Lately it seems that peoples? grasp of the English language has weakened. By this I mean simple grammatical rules we all learned in grade school, basic spelling, etc. seem to be foreign to people. It seems that the kids (to me, anyone under 21) today have a far weaker command of the English language than those of us who are older. Why? Are schools today teaching kids differently than they did 5 or 10 years ago? Do kids growing up today care less?

Personally, I feel that people judge a person?s intelligence by the way they speak and write. You can be the most brilliant mathematical mind in the world, but if you don?t know when to use the plural versus the singular or cannot tell the difference between ?your? and ?you?re? people are going to think you are an idiot.

I honestly think that the use of proper English is so much more crucial today than it was in the past. It used to be that most communication was done through phone calls or in-person. If you make mistakes while speaking, chances are slim that the person you were speaking to is going to remember it later on down the road (assuming they didn?t think you were a moron because you had no clue how to speak properly). Today, however, most communicating is done online, through the use of emails. Not only do these emails make all the more evident any mistakes in your use of the language, but they immortalize your mistakes as well.

I don?t even think that all of these mistakes are attributable to carelessness, doing things in a hurry, etc. I flat out think that many people simply don?t know. Spell checker can catch most typos, but if you don?t know the difference between ?dessert? and ?desert,? ?descent? and ?decent,? or ?lose? and ?loose,? no spell checker in the world is going to help you.

So, my question is why. Why don?t kids today have a stronger grasp of the English language? Why does it seem like kids today don?t care that they don?t? Why don?t kids realize that employers are going to care? Why don?t kids understand that this isn?t going to be some that just ?comes to you? as you get older? Why haven't people read the I-Club BAIC rules which state that all posts are to be written in proper English?

To conclude, here are some of my pet peeves, in addition to those mentioned above.

1. Not knowing the difference between ?their,? ?there,? and ?they?re.?

2. Not realizing that you usually have to use ?an? before words that start with vowels, and ?a? before words that start with consonants. Does ?a elephant? even sound remotely right?

3. Not knowing the difference between ?it?s? and ?its.?

There are many more ? I?ll think of some later.
________
SV1000

 

It's a forum, peepo r suppozed to speek like 'dis 'ere. We r 2 1337 to be grammatically correct all the time.

 

lol

I know in person and when I need to I write using formal english, but on the forums my language usage will change because I do not need to be grammatically correct

 

wow... seriously, thank you for this.

i cannot stand reading 'ebonix.' it certainly isn't an official language, and only demonstrates a severe lack of any sort of reasonable grasp of the english language. then again, it could just be that they're absolute morons.

in either case... again, many thanks for the honest and accurate post.

 

Ok this is my pet peeve with english. My roommate/co-worker does this **** all the time.

Ok say **** is asending order.

Say wednesday thirsday frday. not...

friday or thursday or wednesday.

or 5:00 or 4:00.

Say 4:00 or 5:00.

We worjk construction too so i hate when the idiots i work with say 2/16ths

just say a ****ign 1/8th. I know you are thinking about **** but god that crap pisses me off. I hate when people say stuff in desending order.

thank you for this thread.

 

"more better"

 

i agree. it's ridiculous trying to read some automotive postings on craigslist. i swear the honda/acura car listings have to be the worst.

 

LOL Think about Bay SLANG... ie: HELLA.

I have to admit Bay Area has probably the worst english in the US. People talk slang intentionally around the bay area. And it's quite interesting because it's common amongst all kinds of people, educated, uneducated, rich, poor, different ethnic groups, etc. I go to UCSC and there's quite a number of socal kids and they automatically think that when bay kids talk, they're automatically "ghetto". Bay slang's ubiquity is just another component of "bay area culture" if you will.

 

lawling at this thread. The internet is some serious business i guess.

 

i bet you read your OP 5 times before posting it. haha

after 1000 posts, i got tired of capitalizing or hitting the ' key, is there something wrong with dont compared to don't? i know it(')s a bad habit but whatev(')

so youre **** outta luck

 

thats cuz most of the ppl posting those are not/do not speak English

 

QFT

 

i get annoyed when people spell "definitely" wrong. but it's true, laziness has set in. i don't remember the last time i was in a forum and capitalized the first letter of any given sentence.

 

Not using the proper too in a sentence. I like that too bro Instead of I like that to. Or when it is used like this I wanted too, it should be I wanted to........There are a lot of things that drive me crazy, I blame my grammar on being from Mexico and struggling with speaking English, let alone writing in English Being eight years old and learning a new language, trying not to speak in your first language was tough for me.

-Gio

 

How about this:

When people say "will see" when they really mean "we'll see"