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.

I don't know about you, but the way certain people speak English on the internet is atrocious.
I'm not referring to acronyms, innitialisms or portmanteau words -those are acceptable, but the amount of malapropisms is simply astounding.
The thing that gets to me the most though, is the utter lack of homophonic knowledge; people really don't seem to know the difference between:
then and than
where and were
their and there
bored and board
aloud and allowed
course and coarse
hear and here
.....
The list is endless.

English is my second language, and I understand many others are in a similar predicament. I’m not saying mine is anywhere near perfect, but honestly the amount of posts, from the USA mostly, that seem to really struggle with proper English use is frightening. I do not understand why.

What are your thoughts?
I might not be the first to notice this.

Whatchyoubetalkinbout FOOL!?!
Hukd on fonix wurkd fur me!

Some of it is ignorance, but most of it is simply indifference.

Agreed. For some reason, people manage to pick the wrong homophone an overwhelming amount of the time.

Grammar is not exactly a strong element of the American education system.....

JEB_Stuart wrote:Grammar is not exactly a strong element of the American education system.....

Things would have been different if you would have won, huh Jeb?

JEB_Stuart wrote:"The United States educational system is not a strong element of the United States."

Fixed.

There also seems to be an overwhelming usage of the prefix 'on', in clearly wrong circumstances.
Such as: "i am new to this army, i need help on units"
Yet this seems to be accepted in America.
Prefix usage in general is actually just poor.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Frazzled wrote:Whatchyoubetalkinbout FOOL!?!
Hukd on fonix wurkd fur me!

dogma wrote:it is ignorance

Clearly

Demogerg wrote:

JEB_Stuart wrote:"The United States educational system is not a strong element of the United States."

Fixed.

I lol'd.

Proper English is overrated.

Ask Yoda.

adielubbe wrote:

dogma wrote:it is ignorance

Clearly

I'm glad that you would rush towards certainty based on nothing more than a few lines of text. Good work.

Keep in mind that people speaking in their second language tend to have a much higher regard for things like grammatical correctness, and word choice.

For example, my conversational Spanish is considerably 'better' than my conversational English; primarily because I'm not actively working to improve my grasp of the latter language.

No offence to Yoda, but he is a fictional alien, and i'm pretty sure English is not his first language -unlike other individuals.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

dogma wrote:

adielubbe wrote:

dogma wrote:it is ignorance

Clearly

I'm glad that you would rush towards certainty based on nothing more than a few lines of text. Good work.

I was merely refferring to frazzled's response.

TL;DR

The main thing to remember about native speakers online is that most people post online conversationally, as if it were spoken aloud, not as a written essay. Not that many people have that much better chops when writing formally, but at least they can try a bit harder. When one native speaker reads another's post, he understands it.

Strictly speaking, that's the whole point of grammar: to make our communications understandable to others. Some of us use all we have, others only use what they need to.

adielubbe wrote:No offence to Yoda, but he is a fictional alien, and i'm pretty sure English is not his first language -unlike other individuals.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

dogma wrote:

adielubbe wrote:

dogma wrote:it is ignorance

Clearly

I'm glad that you would rush towards certainty based on nothing more than a few lines of text. Good work.

I was merely refferring to frazzled's response.

Actually they don't really speak English in the Star Wars universe. English just happens to have been the convenient format to convey the script. The "accents" by the various aliens are there to convey a sense of foreignness to us English speakers.

GG

adielubbe wrote:
I was merely refferring to frazzled's response.

Got it.

Perhaps I should just ignore it.

That's what I do. If I can't understand a post within a few seconds, I just move on.

Wow, this thread averaged a response about every two and a half minutes thus far. That's remarkable.

@dogma: good idea

How about the fact that most forums, posting websites, etc. all have spell check but people still continue to do it?

I'm like Dogma.

If the poster's first language isn't English, it will generally show in the structure of their post (and little flag icons help). These I don't mind so much.

The rest: Native English speakers who should know better but can't be bothered making the effort - are ignored.

While it's true that we can make sense of most written stuff provided the first and last letters are in the right place and the right letters are in there somewhere (works in written languages you are familiar with), most browsers these days incorporate spellcheckers.

I come from the generation who used to use the so-called "text speech" on Bulletin boards back in the 80s - and I don't even use it in text messages anymore.

chromedog wrote:

I come from the generation who used to use the so-called "text speech" on Bulletin boards back in the 80s - and I don't even use it in text messages anymore.

What is that?

Language is contextual, the difference between their and they're is in the words surrounding the one in question, not the word itself. Given that, I reeeaallly don't care when i mess one up.

Watchoo' talkin about foo'?

ShumaGorath wrote:Language is contextual, the difference between their and they're is in the words surrounding the one in question, not the word itself. Given that, I reeeaallly don't care when i mess one up.

Ecelaspliy wehn the hamun biran can rc-ephier msot wtitern wdors, psraehs, and eevn stnceeens itno a crohenat srnitg and not tnhik tciwe auobt it.

ecxllnt hexmpall.

Yeah, not so much.

OP- I feel your pain.

Also the use of the word "of" in place of "have" or "'ve", as in "would of" when then mean "would have" or "would've"

adielubbe wrote:I don't know about you, but the way certain people speak English on the internet is atrocious.

I've never spoken English incorrectly on the internet. I do write it badly from time to time, however, and have even been known to come out with words that I have had to eat later.
I have never spoken any language on the internet as I think about it.

Just using the spellchecker while briefly reviewing the majority of your posts, along with using understandable punctuation; goes an awful long way.

I don't care that people talk as they would in real life, it just has to make some amount of sense. I actually get incredibly bored reading picture perfect english... my brains begins to melt, and my eyes grow parachutes and bail ship... I need spice on my goddam rice.

Oh... and seriously, your OP title makes very little sense... no one is speaking here, at all, whatsoever. We are typing, perhaps talking (conversing really), but not speaking... . You break it you buy it mate, .

generalgrog wrote:

adielubbe wrote:No offence to Yoda, but he is a fictional alien, and i'm pretty sure English is not his first language -unlike other individuals.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

dogma wrote:

adielubbe wrote:

dogma wrote:it is ignorance

Clearly

I'm glad that you would rush towards certainty based on nothing more than a few lines of text. Good work.

I was merely refferring to frazzled's response.

Actually they don't really speak English in the Star Wars universe. English just happens to have been the convenient format to convey the script. The "accents" by the various aliens are there to convey a sense of foreignness to us English speakers.

GG

thanks for pointing that out..