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Does grammar matter when people communicate today? Or is it a lost cause? What's your pet grammar issue?

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Article - (5 May 2011)

39 Comments - (Newest, 6 February 2013)

A female age 51-59, anonymous writes:

First off I will admit it: sometimes I mis-spell words. And another thing, sometimes when I'm in a hurry I abbreviate some words. And when I was at University I used to have the best set of abbreviations in Contract Law. If I needed to refer to Employer in my notes it was ER underlined. And Employee became ee underlined.

But does anyone still get taught spelling at school any more? Does anyone still learn proper punctuation? Because here are some of my pet dislikes.

1. Your you're are two different words.

'Your hat looks good' versus

'you're going to be late'

Because 'You're means 'you are' but it is abbreviated to 'you're'

Whereas 'your' means it belongs to you. Your car, your cat, your job.

2. The word Etcetera is abbreviated to 'etc' but NOT to Ect. The correct abbreviation is 'etc'

3. 'TO, too, two' are three different words. Each should be used in the right context.

The number 2 is not correct as a substitute for the correct to or two or too.

'I took her to the game'. Means you went somewhere. To a place. To the airport.

Versus TWO

'I am holding two apples' means a number. It is the word for a numerical number. Two girls. Two cars. Two pens.

Versus TOO.

'I like that too' in this Too it means that

you agree, or you also enjoy something, o

For example:

'you went there too?'

4. 'Alot' is not a word.

You can say 'I have a lot of peaches on the tree'

Though substituting the word 'many' or 'very much' looks and sounds better.

I like my boy friend very much and we have visited his mother many times.

5. Wanna and Gonna are not words.

So substitute with the correct words which are:

'My boy friend is going to '

(not gonna) the correct word is 'going to'

'my friend and I want to learn sewing

(not wanna) the words are 'want to'

6. Where does the apostrope go?

What's an apostrophe you ask?

An apostrophe or the lack of an apostrophe can ruin the meaning of what you are saying.

For example:

'me and my boyf well like weve gathered up randys golf clubs because hes seen yours and he didnt want two be'

Correctly this should be

'my boyfriend and I gathered up Randy's golf clubs because he's seen your golf clubs and he didn't want to'

So 'we have' can be abbreviated to we've

'Did not' can be abbreviated to didn't

But without the appostrophe weve sounds like an ancient skill to make cloth?

What other grammatical errors do you think should be banished from this world?

I'd love to see your listing of grammatical errors that you think should top the list? I'm sure there are many more than the few I've listed.

Let's see which grammatical ones do (most often) feature on everyone's list of the 'most annoying grammatical errors' .

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A reader, anonymous, writes (6 February 2013):

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HI IamHereToHelpYou

Yes, Yes, yes - words that sound like each other but mean something entirely different. And so for fun I have included these examples

no - NO, will not be attending

Know - I KNOW you love flowers

to - are we going TO the Zoo today?

two - TWO different animals - lions and giraffes

too - You have arrived TOO late as she left 5 minutes ago

If you can think of any more please feel free to add them

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A reader, anonymous, writes (6 February 2013):

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That's a lovely observation LittleMonster. You made me smile :)

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A reader, anonymous, writes (28 December 2012):

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N91 you certainly deserved Five ***** for that really good reply, to my post. Your reply was a delight to read. Thank you.

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A male reader, N91 +, writes (28 December 2012):

It kills me a little inside when I see people get your/you're mixed up.

I can understand if it's a young person trying to use it, but when I see it from people of a similar age, or even older, it really grinds my gears haha.

I always try to type in correct and full English and it annoys me a little when people don't have the courtesy to do the same, which leaves you trying to decipher some kind of secret code.

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A reader, anonymous, writes (28 December 2012):

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Another pet dislike. So I thought I would add it on here.

I just read a 1000 word essay with only commas used to separate the words. Not a single full stop in the whole essay.

Full Stops have a real purpose.

So have apostrophes, though apostrophes can wait for another time.

