Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

fellblade wrote:I believe, deep in my heart of hearts, that someone who writes poorly is. . . stupid. Valid or not, this perception colors my interactions with them.

There is a certain type of poster who believes that no matter how he abuses the language, we should all treat him with respect and answer his question- even when we cannot tell what his question is. This is just rude, and I wholeheartedly endorse the vicious mocking of such individuals until they cry.

Oh, true.

I completely agree. Not here, but other forums actually have 'vets' that use shorthands of sorts. Ex.

If your suggesting that moderators should become grammar nazis, i think they should at least start moderating some of the more uppity members of dakka, (you know who you are) who are just rude in general before moving on to finer things. I'd rather have to decipher a message from someone polite than be able to clearly read some thing from a jerk...

fellblade wrote:I believe, deep in my heart of hearts, that someone who writes poorly is. . . stupid. Valid or not, this perception colors my interactions with them.

There is a certain type of poster who believes that no matter how he abuses the language, we should all treat him with respect and answer his question- even when we cannot tell what his question is. This is just rude, and I wholeheartedly endorse the vicious mocking of such individuals until they cry.

I share your opinion, although it also makes me think said poster is 13 or 14. Despite that, there are some very good posters here of that age.

Uh oh... where's that thread (from OT, maybe?) where there was a MASSIVE debate on this?

I think I like this one better though, because no one is trying to convince me of anything stupid yet.

fellblade wrote:I believe, deep in my heart of hearts, that someone who writes poorly is. . . stupid. Valid or not, this perception colors my interactions with them.

There is a certain type of poster who believes that no matter how he abuses the language, we should all treat him with respect and answer his question- even when we cannot tell what his question is. This is just rude, and I wholeheartedly endorse the vicious mocking of such individuals until they cry.

This just about sums up my viewpoint. It's almost sig-able.

MinMax


to have and to have not!

Chibi wept.

CT GAMER wrote:

illuknisaa wrote:Should there be like a grammar article or perhaps sticky thread about some basic grammar rules? As it seems that many people seem to do many mistakes in writing words or sentense's construct is f ed up.

Could we start with the above quoted post?

Yes please.

Could I take issue with americans who say "I could care less..."

Why are you saying this? Do words mean nothing? This is wrong, you're supposed to say "I couldn't care less". That's the point of saying it, you're telling everyone how little you care by stating that, in fact, "you could *not* care less". That's how little you care about something, there is not an iota of care that you could descend any further, you don't give the tiniest of damns about something.

To claim that actually you "could care less" indicates that you actually care about something a bit. In fact it's totally meaningless because we have no gauge of how much you therefore care. I "could care less" about my wife, that's easy because I love her, of course I could care less about her, I actually care about her a great deal. I mean I have this coffee cup in front of me, I'm not greatly interested in it and it if smashed, well I'd be a bit disappointed but not greatly moved. I don't care about it a great deal but hey, "I could care less" because actually I quite like it even though it's loss would have little significance.

So if you want to indicate your disdain for something and your total lack of caring for it, don't say "I could care less", that's meaningless and takes all the force out of what you're saying because you're declaring that you do actually care a bit after all. What you're supposed to say is...

"I couldn't care less".



Don't get me started on tautologies. GW are guilty of this too, I mean "lizardman saurus", give me strength.

Somone got out of bed the wrong side didn't they!

But Howard that's three extra buttons to press

Elmodiddly wrote:Somone got out of bed the wrong side didn't they!

You think that's bad, what with programmes like 'Friends' and 'Buffy' they've poisoned our shores. Spelling mistakes I can handle, but why is it that so many people now say things like "That's so not good", instead of saying "That is bad"? WHY?!?!!? Why do people insist on saying what something isn't instead of saying what it is? What is the 'so' dropped in there for? Equally, why do they say what something is *like* instead of saying what it is?! Why say "That's car is like so big and red" instead of saying "That car is big and red". Do they have so little faith in their own cognitive faculties that they are unable to commit to a simple factual observation? Similarly saying something like "That's just like, so cool". Ugh, lacks the intellectual fortitude to even form a fething opinion and stand by it.

People who think the words "their", "there"" and "they're" are somehow interchangeable. They are not. Read your sentence over before hitting 'submit' because they mean completely different things. These are much, much worse than spelling mistakes.

Oh, and although I don't see it that often, using "should of" instead of "should have" drives me fething insane.

You know one of my pet hates? Right up there with "they're their there" confusion, and the abuse of the poor apostrophe to incorrectly indicate a possessive when the writer wanted to indicate a plural (Taco's! Burrito's!), is the use of "then" when the writer should have used "than".

I thnk a lot of this word and phrase confusion comes from people not reading enough. You hear these phrases in common use, and never see them written down; naturally, when you go to write, you will say "should of" or "different then", because that is how it sounds in conversation.

