The Best (worst) Spelling and Grammar Errors Thread

[Slice of Life]

It does matter, especially when what they say is actually the exact opposite of what they mean.

This. Exactly this.

"I could care less" (What they want to say is that they don't care...what they're actually saying is that they care)

I hate it lol

[bplewis24]

Isn't this technically true about every word in every language though? I mean, they were all made up at some point. ;). I think this is why, although it's certainly fun to poke fun at people, it doesn't really bother me that much when people say they could care less or irregardless. We all know what they mean and isn't that pretty much the point?

Settle down there, Tony. ;)

My fear is that there are "words" being created today that will eventually get a spot in the dictionary in the future.

Example: swag.  I use the word jokingly sometimes with friends.  But it's not a word.  But it will be in like 2 more years.  And what about those "valley girl" contractions or abbreviations?  Those will all be words in 10 more years.

[Fourputt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

it doesn't really bother me that much when people say they could care less or irregardless. We all know what they mean and isn't that pretty much the point?

It does matter, especially when what they say is actually the exact opposite of what they mean.

It indicates a lack of thought and attention which may well transfer to other facets of life.

If English is your language, why not be accurate? Why not use it correctly.

Imagine having a job where you could not be trusted to  write something that went out of the office. Your opportunities are going to be restricted.

Anyone who thinks apostrophes go in plural words falls into that category. To trivialise the importance of these things doesn't make sense.

The "could care less" one is outrageously idiotic. Anyone who uses that phrase clearly has never actually thought about what they are saying.

It would be like saying "I will eat cabbage" instead of "I won't eat cabbage" and wondering why people think you are stupid when you don't eat it.

One I've noticed on this site lately is "every once and a while" rather than "once in a while". Crazy.

People are lazy, and don't perceive consequences that actually exist. Many is the job application that has been binned and laughed at because of errant apostrophes and poor grammar.

Did you know, for example, that some loan companies use algorithms where they look at usage and abusage of apostrophes to help calculate an applicant's ability to repay a loan?

It does matter, and the people who think it doesn't are mistaken.

I agree.  There is more to communicating a message than just getting the basic point across.  There are nuances which become lost when a person starts taking shortcuts with the vocabulary and punctuation.  The whole meaning of a sentence can be changed just by adding or removing a comma.  Knowing how to use vocabulary, punctuation and syntax is a fundamental key to good communication.  The tired argument that "We all know what they mean..." just points to an acceptance of laziness, and encourages the deterioration of the English language.

[iacas]

Let's all just keep patting ourselves on the back some more. That'll accomplish a lot.

The people who need this help aren't reading this thread.

[Golfingdad]

It does matter, especially when what they say is actually the exact opposite of what they mean.

It indicates a lack of thought and attention which may well transfer to other facets of life.

If English is your language, why not be accurate? Why not use it correctly.

Imagine having a job where you could not be trusted to  write something that went out of the office. Your opportunities are going to be restricted.

Anyone who thinks apostrophes go in plural words falls into that category. To trivialise the importance of these things doesn't make sense.

The "could care less" one is outrageously idiotic. Anyone who uses that phrase clearly has never actually thought about what they are saying.

It would be like saying "I will eat cabbage" instead of "I won't eat cabbage" and wondering why people think you are stupid when you don't eat it.

One I've noticed on this site lately is "every once and a while" rather than "once in a while". Crazy.

People are lazy, and don't perceive consequences that actually exist. Many is the job application that has been binned and laughed at because of errant apostrophes and poor grammar.

Did you know, for example, that some loan companies use algorithms where they look at usage and abusage of apostrophes to help calculate an applicant's ability to repay a loan?

It does matter, and the people who think it doesn't are mistaken.

Me too. I was raised by a family of readers. My mother ran a bookstore until Chapters made the small independent book seller obsolete. I read "Lord of the Flies" while I was still in elementary school. My children, 5 and 7, have been exposed to books as long as they have been exposed to air.

Which one of these dumb-phone toting, semi-literate, lazy bozos of today will be the next John Irving?

Yeah, it matters. It matters a lot.

You guys are acting like "these days" people are dumber than they have been in the past.  I disagree.  We just have more access to communication with more people, so it appears that way.  20 years ago, if I wanted to talk with random strangers about golf all day, I'd have had to hang out at the local course or Roger Dunns, and even then, I'd only get to chat* with a handful of people for a very short time.  There are hundreds and hundreds of people, on this website alone, that I have access to every single day.  This variety of people has always existed, but we were just never in touch.

Remember guys, that this forum isn't the New Yorker and us posters aren't actual writers.  (I'm an engineer for crying out loud ... one who barely got 400 on the English portion of the SAT, to go along with 7-something on the Math portion ;))  We're people from all facets of life and are just having conversations here - not writing formal essays - mostly about golf.

*And I would not have been able to nit-pick their prose either, seeing as how they likely wouldn't have written everything down for me ahead of time.  I would never get to pick on @saevel25 . ;)

[Stretch]

Cipolla's five fundamental laws of stupidity:

1. Always and inevitably each of us underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
2. The probability that a given person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic possessed by that person.
3. A person is stupid if they cause damage to another person or group of people without experiencing personal gain, or even worse causing damage to themselves in the process.
4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the harmful potential of stupid people; they constantly forget that at any time, and in any circumstance, dealing with or associating themselves with stupid individuals invariably constitutes a costly error.
5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person there is.