Today is about full stops and why only using a comma is not the right way.

for example (first example uses only commas):

"So we went to the mall, and saw my cousin, the one with the son who is trying to get a job with the boatbuilder, anyway my brother works with the boat builder, that recently renovated his house, he bought from Jerry the fisherman, and his mother shes my teacher at school, and Me and every one are looking forward to seeing everyone, at my sisters wedding next week, and soon me and my sisters,we go to get the dresses, after the final fitting, this Tuesday at the dressmakers, and her sister shes making the wedding cake, so I was wondering what present to get her, for the wedding"

Exhausting to read, I agree.

How here is how it should look. It has punctuation and it has full stops. Plus it has been edited. It is much easier to read. There are even paragraphs. Paragraphs can also wait for another day.

Now back to the proper use of full stops.

"We went to the mall, where I saw my cousin. I mean the cousin who's son is trying to get a job with the boatbuilder.

My brother works with that same boat builder.

The said boat builder recently renovated his house. I've been told that he purchased the house from Jerry, the fisherman.

The mother of Jerry is my teacher at school.

My family and I are looking forward to seeing everyone, at my sisters wedding. The wedding will be held next week.

This Tuesday my sisters and I will have the final fitting for our dresses at the dressmakers.

It's a family event for everyone, as the dressmaker's sister is making the wedding cake.

My focus now is on what to buy for my sister, as her wedding present."

Can you see how some full stops, better punctuation and some paragraphs and a little editing made it much easier to read?

Please use some full stops at the end of sentences. a Comma will not suffice.

If you read enough good fiction you will also discern what is good grammar and what is completely jumbled and impossible to follow.

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A reader, anonymous, writes (4 June 2011):

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hi Luv_Doc,

I feel like I should Channel Maxwell Smart when I say:

'Ah, the dreaded could've and should've'

your post is so very true.

Let us never forget the dreaded variations of couda, wouda, shouda, gonna and wanna. No such words exist, as I have previously mentioned.

I love giving out five stars.

All the posts have been lovely,

thank you for all your great comments,

Regards

Abella

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A reader, anonymous, writes (4 June 2011):

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hi Anonymous123,

I do agree with the ATM comment.

And I guess it was too hard for the bankers to come up with something friendlier or even fun?

There are so many things one sees when reading posts I really felt the need for a question like this.

The poorly used apostrophe, for example, really gets abused at times. Repeated below are some examples I have seen:

On the left is the incorrect example.

On the right is the right way to use it:

Dont' : don't

You'r mother : your mother

Your going home? : you're going home?

dont ask : don't ask

youre sure : you're sure?

Maybe some othe Aunts or Uncles will think of some other apostrophe abuse examples?

Thanks for your post, Abella

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A female reader, Anonymous 123 +, writes (3 June 2011):

Hi Abella...great article,and finally a space where i can let some steam off!

So here goes...

1.) "I said you" instead of I told you.

2.) I've actually heard people re-phrase a question as..."Why you are going there"? when all they should say is, "Why ARE you going there"? I mean, how difficult is it!!

3.)"He don't bother about me anymore".

Seriously, do you blame him? DOESN'T!!!

4.)"He doesn't know nothing"!

5.) Their vs There

6.)ATM Machine- ATM stands for "Automated Teller Machine." Saying "ATM Machine" is really saying "Automated Teller Machine Machine."

7.) Long paragraphs without any punctuation.

8.)Text speak. "Hw u doin? wat tym r v meetn tmrw"?

How VERY annoying!!!

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A female reader, Luv_doc +, writes (28 May 2011):

Ugh... People write 'could of', 'would of', 'should of', etc! It's so infuriating!!! It doesn't even make sense!! 'could've/ could have' and so on. Xx

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A reader, anonymous, writes (25 May 2011):

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yes, yes, yes, Odds.

