Posted by switchbitch
I'm sick and tired of bad grammar. It's a rare occasion these days to be able to read a shop window advertisment, a chalkboard restaurant menu, a magazine, or for that matter- some newspapers, without seeing a split infinitive, misplaced apostrophe, accidental pluralisations or blatant spelling mistakes. It's a damned disgrace to see our fine language bludgeoned to death by people with complete disregard for it. Examples of such occasions which really got my goat are
------ "Honk if your horny!" (Written on a dirty car window) ------ "Televisions, computers, camera's"------ (A 5 foot high advertisment in a shop window) ------ " There is average 10 replies in every topic, and it's therefore very likely that your problem have been solved before." (The Esato forum, in the new topic section!) ------ I couldn't even begin to discuss the amount of dog shit grammar that we see on this forum! Can anyone spell anymore? Does anyone really know even the basics of punctuation? Please post your thoughts. The poster with the best command of English shall receive a prize of my choosing. Remember- I BEFORE E EXCEPT AFTER C!!!!
Posted by richy240
Damn straight.
(For some of us, English isn't our first language. I think those people should be excused from using perfect grammar in the forums. Otherwise, we're all guilty!)
Posted by switchbitch
I concur. You Texans do speak a language far removed from legible English.
Posted by rdnymllnsktr
switchbitch,
I love you!!! I hate the "your and you're" problem so much!!!
Ethan
Posted by daveg
I'll second that, it's not as though it takes that much longer to type an extra letter and a bit of punctuation. I reckon the limit on characters in a text message has led to a definite downturn in the quality of written english.
Posted by BobaFett
@switchbitch you are right in a point, that grammar is important. BUT i am hungarian. With honour and respect i write my next sentence, u may pls understand it! In case u ll speak hungarian at the same level as i speak english, than will come the time to discuss grammar here. Thx.
Posted by rdnymllnsktr
Heh heh, boba, you've got a point. Just for my sake, please don't say your when you mean you're! That drives me crazy!!!
Posted by BobaFett
You're ;-)
Posted by Jowi
How about arse? I can't find it in an English dictionary.
Posted by switchbitch
Foreign company excepted of course! Look at all the perfect grammar so far, it's great isn't it?
Posted by daveg
@bobafett, you've got a major point there, from what i can see it's the people who have english as a first language who are the worst, whereas those who have had to learn it on top of another deserve a lot of respect because it can't be an easy thing to do. I'm always impressed with a mate's grasp of english and he only came here a couple of years ago.
Posted by switchbitch
@daveg, "English" has a capital "E". @jowi, try looking behind you.
Posted by daveg
@switch. Good point, well made.
Posted by richy240
@switchbitch
That wasn't nice.
@Jowi
Arse is out... "Not in an English dictionary, not English," says me. (Just kidding.)
Posted by Jowi
Of course i know where it is. To you,if its not in a dictionary, you consider it as a bad grammar
Posted by richy240
No, I was kidding.
Posted by scotsboyuk
@switchbitch
Well done my loyal lieutenent (pronounced correctly as leftenent), you have taken up the mantle of instilling a respect and, dare l say it, love for the Queen's English.
@everyone
I would like to expand this crusade to include the concept of dressing correctly. Too many people today believe a 'track suit' is acceptable attire when rambling, quite frankly it isn't.
Whatever happened to dressing for dinner or plus fours for croquet? Make a stand at my side friends.
Support E.L.F.
Bring Back Vermania!
Posted by Jowi
How about French?it has a capital P
Posted by BobaFett
I do respect ppl coming here with bad grammar and dare to ask for help. We are not in school. Just to remember, i see this question from MY point of view.
Posted by prodjsxb
As spoken by Ali G
"So wot yous is sayin is, dat people should learn to bang da lingo betta if dey is goin to bang english at all, right? Obviously people who is not from english natterin countries will ave aggro natterin da lingo, can dey be excused? Is dey allowed to make some mistakes at least? Ell i know if I type too fast i can mis-spell alot of lingo too!"
