Yes, I AM the spelling police! (Full Version)

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MistressDarkArt -> Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 12:32:43 AM)

I would like to provide a place where literate folk may express their frustration with less-than-literate folk's spelling, grammar, punctuation and syntax gaffes. Note: I'm not referring to on-the-fly forum posting typos or ESL folks who knock themselves out trying their best with a difficult second language.

Here are some of my peeves:

Its and it's. If I had a dollar for every time I've seen otherwise intelligent people type "I love it's color" I could buy that awesome beach house in the good part of town. People: it's is a contraction of 'it is'. if you're not sure whether it's right to use one say this sentence out loud, "I love it is color." Certainly not right. Simple. You just gained 20 IQ points, at least on 'paper'.

There, they're, and their. "They're over there with that dog of theirs." NOT "there over there with that dog of theres." Or worse yet, 'thers'.

To, too. "It's really too much to expect" becomes 'its really to much too expect." Or mostly, folks just leave off the second 'o' when they shouldn't as though there's only one version of this word.

Your and you're. "Here are your gloves. Wear them when you're outside today."

Using apostrophes for plurals. "How many dog's and cat's do you have? She has two slave's and doesn't want any master's."

Random bizarre capitalization in the middle of a sentence. "Yesterday we Went to the Park and there were Lots of kids On the swings." I simply don't get this. At all.

Text speak. Oy, my head...[sm=gaah.gif] It may be appropriate for sending a quick message to let your friend know you'll be a few minutes late. But for gawd's sake (yes, I know how I spelled 'gawd' and did so deliberately out of respect) you are not limited to x number of characters on this board and most others. Text speak is hard for the majority to interpret in a long message. To my eyeballs, it's the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.

Phonetic spelling. "Voila" becomes 'wa la' or something else that doesn't even sound like the original word. Craigslist is famous for this. It's hilarious and incredibly sad at the same time.

Prolly. Just because you're too lazy to pronounce all syllables of the word 'probably' doesn't mean it's a good idea to eye-rape us with your illiteracy.

Discrete. Folks, this is a mathematical term. It is not the same as 'discreet' which is what the majority of the married douches here without their spouse's permission mean. It's enough they are a douche; it's too much they are also illiterate.

Definatl(e)y. Or definetl(e)y. Watch for those squiggly red lines! They're there to tell you something is d e f i n i t e l y wrong with your spelling!

Punctuation. Or lack thereof. I have never seen so many run-on sentences in my entire life as I do online. People do a whole effing paragraph where it's impossible to determine one statement ending and another beginning. Or the ubiquitous commas between words instead of spaces. When, and for gawd's sake WHY did that start? Is it a text thing and I didn't get the memo? It,sure,is,hard,to,read,I,wish,u,wud,lern,to,make,freinds,with,ur,space,key.

Quiet and quite. OK, sometimes this is just a typo, but mostly not. "I quite enjoy a quiet evening at home." That's the right way, folks.

"Dinning". If you enjoy fine dining or have a dining room table for sale, trust me you don't need the extra 'n'. Really.

Slashy speak, and folks that capitalize 'Me', 'Mine', 'You', 'Your' in the middle of a sentence and not after a period...anything but proper-English 'I'. Bastardizing the English language in this way just looks like a dumb affectation to me. Same goes for submissive's lower case names and pronouns. It's hard as hell to read and makes me think somebody's shift key isn't working.

There are SOOOOOOOOO many others but I'd like to see your favorites!

PS: I leave you here with our perennial favorite: dominant and dominate. No effing comment...please pass the Advil.





MissImmortalPain -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 12:48:06 AM)

My learning disability and I will simply say we are sorry and leave you and the better folk to talk further.



MistrixMsE -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 12:57:36 AM)

quote:

(in reply to MistressDarkArt)


The correct use of a/an is the one that pops the spring from the side of my neck and turns me into Frankendomme.

Its a simple flipping rule. I tried desperately to instill it in my students when I was a professor, but honestly, by college if cant you get that ONE little thing right, why the hell are you paying tuition at a 4 year?



AneNoz -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 12:58:17 AM)

As one who has learned your language as an adult the truth of it is that it is insane. There are no rules within it that stand for more than one or two instances. The phonetics of the letters are variable with no reason or rhyme.

Those who make the effort to communicate in this mad language with no logic when it is not their own deserve both patience and consideration. To dismiss such as these from outside the hand is both rude and ignorant in the greatest way. This is a difficult thing this English, and it requires much effort from My Beloveds and I to produce my posts as we must sometimes go through several languages on our way to reach English. If I am unclear do not mock, ask for clarification, and we will try again to express the thoughts more clearly or correctly.

Be at peace
Aneka



MistressDarkArt -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 1:05:47 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: MistrixMsE

quote:

(in reply to MistressDarkArt)


The correct use of a/an is the one that pops the spring from the side of my neck and turns me into Frankendomme.