People can communicate certainty, possibility, or strong doubt all in the same sentence. Entirely by the language used in each instance. For that reason I love words like:

'reputed' 'alleged' 'refuted' 'claimed'

'indications suggest...' 'appear to...' and 'unconfirmed..' 'asserted' 'seems to,' 'it appears that....,' 'he says he ....', 'strenuously denied'

Nice post from you Odds, as always, regards, Abella

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A male reader, Odds +, writes (22 May 2011):

Here's another issue I have with communication - when you use words like "tend," "usually," or "often," but the other person hears "always." Or when people generally ignore adjectives and adverbs because they're too busy getting hung up on the black and white picture.

I can understand missing it in a normal conversation, but there's no excuse over text, like DC posts or emails.

The English language is well-equipped to deal with shades of grey - which is perfect, given that life itself isn't usually nice enough to give us black and white answers. But people ignore the descriptive words. I don't even know why.

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A reader, anonymous, writes (19 May 2011):

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How very true honestBear! You made me chuckle. Everything you said is true.

I also dislike the single word answer of 'whatever,' usually accompanied by a blank face, shoulder shrug, and hands thrown up as if the person no longer cares. My eldest has only tried it once and it did not work the 'magic?' intended.

I also concur on the order of the words, since the first example sounds so much better, namely:

(1) Michael and I

versus the less attractive alternative of:

(2)me 'nd my Michael.

The second example looks and sounds so wrong.

And finally there is the words

'got' and 'a lot'.

One year a teacher told the class that any essay with the word 'got' or 'a lot' would be marked down accordingly. We had to use alternative words, because all of were using those words 'got' and 'a lot' so often, the teacher was fed up with us. Thus for one whole year we had to comply. Our dictionaries and a Thesaurus were being opened almost every day to find alternatives, lest we we be given another banned word.

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A female reader, honestbear69 +, writes (16 May 2011):

MY main complaints about English language and proper communication is not so much in type as in talking. I hate when people say can instead of may, please, or will. the other big thing is the proper wording for my friends and I. I often hear my teens say "gary, me, and steph went to do this. "and I am like who?.

It will take them a couple of times of them repeating and me doing the say same back before they get the idea. I have always been told I would have made a better English teacher then I would have a cosmetology teacher providing I learned how to type correctly lol

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A reader, anonymous, writes (12 May 2011):

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oh yes Mishmash some words are amazing.

Mis-spelling, while not strictly grammar has crept in here. So along with the problems with mis use of To Two and Too.

Plus problems with your and you're i need to add in another one. Namely lose versus loose.

'you will LOSE your car keys if you leave them on the top of your car.'

'i notice you are wearing very LOOSE clothing now that you are pregnant'

Two different words - lose versus loose.

But often confused in error

What are other people's favorite mis-spellings in written posts?

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A reader, anonymous, writes (9 May 2011):

@ TEM

I've heard "conversate" and looking to use "fumious" the next opportunity I get.

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A reader, anonymous, writes (7 May 2011):

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I am heartened that so many of you care about good grammar.

CindyCares I do think you write beautifully. Whatever your First language, your English is excellent. Your comments were very pertinent. More Five Stars all round. Thank you.

And I keep recalling other words often confused, namely:

Advice versus Advise.

I will only list a correct example in each instance, for instance:

'I wish to advise you that the car has been sold.'

'The advice you provide on dearcupid.org is very good advice'

'I seek your advice on this issue.'

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A female reader, chigirl +, writes (6 May 2011):

grammar and grammer is always fun.

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A female reader, CindyCares +, writes (6 May 2011):

English is not my primary language, so I do make mistakes , mostly when I am in a hurry or not well focused on what I write, but- ahem- still less than most native English speakers , I guess. You treat your beautiful language very casually, my friends ; it's like you are casually dating your grammar, but don't want a committed relationship with it :)

My pet peeve is " I should of " in lieu of " I should have ". " I should of told him the truth and he would of forgiven me ".