Hope you liked that!
LaTeRz
Posted by switchbitch
The Oxford English Dictionary is the authoritative on this subject. Its purpose is to provide a definition of every word in the English language, and since new words are constantly evolving, it has to be updated to accommodate this. So generally speaking, if it's not there, it's not official, but that doesn't mean it wont be.... In any case, "arse" is there!
Posted by scotsboyuk
Ali G, how terribley witty!
Posted by daveg
"terribley"?
Posted by scotsboyuk
Ears.
Posted by Morba
sigh, if you want perfect grammar then go mark some BSc Hons English Papers or something. this is a forum, where lots of ppl shorthand stuff.
if you have a problem with that then maybe you need to change, not every1 else.
Many many things make a difference to the way ppl post, from their origin, to their own knowledge of the language, to how much alcohol they have consumed.
especially on this forum where ppl maybe accessin from WAP or GPRS and gettin charged for the priviledge!
infact, how about you americans go get your own language instead of bastardizing (haha at inclusion of Z instead of S) ours.
:>
[ This Message was edited by: Morba on 2004-03-30 12:56 ]
Posted by Fritz24
What an excellent thread! My personal favourite example of bad grammar was on a sign in a cafe window near to my house. The sign read 'Only food brought on the premises may be consumed here.'
Posted by *Jojo*
Will these images do ?
Posted by mmsman
well i don't think you can say that a forum has bad grammar:
you can have
A: an international forum such as esato, most people are from other countries.......
B: it's a mobile forum and i bet that 50% of people are writing from their mobile phones and grammar errors are at the very least 90% more possible than errors while handwriting.....
C: if a person makes a mistake he is not going to correct it because it's forum for crying out loud, it's not an essay or a letter, people are here from fun, they are not going to wet their panties because they made a mistake....
D:and of course some people use "internet language" (like boba
)
E: if a person is a fast typer, he or she often makes a mistake, like for instance: ad-and, grammatucal- grammatical, encyclopwdiia- encyclopedia
a little to much mistakes maybe, but you see the point.....
anyway forums are not grammatical and they are not going to be...
though i see your point in terms of "offical" or "public" grammar errors.....
Posted by imanuk
Very well put mmsman.
Also I add; does english have to be set in stone? Surely it is sensible that it should be alowed to evolve. Especially if evolution is done in way that increases productivity and makes the language more intuitive.
Much like, the evolution of mobile phones that we discuss here.
Obviously much like the computing industry we must also respect legecy, make all posts understandable regardless of spelling and puctuation.
Posted by Froddan
Now this is a very interesting topic. I've just recently moved to the UK from Sweden (I was born in Finland), and at times I find it hard to understand the English spoken here. I'm not all that good at it myself, but I try to stick to the "proper" English, both in writing and speaking, it just makes things easier for both parties of a conversation if you can understand each other fully without having to guess half of what the other part is saying.
As English isn't my native language, I also struggle with the differences of UK English vs. US English, since the US English is what I have learnt by listening to music and watching movies.
Posted by Fritz24
Well considering you've only recently moved I have to say your English is excellent
_________________
Fritz24
I'm just an ordinary guy with nothing to lose.
[ This Message was edited by: Fritz24 on 2004-03-30 14:04 ]
Posted by Froddan
Thank you, Fritz24
Posted by BobaFett
Think the english written here is acceptable. Besides small misunderstandings sometimes, its one of the best international forum. What really counts is our support and behavour, grammar is second.
Posted by mmsman
but i guess that the most important point in international forums is that you are able to understand someone who is 10000 miles away and i think esato is great at that....
Posted by BobaFett
@mmsman well sad ;-)
Posted by snap-hiss
Every thread should be a perfect grammar thread.
!snap
Posted by *Jojo*
@bobafett - You just made a sample - "@mmsman - well 'sad' " I just know how difficult it is to type using your celfone mate (wap), just wanna have fun there!