Do You/Should You Correct Someone's Grammar ?

[cityboy-stl]

I about died laughing at some British reporter on TV talking about Venezuelerrr.

 

[sshears]

Do I correct grammar? If I notice it, then yes. If I make/made a mistake, then I would like for someone to correct me as well.

 

[peeonme]

I do it only if I want to offend the person. That being said I am hardly in a position to do so. I have a 'friend' that I worked with years ago in a coin shop. I showed him a picture of a buffalo sticking it's head in my car window. This friend quickly corrected me and said 'it's a bison' . I know that's true, however I don't recall selling any bison nickels at the coin shop. Pettiness is worse that poor grammar.

 

[Kahaih]

Etiquette prevents me from actually speaking up. But, oh, certain grammatical errors irk me. Like, "Where is he at?" DROP THE AT!!!! It's NOT useful!
. . . .

Where did you get that from?

 

[Charon]

My college major is English, and I'm an aspiring writer. So yes and yes.

 

[Latimer]

I about died laughing at some British reporter on TV talking about Venezuelerrr.

The issue here is pronunciation, not grammar. I know this sounds wrong to you and me, but in the UK it's considered acceptable RP (Received Pronunciation). If I remember correctly Prince Charles does this with final vowels. I'm sure there's a term for it. The Brits participating in this thread should correct me if I'm wrong about this.

 

[Latimer]

In answer to the question, I only correct my partner, and much younger relatives.
I have clients with degrees from good universities who say, "Me and my family went to..." or "He gave my family and I", etc., etc. It drives me crazy but I'm not going to bite the hand that feeds me.

 

[NotHardUp1]

What isn't the received pronunciation is the "w" sound for L's that is creeping into the RP. More and more of the speakers are beginning to curl their L's into W's. It's like listening to Pygmalion, and sooooo distracting.

 

[roadtripboy]

Only in my head. But I don't say it out loud. Mom was an English teacher and taught us all that there stuff.

 

[gsdx]

English has changed more and much faster in these past few years than it has throughout the first 60 years of my life. I don't correct 'setup' when it should be 'set up' or 'everyday' when it should be 'every day', but young people are losing even basic English these days and creating new words to replace the old (corrrect) ones. The should at least know how to use basic English. There will soon become a time when people speaking the same language won't be able to communicate. It's happening right now.

 

[Rickrock]

It depends on who made the error. I might correct a friend or someone younger, but more often not. Maybe it depends on how much it bothers you.

 

[Thad1527]

Where did you get that from?

Well, a preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with!

 

[eddielee]

If I can understand what someone is saying, or writing, that is fine. Calling out a misspelled word, or incorrect phrase is being an asshole. I hate writing a long paragraph, taking care to get an important point across, only to have some asshole miss the point but tell me that I misspelled a word.

 

[opinterph]

Well, a preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with!

It happens a lot in spoken language. For example, I note it's usage quite regularly by television commentators.

 

[medic1]

The issue here is pronunciation, not grammar. I know this sounds wrong to you and me, but in the UK it's considered acceptable RP (Received Pronunciation). If I remember correctly Prince Charles does this with final vowels. I'm sure there's a term for it. The Brits participating in this thread should correct me if I'm wrong about this.

Morning.

No, you are quite correct, in Britain it is quite acceptable.

As to the question: Only when i want to annoy someone. I make enough myself.

 

[rareboy]

Some of the grammatical errors in this thread are melting my eyeballs.

But I only correct grammar of people who really should know better and are behaving like an asshole...or where they have corrected someone else's grammar, but have made an egregious error in their own comments.

I actually appreciate people bringing any errors I make to my attention.

 

[peeonme]

I always found that at least presenting myself to be well spoken got my foot in the door at many job interviews.

 

[dpnice]

Why should you be bothered about someone correcting your grammar ? If you couldn’t care less about how you present yourself to others surely you couldn’t care less about the opinions of others.

 

[MTLDude]

Since English is far from being my first language, I don't tend to correct other in that language.


In my native French however, if it is an honest mistake, I let it pass, but if the person comes about as a pedantic troll, I do correct them, with gusto...

 

[gsdx]

If I can understand what someone is saying, or writing, that is fine.

Which is why I do not read posts which are totally lacking in punctuation. I have better things to do with my day than to try to figure out where sentences begin and end.

four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure we are met on a great battle field of that war we have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this but in a larger sense we can not dedicate we can not consecrate we can not hallow this groundthe brave men living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract the world will little note nor long remember what we say here but it can never forget what they did here it is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation under god shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth abraham lincoln november 19 1863

Even knowing what it says makes it very difficult to read.