least,  lots on this forum.  I don't mean typos, which are obvious, or spelling mistakes which happen to the best of us, but constant  seriously silly & unnecessary mistakes which  make my ears curl!

Love to hear your opinion

Regards

tegwini

 

[Dick Smith]

I think you know my views!

These are very simple things to get right (as you said elsewhere, in England we expect 8 year-olds to be able to do them).

I think that perpetually getting them wrong is a disrespectful act towards the reader.

I would also add to your list; starting sentences with lower-case letters, ignoring full stops, blocks of unpunctuated text. 'Text' language.

Before anyone sets off, this is not about dyslexia, or any other real or imagined learning difficulty, it is about learning some simple rules and applying them.

[krusty]

Me , not bothered ....we are not at school now.[:D]

[Dick Smith]

So writing properly was just something you did at school?

Funny attitude...

[Cat]

I find that I can be fairly forgiving about poor grammar and spelling, it is rudeness and a general lack of manners that I see as far worse forms of disrespect.  As Dick says, it's about learning a simple set of rules and applying them.

[powerdesal]

One that really jumps out at me is loose instead of lose and vice-versa. Also the phrase "top of the hour" just where did that one come from?

[tegwini]

How about :   'At the end of  the day' ,   &  'sort of'   & loads of other meaningless expressions?

tegwini

 

[tegwini]

It's just occured to me that it is good manners when writing to others to do it as well as possible.  That's not asking for much, quite apart from the fact that language is for communication,and errors cause confusion, not communication.

tegwini

[tegwini]

A range of goods was available- sorry if this was not clear, this is correct, the singular subject is matched to the singular verb form.   This is  a very common error.

I could not pm back  - the return system would not work for me - sorry!

Regards

tegwini

[Dick Smith]

"It's just occured to me that it is good manners

when writing to others to do it as well as possible.  That's not asking

for much, quite apart from the fact that language is for

communication,and errors cause confusion, not communication."

That is a point I have made several times, and invariably been ranted down for it...

[Cat]

[quote user="tegwini"]

A range of goods was available- sorry if this was not clear, this is correct, the singular subject is matched to the singular verb form.   This is  a very common error.

I could not pm back  - the return system would not work for me - sorry!

Regards

tegwini

[/quote]

It is not possible to reply to a PM from your email client, you should reply to the PM itself and not the email notification.  You need to use the link in the PM notification email that you received to open the PM in the forum, and then reply using the reply button. 

[Jacqui Too]

i fink tha you can tell alot about a person by the way they right[Www]

Seriously, I am very aware of my own failings in the English department, but my pet hate is the letter H when spoken[:-))] a lot of people try to hard to speak correctly and pronounce it Haitch when I fact we all know it is pronounced Aitch, my post code has a H in it and when I give it out to people I more often that not have it repeated back with a resounding Haitch[:-))][:-))]

PS. I like [:-))] [Www]

[Cat]

H is one of those odd ones, when spoken it can sound like A, which can lead to misunderstandings.  Radio operators, and now often telephone staff, will use the the phonetic representations, Alpha and Hotel, to help distinguish between the two.

[AnOther]

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]

[Cat]

Eats shoots and leaves surely Ernie? [:)]

[Cendrillon]

Another confusion often seen on this forum is advise and advice[;-)]

[Will]

Whether it is good manners or not, I find there is a certain degree of satisfaction to be gained from doing something to the best of one's ability, and that includes grammar and spelling. Dyslexia aside (and even people with dyslexia are capable of turning out some very intelligent and articulate prose - we have a dyslexic son so I know about these things), poor use of one's native language often indicates a sloppy attitude to other aspects of life.

If I was to nominate a personal object of hatred it would be the exclamation mark. Some forum writers think that using it instead of a full point makes them seem friendly and familiar - many even resort to multiple examples of the damned things. Sorry, it's not clever - quite the opposite.

[Jacqui Too]

[quote user="Will"]

Whether it is good manners or not, I find there is a certain degree of satisfaction to be gained from doing something to the best of one's ability, and that includes grammar and spelling. Dyslexia aside (and even people with dyslexia are capable of turning out some very intelligent and articulate prose - we have a dyslexic son so I know about these things), poor use of one's native language often indicates a sloppy attitude to other aspects of life.

If I was to nominate a personal object of hatred it would be the exclamation mark. Some forum writers think that using it instead of a full point makes them seem friendly and familiar - many even resort to multiple examples of the damned things. Sorry, it's not clever - quite the opposite.

[/quote]

That'll be me then!!

[AnOther]

[quote user="Cat"]Eats shoots and leaves surely Ernie? [:)][/quote]

Quite right Cat.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry Will [;-)]

[tigerfeet]

ok , wot`s all this about then , u can read can wot bin rit can`t you [:P] , nough said

[Clarkkent]

A frequent error made on this site is confusing licence (noun) and license (verb). I know that Americans use the verb form for both uses - but British posters should not. I don't like to see "driver's licence" used instead of "driving licence". I cannot decide whether this is just a matter of style or whether "driver's licence" is not some distortion of meaning.

Tesco (and other retailers) don't know when to use "less than" and "fewer than" - perhaps Sir Terry Leahy doesn't know!

[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

[Russethouse]

[quote user="Clarkkent"]

A frequent error made on this site is confusing licence (noun) and license (verb). I know that Americans use the verb form for both uses - but British posters should not. I don't like to see "driver's licence" used instead of "driving licence". I cannot decide whether this is just a matter of style or whether "driver's licence" is not some distortion of meaning.

Tesco (and other retailers) don't know when to use "less than" and "fewer than" - perhaps Sir Terry Leahy doesn't know!

[/quote]

Perhaps they use ieSpell ? Despite my best efforts it STILL defaults to English (US version) and as I sometimes need it to be 'US version' I often leave it.

[mint]

With reference to the OP's post, the verb/noun confusion I dislike is practise (the verb) used instead of practice (the noun), or vice versa.  I wonder if it's worth noting the difference any longer?

PS, I didn't mean the OP's post, I didn't see the first 2 pages.  I was referring to Clarkkent's post.  Apologies ! (Whoops, I wasn't supposed to use one of those, was I?)

[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.