Howard A Treesong wrote:

Elmodiddly wrote:Somone got out of bed the wrong side didn't they!

You think that's bad, what with programmes like 'Friends' and 'Buffy' they've poisoned our shores. Spelling mistakes I can handle, but why is it that so many people now say things like "That's so not good", instead of saying "That is bad"? WHY?!?!!? Why do people insist on saying what something isn't instead of saying what it is? What is the 'so' dropped in there for? Equally, why do they say what something is *like* instead of saying what it is?! Why say "That's car is like so big and red" instead of saying "That car is big and red". Do they have so little faith in their own cognitive faculties that they are unable to commit to a simple factual observation? Similarly saying something like "That's just like, so cool". Ugh, lacks the intellectual fortitude to even form a fething opinion and stand by it.

People who think the words "their", "there"" and "they're" are somehow interchangeable. They are not. Read your sentence over before hitting 'submit' because they mean completely different things. These are much, much worse than spelling mistakes.

Oh, and although I don't see it that often, using "should of" instead of "should have" drives me fething insane.

Well when you start calling things by their proper names we can then begin the discussion about our dialectal differences. To Wit... It's an elevator, not a "lift", a truck, not a "lorry", A restroom, not a "Loo".
If this is too much for you then just leave our strange expressions alone and we won't need to send some canadians to "boost your car."

And yet another descent into who calls what which and how...

That is not about grammar but dialect.
Howard's observations are about syntax

It is about how we speak and write. If Howard wants a real headache, I can give him one. Here in the States there are terms such as, 'Up Yonder', 'Down the road a piece', 'get rid of', 'read up', and 'you guys'.

And there is a difference between 'bad', 'not good', and 'So not good'. The word 'so' is used as an adjective, as in the difference between being 'tired' and 'so tired'.

Which, of course, has nothing to do with grammar, spelling, punctuation, or proper sentence structure.

wedotneedgrmar,dowe?

I agree, the bad grammer really bugs me. Although, I did laugh at the title of the poll, "more grammer" doesnt make sense

Again that is dialect which is not so bad
or should that be, that is so not bad!




Automatically Appended Next Post:
on Dakka it should read MAOR grammar!

Btw.. I asked Grammer if she had any thoughts on this.... She told me to stop playing with plastic army men and find a nice girl to settle down with.

MOAR GRAMMER!

I hate the phrase "I could care less" as well, Howard.

Saying you could care less implies that you care at least a little bit.

helgrenze wrote:Well when you start calling things by their proper names we can then begin the discussion about our dialectal differences. To Wit... It's an elevator, not a "lift", a truck, not a "lorry", A restroom, not a "Loo".

Dialect differences are not the issue though I would point out that use of words like 'fanny' in the UK might not get the reaction you expect.

Howard A Treesong wrote:

helgrenze wrote:Well when you start calling things by their proper names we can then begin the discussion about our dialectal differences. To Wit... It's an elevator, not a "lift", a truck, not a "lorry", A restroom, not a "Loo".

Dialect differences are not the issue though I would point out that use of words like 'fanny' in the UK might not get the reaction you expect.

I recall a woman from Scotland telling me a story involving culture shock regarding that word.

She heard a mother say to her daughter who was misbehaving that she was going to "take her home and spank her fanny."

Howard A Treesong wrote:I can see this thread going bad. But I would prefer that users avoid text-speak when writing stuff if only to be clear. Not everyone has english as a first language and not all of use can follow this yoof talk.

It can be said louder, but no more clear

This thread is pure win....and Howard is my hero of the day!

How to Write Like a spanker

pakman wrote:How to Write Like a spanker

Sigged.

I mean: I will add this link to my signature.

Poor grammar I can put up with
but do we really need such language. I know it ain't the worst swear word in the lexicon but even so...

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Poor grammar I can put up with
but do we really need such language. I know it ain't the worst swear word in the lexicon but even so...

Is it considered a really nasty word? I just figured it was somewhere along the lines of "sucks" or "jerk" or something.

Rude, but not profane, you know what I mean?

I know there is some bad grammar but sometimes its not being lazy or CBA because poeple (like me) have special needs and thus find it hard to have prefict grammar all the time i mean as long as the efforts made to have good grammar what else can you say:
*if you find it hard to spell or write properly you are banned* seems a little harsh.

oldone wrote:I know there is some bad grammar but sometimes its not being lazy or CBA because poeple (like me) have special needs and thus find it hard to have prefict grammar all the time i mean as long as the efforts made to have good grammar what else can you say:
*if you find it hard to spell or write properly you are banned* seems a little harsh.

If the only people posting badly were the ones with special needs it wouldn't be such a widespread issue.