Tuesday 31 January 2023

Grammar Police












When I first started surfing the 'net many years ago, I was appalled by all the rampant grammatical/spelling mistakes and typos. But you can't hold back the ocean with a broom, can you, so there's no point in being a pain in the ass about the situation. I don't take it upon myself to gratuitously point out those errors to people. Just "go with the flow" is my philosophy. Besides, I occasionally make an inadvertent grammatical/spelling mistake or typo in my own blog posts! (And before anyone takes me to task, the split infinitive in my third sentence can now, in our modern times, be accepted as proper colloquial English usage).

48 comments:

Travel said...

Great collection,

Frank said...

Two unacquainted women are sitting next to each other on a plane. One from the upper class of a Northern city, the other a Southern belle. The Southerner decides to break the ice, so she asks, "Where all y'all from." The rich society woman replies, "Well, where I come from, we never end a sentence with a preposition!" The Southern lady thinks about that and after a minute or so she turns to the other woman and asks, "So, where y'all from, bitch!"

Mistress Maddie said...

There, their and they're meme!!! LOL! That reply was awesome.

Bob said...

Wow, those were Beethoven's REALLY later years.

I do cringe at grammar errors, but I rarely correct them because there are usually hundreds who came before me and did that already.

Marie Smith said...

Go with the flow or is it flo?

LL Cool Joe said...

I made an arse of myself the other day. I read a comment on a Youtube video. Someone was being very rude to this lady and her taste in plant pots, so I wrote a really stroppy comment back to them correcting his English from "their" to "they're". Turns out the 2 of them were best buddies and it was a joke. I won't do that again in a rush.

Debra She Who Seeks said...

@ Marie Smith -- You little dickens, LOL!

Janie Junebug said...

I still hate my errors but I don't feel quite so compelled to correct people these days, although I still want to kill someone when I see lead as the past tense of lead. LED LED LED LED LED I think the best change in grammar is being able to use a plural pronoun for a singular noun. Good to know Beethoven was still composing after death.

Love,
Janie

Frank said...

No one has mentioned "then" and "than" - those are the ones that irk me most when used incorrectly.

Marcia LaRue said...

Flo is with Progressive Insurance!

Pixie said...

Thanks for the laughs this morning:)

Boud said...

As a founding member of the Pedants' Revolt, I still cling to a few grievances. Criteria is plural, likewise phenomena. But I'm a broken woman after all these years online, with "would of" all around.

pam nash said...

Hell people - yes, and those that say Hot Water Heater.

Tundra Bunny said...

I absolutely LOATHE the increasing use of "funner" instead of "more fun", especially in TV ads targeting children.

Jamie Ghione said...

Some good ones.
One thing I have seen that irks me is using is/was to mean are/were, "much" to mean "many," "a little" to mean "a few." People seem to have forgotten those words.

Moving with Mitchell said...

I was nearly lead astray by the comments which may be even more funner than the original post. Your all very clever. Not just yáll, all y'all. Now I got to turn on the hot water heater to heat up the hot water.

Sixpence Notthewiser said...

Hahahaha
Oh, I love all of these so hard...!
I really love when bigots posting sh*t online get called on their atrocious grammar. They're stupid AND ignorant.

Also, at the end of the day, small mistakes is what will differentiate us from AI writing stuff in the future... Bleak, no?

OXOX

Liz Hinds said...

And that is a proper split infinitive! So many good ones here. I really hope the CIA one is genuine.

Liz Hinds said...

To Janie, I struggle with plural pronouns/verbs and single nouns. It irritates me.
And I love Sixpence Notthewiser's comment about AI too

Leanna said...

These are all so great. I loved them all because they drove me crazy and made me smile at the same time.

e said...

Love these memes! To Serve and Correct and Dr Whom made me laugh.
When I retired from my job I also retired from the Grammar Police. I now acknowledge that if one can understand the message - it's all good!
Thanks for the lolz!

Anonymous said...

My nightmare is whether to use “affect” or “effect”, I have to think back to working at a psych hospital to clarify affect in my mind. Usually it is effect that is needed, not affect. But I am reluctant to just be cavalier about it.

gz said...

Blame it all on autocorrect!
But where the heck did My Bad develop from?!!

Mike said...

Self-editing is an exercise in futility. All hail Grammarly!

Ellen D. said...

As long as I can figure out what a person is trying to say, I'm fine with errors and just ignore them.

Bruce.desertrat said...

