Wrongly used words - a pet hate

I think globalisation is about the only logical point were I can concede this is vitally important. Something like Babelfish is rough on a good day, slip a "than" in for a "then" and you spiral into unchartable territory. If I'm typing a serious response to a question which has clearly been posed by a non-native I try to be very careful of spelling, sentence structure, and not taking any shortcuts, nor even otherwise acceptable contractions. If they are relying on machine translation it gives them a better chance at knowing what I was trying to say.

If it's just scrwwing round on teh intarwebs, then "meh."

Knowing how much my posts have been under a microscope (I fall into many of the "pet peeves", etc in this thread) makes me sad.

A failed product of my school system, a lazy student who felt socializing was more fun or simply an "uneducated" or "stupid" person simply for improper word phrasing.

Well, I did not expect some of the people in this thread to flash their grammar forum cop badges. Thank God for my firefox spell check as already you would have seen 6 misspelled words in this post alone. What an idiot I must be, right?

Wilde, this is not a blast at you but at the entire thread. I really had no clue all these pet peeves were so important to people that they needed to be brought out to shame some of us.

Good God, people talk about how they are so damn accepting of things considered hot buttons in SL but on a fucking forum people who do not reach their superior intellect and grammar skills are "stupid". Well fuck that. Happy Mac is pretty surprised right now so excuse me for my language.

Thanks for the grammar lessons in this thread.. and the bigger lesson some of us are walking away with too.

I'm outraged by it.


Part of me thinks that will be kind of fun.

I do my best to speak precisely because I want to give myself the best chance of being understood. I like to throw in the occasional idiom and colloquialism to add flavor and familiarity to what I'm saying. I like it when someone comes up with a cool new way of saying something, but don't want to sound like those people who overuse the latest catch phrase.

I don't really think to much about what kind of grammar other people use. Except for that "myself" thing, but even then I realize I'm probably using that to release unrelated frustration or something.

Some so called uneducated people are amongst the richest and most powerful people in the world.

Re: Mac.

I'm wondering of the previous 20 pages look different now set in stone than they did when the concrete was being poured. Many of the posts were not at all serious in what they posted at the time. Perhaps the sarcasm in the face of hypocrisy isn't fully apparent enough afterward? We need more smilies damnit!

Vamp,
I read yours as sarcasm and saw your post back there about not mistaking something for something.. I forget what you said lol. I didn't mean you in this. I recognize the joking/sarcasm in the posts that had them. Some were serious and were surprising to me because some of those same people act like all should be accepted in SL. I dunno.. this hit a hot button with me because I see so much that is typo'd etc etc and if the people that do that even more then me feel as bad as some people here made me feel then they may never post again.
Some of us don't have the education level some people here have. Though I congratulate those that do I think it is piss poor decorm to wave it like a flag to feel superior over others for something as silly as if they use certain words wrong.

Shit, I am not going to respond anymore here. I said what I feel and still love everyone and call them friends. I just had no idea that something that seems so insignificant on a message board was such a problem to the world at large or to personal pet peeves. And more that people were willing to make others feel "stupid" for their shortcomings in that respect.

Mac out!

You do not have to be educated to be successful in life. Believe me, I am not formally educated but I am very successful in RL, it's about, drive, wit, charm, luck and a bit of know how.

Oh and trust me, if you’re a good looking chick you’ll get further than a fugly, educated wordsmith

A pet peeve is just an annoyance, and people are just voicing their annoyances here. In a text-only environment such as a message board, your writing becomes a very important factor in how others perceive you, like it or not. Folks don't have your appearance, voice, or body language to go by here. Jane Avatar could be the most brilliant person on the grid, but if she writes all her posts using all lower-case and zero punctuation and that's all we ever see of her, I'm sorry, but she's going to look like an idiot. Just because she APPEARS to be an idiot doesn't mean that she IS- but how are we going to know any better?

Folks always get sensitive when the issues of grammar and spelling come up, and I apologize to you or anyone else who may have been hurt or insulted by anything I said. It's clearly not my intent.

OK, one more pet peeve: insure/ensure

People constantly misuse insure when they mean ensure, even in business and financial publications, where they really should know better.

The thing that bothers me is, they are both useful English words, with distinct meanings, and it makes perfect sense to preserve the distinction between them, yet that distinction is steadily disappearing.

"Insure" means to indemnify against injury: You INSURE your house against flood damage. "Ensure" means to take measures to make certain of something: You build your house on high ground to ENSURE that it will not suffer flood damage.

See? One means you get compensation in the event something unwanted happens. The other means you take steps to make sure it won't happen in the first place. A big difference, which you will appreciate if you ever have to file a big claim with an insurance company.

It's probably hopeless, but I would really like to see these two words survive in their separate identities. Absorbing "ensure" into "insure" will leave the language, and people's understanding, a little bit poorer.

