Correcting people's grammar - acceptable?

DianeBlack

It depends on the situation and the person. Personally I don't like doing this not to offend someone.

makeitstop

Newlyboughthouse wrote: »

Everywhere I look, I see terrible spelling and grammar. It is shocking. Check out the post in Pets and Pet Care titled 'out of hours vet', for example.

Question: is it acceptable to correct perpetrators? I feel that I can't without fear of being accused of being the grammar police or a grammar nazi. So I just seethe on the inside.

However, I can see the population getting dumb, and feel such corrections should be made. Otherwise, eventually, 'to' will be accepted as 'too', or 'loose' will be accepted as 'lose' etc.

Thoughts on a postcard...

You are not alone.

I have not read any post in response to this thread, but, I cannot stand the use of the word "there, as being flung around to replace their and they're.

When I see sentences like....

"There waiting at the bus stop".... instead of.... "They're waiting at the bus stop"

or....

"There car was stolen".... instead of..... "Their car was stolen"

It drives me NUUUUUTS.

pollypenny

I've just suggested a new wording for Wendy's thread on financial education. 'Impactful' is very clumsy.

Jagraf

pollypenny wrote: »

I've just suggested a new wording for Wendy's thread on financial education. 'Impactful' is very clumsy.

Why did you want to do that? Reasons not to include:

1. It detracts from what the OP wants to say
2. It detracts from people answering her question
3. It's accepted by most and will no doubt be in the dictionary soon
4. Everyone knows what it means
5. It's not relevant to that discussion

Would you do the same in a Directors meeting if they used it as part of their presentation to discuss what impact redundancies would have on a community?

I've been in meetings where people go off on the most remarkable tangents and someone has to keep pulling them in. But usually they don't realise they're doing it.

I don't understand what you are trying to achieve.

SailorSam

makeitstop wrote: »

When I see sentences like....

"There waiting at the bus stop".... instead of.... "They're waiting at the bus stop"

or....

"There car was stolen".... instead of..... "Their car was stolen"

It drives me NUUUUUTS.

I try my best to make sure my posts are all correct, and often come back to edit then if i find i've made a mistake. But in the big scheme of things, this is only a forum. If i see mistakes but i can understand what it's suppose to be, it's no big deal. I certainly wouldn't drive me nuts.

pollypenny

Jagraf wrote: »

Why did you want to do that? Reasons not to include:

1. It detracts from what the OP wants to say
2. It detracts from people answering her question
3. It's accepted by most and will no doubt be in the dictionary soon
4. Everyone knows what it means
5. It's not relevant to that discussion

Would you do the same in a Directors meeting if they used it as part of their presentation to discuss what impact redundancies would have on a community?

I've been in meetings where people go off on the most remarkable tangents and someone has to keep pulling them in. But usually they don't realise they're doing it.

I don't understand what you are trying to achieve.

Removing a clumsy term, which I can't imagine in a dictionary .

tea_lover

pollypenny wrote: »

Removing a clumsy term, which I can't imagine in a dictionary .

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/impactful

pollypenny

tea_lover wrote: »

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/impactful

X

Ok, but still ugly.

Lily-Rose_3

Impactful doesn't sound like a real word does it?!

I'm surprised to find it is.

Mistral001

I think if you correct people who use bad grammar, you should not be sloppy in your own use of English. Apparently a certain somebody used the following in a post on this thread:

"necessary to get it as right as possible".


'