Composing while decomposing, quite a neat trick!

John Going Gently said...

U made me titter

Ol'Buzzard said...

A woman walks into her house and finds a dead body in a pool of blood on her living room floor. On the wall is written "Your next." She dips her finger in the blood and writes 'You're', then calls the police.
the Ol'Buzzard

BootsandBraids said...

I've made typos on the blog and in responding to comments. We all do. It's par for the course, but I just this morning read an awesome article about a worker who corrected the errors on a manager's note threatening to fire people and the worker turned corrected the errors on the note into his resignation letter
https://god.dailydot.com/worker-correcting-grammar-quits-job/?fbclid=IwAR15Sr80yEX3DZV-8ePPafhmlb--VPd-dlUeBXJ66BO_z8r_NUvux4LYy-I

lissa said...

Well, I don't mind Dr. Whom as long as he's polite.

Beethoven is funny.

I enjoy funny typos. And anyway, there is no way to get every word you type or write be correct all the time.

Have a lovely day

angela said...

I’ve found I’m actually getting worse as the years progress
I just don’t care anymore. People know what I mean and since there is so much of it around. I’m fitting into the crowd lol

Richard said...

Oh funny. To serve and correct! Also most of my little pet peeves made guest appearances. English as She is Spoke. I am having a big smile. To be honest with yall, i think "whom" is on "its" way out. In my barbarous North American dialect, we just let "who" do twice the work. I am a fan of split infinitives, they can be used for emphasis. Thank you very funny jokes.

Richard said...

For Baud- this example gives me the hives. I don't even speak Greek.

For Anonymous- i also struggle with affect & effect. I use this- i feel affection for my nice neighbor. Or that is a nice affectionate stray cat, you should feed it, affection is an emotional state or condition.

Effect is more a verb. As in we need some big changes around here, effective tomorrow all you cat-feeding libs better not be feeding any cats. We are going to effect some changes and clean this place up. That will be an effective solution. I do struggle with those words,they sound so similar.

roentare said...

You are so right about the grammar police. Sometimes I feel like no one else actually reads what I gonna say or express. The attention is diverted away to some spelling or grammar errors

River said...

I have no idea what a split infinitive even is, so I can't complain about spelling and grammar can I?

Valerie said...

As a retired editor (do we ever really retire?) I absolutely love all these memes. Stole a passel of them :-D Thanks

DVArtist said...

I know I make a lot of mistakes, simply because my brain doesn't work. However, my nieces and nephews speak and write horribly. They tell me that spell check will fix it. Knowledge is lost on them. Great collection today. Have a nice day.

baili said...

Well such posts about spelling mistakes unload burden of my guilt that gives me backache with loads of mistakes I make everyday (thanks to spellchecker, doesn't reach to you guys)

Hahaha all made me laugh particularly before the death sentence. Loved the attitude

You rock!!!!!

Fundy Blue said...

Oh I love this, Debra! Twenty-five years of being the grammar policewoman to hundreds of kids makes me truly appreciate these. I shudder to think how many grammar conventions I have broken, especially in my blog. Take care my friend!

John M said...

You made me smile again. Thank you.

Adam said...

Everyone on the Internet is just waiting for a chance to correct somebody

Kirk said...

I'm afraid to leave a comment. God knows what I'll spell wrong, punctuate wrong, and grammatically express wrong.

The Blog Fodder said...

Many spelling and grammar mistakes occur because the person did not proof read before hitting enter. Autocorrect and hitting a letter next to the one you intended to hit (dead vs deaf) are the main culprits.
But you can't get all the errors. The number of people who proof and approve a letter from the Premier is high, but even so there is somewhere a letter from Grant Devine with the phrase pubic service.
Having said that, I wonder if people even care anymore? I read comments like, if it can be understood, why worry? To me it is carelessness and speaks to carelessness in other things too.

peppylady (Dora) said...

I'm sure there plenty of opps, in my blog post.
Coffee is on and stay safe

Richard said...

Oh ouch. Of course we care.

Ur-spo said...

I am a card carrying member of The Guardians of the Grammar-xy, a much more friendly group than The Grammar Police. One of our policies is never chastise or 'educate' without permission first. We lead be example.

Busy Bee Suz said...

I wish I were perfect, but that will never happen. I am much better than years ago; I'm learning.
"Butt Dust" *giggle giggle*

Rommy said...

Can absolutely co-sign the one about typos that linger through revision after revision. Gah!