[Ernest Jones]

You guys are acting like "these days" people are dumber than they have been in the past.  I disagree.  We just have more access to communication with more people, so it appears that way.  20 years ago, if I wanted to talk with random strangers about golf all day, I'd have had to hang out at the local course or Roger Dunns, and even then, I'd only get to chat* with a handful of people for a very short time.  There are hundreds and hundreds of people, on this website alone, that I have access to every single day.  This variety of people has always existed, but we were just never in touch.

Remember guys, that this forum isn't the New Yorker and us posters aren't actual writers.  (I'm an engineer for crying out loud ... one who barely got 400 on the English portion of the SAT, to go along with 7-something on the Math portion ;))  We're people from all facets of life and are just having conversations here - not writing formal essays - mostly about golf.

*And I would not have been able to nit-pick their prose either, seeing as how they likely wouldn't have written everything down for me ahead of time.  I would never get to pick on @saevel25 . ;)

That's not what I'm saying at all, or at least not what I mean*. The difference, and what really pisses me off, is the acceptance, even borderline encouragement this type of writing is experiencing now.

There's also a huge difference between someone who isn't a good speller (which does not mean they're stupid) and someone who knows how to spell but couldn't be bothered. The more "couldn't be bothered" types we have the more "don't know how" will be created.

*see what I did there? That's a prophylactic add-on ;-)

[Fourputt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Remember guys, that this forum isn't the New Yorker and us posters aren't actual writers.  (I'm an engineer for crying out loud ... one who barely got 400 on the English portion of the SAT, to go along with 7-something on the Math portion ;))  We're people from all facets of life and are just having conversations here - not writing formal essays - mostly about golf.

*And I would not have been able to nit-pick their prose either, seeing as how they likely wouldn't have written everything down for me ahead of time.  I would never get to pick on @saevel25 . ;)

That would be "we posters".

Quote:

Originally Posted by saevel25

That would imply he intently cheated.

While he may have watched the ball "intently", he didn't "intentionally" cheat.

[iacas]

Consider how dumb the average person is.

Go ahead.

Now realize that half of the people in the world are dumber than that.

[Slice of Life]

Consider how dumb the average person is.

Go ahead.

Now realize that half of the people in the world are dumber than that.

Hahaha.

That's a scary thought...

[David in FL]

Consider how dumb the average person is.

Go ahead.

Now realize that half of the people in the world are dumber than that.

Don't you mean median........

[saevel25]

Consider how dumb the average person is.

Go ahead.

Now realize that half of the people in the world are dumber than that.

Makes me cringe when the Late Night TV show hosts goes out on the streets and start asking people questions.

[Ernest Jones]

Consider how dumb the average person is.

Go ahead.

Now realize that half of the people in the world are dumber than that.

George Carlin!

[iacas]

George Carlin!

Yep.

And yes, I cringe when I type "average" instead of "median" but I'm trying to stay true to the original (Carlin).

[Ernest Jones]

Yep.

And yes, I cringe when I type "average" instead of "median" but I'm trying to stay true to the original (Carlin).

It wouldn't have been as funny if George had to stop in the middle of the joke to explain what median means. In some cases, especially in mass communication, the lowest common denominator is king.

[Fourputt]

Take the word "dumb".  It originally had nothing to do with how smart one is, yet it has become so common to use it to refer to someone of below average intelligence that it is now an accepted variation.  A person who was mute or "dumb", as in unable to speak, was thought to be too stupid to learn to talk, and eventually dumb became synonymous with stupid.  Yet I've seem many "dumb" animals which showed remarkable intelligence.

My grandmother was a schoolteacher, and she drove those distinctions into us kids, such that for me, I have difficulty using the word that way, even though its now accepted.  In that respect, I am definitely a product of my upbringing.

[Golfingdad]

Take the word "dumb".  It originally had nothing to do with how smart one is, yet it has become so common to use it to refer to someone of below average intelligence that it is now an accepted variation.  A person who was mute or "dumb", as in unable to speak, was thought to be too stupid to learn to talk, and eventually dumb became synonymous with stupid.  Yet I've seem many "dumb" animals which showed remarkable intelligence.

My grandmother was a schoolteacher, and she drove those distinctions into us kids, such that for me, I have difficulty using the word that way, even though its now accepted.  In that respect, I am definitely a product of my upbringing.

This is kind of my point.  You're not going to get very far picking on people for incorrectly using the word "dumb."  Nor are you going to get very far picking on people for incorrectly using the word "average."  And while words like "doh," which I remember was added to the dictionary in the last decade or so, and "swag," which Brandon mentioned earlier, may sound stupid to some of us, isn't it likely that it's more of an evolution of language than a "dumbing down" of society?

When I was a kid in 80's, I remember us, as a generation, popularizing words like "awesome," "gnarly," and "rad" for our own bastardized definitions as well.  Certainly, every generation has words like that, going all the way back to the beginning of spoken language, right?

[boogielicious]

Adding words to the English language is nothing new.  Horace Walpole is credited with adding many words using portmanteau techniques.  Serendipity is a famous example.  Lewis Carroll did it as well.