Spelling and grammar police (RANT)

Ian F wrote: For those who seem to care too much about unimportant things: If the above is ignored, get over it already.

Fixed your grammar

I was entertaining myself following an online peeing match on another site and it got personal. One poster misspelled an insult and was duly and aggressively corrected by his opponent for his terrible "grammer". I had to step in and remind him that the next time one feels the need to bust someones' balls for improper "grammer" he'd be better off spelling "grammer" correctly.

That said, it is a pet peeve of mine that I see more and more of lately. It's leaving out entire words (such as "to be") in a sentence. For example: "That lawnmower needs fixed." Or "That flat tire needs changed."

What's that about?

ebonyandivory wrote: I was entertaining myself following an online peeing match on another site and it got personal. One poster misspelled an insult and was duly and aggressively corrected by his opponent for his terrible "grammer". I had to step in and remind him that the next time one feels the need to bust someones' balls for improper "grammer" he'd be better off spelling "grammer" correctly. That said, it is a pet peeve of mine that I see more and more of lately. It's leaving out entire words (such as "to be") in a sentence. For example: "That lawnmower needs fixed." Or "That flat tire needs changed." What's that about?

It's probably because i almost the whole thing.

ebonyandivory wrote: That said, it is a pet peeve of mine that I see more and more of lately. It's leaving out entire words (such as "to be") in a sentence. For example: "That lawnmower needs fixed." Or "That flat tire needs changed." What's that about?

Ug, people say things so poorly.

Clearly what those sentences are supposed to say are "That lawnmower needs fixing" and "That flat tire needs changing".

fast_eddie_72 wrote: Ug, people say things so poorly. Clearly what those sentences are supposed to say are "That lawnmower needs fixing" and "That flat tire needs changing".

Obviously. But it's clearly a fad and silly. It's not as if I cannot discern thier respective meaning. To me, it's simply a purposeless and useless modification of the written and spoken language.

I guess my question to them would be why? Is saying or writing "to be" too taxing or time consuming?

I'm not losing sleep over it, I'm just curious as to the why's of it.

In reply to fast_eddie_72:

The PA Amish say things like "Throw your father down the stairs his hat."

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: The PA Amish say things like "Throw your father down the stairs his hat."

My wife speaks just like that. We've always attributed it to her growing up in french Canada, in a German speaking household, and learning to speak english as an afterthought.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: The PA Amish say things like "Throw your father down the stairs his hat."

Minnesota farmers say things like,"Throw the cow over the fence some hay."

We have some at work that bug me to no end. To start we have an announcement that is broadcast over the pa systems of all the buses several times an hour. It is read live, but must be read word for word the way it was written. "Safety and security is our primary concern" I am not an english scholar but it sounds terrible, and I can't believe it's correct. I cringe every time I hear it.

We also have people who think that they need to pad their statements with superfluous, unnecessary and redundant and many times misused big words,. It serves no purpose and often causes important announcements about service changes to be incomprehensible. These people would yell "Conflagration" in a turgid cinema and wonder why everyone sat there eating their popcorn.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: In reply to fast_eddie_72: The PA Amish say things like "Throw your father down the stairs his hat."

Yoda is Amish?

Wally wrote: These people would yell "Conflagration" in a turgid cinema and wonder why everyone sat there eating their popcorn.

What kind of movies do they show in those turgid cinemas?

stuart in mn wrote:

Wally wrote: These people would yell "Conflagration" in a turgid cinema and wonder why everyone sat there eating their popcorn.

What kind of movies do they show in those turgid cinemas?

The ones that Pee Wee Herman enjoys I'll bet!

fast_eddie_72 wrote: Clearly what those sentences are supposed to say are "That lawnmower needs fixing" and "That flat tire needs changing".

"I done fixed my lawnmower the other night."

The above is a decidely more polite version of what I actually said. Cleaning out crusty carb gunk was not how I had planned to spend my evening in the garage.

Bringing this up from the dead. For two reasons.

1. Since I Made my original post and through the course of this thread I received more than a couple very nice emails from people. They were very understanding and many related personal experiences to there dealings with dyslexia and what a SOB it really is. I just want to say thank you! All the notes were greatly appreciated!!! And it is really nice to know that we are not allow suffering with this dam problem.

2. The second type of response I got from more than a few were that they did not post due to their poor spelling and grammar. This in effect was keeping them from sharing there knowledge. This I found sad as I am sure that there are many many more that don't post for this reason. To those people I say post up. I hope with this thread I have opened a dialog that will lead to some understanding that we are all not English majors and that the guy that can rebuild a SBC with his eyes close may not even be able to turn on a computer (I actually know a guy like this).

Anyway thanks for the constructive discussion and I hope that others that have been silent may find the courage to post up.

As a former English major, the spelling and grammatical mistakes in board posts do make me wince. As a current decent human being, I find no need to point them out.

However, when you are a mainstream news source or anything that gets paid for the written word, I expect better. I can't believe the number of typos that even "the best" journalism sources currently display and never bother to correct. I'd be damned embarrassed if it were my work out there.

I find, whenever I pull the old Grammar Police play, I either spell something wrong in the title of my next post, (that I cannot correct) or some other grammar Nazi correct my poor grammar in the statement I made.

I have learned to spell the word, definitely, correctly from this forum's experts.

Take it all with a grain of salt, most times it is light-hearted, the few who really care can go for a long walk on a poorly spelt pier.

spitfirebill wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: In reply to fast_eddie_72: The PA Amish say things like "Throw your father down the stairs his hat."

Yoda is Amish?

Amish, is Yoda?

For you, I fixed that.

aussiesmg wrote:

spitfirebill wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: In reply to fast_eddie_72: The PA Amish say things like "Throw your father down the stairs his hat."

Yoda is Amish?

Amish, is Yoda? For you, That I fixed.

FTFY

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

aussiesmg wrote:

spitfirebill wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: In reply to fast_eddie_72: The PA Amish say things like "Throw your father down the stairs his hat."

Yoda is Amish?

Amish, is Yoda? For you, That I fixed.

FTFY

Unfreakingbelievable

In reply to aussiesmg:

In reply to Appleseed:

(Damn. I tried to break the Internet by replying to myself.)

An easy grammar lesson you'll never forget:

http://youtu.be/IJ2SHSg5rIY