spellings on EBAY

[Bealman]

Having taught teenagers for all of my working life, I have steered short of this thread, as I have many thoughts on this.

For a start, not all people, including students at high school, are unskilled at writing English. Some teenagers I've taught over the years were proud of their writing skills.

However, there are some gapingly obvious disasters out there, but as far as I'm concerned, it boils down to how much you let it annoy you.

[njee20]

It does feel like lazy excuses "young people today can't write...". I guess the proliferation of initialisms and acronyms are driven primarily from social media, which is more the preserve of the young, but that's more evolution than actually incorrect. Unlike "I don't like there products", which is just wrong, and transcends generations!

[port perran]

Poor spelling, incorrect punctuation and grammatical errors really, really irritate me.
As an example, We have taxis running around here with ————- Taxi's Advanced Booking's Only emblazened on the side. I have deliberately not included the name of the company.
If it were my business I'd make absolutely sure that any promotional material was absolutely correct.
However, language is an evolving beast. What was acceptable in the 1950s say, may well have been frowned upon by those born 50 years earlier.
So....whilst many of us, myself very much included, find all this really annoying, I would suggest that in 40 years or so, the language of today will become the norm.
Incidentally, would norm be an acceptable word 100 years ago ? I know not but I'd hazard a guess that it would not.
Just my thoughts.

[Bealman]

All languages are constantly evolving to suit the period.

Think of new words that have been introduced in our lifetimes and then you don't hear them too much any more - like Biro.

Back in the seventies, everyone knew that was a pen. I doubt many young people would know that today.

However, I feel grammar is still important, particularly when typing on things like this forum.

Using a smartphone as I am now is particularly difficult!

[Newportnobby]

I heartily recommend a book by Gyles Brandreth entitled "Have you eaten Grandma?" which very humourously deals with grammatical and punctuation errors. Gyles (a Marmite type who personally I find hilarious) is quite scrupulous about the English language whilst allowing for change.
Obviously there is a comma missing from the book title which changes the meaning completely and that, in the main, is what the book is about

[njee20]

I'd be surprised if anyone here didn't know what a Biro was (although the capitalisation thereof is interesting, as it's become synonymous with ballpoint pens, particularly those clear plastic disposable ones, rather than those purely made by Bic, so I'd probably write "biro" more commonly), but fully accept we share only parts of a common language!

I still think we have evolution; that is new words (omnishambles, smartphone), abbreviations which become correct (phone, photo) and initialisms (LOL, OMG) which become woven into the language, but I can't foresee a time when your/you're are the same thing. That's just wrong, and the two common excuses for errors, either "language evolves" or "as long as It can be understood then it's fine" are even more annoying than the errors themselves. IMHO

Edit: And to Nobby's point:

[daffy]

Just as with learning my 'Times Table', my teachers throughout my schooling were very strict and exacting when it came to grammar, punctuation, and most memorably, spelling. All deviations from what was laid down by such rules as were given in volumes written by one Ronald Ridout, and daily enforced by teachers, was most pointedly highlighted by seemingly endless use of the red ink pen.
Almost every day my written works would be returned to me emblazoned with red markings, usually in the form of bold straight lines through every error, and with often near illegible corrections and exhortations to "do better", or, most disarmingly, the feared instruction to "See me!".

And so I learned what some might call 'the hard way' the complex rules of the language that is named after my country. I don't profess to have a perfect mastery of the art, and I am guilty of many a slip with pen and lip, but I like to think that those school days have served their purpose admirably.

But since those far off days when seeing a red line through beleive or neccesary would have me muttering under my breath, much seems to have changed. I know little of modern teaching methods, though I despaired as my much younger brother went through his formative schooling and was subjected to the experiment of the Initial Teaching Alphabet; and when I married and became step-father to already teenage children, I was sadly surprised to see that their written works for school were rarely corrected for grammar, syntax or spelling, the explanation I received at the time being that meaning was more important than the exact form of word or words.

So it comes as no surprise to me that the written word of some is so poorly related to what Mr Ridout expounded all those years ago. And the www (sadly not an acronym for the wonderful world of words) and the advent of the mobile phone has seemingly engendered an exponential decline in what I was taught to consider 'correct' usage of the English language.

But then I'm an old fart and yesterday's rules no longer apply in so many things. L.P. Hartley (not J.R. of 'Flyfishing' fame) once wrote that "the past is a foreign country: they do things differently there". But for me, as I'm sure it is for many of my generation, it is the present that seems to be that foreign land. At least as far as modern English language usage by some is concerned.

[stevewalker]

My sister went through school only six years behind me, yet she had reached sixth form and was taking A-level English, without ever being taught the use of the apostrophe!

[Malc]

The Greengrocers' apostrophe. Carrot's, leek's etc.

[njee20]

That is pretty weird.

I admit I sat my A-levels in 2004, and thus did primary school in the mid-90s, so not that recently, but I remember having 'dictation' as an 8 year old, where the teacher would read aloud and we'd have to obviously spell it all, and punctuate appropriately.

I did an English language A-level too, which was fascinating. There were points on offer for correct spelling, punctuation and grammar too!

A genuine shame if things have degraded since. 

Use of apostrophes is particularly dire!

[joe cassidy]

I've lived overseas for 27 years so I observe the evolution of the English language from a distance.

Things I don't like :

- using "impacted by" instead of affected by

- "stakeholders" instead of "interested parties"

- using "eco-system" instead of "environment"

- talking about the "DNA" instead of the culture of an organisation

- no-brainer

Things I do like :

"defo" - reminds me of when we used to say "let's have a dekko".

Best regards,



Joe (61 years)

[Adam1701D]

There is a prime example of the importance of capital letters that involves assisting a male relative to dismount an equine quadruped. I will not post it here, as it may fall foul of the "Family Forum" policy.

[javlinfaw7]

Most obvious example of capital letters changing meaning.
Polish- nationality
polish- beeswax preparation

[daffy]

Online news feeds are major users - or rather abusers - of the capital letter.
On my iPad the Apple News app has too prime culprits in this regard:

The Huffington Post always post their headlines with initial capitals on every word. For example, today's feed has:

Orange County, A Conservative Bastion, Turns Blue For The First Time In Decades

HuffPost is not alone in this irritating habit.

The Express likes to capitalise what it considers important words in headlines, often innocuous verb forms like MUST, or WILL, and also likes to omit punctuation.

I really HATE this AWFUL use OF the WRITTEN word.

.... or should I say

I REALLY hate THIS awful USE of THE written WORD.

[MalcolmInN]

Most obvious example of capital letters changing meaning.
Polish- nationality
polish- beeswax preparation

Good example

(is my emoticon part of my sentence, if so perhaps I should type    good example ? )

Contemplating polish I was reminded of French polish that uses shellac in methylated spirit(s). Perhaps we should downgrade that to french polish.

Googling it wikipedia gets it right, but many other sites call it French Polish which in the current febrile atmosphere in Europe could risk a (don't mention it)    war    !

Dear me what a state we do wind ourselves into since the invention of the printing press and typesetting !
Which came first, the language or the rules ?
It amuses me to think of the ancients sitting down one day to invent a language with sufficiently complex rules to utterly confuse these foreigners that have come amongst us.