Why can't people spell right on the internet?

[uniacidz]

^Not true. If you have half a brain, you can spell how the hell you want whenever the hell you want.

People that correct spelling on the internet just make them selves look like ignorant pricks that have nothing better to do than bitch about everything.

I vote for worry about more important things like your own twisted self. Nobody in here is perfect enough to have any excuse to nit pick spelling on the net.

Agree.

For me, I make mistakes, sometimes knowingly, but do I correct it, no.

But one thing that does annoy me is how persons use SMS language into forums or da l337, but otherwise simple grammar and spelling mistakes I won't frown upon cos simply, people do make mistakes.

Im also amazed at some of the responses here in this thread, I really cannot believe some of you have taking spelling mistakes onboard and had a whinge about it.

FFS, there is more important things in your own life and the world to be concerned about.

[Lqv2015]

Hey, I'm not an expert on the language either. Correct grammar is hard for many people, but I'm talking about the most basic here. 3rd grade stuff. I could understand using "u" for "you" or "theyre" because it's a lazy "they're". But who uses "am" for "I'm"? WTF is that all about? Using "their" when it should be "there" isn't because people are lazy.

What you say is true; it is symptomatic of just about everything in the modern world! Every activity that is undertaken, shopping at the supermarket, driving, heaven help us, playing games on your PC, chatting on the forum at Neowin, just about ANYTHING that you can think of, has to be done at once and as fast as possible! Why not play the game and then chat or stop the game and chat, but no everything needs to be done at breakneck speed! This results in inaccuracies across the board! (Excuse the unintentional pun.) I have heard people in the supermarket on the mobile phone talking to their wives, with the conversation going something like: “Where are you now honey, I am in the frozen foods section!” For God’s sake, is this necessary? What the hell did people do before the advent of mobile phones?

The point that I am trying to make is why not slow down a little and take some care! If you know that your spelling and grammar sucks, it will take 30 seconds to check and correct these errors! Once your post is finished, cut the thing and past it into an open word document and guess what, the thing will actually check everything automatically. Once this has occurred it will also help you do corrections!

It appears that as with “real” conversations no one is listening, everyone wants to get their five cents in as fast as possible! “Quick, have to get my post up before old Fred beats me to it!”

My parting shot would be to clarify one thing, I am not suggesting that every single post at Neowin has to be grammatically perfect or that a post with spelling mistakes will result in you being shot at dawn, but please make an effort. Also to the non English speaking people, if your best is just that, then keep trying. (Cue to: A crescendo of applause that takes five minutes to die down! Bows to the crowd thinking, “Man, that was almost a soliloquy” :D

Everything you say here is too funny yet too real. Especially the cell phone part. I know girls that get right on the phone right when they get in their vehicles.

Edited February 13, 2008 by Lqv2015

[Astra.Xtreme]

Then let's not even bother to do anything properly.

Correct spelling and grammar might matter less on the internet when communicating with friends, etc. But bad habits die hard, and when your spelling/grammar abilities (as part of basic communication and language) really count, you'll end up looking dumb.

Or how about we do whatever the hell we want on the net. Bitch all you want, but chances are, the person you are correcting is smarter, richer, and has a hotter significant other than you do. So unless you want to meet face to face and compare lives, **** off a little bit.

I'll say it again, nobody is perfect enough to correct something as dumb as spelling on the net. We all took a decade of English class or whatever equivalent, so no brainless stranger is going to change anybody.

[Lqv2015]

btw, I never once try to correct anyone's spelling or grammar. It's rude. I'm not perfect myself. This is a one time & one time only rant. Because I think most people here are smarter than a 3rd grader. :D

[zeta_immersion]

wow ... i never thought this would come up ... then again there are many people who's eng is not their first language ... so it makes sense ... besides ... being lazy makes a huge difference when typing

(ex... i instead of I and so on ...

[Skittlebrau]

^Not true. If you have half a brain, you can spell how the hell you want whenever the hell you want.

People that correct spelling on the internet just make them selves look like ignorant pricks that have nothing better to do than bitch about everything.

I vote for worry about more important things like your own twisted self. Nobody in here is perfect enough to have any excuse to nit pick spelling on the net.

I'm not twisted :( Just was trying to get across an opinion in a non-threatening way.

I just think it's a legitimate concern. Ah well, no harm done anyway.

[Kudos Veteran]

Or how about we do whatever the hell we want on the net. Bitch all you want, but chances are, the person you are correcting is smarter, richer, and has a hotter significant other than you do. So unless you want to meet face to face and compare lives, **** off a little bit.

I'll say it again, nobody is perfect enough to correct something as dumb as spelling on the net. We all took a decade of English class or whatever equivalent, so no brainless stranger is going to change anybody.

Oh burn! Dude, we just got burned by a guy who surely owns an Escalade GT, the model of luxury living. Clearly this man is referring to himself when he says he is "smarter, richer and has a hotter significant other than you", all relevant and valid points when it comes to grammar and spelling. Oh my god we got burned so bad. I have learned the error the error of my ways.