I also have got the American habit to say " the place I was in " or " the man I was talking to " , rather than " the place in which I was " or " the man to whom I was talking ", but I still feel slightly uncomfortable- as if I were doing something bold and naughty :).

And text speak ?...awful. Despicable !

On the other hand, it's true that languages are not static but dynamic, they are a live entity , always in evolution, always changing to reflect and include new facets of reality. It's a natural ,inevitable process involving grammar too.

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A female reader, TEM +, writes (6 May 2011):

Mishmash, I absolutely agree. English is ever evolving. New words are added every year. This year OMG and LOL were added, so net lingo is making its way into the language, but that’s okay. That’s how we got words like SCUBA. It’s just easier to use the acronym.

On made up words, I love them. I believe the term for this is "Portmanteau." That’s how we got great words like spork and brunch. I keep a list of ones I hear on the street (in my head. I’m not that obsessed). Perhaps they will become English words one day. Here are a few of my favorites:

Pandelirium – combo of pandemonium and delirium

Glampse – combo of glimpse and glance

Tredge – combo of trudge and dredge

Conversate – combo of conversation and converse

Fumious – combo of furious and fuming

As far as conveying subtle nuances, I have to give it to the French. They seem to have words for terms that elude us, or ones that we would need a lot more words to describe (like portmanteau). Don’t you just love phrases like:

"je ne sais qua" "déjà vu" "joie de vivre" "avant-garde" and "fait accompli"

The French also win the prize for having the most words with letters you don’t pronounce. Ah well, c'est la vie, c'est la guerre.

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A female reader, TEM +, writes (6 May 2011):

Lucy dear, please explain something to me. Why don't you capitalize the word "I" when referring to yourself? When I see lowercase "i" used as a personal pronoun, it makes me wonder if the person has low self esteem. Do you not feel important enough to warrant a capital "I" or is it just a shift key thing?

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A reader, anonymous, writes (6 May 2011):

I do make grammar mistakes pretty often...I think I do mostly because I'm not in a profession where I have to write very much. For those of us who don't spend a lot of time writing, language is very aural. That's why we confuse "your" and "you're" and "there" and "their". It's also why many people spell "a lot" as "alot"...it's just spoken that way.

English is a mongrel language and it's changed a lot of the centuries. Perhaps more so than any other language. It’s also one of the richest languages. It has the highest number of nouns and adjectives. I was told by German exchange students that they prefer reading academic texts in English only because they are much shorter. Other languages have to compound words to convey meaning. You can specify action and particulars far more efficiently in our language.

I'm a little dubious that text speak will impoverish the official English language and I find the suggestion mildly hysterical. I say this only because text speak doesn't allow you to express nuance or complex ideas. I think if you read much of the advice given in text speak on this site, you’d find that it’s often bland platitudes littered with clichés. There will always be complex ideas to express and communicate to the public.

If I had to speculate the future of English, I would suppose it would divide into two separate languages. It's already happened in several parts of the world where there is an English used by educated people and then a pidgin English that locals speak. Were I to play psychic, I suppose there would be an English heavily influenced by street language, immigrant languages, and text and there would be an English used by educated people. I could see English bifurcate in the same way High German evolved into proper German and Low German evolved into Dutch. Originally, these languages distinguished between class and education, not necessarily region. It's not that much different than how people spoke their local dialects in the Roman Empire, but used Latin as an official language.

For all the negatives of bad grammar, there are occasionally moments where it can be creative and I do find myself enjoying new words and pronunciations no matter how technically wrong they are.

-Some teenage kids taught me the word, "agnorrant"...meaning both ignorant and arrogant. I know it's not proper English, but I do like the word.

-One of my favorite words mispronounced words is "facade". I've heard it articulated as "fa-shade” or "fa-kade" by the very people trying to sell facade products.

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A female reader, LucysFlowers +, writes (6 May 2011):

This list of answers is amazing and i am printing it out for my teacher because she says all these things all the time

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A female reader, Miamine +, writes (6 May 2011):

What's grammar?