On other matters: Of course it's "her-ASS-meant." And personally, I've always liked "irregardless." The latter strikes me as a pleasant and mildly amusing intensifier, one that everyone instantly understands, of the word "regardless."

So I intend to use "insure" and "ensure" correctly, irregardless of any her-ASS-meant.

How many supermodel CEOs are there, again?

If you think a woman can't be both smart and attractive, a lifetime of remedial English isn't going to help you get a clue.

phooey. This thread has magnetic rails.

My Father would tell me..You can get up there and act like you know everything and have only some of the people hearing what you have to say or you can be yourself and speak on a level where everyone feels what you say...

You have always sounded clear as a bell to me..I have no pet peeves and i can sure feel what you are saying..
Some people really went over board..
i could reply to the ones that thought it was a free shot at people they look down on ..A lot of people in America were forced into this language..so yes lack of respect is there for it..
I know most were just having fun and it was meant as a fun thread but some really showed the colors.

Reading through this whole thread could puke a buzzard off a gut wagon.

I know you can be smart and attractive!

Spelling mistakes don't bother me that much, probably because I often make them myself. I do appreciate it though, when people make an effort when posting. It's much easier for me to read when capitals, commas and periods are used. If someone prefers not to use them, it gives me the impression that they couldn't be bothered, that I, as the reader, am not important enough for them to make the effort.

Mistakes are just that - mistakes. As long as I can understand what you're trying to say, I'm happy.

The fact that I could read this makes me want to go shoot myself.

Language is all about communicating within a context.

I'm sure Trout will agree (I believe he is a lawyer) that the language he uses in these forums differs from the language he uses when drafting a contract.

I'm assuming that when any of us is being interviewed for a job, we try to speak "correctly" and are unlikely to say "prolly" instead of probably.

You can be as intelligent, educated and grammatically correct as you like, but if the person you're talking to doesn't understand what you're saying.... then in reality you're as inarticulate as anyone else.

The truth is though, that you are still judged by the language you use. Levels of intelligence and education can still be deduced by the way someone uses language and from there people are pigeon-holed (or crow-barred) into a demographic class.

As an example, I think of myself as a young(ish), vaguely current 42 year old. However when I send a text message, I immediately identify myself to younger colleagues as a sad, middle-aged, senile fool.

By typing "colour" instead of "color", I immediately identify myself as from the UK.

So in my opinion, the language you use is primarily a means of communication which also says something about who you are.

I agree that spelling and grammar can be pains in the bum, and while I'm semi-alright at spelling, I know my grammar stinks. (As an exampe I like to use the hyphen as a crowbar to make up words, like "semi-alright".

It is true however that sticking to a a relatively correct version of spelling and grammar will generally get your point across more clearly.

At the end of the day though, language isn't maths. 2 + 2 will always = 4, but language is evolving all the time and who knows, in 50 years time, maybe teachers will be telling us all that "probably" is spelled PROLLY.

... or from New Zealand, or Canada, or Australia, or...

Oh my! This thread is now making me nit-pick as well.

I have actually never heard anyone say 'prolly'. Is that really how it sounds outloud to some?

omg hahahaha the tears won't stop..That was the funniest thing i have heard in a while..

reminds me of the futurama episode where everyone kept saying axe instead of ask

Yeah, but aren't those guys just Brits by any other name ..?

Only joking, I apologise for my oversight.

I think we're all trying our best to make ourselves understood and I think most of us make spelling and grammatical mistakes. (Is grammatical even a word?) Each of us probably likes to speak with his or her own distinctive voice. Probably most of us would agree that what everyone says is more important than how they say it. And it would be boring if we were all the same.

It would behoove one to give heed to Phil's grousings and derive benefit under his tutelage.

(did that sound dirty to anyone else?)


Too many things in here to really comment on. I'm glad someone talked about the their/there/they're issue. It always irks me when I see it, but I often have to go back and correct my own postings because of it. It's interesting how errors like that can stick out so obviously in other people's writings, while being so invisible in our own.

The word "anyways" always bugs me, and reading the pseudo-word "meh" feels like an icepick to the brain. (even when I typed it just now)

We may not like to acknowledge it, but anytime a native English speaker is posting something on the internet, even in these forums (fora?), we are teaching the language to others. I believe that was the only point that Phil was trying to make. Those of us that know better should make an effort to do better. He wasn't picking on anyone specifically, just pointing out two common errors that he notices, and giving an example of someone that we collectively have been teaching improperly.


Here's another idiosynchracy of the language:
You can accept people for who they are, and except others because of who they are.

Hooves (hoofs is also acceptable)? Grouse? Someone is now involved with animals?

Please send them over to the deviant thread.

Wildefire, doh... um let me see last count none. But, um how many hairdresser fighter pilots are there. hmm, how many florist dental nurses are there?

Wot a dumb question!

And that precisely is the point. Your goody two shoes grammar doesn't make up for your abject stupidity.