Oooooooo, good one! I forgot about that. Which also reminds me of folks using 'an' when they mean 'and.'



MistressDarkArt -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 1:09:53 AM)

quote:

Note: I'm not referring to on-the-fly forum posting typos or ESL folks who knock themselves out trying their best with a difficult second language.


AneNoz, you have my complete sympathy and I appreciate all your effort to try. You do a fine job. It is a hard language that doesn't make consistent sense. But kids who are educated in this country have no excuse when folks from foreign lands can out-perform them in English literacy.



LadyPact -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 1:18:20 AM)

What a wonderful post in an attempt to quell a person's self expression.  You might as well hide My posts right now and do clip's right along with it.  (Perhaps there's another discussion that goes with that, but I'll let it be.)

I'm going to say the same thing that I've said here for the last four and a half years.  I'm not here to please anyone else.  I write the way I want to because it pleases Me.  In fact, clip writes the way he does to please Me as well.  If I tell him that I want him using lower case for his name, anything that refers to himself with lower case, or hell, even if I tell him to write in the third person, who in the hell are you to to say what should happen in our dynamic?  If we choose to express that dynamic here on these boards through the way we write, we're completely entitled to do that.

We're not breaking TOS and we're not breaking forum guidelines.  That means that it's just like anything else you might not want to see on a BDSM site.  If you don't like it, skip it.  Either that, or you can continue to take jabs at people because you don't like their writing style, as you often do, rather than deal with the content of the post. 

This might not have been the most petty thing that I've seen posted on the board today, but it's darn close.  Considering some of the competition for that particular distinction, that's not something to be proud of.



AneNoz -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 1:20:22 AM)

I agree, and I do apologize, I have allowed my anger to get the best of myself. I am unused to being mocked and my thoughts discarded on this basis and thus it was tonight. Again please accept my apology for this distraction from your thread.

Be at peace
Aneka



MistressDarkArt -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 1:24:53 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: MissImmortalPain

My learning disability and I will simply say we are sorry and leave you and the better folk to talk further.


Don't go, MissIP! A disability is a different case altogether and not to be lumped together with just plain laziness or lack of concern for how one comes across when writing. I find your posts are always intelligent and well-thought out. Carry on!



MistressDarkArt -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 1:42:33 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: AneNoz

Again please accept my apology for this distraction from your thread.

Be at peace
Aneka



No apologies needed, Aneka. I can certainly understand the frustration of an adult trying to learn and communicate in English. I admire anyone willing to take it on, and your posts are clear and easy to understand. The rant is more toward the folks who have had a lifetime to know better and don't care.



LillyBoPeep -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 2:35:23 AM)

i don't mind your rant, i have similar annoyances, but there are times when i mean to type "your" and i type "you're" -- sometimes, especially with typing, we've developed little pathways and muscle memory in the fingers that type words we most commonly use.
plus, i have a tendency to not capitalize my  "I" and other proper pronouns; it's a bad habit i picked up, ironically, at my old college. i also tend to write "dunno" quite a bit, rather than "don't know."
so while i get annoyed by rampant misspelling and bad grammar, i also know that i have my own faults.

i don't really care because each and every person has something quirky and odd about what they do -- certainly you yourself aren't '100% perfect in everything you do. slashy speak annoys me, and i tend to skip over posts written in it because i don't like trying to read it (it sounds like noise in my head -- "Y/you" sounds like stuttering), but other people enjoy it and use it to express their dynamics online. okay, fine, whatever floats your boat.

some people, especially older people, still have difficulties with keyboards. some people, as has been stated, have learning disabilities. if a profile is rife with mispellings, bad grammar, improper homophones, etc, then i'll usually drift away, but if that person explains "i have dyslexia" then there's a reasonable exception.

the world is full of different kinds of people who do different things for who knows what reasons. but if this is what's most important to you right now, consider yourself lucky, and move on.

p.s. to Aneka -- your posts are like melodious little poems. ^_^ i love coming across them. ^_^



MadAxeman -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 2:51:16 AM)

I find a lot of American English to be about reducing the language.
English evolves quickly in America, with new words and phrases added all the time.
The tendency is towards the more succinct, punchier expression.

My favo(u)rites?

I'm English and have people telling me I have added 'u' to words like honour all the time.
However it is Americans that have removed it, as 6 letter words seem too taxing.
Also the use of 'gotten' has become prevalent, which lacks elegance and adds little.

Having said that, I feel that having a free flow of ideas is more important than grammatical purity. Many people here make valid contributions that enliven discussion without a fine understanding of sentence structure or syntax.
It would be a false economy if only the more correct and tepid posts were viewed.
However, I do believe that if more people simply read their posts before pressing OK (another infraction) they would not only contribute with better style, their point might be made more lucidly.

Word up.



