Pet Peeves and the English Language

**Hwen** · 06-05-2012 08:23 PM

Just as the title says, blow off some steam and go ahead and rant about what's happened to our language in this age of Facebook and texting, and how it DRIVES YOU UP THE WALL!
I will start.
Probably my biggest 'GAH!' moment of all time comes when I see somebody has been too lazy to type TWO EXTRA LETTERS when they say 'Yeah', and just type 'Ya'. for some reason, i read it EXACTLY as it is spelled, and in my head, i hear 'Yah' (i know people do say that, but im not sure exactly where. Dutch?). whereas if I read 'Yeah', in my head, I hear 'Yeah'. I honestly dont care about apostrophes and capitalization, i dont mind 'lol's and 'ikr's and all the rest of those, 'they're' 'there' and 'their', but when I see 'ya' instead of 'yeah', it sounds all wrong!
okay, that was my big rant, my other main ones are stuff thats SO badly misspelled that it looks like they did it deliberately. or,"shtuf thatz sp badlly mispeld tha it luks lik thet did iy dellibritly"
Another annoyance is when people have no concept of periods and commas. when you type it in a huge big blob just like this its a little hard to follow just what your saying and it makes me judge you as unintelligent even if you arent.
so there. im done now (phew)
anybody else need to blow off some steam?

**Carrot** · 06-06-2012 12:04 AM

Too many short forms.

**Arra** · 06-10-2012 11:43 PM

I have mixed feelings about this which are probably too complicated to get into. But right now, I don't mind when people use short-hands or acronyms online, unless they're doing it so often that they sound like idiots, or the phonetic interpretations of their spellings are different from those of the real words. It might irk me a bit if someone were to say 'dis', but 'u' doesn't bother me because I pronounce that like 'you'. And that only bothers me because I read it wrong and the person sounds like they have some strange accent.

What bothers me more is when people do things incorrectly because they don't know any better or aren't bothering to think about it, like the 'their' and 'your' confusions and 'alot', and that isn't even because I'm accusing them of being stupid (so many people do that it's no wonder that others will pick it up, since people learn language from others). It just bothers me because I notice it every time someone does it and it distracts me from what they're saying. The others don't bother me because I know that they know how to really spell the words, they're just used to using those short-hands.

**Solarflare** · 06-11-2012 08:27 AM

Next time someone says 'you're' as 'your'..............

**Phion** · 06-12-2012 08:47 AM

I dislike when people do not write in paragraph form if they have a thought which exceeds the capacity of a normal sentence.

**littlezoe** · 06-12-2012 03:50 PM

I can't stand bad grammar, doesn't matter if it's in english or hungarian, it bothers me to no end when someone is too lazy to write correctly, especially when it's their original language.

**Abra** · 06-12-2012 03:52 PM

I can think of half a dozen things just by comparing English to Spanish. I think my hate-on will only grow if I were to learn another language.

**Carrot** · 06-12-2012 04:36 PM

Originally Posted by littlezoe

I can't stand bad grammar, doesn't matter if it's in english or hungarian, it bothers me to no end when someone is too lazy to write correctly, especially when it's their original language.

o.O

I know I don't speak/type grammatically correct most of the times. I mean English is just too hard, unless you're using really simple sentences.

**littlezoe** · 06-12-2012 04:43 PM

Originally Posted by Carrot

o.O

I know I don't speak/type grammatically correct most of the times. I mean English is just too hard, unless you're using really simple sentences.

Lol... i see no problems with your grammar... You are just imagining things

You are way better at english than me

naw dis is bad grammer.

**Carrot** · 06-12-2012 04:55 PM

Originally Posted by littlezoe

Lol... i see no problems with your grammar... You are just imagining things

You are way better at english than me

naw dis is bad grammer.

Hmm... I'm not sure. Or probably I was thinking of sentence structure problems. I just think English is very strict with its grammatical rules.

**samedi** · 06-12-2012 04:55 PM

i hate when you ask someone if they watch a certian tv show and they say ''i dont watch tv, i'm an outside person" in a snobby way. THOSE PEOPLE SHIT ME!!!

**Nivv** · 06-12-2012 05:15 PM

Here are the levels of grammatical correctness I use in different scenarios:

Top level - English essays and important work in general that will be read and judged

- Not a single grammatical error (or spelling)
- Varied style, avoiding repetitive sentence structure
- Consistency in comma application where it's optional

Medium level - Forum posts and e-mails

- Attempted perfect grammar but not meticulous attention to it
- Rereading stuff but only for blatant repetition of words in the same sentence (I'm very prone to doing that)

Low level - Instant messaging of any sort

- Good grammar but with often incorrect punctuation such as comma splices
- Typos, but fixed if it compromises comprehension
- Abbreviations and acronyms and some text speak

I think it's important to keep in mind what register you're using. I don't really care when people make mistakes as long as I can understand them. If you're writing something official and important though, please please please check your spelling/grammar and get it proofread if necessary! It looks like you don't care if there are careless mistakes.