Why can't you feel yourself personally.... isn't that all part of the fun?

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A reader, anonymous, writes (6 May 2011):

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I thought of another one that irritates me, namely:

'I myself feel..' or the other

one, 'Personally, I myself feel...'

Politicians seem to love those ones above, even though the wording is incorrect.

NO,to both above, as one only needs to say,

'I feel..'

'I noticed..'

TEM you advanced some spendid examples. The five stars are really lighting up the sky. Thank you for your post.

Battista, I also should have mentioned that I am currently reminding a pre-teen daily that no one can ever 'brang' anything.

'Brang' is not a word.

Instead the right word is required in the right context and tense. For instance:

'I bring you good tidings..'

'Yesterday I brought you a bowl of strawberries'

'could you please bring..?'

'He brought his assignment to the teacher's desk.'

'I will return that book back to you on Tuesday'

'I will bring that book back to you on Tuesday'

All your suggestions and comments are a delight to me. Thank you.

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A female reader, TEM +, writes (6 May 2011):

This is a great thread, indeed. You've all mentioned most of my pet peeves, but I have "alot" of them, so here are some more:

1. Paragraph breaks people! It's very difficult to read a long post composed entirely of one run-on sentence with a handful of commas thrown in.

2. It would be so nice if capitalization came back to the written word. I know it doesn't matter when you are googling (not a word. I know) something, but I really appreciate a capital letter at the start of a sentence. While we're at it, it would also be nice if the sentence ended (when it should) with a period.

3. did sum1 mentN txt spk? weL i jst hav 2 2nd dat 1

4. It’s vs. its "It’s" is a contraction of "it is." "Its" is a possessive pronoun.

5. And now to be completely obnoxious, I'll just run a few and you may have a field day correcting my grammar, if you like: "Him and I" "Her and I" "He don't know." "She don't know" "This is him" "This is her" "Me and my friend" "I should of gone" "I would of gone" "If that was the case" "That couldn't be farther from the truth" "The town is just a little further up the road" "I was effected by the potion, and the affect was weird." "I need to lay down" "Lie the book on the table" "He has more problems then me." "If you know, than tell me."

I think I need to lie down now.

TEM

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A reader, anonymous, writes (5 May 2011):

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I am hanging head in shame, as i write.

Thank you Battista. Oh how quickly one can forget. Yes, et cetera IS two words. I need reminding when i slip back..

But i have remembered another one that even Microsoft and Bill Gates mess up.

Either / or

Versus

Neither / nor.

Even in offical communications i really dislike Neither followed by or in the same sentence. Because it is wrong.

'I am neither a giraffe nor am I a frog'

The above is a correct statement.

But alter the word 'nor' to 'or' and the statement is nonsence.

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A female reader, Tisha-1 +, writes (5 May 2011):

NEW clee ur. Not NUKE you ler. Nuclear. Not Nucular.

Thanks for the rant space.

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A reader, anonymous, writes (5 May 2011):

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So Very Confused has highlighted one I should have remembered to include. that being the dreaded:

'i seen it,' No, it should be 'i saw it'

Yes, of course I should have remembered, it was 'Mary Poppins' not the film I mentioned.

And mis-pronunciations annoy me. I nearly died to hear a new reporter(cadet-reporter?) on the evening news pronounce the following word: 'cyclical' as syke-lick-call

Thank you DMartin89 for mentioning how important is the written word. One of my best examples was a job application I received from a person, where the job required very careful attention to detail.

Ms Hopeful advised in her application, 'I am metticularius in checkking ebrything I do'

Needless to say, Ms Hopeful was not invited to explain her skills further. Spell check is there to help but looking the word meaning up in a dictionary is even more accurate. Though I love Roget's Thesaurus even more than any dictionary.

More 'five stars' being awarded. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far. I am looking forward to Cary Grant perhaps spotting this thread?

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A female reader, Battista +, writes (5 May 2011):

Oh I remembered another one....

I quite often hear people say "tret" instead of "treated", eg.

