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Whenever I look at this forum, and others, I am shocked at the way people mangle the English language. I find that many non-native English speakers in UK, particularly the Polish, speak and write English to a far higher standard than native speakers.
The problem is that bad English perpetuates itself as children copy parents and students copy teachers, it is therefore incumbent on everybody to make the effort to use the language correctly.
We all make mistakes, and the odd typo can slip thruogh (oops!), and some people find it hard to spell accurately, which is also excusable. Dyslexia, to a varying degree, affects about 10% of people but most dyslexics are highly intelligent and motivated. Two of the most successful people I know are dyslexic and one, at the age of the 35, realised how this was hampering his career, and undertook a special training to improve his ability to write well. Since then, he has done incredibly well.
What really infuriates me is poor grammar and deliberate mis-spelling, for example:
"We was on the train ..."
"Me and me mate went down the shop ..."
"So wot if ..."
i also get really annoyed when i see people writing like this and wiv no punctuation or capitals or brakes between sentences it is pathetic i suppose they fink its clevur or sumfink
Then there are those who think it's clever to write and talk like Jamaicans, in that awful Yardie slang, or to write as if they were texting on a cellphone. I may well be accused of intellectual snobbery, and that doesn't worry me one iota because I am a snob and proud of it, but I have to say that people who don't take the trouble to speak or write properly demean themselves and debase any value that their opinions might otherwise have.
I have no doubt that I will come in for some considerable flack for this comment, but please don't bother unless you can express yourself coherently and accurately, and don't waste your time or mine with insults and abuse as I'm impervious to them.
By: MikeP
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There is that other massively annoying style very prevalent in youngsters that every sentence is a question. I just wish everyone would interrupt and say "I do now that, just carry on please" As this would occur literally after every sentence uttered by these morons, they might begin to get the message that they sound utterly thick rather than trendy. One final grip is the massively overuse of the word "INCREDIBLE" I hope you realise by now that EVERYTHING that happens is incredible!... It's never good, wonderful, terrible, tremendous, extremely and all those descriptive hyperbole we have or used to have within the English language...No, everything other than normal must be INCREDIBLE...that seems to be THE only word than even our most highly educated people can muster up to describe anything that is just a fraction above a normal standard level. I could scream!
Anyway, if you write without any punctuation and your spelling is atrocious I'm afraid I won't read it (including comments on here).
And please, there is a difference between they're, there and their.
Whenever I turn on the TV, there is more often than not, someone who has had an expensive, Public school, or University education, torturing the bounds of good Grammar, or good English language STYLE.
I only received a normal school education, no expensive private education for me, but I consider that I speak with better grammatical style than the majority of Politicians, newsreaders, or TV presenters, in public life today.
You may wonder what I am talking about, so let us take the latest fad for the use of "more";
For instance, "More quickly! ---- Whatever makes people think that that is better than -- QUICKER?
OR, " More Slowly" DOH! --- SLOWER, or ........ "Less quickly" ---- SLOWER
Then we have phrases such a "on the slide", "On the Up" instead of Decreasing, and Increasing.
There is also "police speak", and their favourite is " at this moment in time" instead of AT PRESENT. These are just a quick sample as I do not wish to bore readers
But the list just goes on and on as over educated, or self important Mallaca's (idiots) find new ways to massacre English Grammar every day.
If you have other examples of this idiocy, please let me know.
Apologists for the current sloppiness say "the language is evolving"; but what is the point of it "evolving" to the point where we can no longer understand each other?
A good example recently was on a fairly well known website where somebody reported that the lead actor in a favourite tv programme of mine had resigned. "Oh, that's that then." I thought. I read on to find out why and was pleased to find out that he had actually re-signed to do another series. (The OP was taken to task by several avid fans who had nearly had heart attacks.) This could be a career ending mistake!
A few days ago I had a leaflet through my door from a holiday company inviting me to "dust of my sunglasses". If they're that sloppy I wouldn't book with them in case they sent me to the wrong place.
Another one I'm seeing is "defiantly" instead of "definitely"; as in "I'm defiantly coming". Well, if you are coming don't make a fuss when you get here!
Then there's "peaked" instead of "piqued". "Peaked interest" means interest has reached it's highest point; whereas if you "pique" interest you've just started it off.
A big offender these days is AOL/Huff Post. I've seen loads of mistakes on there recently; the only one that comes to mind is an article about a treatment for "caner". Unfortunately I'm not allowed to comment on there now as I refuse to open a Farcebook account.
Anyone agree?
Not really, no.
BTW Mike's gripe is perfectly valid and I very much concur with all he has to say. Standard of education it seems these days is bloody atrocious.
A bit like some of the contributors to this site then?
There are 4 so far; "I think the best way...." with "leaqifiud" for "qualified",
"The other day...." with "soochl" for school, "What a good thought...." with "dsetunts" for "students" and "I have to show my...." with "bnliiag" for "bailing".
As Eric Morecambe might have said "all the right letters but not necessarily in the right order!"
I'm thinking spam of some sort, but why is one word always so wrong? Any ideas?
The above is too short; so in my defence, I answered the phone just as I was about to click post, then came back and posted without checking.
Tony Hawk has made computer games and dvd's (Ithink) with "Tony Hawk's......." as the title. His fans ignore the apostrophe and end up with a rude reply from Tony Hawks, who is understandably getting fed up with it.
So; apostrophes do matter!
LesH
I completely agree with MikeP. The latest trendy way of speaking is another spin off from the Jamaican Yardie slang. It seems young people have to deliberately omit the T letter sound in any word if at all possible. Not in the skip it over type of way where it might be possible to detect a slight sound of the T but a deliberate complete removal of the letter T in word that contains it. It seems to me that young people are frightened NOT to do this out of fear, worried that friends might mock them for sounding too posh or complying with the normal white people’s pronunciation and manner which we are being brainwashed to loath. I find the current most irritating exponent of this style is Billy Monger on the Channel 4 F1 commentary team (Just because he has lost his legs does not stop me hating the way he speaks with that oh so arrogant deliberate omission of the letter T)
There is that other massively annoying style very prevalent in youngsters that every sentence is a question. I just wish everyone on the receiving end would interrupt and say "I do now that, just carry on please" As this would occur literally after every sentence uttered by these morons, they might begin to get the message that they sound utterly thick rather than trendy. One final grip is the massively overuse of the word "INCREDIBLE" I hope you realise by now that EVERYTHING that happens is incredible!... It's never good, wonderful, terrible, tremendous, extremely etc and all those many other descriptive hyperbole we have or used to have within the English language...No, everything other than normal must be INCREDIBLE...that seems to be THE only word than even our most highly educated people can muster up to describe anything that is just a fraction above a normal standard level. I could scream!