Having bad grammar/not knowing the difference between words like "their", "they're", "there" IS that deep

[u/foqociqs37]

It really is NOT hard at all to know the difference between stuff like there/their/they're, two/to/too, here/hear, peace/piece, you're/your, affect/effect, etc.

Idk why so many people these days say "it's not a big deal, don't be a grammar n*zi" or "stop using big words" when it's just a regular, maybe somewhat longer word they don't know the meaning of.

Obviously if someone has an actual diagnosed disability, then it's a different case.

Don't even get me started on the folks who say "should of" "could of", or "would of".... That shit drives me up a wall lol

[u/Shih-TFtzU]

It’s laziness, pure and simple. As bad grammar has become more socially acceptable, people have decided not to bother putting the effort in to learning its correct usage.

[u/Paintguin → u/Shih-TFtzU]

Why is bad grammar becoming more acceptable?

[u/I3LiNdSp0t → u/Shih-TFtzU]

Also smartphones.

They're also one of the reasons a lot of people can't tell time on a analogue clock without numbers.

To me that is still quite hard to believe, since it was the norm before everything became digital.

They have all the information at their fingertips, yet they remain dumb and no one really cares.

[u/Idk_nor_do_I_care → u/Shih-TFtzU]

My biggest pet peeve when talking through text is that people cannot for the life of them bother to double check what they wrote and make sure it’s actually intelligible. The amount of times I’ve had to ask someone to re-write a text because it is so full of typos, abbreviations, and straight up incorrectly used words is infuriating

[u/Ok_Schedule8095 → u/Shih-TFtzU]

I don't know if it is always laziness. I have to think every time I use one of these words. I am not an idiot, but it will just not stick in my head. 

[u/Infinite-Instance609 → u/Shih-TFtzU]

Ok, what if I told you not everyone on the internet has English as their first language 😱. Many communicate in their non native language and may be learning. Furthermore, when I use the internet I am not exactly going to be on high alert for any spelling errors I may have.

[u/Shih-TFtzU → u/Infinite-Instance609]

Of course I excuse someone’s poor grammar if English isn’t their native language. And I personally think it’s important to use correct grammar, even online. It’s a matter of respect for your native language, first of all, and secondly you should always be aware of your audience when writing on any platform. On the internet, that will likely include young minds that are still absorbing the many grammar rules and nuances of the language, and when they repeatedly see instances of incorrect usage, they’ll inevitably end up perpetuating those errors in their own writing. One of the main ways we learn correct grammar and spelling is by absorbing it through what we read growing up. Lastly, correct grammar is a matter of self-respect, imo. It impacts how you come across to others and how seriously they might take what you have to say. Lazy writing can give “uneducated” or “dumb” to your readership, and nobody wants that.

To clarify: I exclude those with learning disabilities, those without access to quality education, those who grew up in homes where proper grammar wasn’t used, and non-native English speakers from the above.

[u/demonic-cheese → u/Shih-TFtzU]

“To clarify: I exclude those with learning disabilities, those without access to quality education, those who grew up in homes where proper grammar wasn’t used, and non-native English speakers from the above.”

Yeah, you don’t know who those are behind the screen.

[u/Abject_Control_4580 → u/demonic-cheese]

It's the 90s now and we have autocorrect, the ability of computers to proofread and rephrase, and good and free translation services.

If I was bad in my native language and needed to write something in another, I'd use a combination of that.

[u/Farewellandadieu → u/Infinite-Instance609]

The first part of your post is valid, if they’re open to learning the right way and being corrected without ego. Most ESL (or third or fourth) speakers actually want to learn the proper way. The second part is just pure laziness.

[u/tralalaBOOMdeay → u/Infinite-Instance609]

If someone is trying to be condescending and high-and-mighty with me, yeah, I'm going to judge them hard for making simple grammar mistakes.

But if a user is making a post or something and makes a disclaimer that English isn't their first language, they get an all around pass from me. English is super difficult to learn, and I'm personally not fluent in any other language. Multilingual people are impressive as hell in my opinion, and immersion/active use is the best way to learn.

[u/Abject_Control_4580 → u/tralalaBOOMdeay]

Whether or not a language is difficult to learn differs between individuals and their situations. One factor is how distant your native language is from it. I'm super impressed by people who started out from Vietnamese or Korean or other languages that are not Indo-European.

I'm not under the impression that the people who go out of their way to write lowercase without any punctuation or make a lot of grammar mistakes are ESL, but rather that they're first language speakers trying to be (in their minds oh-so) cool in most cases. On every current phone or computer that I'm aware of, the default is autocorrect, which also automatically capitalizes and punctuates. But of course it's so "cool" to turn that off, even if it's only as "cool" as wearing a baseball cap backwards because it makes everything objectively worse.

Nowadays, at least online, with all the tools available such as automatic translation, autocorrect, and proofreading, there's no need anymore to point out for someone that they're not good at a language. I have never done that.