Are you irritated by incorrect grammar.

What a brilliant name cooberpedi.

I've been thinking about this more overnight. I have always expected people to think I'm common because of the way I speak and the little I know about grammar (for instance, I had to look up parsing after reading the previous post). I'm used to that and it doesn't matter to me a bit. Shame on them really.

What I didn't realise is that they might stop paying attention or think I have a low IQ when I get it wrong. What a shock! I don't immediately think something is correct if it is well written so why should the opposite be true?

Because I've studied at a botanical garden I know the Latin names for plants. If someone calls a daisy a daisy I don't assume they know less about it or enjoy plants less than someone who calls it Bellis perennis.

Just because someone hasn't had the benefit of the education others obviously have, it doesn't mean they can't learn or have a lower IQ. Angela Rayner is bright as a button - she just didn't have the advantages some seem to assume are available to all. Believe me, my council estate comprehensive in the 1970s wasn't the place to learn about prepositions - rather it was a case of getting your head down, not getting your glasses smashed and looking forward to the day you could leave.

My mum's education was almost nil thanks to the war and ill health. When she retired from her job as a school cleaner she went to evening classes (which she called night school) to take O and A levels. She drank it all in an worked like a navvy. When she achieved an A in O level English I believe it was the proudest day of her life. We were so proud of her. Mum went on to have a book published which was sold and raised thousands for the charity Animals Asia.

Please don't stop listening just because someone doesn't get it right.

Doodledog

FannyCornforth

In fact, everytime I see the title of this thread, I am really, really irritated!

Touché, Fanny. ?

What is ‘parsing’?

I often hear people confuse LESS & FEWER. eg less cars on the road. Unfortunately I stop paying attention. Also, errors in parsing a sentence give a different meaning.

FannyCornforth

In fact, everytime I see the title of this thread, I am really, really irritated!

Did the dog correct you, Ravelling?
That’s always mortifying!

I used to be irritated by incorrect grammar, but I spent a large part of my working life working with young people and trying to teach it in sufficient amounts for them to pass a test.
I’ve grown to accept that language changes over time and communication of the message is the important thing.
However, the other day, I caught myself coming in from a muddy walk and saying, to the dog, ‘Right, show me them paws!’ Horrified!

In fact, everytime I see the title of this thread, I am really, really irritated!

Quizzer

I didn’t comment on that person’s IQ. I know that particular politician to be vey intelligent.
I just said that subconsciously bad grammar leads me to believe that a person is not so bright.

Quizzer
So what does the fact that you have made the most glaringly obvious grammatical error in your title say about your IQ then? (Subconsciously or other wise.)

The use of question marks is taught in KS1.

very fun

could of would of should of

While on this thread, would someone kindly tell me if 'burglarised' is a real word? Or have the Americans simply made it up by actually elongating a word for a change?
Why can't they just say 'burgled' like the rest of us?

I'm forever correcting my 3 oldest grandchildren because they say 'somethink' 'anythink' etc. They've picked it up from their nanny on their dads side, but they have it ingrained in them now....I will, however, keep on at them!

Yes, it is irritating! I often read the news on my 'phone and some of the errors that are written down make me wonder if they let children write them? Do we not have editors nowadays?

The one which bugs me is "bored of" . It's "bored by" surely???

Have enjoyed this thread, thank you. I will forgive every misplaced (greengrocers) apostrophe, and even the Their/There/They're condundrum, as long as I do not have to hear anyone calling a hospital a 'hosspiddle' again on BBC1. P.S. I'll get my coat.

MissAdventure

I just looked up the rules on "My husband and I", but I didn't understand them.

It did say, though, that it is as much to do with modesty as it is grammar.

For those unsure about the rules of grammar, the easy way to solve any doubt about whether to use "My husband and I" or "My husband and me" is to leave out the "My husband and.." bit before the 'me' or 'I', and see if the remainder makes sense or not.
Let's indicate the missing "My husband and.." as "..." in the following examples. Hence "... I went shopping" is obviously correct, whereas "... me went shopping is wrong. Similarly, "He gave it to ... I" is equally easy to identify as wrong. Simples!

My pet hate is different to or different than. As someone already pointed out, different from is correct.
But then, language has moved on, and eventually, different to will be acceptable, simply by common usage.
This is why, although I know decimate originally meant the killing of every tenth soldier in a group, I’m interested to know it can be applied currently (lacking cohorts of Romans to decimate), to mean the killing or destruction of a large number of beings.

I often think the same when I see spelling mistakes on here.

If you speak clearly and accurately as a child, there is probably a better chance that you will read more easily, and find that learning how to spell is not as difficult. Given the vagaries of the English language, where identical words mean different things, surely to speak with a degree of clarity is better for a child than if speech and the written word bear no relation to each other. That has nothing to do with accents, snobbery or pedantry.

I just looked up the rules on "My husband and I", but I didn't understand them.

It did say, though, that it is as much to do with modesty as it is grammar.

CanadianGran

Reading the comments, I'm stumped on the less/fewer errors.
I'll admit to having to look it up and hope I've not been judged as unintelligent on here in the past.

So less for uncountable nouns, fewer for countable nouns. But use less for time , money and weights. Oh boy.

So...
She completed her English degree in fewer than four years.
or
She completed her English degree in less than four years.

My natural tendency would be to use less than.

Or even '... in under four years', maybe?

But seriously - and I freely admit to having just looked this up- , you are talking about a chunk of time, so it's less.

Framilode

My grammar is far from perfect but what really irritates me, and it seems to have become more frequent recently, is starting a sentence with 'Myself and OH' instead of OH and I.

We say that all the time in Ireland. 'DH and I' would be considered quite formal.
However when I talked about 'myself and DH' on mumsnet posters were rushing on to sneer and accuse me of affectation. It's not, it's the way we speak here.

Reading the comments, I'm stumped on the less/fewer errors.
I'll admit to having to look it up and hope I've not been judged as unintelligent on here in the past.

So less for uncountable nouns, fewer for countable nouns. But use less for time , money and weights. Oh boy.

So...
She completed her English degree in fewer than four years.
or
She completed her English degree in less than four years.

My natural tendency would be to use less than.

I've no recollection of ever having a grammar lesson at school (a comprehensive school on a big council estate) and I speak with an accent that makes Vicky Pollard sound like Penelope Keith.

I've read an awful lot and have tried to take note of correct grammar and copy it, but I wouldn't really know when I am getting it wrong. I'm very happy if I'm corrected if it means I will get it right in future.

It hadn't really crossed my mind that my writing or speech might be irritating or make someone think I was less bright than someone with perfect diction/grammar. It doesn't seem to have held me back from achieving what I wanted to.

I just do my best to get my thoughts, questions and ideas across and hope that any shortcomings in grammar don't detract from what I'm trying to convey. It's very comforting to know that HM The Queen gets it wrong too.

Quizzer

I am all for regional accents, even though some can be mildly irritating.
However what really annoys me is blatantly incorrect grammar. On the news this morning I heard a senior politician using the phrases “you was” and “we was”. Unfortunately my brain automatically reduces my perception of the speaker’s IQ by about 20 points.
Am I alone in this, or are there any other glaring errors which really irritate you?

Born in London, and a pedant, I lived in Stockport. Sorry, Quizzer, but that's as much part of how people speak as the regional accent.
If Scottish MPs lost their accent because they live in London, they'd be accused of... snobbery, forgetting their roots etc? Regional voters like to hear MPs' roots when they speak, not some fake posh Londonvoice.