Is this thread going to contain too much pedantry

[laurence]

it peeves me that the plural of roof isn't rooves.

 

[Gary E]

It worries me when someone seems to go out of their way to correct someone's spelling or grammar. I worry that it will make the original poster less likely to post again or at least to go into any depth. Worse case it could scare them away from the forum for good.

I'd far rather get good advice and interesting posts (regardless of the spelling) than see the chat boards full of smart ar*e posts telling us all how someone has got it wrong. For God's sake do these people really think that we don't realise it's just a way of saying "look how clever I am"?

Now feel free to mark my work!

 

[swee'pea99]

I do not like the use of apostrophes in contractions in written work.

Why not? What's wrong with what's wrong with?

 

[vernon]

Why not? What's wrong with what's wrong with?

It's a sloppy writing style.

 

[lulubel]

The problem is, there is no right spelling for the term synonymous with 'nobody'. Either way it looks wrong. 'Noone' looks like it's pronounced 'noon'; 'no one' looks like two separate words, as in no one correct answer. Which is a shame, because it's a handy word, and causes no problems when spoken.

The easiest way to write it is to put a hyphen in, so you get no-one, which might not be technically correct, but works because people understand it.

Although I love language, especially the English language, in all its complexity and weirdness, I know most people aren't as interested as I am, and their only real concern is being understood. If someone writes a post that contains a few grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors, I can live with it, as long as it's easy to understand. If I can't follow what they're trying to say, I just move on.

The one thing that does really wind me up is misuse of the apostrophe, but I have Lynne Truss to blame for that. My OH bought me one of her books for Christmas one year because she thought it might be more entertaining than Advanced Grammar in Use, which I have to admit is a bit dry, but does come in extremely handy sometimes.

If I make spelling or punctuation errors in my posts, they're typos.

If I make what look like grammatical errors, they're deliberate. I'm a great believer in knowing the rules, so you're properly equipped to know when to break them.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Life is too short to persecute poor perspicacity, not when there's alliteration to enjoy.

 

[hoopdriver]

the ones i find most annoying are the very long unpunctuated posts u now the ones where there are no capitals no commas no fullstops no nuffink and go on and on with out a break some of them are clearly made up of distinct sentences some are not it is very hard to tell sometimes what is being said or meant even a paragraph or two might help but no there arent even those to break up the long block of text i now that it is sometimes difficult posting on a phone but when i post on a phone the only thing i cant do are the smilies i dont now the codes to but there is no excuz i found it really trying when i woz teaching and had to mark essays written like this as especially with technical stuff it can be very confusing i now this is a cycling forum and not an english lesson but still there is little excuz for it quite often i see a post like this and i don 't even bother to read it as it is too difficult to scan or work out what is being said quickly enough to see if it is of interest to me maybe someone can explain why it happens perhaps google translate should have a section or languge for translating it into something that is properly readable and makes sense to the rest of us the occasional typo isn't a problem but the regular spelling faults can change the way a sentence reads and so it is important to get that right where ever possible even by edits and corrections after the event more people should do that and so it will be easier for the rest of us

A James Joyce fan, I see...

 

[hoopdriver]

What I really hate are those who neglect to qualify their gerunds with a possessive... :-)

 

[Brandane]

"Yesterday I brought some new stuff at the sales".
No, you BOUGHT some new stuff at the sales .

As someone else mentioned; "could of", instead of could HAVE.

Surely it's not that difficult. Does no-one read books these days?

 

[Saluki]

Text speak in forums really gets my goat. I have branch line of Dyslexia called Meares Irlen Syndrome and have quite enough trouble reading without all the text gobbledegook. I especially dislike it when prospective customers contact me by email and I have to get someone to translate for me. Its a work thing so it has to be done but when I am reading for fun and I can't get a sense of what is being said, it really irritates me.

Long sentences with no punctuation get right on my nerves too. I always feel like I have to take a deep breath when reading them. People writing the letter u for you, or i for I is just laziness in my opinion. A friend of ours is a teacher and she says that she has to read essays full of abbreviations and awful spelling and, she says, it makes her fillings want to leave home She cannot mark down her pupils, as their meaning is clear and she has to ignore the spelling. It drives her mad.

 

[lulubel]

Wow! Seems CC has a language expert on board, thank goodness someone knows and understands 'the rules'.

Not really an expert. I was an avid reader as a child, and I love how language can be used to engage with the reader's emotions. I've tried to write fiction myself, but my weak point has always been my failure to develop a strong enough plot (or so the rejection letters say).

 

[coffeejo]

I bet they admired your immaculate spelling and punctuation though. Hint: read some, e.g., James Joyce perhaps?

*shudder*

 

[marinyork]

As someone else mentioned; "could of", instead of could HAVE.

Surely it's not that difficult. Does no-one read books these days?

If we didn't have so many homophones and oronyms in English then there would be less scope in that direction for jokes and plays on words. And then the language would be considerably poorer for it. The vast majority of pedant threads I've ever seen have been about homophones or 'hot topics' where the person hasn't heard the other side of the debate such as zs in English words or other Fowler's type misconceptions.

 

[coffeejo]

The punctuation or the Joyce?

Joyce. My favourite lecturer at university and I had to agree to disagree.

 

[Hotblack Desiato]

It worries me when someone seems to go out of their way to correct someone's spelling or grammar...

..
Now feel free to mark my work!

OK. Your first sentence. It should be :

"It worries me when someone seems to go out of their way to correct someone else's spelling or grammar."

otherwise it looks as if it worries you that they are going out of their way to correct their own spelling or grammar. And* I am sure that doesn't worry you at all!

*Starting a sentence with 'and'.. How bad is that