Grammar and spelling

Someone I know never seems to use punctuation of any sort, nor capital letters (not even for "I"), nor paragraphs.

She will send a page long email which is indecipherable unless you go through it creating sentences beginning with capitals, punctuation and paragraphs. I have done this once or twice when I thought she was trying to tell me something important but mostly I can't be bothered.

Believe it or not, she is a retired teacher!

Up here in Geordieland a lot of people say 'I done that', or 'I seen that'.

I genuinely don't know the difference between brought and bought. Its a bit of a lucky dip, I'm afraid, pedants.

cayuga123 Oh Thank You!

I cannot stand it! It makes me scream too! I think standards really have dropped. I taught at the local Uni and had mistakes like this and believe me, even, "some think" for "something"! Help! The over-used apostrophe s is nothing in comparison, yet still causes me pain.

The National Curriculum was put in place to raise standards! However, I confess I went to a moderators' meeting and listened to the main writers of the English documents in the early days, and the one presenting left Ts off the ends of words, and in the middle of words such as "letter" and pronounced no Hs. I asked if a spoken English assessment was going to be considered at any age? I also asked if children would be encouraged to speak clearly as this enables them to read and spell more easily. I explained I was all for regional accents, just that we need to give children the chance to be understood so that they could do well in job interviews for example. It was not considered necessary at that time.

Poor old Greah Bri-un!

The lack of punctuation drives me mad! It is so hard reading things sometimes when there are no sentences, paragraphs or full stops. I usually give up trying.

I know someone at work who spells badly, exited for excited, their for there, bout for about etc. I just find it very hard to understand at times and trying to work out what she is trying to say.

A lot of it is laziness. If you read threads on certain forums you see a lot of bad spelling, things like bout for about is now increasingly common, alot instead a lot.

Brought = fetched?
Bought = purchased?
Maybe I do know, now I come to think of it?

I wonder how people know what is laziness, what is not knowing, and what is trying your best but just not very good at spelling and grammar?
Nobody seems to mind admitting they're not good at maths.

What infuriates me most is when I see ungrammatical Facebook posts from my former pupils. I really wonder, did I completely waste my time? I have to resist the urge to correct them though or I would finish up with no FB friends. I suppose I should be grateful that I can still share in their (as in THEIR!) lives after twenty-odd years.

You should write 'See me!' under their posts!

varian You said, regarding poor punctuation:
"Believe it or not, she is a retired teacher!"
Yes, I have to say, I do believe it.
The caliber of Teachers is much more widespread than it ever was. I was horrified many years ago, before I moved over to another career. I was asked to visit schools in a quasi inspecting role. I saw and heard some unforgivable absences of correct grammar ("Was you ...?) plus such ignorance I was stunned. (E.g. That the fighting in the middle East is between the Christians and Arabs just as when the Arabs fought the Christians and killed Jesus!) What do you say? Just recently I replied to something on mumsnet and someone said something so completely wrong, having not read the reply properly. So, I tried to explain to her. She then grew abusive and became more illogical and claimed she knew best because she was a teacher! I gave up.

Antonia Poor you! I think it's wonderful though that you correspond with them still. Says a lot about what a good teacher you were to them. I suspect on fb they are in a "chatty" mode and think grammar is too starchy, maybe.

MissAdventure 10/10 Well done.

Ha! Thanks, luzdoh.
Guess I could try harder, just as my teachers used to say.

DD3 (a teacher) tells me that Maths, unlike English,
has to be taught in a sequential way and that, if not - eg missing out on some basics at an early age, it's very difficult to catch up in an ordinary school environment. One to one teaching can help.

What really sets my teeth on edge is I "done" instead of I "did". The part of England I live in it is quite commonly used and no one seems to think anything of it. Unfortunately my husband says it as well and I just can't bring myself to correct him as it does seem to be the way a lot of people speak here! Luckily he doesn't say it too often so I can put up with it!

I think that the teaching of grammar, punctuation, etc. isn't as thorough as it used to be. This started way back, when teachers began to say, 'It's not the spelling that counts, it's the content.' (Remember that ...?)

I'm often appalled at the spelling on Facebook or other Social Media sites. Even from companies - who surely must use proof-readers for their adverts. I saw one the other day selling 'pajamas'!!!

Nowadays, even university graduates can't spell, or construct a sentence properly. My old English teacher - whom I loved dearly - would turn in his grave!

When I was at school we learned all the basics - there/their, your/you're, to/too/two, and what to do with apostrophes by the time we were seven. I still have some grey areas but, having worked in catering for quite s few years, the thing that really drives me mad is "Can I get?" !

'I brought it from the shop,' meaning you carried something out of the shop.

'I bought it from the shop,' meaning you paid money for something you saw in the shop.

I'm new here. I thought my above comment would go under the comment from MissAdventure, re: the difference between 'bought' and 'brought'. (Seems a bit out of place here!)

Also, I can't see how to start a new thread. Help would be appreciated.

Another expression that annoys me is "I'm done" instead of "I've finished".

Deedaa Yes, we learned all those and how to use speech marks (I left off one on my first reply - typing error! tut tut!) before we left infants at 7. When I told lots of teachers this I kept being told I was clever. But no! It was all the class including a young boy whom I remember had difficulty learning. He was expected to do all these grammar related things too.
It used to make me so exasperated, before the millennium when I was asked to go round the schools, to hear teachers being very patient with bright 11 year olds because they had not put in full stops or did not put a capital letter after a full stop. Eventually I started asking them why they were not more strict and did not just tell the children they should have been able to do this before they left the infants? I would have told the children that next time they do it they will go back to the infants' class.
Actually children appreciate you treating them like this. They don't want to be mollycoddled.
As for "Can I get?" Yuk! Why do people say that?

I pass a barber's shop on my way to work and there's a sign that says beared's (should be beards) trimmed at the side of the shop's name. Two errors for the price of one!

kathsue Yes! I agree! Also, I cannot get used to people, when asked, "How are you?" replying, "I'm good." I still think, "Well nobody said you were naughty, why did you say that?"

Jane43 of yes, yes, it drives myself right up the wall as it does yourself too!

Starlilly I think that is pretty common everywhere, not just in the north.

Eilyann70 I missed more than a year of school starting when I was 7 but I still did quite well at maths. I will admit to only learning my tables properly when I taught my children. We used to chant them on car journey.

Lundiloo click on 'Forums', then on the one you want to use and it will come up with a 'start a new thread' button. Go for it, all newbies welcomed.

Suzisue "beared's (should be beards) trimmed at the side of the shop's name." They could at least have added, "While you wait."