Spelling & Grammar

[electrongirl]

Is it me or has the majority of people in the internet just given up on using proper grammar & spelling??

I am amazed how many people can't spell everyday words!!

It is our education system failing?

Is it just me? Am I getting old and intolerant??

[mumnbub]

I think it's often just lazyness, I admit I can be bad at it at times, like typing i instead of I or forgetting apostrophies. I am also a bad speller so without spell check I often make mistakes without realising it. I always make sure however that when writing a letter or email I do so correctly.

[electrongirl]

Laziness I can accept but there are people who spell things wrong! Like my husband spells waist = waste. And there are other words I see people spell wrong. Like they use the wrong word. eg: check/cheque there/their/they're

[Jisgone]

haha i absolutely agree nicky, so many words are spelt wrong! weight is wait, calorie is calerie, plane is plain
i thought i just noticed more than the usual person

[milkyway]

I used to work as an editor of online content and when I was deep in 'edit mode' and I'd look at a forum or a friend's email, I'd find myself mentally correcting changes.

The one that I notice here a lot is loose vs lose. I want to lose weight so I have loose pants (not loose weight).

[electrongirl]

Thank god I'm not the only one!!

I mentally edit so many things!! I should have been an English teacher I reckon!!

[Diminishing]

I must admit I do notice poor spelling and grammar too. But I am guilty of hitting submit before spell checking too! I have long fingernails, so whilst my spelling is usually OK-ish, my typing is slapdash as a result of my nails, LOL!

The funniest one I ever saw was a girl on a parenting forum I spend time on. She was bemoaning peoples incorrect grammar and spelling. And in the post where she was criticing others (and trying to be a smart arse too, to be honest!) she made some very Kath and Kim type misuse of words........AND some spelling errors of her own!

I found it again!

Norti me will quote it here, LOL!

I really hate mispellings and abbreviations on forums etc et cetera & the wonton use of text speak & people that misspell things and poor punctuation

I am not trying to be smart, its pedanty which I am good at.

[Shalimar]

Don't forget would have, could have and should have as would of, could of and should of.....they are my biggest gripe .

[Alexandra]

Yes Electrongirl, it is our education system failing. If you sit for 5 seconds alongside my mother, she will tell you all about it! We don't learn grammar at school any more which makes it difficult to learn another language. I recall my exchange year to Germany when I was trying to learn the 'der die and das amongst other things (accusative, nominative, genitive and dative cases), and needing to know the object and subject in the sentence. We have all of this in English, we just don't learn it and don't know about it. Imagine my surprise and embarrassment when I was trying to learn the German equivalent at 17 when I didn't even know the English. There are many things not taught - how to spell is particularly bad and it's getting worse. I'm in my 30's and my mother still corrects me - she is an English teacher. In fact, she still makes corrections in the newspaper, on signs, everywhere she goes - it's a daily thing for me, I've grown up with it. What I have also noticed is that the use of computers has made me lazy.
I have to agree with the lose weight and loose pants though - that is my biggest cringe too!

[EvilWombatQueen]

And yet there is another argument to be made in all of this. In defense of those who can't spell, it's not necessarily because the education system is failing them or because they're stupid - it's the English language that is at fault. Consider that we are one of the only European languages that hasn't been systematically updated for hundreds of years. French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian... all of those languages have been reformed at some time or another to bring spelling in line with pronunciation. In fact many of our French derived words are spelled as they were hundreds of years ago and bear little similarity to how they are spelled in modern French because French is centrally controlled and they were willing to update their spelling.

To see the failure of English look at the word 'night'. Originally it was spelled as it was pronounced. We have not used the soft sound 'gh' in the word for centuries now so why do we hold onto the spelling? 'Nite' is seen as a lazy, modern and a result of poor business signage and the SMS age. Yet no-one would read it and not know what it means, and it would take far less time for children to learn to spell it.

There has been a push to reform English spelling for over a hundred years now. The Americans partially reformed their spelling, eliminating quite a few silent letters from words, but they fell short of a complete overhaul. So why do we persist in favouring outdated spelling? It doesn't benefit our students. Consider that it is considered laughable in Italy that a child of eight wouldn't be able to spell all words in their vocabulary. So how much extra time can be spent learning other useful things given that spelling takes care of itself when a child speaks Italian? Imagine if mathematics had as many obscure clauses and conditions that English spelling possesses. 4+4=8 except in some cases where it equals 13. Most time would be spent learning the exceptions rather than basic maths skills with absolutely no benefit to students' overall knowledge of mathematics. In Italy spelling is simple and students can focus on other things to learn. Forcing English speaking students to focus on out of date spellings to the detriment of other subjects simply puts them behind their international contemporaries in terms of what they can learn in the time they spend at school.

So what purpose do all of these spelling exceptions hold? It makes it harder to learn to write English so it doesn't benefit communication. It doesn't aid in clarity since most words are seen in the context in which they are used anyway. They're/Their/There may make more sense in writing, but we don't have any way to distinguish them verbally and we seem to get our points across in conversations with no problems at all. Instead we have an archaic system that seems to exist only to try and trip people up when they are trying to communicate. The only purpose that keeping our spelling so complicated serves is to preserve elitism - if you can spell properly you are somehow better than those who cannot. And given it's the people who can spell who are in charge of education, dictionaries and publishing it's not surprising that they'd rather keep the status quo rather than reform spelling for the benefit of all.

(End rant!)

[electrongirl]

EWQ - Oh I so agree with you! It's a fact that English is the hardest language to learn as there are so many contradictions.

I am trying to teach my son to read properly and I can't believe how many sounds "c" & "ch" make! I never even though about it before!

I did 3 years of Japanese in high school and I tell you, its EASY compared to English!

[Czarina]

I don't know if anyone here is a regular in the CK forum, because there is always a thread on terrible spelling and grammar errors. I love it! I'm a bit of a stickler for spelling. Lose/Loose is definitely the the most irksome mistake, which reminds me of another annoying error definitely/definately!

[mum2james]

Is it me or has the majority of people in the internet just given up on using proper grammar & spelling??

I am amazed how many people can't spell everyday words!!

It is our education system failing?

Is it just me? Am I getting old and intolerant??

I can't spell very well.

[electrongirl]

Is it me or has the majority of people in the internet just given up on using proper grammar & spelling??

I am amazed how many people can't spell everyday words!!

It is our education system failing?

Is it just me? Am I getting old and intolerant??

I can't spell very well.

Hey I wasn't trying to pick on people. I was just saying there are people out there who CAN spell but are either too lazy or use those stupid "internet" words and its just silly.

Can I ask, if you don't mind. Did you have trouble with spelling in school? And if so did your teachers make any effort to help you?

I am just curious as to know if the education system is as bad as I think its become.

[Gordz]

wat do u's all meen? Itz onli txt, itz nt lyk itz getn graided or n e thing. bt i drped outa skool so i cn ttly b excused a?


LOL