"She tret him really badly."

Not good.

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A female reader, Battista +, writes (5 May 2011):

Excellent post!

I have two particular issues which drive me crazy

1) Sometimes people seem to use "brought" instead of "bought", which is just wrong.

2) You sometimes hear people saying "lend" instead of borrow, eg. "Can I have a lend of your pen", as an example.

I don't know if it varies from place to place with different expressions becoming the norm.

OP I am going to have to put on my nerd hat, however, and point out that et cetera isn't a word, it's two, and et doesn't get capitalised. I do agree with your point re. "etc" and "ect" however.

I'm very glad you raised this point, I like being able to rant now and again :)

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A female reader, dmartin89 +, writes (5 May 2011):

I love this thread!!!! LOL

I'm only 21 and I was taught to use the correct spelling and grammar in school. I think it has changed a lot in the last 10 years. Text speak is now the norm amoungst young people, which I find very sad.

I get very miffed when people can't be arsed to even try to write properly.

Before I met my partner, I used to do online dating and I found the biggest turn off was to receive a message with no punctuation, awful grammar and bad spelling.

I find a well written note very sexy indeed. It shows you care.

Take note men; if you're after an intelligent attractive woman, nothing is more irresistable than a properly written letter :-)

Pet hate: Incorrect use of "your and you're"

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A female reader, So_Very_Confused +, writes (5 May 2011):

I think you mean Mary Poppins for supercalafragiliciousexpealadocious...

even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious.

I hate mispronunciations

swifter for swiffer

sim-u-lar for similar

MINES for mine (oh how I hate this one)

churn for children (and that leads to mines churn need to use the swifter or something simular) UGH bangs head here

I don't like text speak either.

as for grammar, I seen it vs. I saw it...

I were vs. I was

ugh

oh and I don't mind misspelling since I can't spell and i use really lousy punctuation. I like ellipses...

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A reader, anonymous, writes (5 May 2011):

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The Chocolates are awarded to Odds for magnificent use of a colon and a semi colon in the same paragraph.

And for excellent editing I cannot miss out on awarding Dirtball a commendation for excellent in proof reading. The misuse of I as i, (by me) the latter 'i' being incorrect, (of course) since 'I' should be used, is a shortcoming I need to correct.

There is no defense, and I shall not try to invent one, for it is one of my common shortcomings, one which I must overcome. Five stars for Dirtball for eagle eyed good spotting.

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A reader, anonymous, writes (5 May 2011):

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thank you Tisha, I can see that every response so far is worthy of Five Stars. How could I have forgotten the dreaded incorrect 'eachother'? It is two words, yes.

Each other

I blame 'Chitty Chitty...'(the film) with that very long word.

Or my variation

Soup-a-cauli-fridge-elastic-eggs-peas-halitocious

I am sure there are a few other incorrectly joined words that should not be joined. Someone will think of the others

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A female reader, Tisha-1 +, writes (5 May 2011):

Oh goody! A rant thread! Yay! I hate people who use too many exclamation points! No! Really! Just kidding.

Do you mind if I just post when something occurs to me?

"Each other" is not one word. There is no such word as "eachother." That is two words. Each and other. Each other.

Thank you for allowing a little rant. It's the aunt rant. Did I mention I hate puns? KIDDING.

Thanks!

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A male reader, Odds +, writes (5 May 2011):

Punctuation is easy enough; given a few tries, most people can figure out what the marks all mean. There is one exception: the semicolon. Almost never gets used, but I think that's because it's harder to link to type of verbal pause. Messes things up for those auditory learners.

I worry that text-speak is eventually going to become a written, middle-class version of ebonics - a functionally useless language which serves to hold people back while trying to move up in life.

I worry that spelling and grammar checks on word processors will stop people from learning these skills on their own. On the other hand, I get annoyed that people have these functions at their disposal and don't use them. Want to use a word but don't know how to spell it? Take five seconds to google it in another window.