[Astra.Xtreme]

^Are you serious? Hey lets make fun of a username that was created 5 years ago.... Grow the hell up.

[Doli]

Whats next? the UK asking why cant the US spell colour their way. So we droped the 'u' big deal.

[Emn1ty]

I think the most annoying kind of thing is when people don't use punctuation to indicate sentences and paragraphs. It's really frustrating and exhausting to read a giant wall of text. Then there is using single letters to replace whole words.

Edited February 13, 2008 by Emn1ty

[monkey13]

Whats next? the UK asking why cant the US spell colour their way. So we droped the 'u' big deal.

Don't get me started on Americanised spellings of things. I'll rant for hours.

Also I didn't realised you had dropped the "p" as well. :p

[PermaSt0ne]

- Am-I'm

- To-Too-Two

- Where-were-we're

- There-they're-their

- Know-now

- I-eye

- Your-you're

- Here-hear

- Off-of

that's not an internet problem. that's a general society problem. most people in the entry level English 100 classes in college don't know the difference between those homophones

they just end up not learning them in middle school. my elementary, middle and high school never taught me those. i learned from my mom when i was a little kid :unsure:

oh and i live in Southern California, surrounded by "good" schools and rich folks so there really is no excuse

edit: and keep in mind, this is the internet. you are connected to millions of foreigners that are from or live in another country. english is their second language :yes:

[Superflytnt]

Whats next? the UK asking why cant the US spell colour their way. So we droped the 'u' big deal.

The US didn't drop the U, the british added it.

[SIE]

Whats next? the UK asking why cant the US spell colour their way. So we droped the 'u' big deal.

Whats that got to do with anything? That has nothing to do with what this topic is about, believe it or not, English people don't have a problem with American spelling or words. I know, SHOCKING! *GASP*

[Hooya]

Perhaps i just use the net too much, but i was under the impression that "should of" is acceptable, while not as perfect as "should have" or "should've", i still wouldnt neccessary call it bad English.

Yeah... not so much.

Take the "should" or similar word out of the sentence and see if it makes sense:

"I of gone to the store"

"I have gone to the store"

One makes no sense at all because the word "of" doesn't agree with the subject "I".

Now insert the "should"

"I should have gone to the store"

Now make it a contraction:

"I should've gone to the store"

Ta-Da!!!!

(yes, I know I'm missing some punctuation, sue me.)

Oh and yeah, "common" does not mean "come on". The first time I saw that I was genuinely confused. "Common", as in, things that we have in common. The word simply cannot stand on its own. (see that lack of apostrophe in the word "its"? huh, like that? Yeah, I knew you would)

[Doli]

Whats that got to do with anything? That has nothing to do with what this topic is about, believe it or not, English people don't have a problem with American spelling or words. I know, SHOCKING! *GASP*

I guess you mised the post that was after my post.

Don't get me started on Americanised spellings of things. I'll rant for hours.

[Emn1ty]

edit: and keep in mind, this is the internet. you are connected to millions of foreigners that are from or live in another country. english is their second language :yes:

Using correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation also assists people who don't know the language. Using a bunch of abbreviations and slang will really water down what we say and therefore make it hard for some other users who may not know English too well to comprehend it.

[Hooya]

The US didn't drop the U, the british added it.

And both dropped a hell of a lot of the letter "E" at the end of a lot of words.

Music used to be spelled "musick" for real!

[Kudos Veteran]

^Are you serious? Hey lets make fun of a username that was created 5 years ago.... Grow the hell up.

No, I was making fun of your points in general.

[monkey13]

The US didn't drop the U, the british added it.

Where did you get that from? According to Wiki we've been doing it since 1066.

[metallithrax]

There are only 2 things that really drive me crazy. Should/could/would of instead of should/could/would have and common instead of come on.

The two things the get on my nerves as well.

[Martyn]

It does annoy me as well, but if a post is worded so that I cannot understand it I more than often skip over it. Personally, I am English and I think my grammar/spelling is generally quite good. One thing that does annoy me though, is that I generally get confused with the whole "their" and "there" thing...I don't know why, I have just not been able to get my head around it since I was a kid.

[MytMowse]

I really hate when someone asks "where" something is, and they spell it "were". Drives me up the wall.

[Wannes]

I'm one of those persons who hates grammatical and spelling mistakes as well but I can understand that not every one speaks English as a mother tongue. Not only do they not speak it, they may also not learn it the way they should. If that's that case you should at least give them credit for trying their best.

We cannot expect that everyone speaks perfect English. I'm just lucky to be educated in English as it's not my mother tongue either. When people can't spell on the internet I advice them to get a spellchecker plugin for Firefox, Safari, ... . It's a small little application which can do the job.

Ps. Not only on the internet people can't spell, it happens in the real world as well. A lot actually.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

Many people probably don?t even know they are making mistakes, I know that I wouldn?t know unless I spell checked what I had typed in Word.

English and spelling / grammar does not come easy to everyone even if you have been speaking English you whole life. This could be for many different reasons e.g. dyslexia.

As some people have pointed out above just because someone is typing in English on the internet that does not mean its there first language.