Walls of text, however, are unacceptable!

I agree with Phion on that one.

EDIT: I read this through and caught a your/you're error. I should be killed for that.

**Carrot** · 06-12-2012 05:22 PM

Originally Posted by Nivv

EDIT: I read this through and caught a your/you're error. I should be killed for that.

Aye. I spotted that too, wanted to point it out and say...

Regarding what you had said, my English usage will be highly dependent on who I am speaking too. We have a habit of using "broken English" in my country among natives. It makes you look less uptight when you're among friends if you use that it seems.

**Marvo** · 06-12-2012 05:53 PM

I hate phrases that only English/American people understand, because it was in some book, tv show, ad, song or other thing when they were young. Basically things that make close to no sense, but those who use it assume that everybody understands, despite the fact that not everybody is an English/American person. This applies to most languages though, and is especially true for Germans and French people, because they learn next to no English when they are young.

What I'm talking about here, I suppose, is really just the arrogance of some people, when using language.

**littlezoe** · 06-12-2012 06:38 PM

Originally Posted by Carrot

Or probably I was thinking of sentence structure problems. I just think English is very strict with its grammatical rules.

Well i think that's true for most people who's original language is not english.

For example in hungarian sentences you can place words multiple ways for almost any sentence and they are still correct

English won't let me do that, but i still change up the word order in my sentences sometimes just naturally... I rarely notice it because it makes just as much sense to me like that too

Example, just because i'm bored:

English: I took my dog out for a walk.
Hungarian: Kivittem a kutyámat sétálni. / Kivittem sétálni a kutyámat. / A kutyámat kivittem sétálni.

But there are sentences that can be varied in even more ways :p

**Solarflare** · 06-12-2012 11:56 PM

Originally Posted by Carrot

Hmm... I'm not sure. Or probably I was thinking of sentence structure problems. I just think English is very strict with its grammatical rules.

I haven't seen a post of yours with horrible grammar...

**brokedownheart** · 06-13-2012 12:29 AM

Improper spelling enrages me to the point that I want to sprout wings and fly into the sun.

**Solarflare** · 06-13-2012 02:55 AM

Next time someone says

"When is it do?"
"Is it do tomorrow?"

Spoiler for final fantasy VII spoilers :| But everyone knows it though...:

**Arra** · 06-13-2012 05:29 AM

Originally Posted by Solarflare

Next time someone says

"When is it do?"
"Is it do tomorrow?"

You mean types, right? The words sound the same.

**Carrot** · 06-13-2012 07:15 AM

Originally Posted by littlezoe

Well i think that's true for most people who's original language is not english.

For example in hungarian sentences you can place words multiple ways for almost any sentence and they are still correct

English won't let me do that, but i still change up the word order in my sentences sometimes just naturally... I rarely notice it because it makes just as much sense to me like that too

Example, just because i'm bored:

English: I took my dog out for a walk.
Hungarian: Kivittem a kutyámat sétálni. / Kivittem sétálni a kutyámat. / A kutyámat kivittem sétálni.

But there are sentences that can be varied in even more ways :p

Yes yes!

That's about the same thing for Chinese too. Changing the position of the words doesn't affect the grammar for Chinese. (Although I have no idea what you typed in Hungarian.

) In fact it's usually just the "spelling" of the word that we got penalised for in examinations.

Originally Posted by Solarflare

I haven't seen a post of yours with horrible grammar...

Maybe because I feel inclined to post properly on DV.

**littlezoe** · 06-13-2012 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by Carrot

(Although I have no idea what you typed in Hungarian.

)

The same thing as in english, lol

**Carrot** · 06-13-2012 09:32 AM

Originally Posted by littlezoe

The same thing as in english, lol

I see something that looks like "kitten" in your sentences so I don't know.

But I guess they meant the same and that the rearrangement of the words didn't matter.

**littlezoe** · 06-13-2012 09:35 AM

Originally Posted by Carrot

But I guess they meant the same and that the rearrangement of the words didn't matter.

Yep, that's what i wanted to show... but i know it doesn't make much sense to you ^^

(For some reason i like to speak/write hungarian around people that don't understand it xD)

**Carrot** · 06-13-2012 09:36 AM

Originally Posted by littlezoe

Yep, that's what i wanted to show... but i know it doesn't make much sense to you ^^

(For some reason i like to speak/write hungarian around people that don't understand it xD)

You trickster.

**Ilumirath** · 06-13-2012 11:11 AM

I have a bit of a hard time writing correctly, because at school I was like 'What's all this unnecesary crap of dots and comma's.' I NEVER paid attention to any of it, ever. So half of the time I don't even know what I'm doing, really LOL

In English I try to write as decently as I can but, in Dutch I don't. I'll leave out vowels and smash words together because in Dutch you can.