Why do people have the need to correct others??

ska_lover

I always notice spelling and grammar, but wouldn't feel the need to point it out unless it was a legal document, important communication or suchlike.

People who do point it out on forums can come across as patronising - when their only input into a thread is to correct grammar mistakes.

System

I notice errors in spelling and grammar but I'm another one who doesn't point it out. If a post is in text speak or has no punctuation I probably won't read it all; I'll just leave and find something else to read. I do have a habit of pointing it out in conversation though, when talking to both native and non-native speakers! My friends usually take it quite well, as they know I tend to do it automatically and don't mean any offence! I once corrected a relatively new friend (from Norway) and immediately apologised afterwards. She told me that she preferred it when people corrected her, as that was the only way she would ever improve her English. Incidentally, her English was near-perfect, and her accent was so close to RP that when I first met her I assumed she was born and bred her. I'm sure this fluency was at least partly thanks to her willingness to learn and improve.

thefishdude

i would never point out mistakes mainly casue i make loads and i dont really care tbh im also rubbish at grammar. judge me all if you will but i know exactly what i am saying and if someone corrects me then they obviously new exactly what i was saying also so why the need to correct???

looking back and checking i can see i have at least 2 mistakes in this post lol

i

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

It is in all our collective interests to learn how to [read] and write properly even if we are adults. No shame in that. I would rather be surrounded by those who knew how to do both and preferably had a wide variety of skills, Essays and Essayist stuff, Novels, Reportage etc who I could learn from.
Also Foreigners benefit from becoming bilingual over here so win/win.

[Deleted User]

Quite often, I use text speak on forums. It has become as much a part of my personality as my name somehow. I used to post a lot on one particular forum, there was a former friend on there who I had spent quite a lot of time chatting to who made a very public post just under one of my posts that he didn't like 'text speak' and pointed out that the site did have as one of its 'rules' that text speak should not be used on the forum (the owner joined in later on agreeing with this 'friend'). I replied to the post and explained, but the word 'lazy' was used over and over again and quite frankly, I felt like I'd been told to shave my head lol.

I left the site. I didn't feel welcome anymore. So the site had less text speak.., and whole lot less posts (it was a car site and I used to give a lot of advice as well on there.., and help people out a lot.., but yes I did quite often use some text speak.., I rarely write you .., I write u.., just my style of writing and I like it that way). I think a site that spends a lot of time criticising a person's way of writing.., whatever the reason for it.., risks losing valuable posts. But its a choice for the postees either way. You can complain about the way someone writes (as an aside a spell checker is not necessarily a great deal of use to someone who has dyslexia) and risk making a site seem elitist and get far fewer posts. Or start 'lively discussions' with lots of unpleasant view points being expressed. I'd prefer to let live myself.., I've got more important things to concern myself with than whether someone has spelt every word in a post correctly lol.

spaghetti_monster

euronorris wrote: »

Sounds lovely, but bl00dy difficult to pronunce correctly at times! :rotfl: There are quite a few sounds in the Dutch language that are not in the English language and I struggle with them.

The 'g' sound was pretty easy to master in comparison to the 'ui' sound. It was a long time before I could even hear a difference between that sound and the English 'ow' sound. Mastering is even more difficult

Maybe my experience with regards to grammar will change as my Dutch skills develop.

My worst one is the "oe" sound. For some reason it's ok in words like "boek" and "goed" - I just pronounce them the same as in English (of course with the Dutch 'g') and it doesn't seem to bother people. For work I had to go to town called Goes, which I can only pronounce as Guus (man's name Gus) - much to the amusement of everyone. I just can't hear the difference no matter how hard I try.

I read recently that Dutch people can't really hear the difference between 'kettle' and 'cattle' (I was reading about how babies start out being able to hear lots of different sounds and within the first year begin to focus on the sounds they will need for their native language).

I sometimes help Dutch children with their English and they often change the 'th' to a 't'. Lots of adults also seem to have trouble with this, even when their English is extremely good.

I had some issues at first with OH correcting my Dutch. It can be really frustrating if you're trying to get a point across and someone then proceeds to correct all your mistakes and you get the feeling they're not listening to what you're saying. OH quickly got much better at just correcting now and again.
He also corrects just one thing at a time - maybe something that I get wrong on a regular basis.
One of my current ones is that I always directly translate from English "I have forgotten", when it should be with the verb 'to be' (more like "I am forgetting)". I'm at the stage now where I instantly correct myself (before OH gets a chance!), so hopefully soon it'll come more naturally.

ellay864

Well this has been an entertaining morning reading this over my porridge! Am totally resisting temptation to jump in and do any corrections though most genuine non-English people are happy to be corrected. Also most people who've learnt English as a second (or 3rd or more) language write it a lot better than many natives as they've been taught some grammar. I don't think anybody slaughters the English language as much as the English...OK, maybe the Americans but we won't go there

Pimento...I think you may find the mis-spelling of tenant has more to do with a certain Doctor Who David than a lager

January20

Purbeck wrote: »

I'd make a guess that anyone who uses the word "peeps" and can spell "dissatisfied" and uses the term "me thinks" has English as their first language lol.

Not necessarily. English is my second language and I may occasionally use "peeps" and I understand how to use "me thinks" but wouldn't use it because I try and speak English as well as I can. As for the spelling of some words, if it's close to my native language, even a complicated word can be easy and of course I can use the spell check when I type.

Regarding correcting people, I hate it when people correct me on this forum because they are NOT my friends and they don't do it to help me, they do it to get a sense of superiority over me. In many cases, my mistakes are typos so even more annoying.

In RL, I like people to correct me because I can identify very quickly who is trying to be helpful and who is an arrogant pig. In 99.9% of cases they are trying to help.

Finally, I believe that people should be more sensitive because unless you have tried to learn a foreign language, it's very difficult to understand how difficult it is to be completely accurate all the time. Also, it's easy to correct foreigners but many natives are unable to speak English without any mistakes either (ie could of/ brought instead of bought/ their, they're and there, etc)

Allegra

Purbeck wrote: »

I'd make a guess that anyone who uses the word "peeps" and can spell "dissatisfied" and uses the term "me thinks" has English as their first language lol.

Afraid you'd be wrong I am guilty on all three counts (except I'd write (or say) methinks, not me thinks), yet I am most definitely (or defiantly, even :P ) not a native speaker

As to the question posed in the thread's title - well, on an online forum, language is all we have. If a poster asking the question can not be bovvered to put a little bit of effort into making their language coherent and intelligible, why on earth should anyone else be bovvered to firstly decipher the question, and then give it some thought and type out the answer ?

Frankly, I'd say that all the folk that actually go to the trouble of saying "put in some paragraphs, for pity's sake", or "you prolly mean "definitely", not "defiantly", sunshine" are better people than I am - if a post is too much trouble to read, I will just skip past - if all were like me, not giving in to their "need to correct people", then many posts would just drop down the pages lone and unanswered :cool:

Lotus-eater

thefishdude wrote: »

i would never point out mistakes mainly casue i make loads and i dont really care tbh im also rubbish at grammar. judge me all if you will but i know exactly what i am saying and if someone corrects me then they obviously new exactly what i was saying also so why the need to correct???

looking back and checking i can see i have at least 2 mistakes in this post lol

i

And the rest. I found it difficult to read your post and had to reread several bits.
If you're happy with that, then ok. I won't bother to read your posts anymore.
That's what I tend to do to posts that I struggle to read easily.