Why can't people spell right on the internet?

[scumdogmillionaire]

I tried this last year here

[kylejn]

I hate it when people use just horrific spelling/grammar on the Internet. Occasional misspellings are OK if the word in question is one that would be difficult for most people to spell, but when people mix up "there," "their," and "they're," or "where" and "were," it's that stuff that gets on my nerves. American English versus British English doesn't bother me, although sometimes it can be tough to understand what someone means if they're using British English.

The funniest thing is when people misspell "grammar" as "grammer" when they're trying to correct somebody. Hilarious!

[Astra.Xtreme]

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

Nice try, but nothing you said had any credible sense to it.

[Angelic Marge]

I have to use a spell checker cause in my mind and to my eyes my spelling is correct but then I see those dreaded red lines under every other word. I always type or write letters in the wrong order such as taht- that, gilr- girl.

Thank heavens for word processors and Tipp- Ex :laugh:

[Pikey]

[ScottKin]

^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.

Wow!

Can I follow your own line of logic, please?

People that whine about people who feel the need to help people learn and use the english language properly are too self-conscious as it is and hate it when people point out to them their obvious linguistic inadequacies. Since when does a command of the english language = ignorance?

:blink:

--ScottKin

[kylejn]

:laugh:

[Emn1ty]

Wonderful :D

[ScottKin]

:laugh:

Agreed!

Priceless!!

+100,000,000,000,000,000

--Scottkin

[Kudos Veteran]

Nice try, but nothing you said had any credible sense to it.

"Credible sense"? Trying to sound smart doesn't suit you.

[Andre S. Veteran]

I learned English mainly by hearing people speak it, and reading it in magazines, forums, etc. The downside to that is that I'm often confused on what formulation to use, because I know a lot of native English speakers make mistakes. I'd love to speak a better English, but I can't say chatting on forums helps me a lot in that regard.

[PixilEyes]

If you know what the person is saying does it matter? NO! The only thing you get out of correcting someone is an ego boost and a slam on that person.

[+Troll Subscriber¹]

I attribute much of it to laziness. Then again, with the internet, there is no accountability, so people don't really feel the need to be held to a standard of a faceless person on the internet that they will most likely never meet. I'll try to make my sentences flow nicely, but also don't pretend to be the grammar police.

[Lord Nite]

I've held a lot of conversations with someone who could not fathom the difference between their, they're, and there. When I would have a messaging session with them, I would get frustrated, beyond belief, at how someone could claim they work in the programming field and make such horrible grammatical errors as that.

When I see a sentence that has grammatical errors in it, I will fill in the blanks in my head to make is sound more like what the poster intended.

I have never made the assumption that my grammar or spelling is flawless, but I can't stand it when someone makes errors constantly, even after you have politely pointed out the difference of the words.

[deck]

Forget spelling. Why is everyone's grammar so poor?

There is a difference between a simplified sentence, slang, and poor grammar. Sadly, myself included on many occasions, are guilty of using poor grammar on the internet.

I say it's because of a lousy education system - everywhere.

[tomasarson]

Forget spelling. Why is everyone's grammar so poor?

There is a difference between a simplified sentence, slang, and poor grammar. Sadly, myself included on many occasions, are guilty of using poor grammar on the internet.

I say it's because of a lousy education system - everywhere.

+1

[Andre S. Veteran]

If you know what the person is saying does it matter? NO! The only thing you get out of correcting someone is an ego boost and a slam on that person.

The grammar of a language inbodies its internal logic and depth; the similarities and differences between the orthograph of different words tells the semantic similarities and differences between those words. An essential part of being able to communicate with precision, and thus express elaborate ideas, is writing with proper grammar and orthograph. If you're not aware of the rules of how your language is written or spoken, that makes you inferior at communication using this language.

When I correct someone, I am both making sure I really got his confuse meaning, and helping him do better in communication later. Of course, everyone can be a prick doing just about anything but that doesn't mean I should never correct someone.

[Lt-DavidW]

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.

There - To identify a location or time.

I left my car keys over there.

This morning there was snow.

There will be cake.

Their - When referring to someone's possessions.

Spies like their coffee cold.

Both companies sold off most of their shares.

Their blood was full of neurotoxins.

They're - Instead of "they are".

They're so gullible.

I'm not sure where they're going.

They're going over there to pick up their shoes.

What's so hard to understand?

[FreqFace]

Honestly, I think there is more important things to be worrying about.

[Pretend]

Forget spelling. Why is everyone's grammar so poor?

There is a difference between a simplified sentence, slang, and poor grammar. Sadly, myself included on many occasions, are guilty of using poor grammar on the internet.

I say it's because of a lousy education system - everywhere.

I disagree, I mean I usually make hundreds of grammar or spelling mistakes on forums or other sites but when I'm on a forum I know(or should think) that everyone doesn't care about there grammar as much as they would in a real life(not the internet!). So I just relax with my grammar and spelling on forums, but when it comes to an important email,letter,essay or something along those lines, everyone would use better grammar, well I know I do.

[Lt-DavidW]

Honestly, I think there is more important things to be worrying about.

You should have used 'are'.

Would you speak that sentence out aloud in real life? If so, that's really bad grammar.

[MrWante]

One problem I've seen a few times and made the mistake as well is...

quite & quiet

It's so easy to make mistakes with those...

[Lt-DavidW]

quite & quiet

It's so easy to make mistakes with those...

I don't see how... Not only are they spelled differently and have different meanings, but they don't even sound the same.

My number one annoyance is when people add 'but' to the end of sentences, when they mean to add 'though'.

For example, they will say "I don't eat junk food. I do like chips but."

This is an increasing problem and it drives me mad! :angry:

In fact, my first Neowin post was to highlight this mistake.

[FreqFace]

You should have used 'are'.

Would you speak that sentence out aloud in real life? If so, that's really bad grammar.

No, I wouldn't say that because speaking something is not the same as typing it.

Man, you people... wow. If bad grammar on the internet actually gets you mad, then I reckon you need to be rethinking your priorities.

[Shaun N.]

I had a major issue with my little brother doing this, I even started ignoring him until he started typing properly as it was getting boring having to try to understand what he had typed.

I told him to read what he had written back to himself and he always said it sounded ok in his head.

Always read things back before you hit the submit button.