HannahLynn -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 3:10:03 AM)

quote:

people telling me I have added 'u' to words
yea that one is a fucking laugh riot, eh?

a while back some bint tried to put me down with it saying i was stupid for misspelling something because of the "extra" u. [:D]



HannahLynn -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 3:13:21 AM)

quote:

slashy speak annoys me
oh fuck yes! i hate that shit.

quote:

p.s. to Aneka -- your posts are like melodious little poems. ^_^ i love coming across them. ^_^
fuck yes!!! i love them too. wonderful fucking things, and such a different world view.



agirl -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 3:16:58 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: MistressDarkArt

I would like to provide a place where literate folk may express their frustration with less-than-literate folk's spelling, grammar, punctuation and syntax gaffes. Note: I'm not referring to on-the-fly forum posting typos or ESL folks who knock themselves out trying their best with a difficult second language.



I don't get frustrated with other people's spelling or grammar........I only get frustrated if *I* make gaffes. I'm REALLY anal about my OWN writing but really couldn't care less about other people's.

Having said that.....I notice that many, many posts contain *ect*....when it is *etc*. Also, many folk write * I could care less* when it's * I couldn't care less*.

As so many posts contain these, I usually just wonder how it became so widespread. It seems to be an american thing as I've never come across a british person doing either.

Just a couple of rather insignificant observations.

agirl



Termyn8or -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 3:33:14 AM)

"But kids who are educated in this country have no excuse when folks from foreign lands can out-perform them in English literacy."

It's not just that, I've found that many foreigners have very good diction as well. Not all, but after conversations with people in Sweden or from Bylorus for example, their pronounciation is strikingly accurate. Certain people do it here, but few. I mean they pronounce Puerto Roco "pwerto" not "porter". Some actually pronounce the "h" in words such as "when", "where" and "why". I don't usually because it is hard to make it sound right*, but they do it flawlessly. (yes I know that's wrong but it sounds better that way)

With that out of the way I must say that I think the whole educational system must share the blame. The US citizens I know who have the best diction were generally educated in private schools, and this includes the over fifty crowd. More recently having known many people with kids, I have, on occasion seen notes etc.* from school with terrible grammar and/or spelling. ( ect. anyone ? you missed that, how do they get ect from et cetera ? )

They're not always leading by example to say the least. Another thing that irks me is seeing errors on court documents. In law language must be very specific and precise lest it be misinterpreted. I assert that it should not be interpreted and should stand on it's own words, but that's not possible when the grammar is incorrect. That's one of the reasons this country is so screwed up I think. You think congressmen who think you can take a bus to Hawaii write all this legislation ? I have doubts that they can even read and comprehend it. How can the represent anyone (no matter who that is) with such a handicap.

It took me years to get to an acceptable level of literacy really, and it didn't happen until decades after school. I got away with it because I had a valuable skill and a few other things going for me. Later I realized though, that it is impotant to be able to express ones self effectively.

But I can't read or write. (one, I know you are not supposed to start a sentence, much less a paragraph with the word "but", but....so what) And it's "copyright" not "copywrite". But seriously without a keyboard I am up the proverbial creek sans paddle. I can print manual* well enough to work, writing down part numbers or notes etc. , but writing a letter like in the old days of penpalship ? Forget it. (* manual is actually correct usage there, care to debate ? ) Even the best penmanship in cursive is near gibberish to me. It's like a foreign language.

Not to forget as well, as one educated in the US, I would dread the prospect of learning a foreign language. It's bad enough when the alphabet is the same and only the words are different, grammar takes it to a whole new level. Took me decades to learn this language, I'll likely be dead before I can ever speak Spanish intelligibly.

I do understand the concept tough, and hope this thread is in good intent, which would be to get people to become cognizant of proper grammar and spelling(s). For some it reflects on their intelligence, at least in the eye of their readers.

What's more, even the more creative people such as authors do have staff to proof their work. I wonder if it's so all over the world. Like in China for example, that one little stroke belongs ½ a millimeter to the left ? They probably flog you for that over there.

But I have dealt with alot of technical information that has been translated from Oriental languages and some of the errors are comical. However considering the situation I can see why they do not outsource the translating and proofing of the documents to US citizens. Most of us simply can't do it.

T^T



Hillwilliam -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 5:25:39 AM)

I'll only chime in to say that I subconsciously deduct 30 IQ points for "Text Speak".



kalikshama -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 5:36:13 AM)

Hi Aneka,

Some ESL (English Second Language) people, you included, put the sloppy native English speakers to shame. Like the OP said, this was not directed at you.

I'm quite fond of the philosophies you express as well.

Best,

KK



kalikshama -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 5:44:43 AM)

Thanks for the opportunity for me to discuss my pet homophone peaves:

"Pique my interest" not "peak"
A line is a "queue" not "cue"



Aynne88 -> RE: Yes, I AM the spelling police! (10/19/2011 5:50:02 AM)

psst...don't hate me but it's "peeve" not "peave". 



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