Typos are one thing, I make quite a few of them myself (one of the natural consequences of typing very fast while glancing at the question in another window), but a deliberate failure to communicate effectively is just grating.

On a positive note, I love hearing someone pronounce a big word the wrong way, but use it in a way that indicates they know what it means. It means they read it somewhere, so they're actually out reading it somewhere - given the nature of internet chat and texting, it's probably an actual book, too. I'll still correct them if I know the correct pronunciation, though.

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A male reader, dirtball +, writes (5 May 2011):

Haha, I love this rant! I've been complaining about this for a long time as well. My biggest pet peeve in this area is still text speak. It drives me absolutely crazy for all the reasons you laid out.

1) Along the lines of the misuse of words; there, their, and they're. People get these wrong all the time as well, and it's very irritating to me. There is used for places. Their denotes ownership. They're is the contraction of "they are." It's not that hard, yet it's constantly screwed up.

2) People who do not use paragraphs. Along with this are run on sentences with no punctuation.

3) Laziness. This is the cause of the majority of the problems I see with peoples' punctuation, grammar, and overall lack of communicative skills. I think there are a fair number of people out there who know the proper way to type, form sentences, etc. They are simply too lazy to take the time to: put the subject of their sentence in the correct order, or capitalize letters properly, or use the proper words, or use punctuation, or (heaven forbid) proof read what they type before submitting it. It's one thing for people who don't know any better and are doing their best. It's another thing entirely when someone doesn't want to take the care to present their thoughts in an organized and coherent way.

And OP, for someone who creates an article about grammer, you should know that "I" should always be capitalized as it refers to yourself and therefore becomes a proper noun. ;-)

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A reader, anonymous, writes (5 May 2011):

This is verified as being by the original poster of the question

kc_100 that was a fantastic answer. But i want to know how you managed to get an ampersand into your answer without the 'chevrons' message?

And i just though of another device rarely used today, to break up a paragraph, namely 'colons and semi colons'. If this was a quiz night i would already be holding up a box of chocolates for the first person to tell the audience, 'what is the difference between a colon and a semi colon?' and, 'Can you write out an example of a paragraph with a colon and a semi colon, used correctly, in the same paragraph?'

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A female reader, k_c100 +, writes (5 May 2011):

My pet hates:

1. Text speak. It drives me up the wall! all these stupid words like 'dat' instead of 'that', 'abt' instead of 'about' etc. Sometimes people will even write words in txt speak that even have the same number of characters as the original word, it makes no sense in that case as text speak is supposed to save you time!

2. Joining words together that are individual words. Like alot (which you have pointed out) and eachother. They are separate words! I dont know where this came from, it is a recent development (within the last year or so) in teen culture that seems to be spreading to poorly educated adults now.

3. Punctuation! Along with grammar, more and more people today have no idea how to use full stops, commas, exclamation marks and question marks. I hate all this '?!!!' business, it is similar to when a word is spelt wrongly purely for exaggeration purposes (like 'soooooooo'). Also, another pet hate is when you have sentences that are stupendously long with no full stops or commas in sight, it is so difficult to read and it is painful to look at.

I think schools do their best in teaching grammar and good English, but the rise of the internet and texting has meant that the youth culture now has 2 vocabularies, the correct way of spelling and correct grammar, and then the language they use online. If you were to ask most teenagers or adults to have a spelling & grammar test, or to write an essay on paper you would find they would be reasonable. It just seems that when you put a phone or computer in front of them it all goes out of the window!

I am 23 and when mobile phones first became popular (around 10 years ago when I was 13) I did indeed use text speak and poor grammar because that was the cool thing to do. But once I got to about 18/19 when I was at University, I realised I did not like the way that sort of language looks and prefered to write properly, and now I am a lover of good grammar and punctuation!

I am a mod here on DC and I spend so much time correcting bad grammar, punctuation, spelling and text speak, if only people could start using full English once again and even make an attempt at decent grammar and punctuation, the world would be a much better place!

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