Does "poor grammar" cause communication issues or bother you?

I don't respond to any threads on forums with terrible grammar. A few mistakes I can forgive, but when there's a lengthy post with NO punctuation I simply don't read it.

A major pet peeve of mine is when people don't capitalise at the beginning of a sentence.

 

Empty Closets is not a formal setting, so I can live with people's grammatical errors as long as I can understand what they are trying to convey. The difficulty comes when people's lack of punctuation and capitalization make it unclear when one thought ends and the next one begins. This kind of "stream of consciousness" writing is something I can't stand, and I refuse to read it unless that individual is suicidal or something. (That's the only way something like that should be deciphered.)

On the contrary, what bothers me more is when people try to sound formal and correct while not actually understanding what they are doing. Here's a couple pet peeves of mine:

1) It's "John and I went to the store," not "Mom threw John and I a party."

The whole "other and I" phrasing that we've had drilled in our heads since grade school (and people are even scolded now) only applies to the compound subject of a sentence. The rule of thumb for this should be that if you separate the subjects out, the sentence still make sense. You can say "John went to the store" or "I went to the store." This rule does not work for objects in a sentence. You would say "Mom threw John a party," but you wouldn't say "Mom threw I a party." It's "Mom threw me a party." For subjects, it's "other and I." For objects, it's "other and me."

2) It's "how can I help you?," not "how may I help you?"

The latter, "how may I help you?," is used in professional or customer service settings where the supervisors who trained their employees to say this don't actually know what they are talking about. You are a professional, and you work with people in a customer service capacity. If someone has an issue and they call in, you should not answer the fucking phone with "Blah Blah Solutions, this is Andrew, how may I help you?" This use of "may" indicates that you are seeking permission to help this individual. But why else would they be calling you? The permission to supply help is implicit. What is not implicit, or even explicit, with whether you have the ability to help. If the request is beyond your ability or permissions within your job roll, you may not be able to help them. Therefore, it really is correct to be asking "how can I help you?." After all, you don't even know what their request is.

 

Since English isn't my first language I'm aware I make spelling and grammar mistakes sometimes but in my own language (Dutch) it does bother me if I have mail contact with someone and I know Dutch is his/her first language and it's full of spelling mistakes and weird sentences.
Sometimes I ask someone if there is a chance that they are dyslectic, then I can understand it but if I get a response like "naw ai jusd veel laik wraiting thiz way"......ehhmm yeah, byebye

 

Amen. Spelling and grammar are important to me and I always try to write coherently, but I don't demand perfection. A little bit of effort goes a long way.

What really gets to me though is when people write out a novel without any line breaks. I'm willing to read long posts, but not if they're all one giant paragraph.

 

I am a terrible typist...I often over use ellipses...so things look easier to read...at least to me...I should be more careful when paragraphing...I teach English so I know the rules, but choose to ignore them here...it's kind of like journaling...steam of consciousness...anyway proper grammar is very important to me...spelling and mechanics less so...great writers often were poor at these skills...Fitzgerald being one of the most notable...I now it's a pretty famous book, but here's why grammar is so important:

The panda eats shoots and leaves...vs...The panda eats, shoots, and leaves.

Two totally different meanings...spelling is only important if it can't be deciphered...there was no standardization until the mid 1700's...for those for whom paragraphing is so important I will try to be better in the future

 

I interpret things as they are written. Written words and spoken words are completely different things for me. As such, I always get at confused when someone uses there instead of their or similar situations.

 

A lots of italians write badly in this language (I don't know why). I write well, in my opinion, trying to guess subjunctives and to use a correct grammar.

In english...I try to being clear and understandable. I don't know if my grammar is poor or sufficient but nobody has never had something to blame me at the moment

 

I try and do my best, I'm sure I slip up. It bothers me when I see people who don't even attempt to use proper English / grammar.

Saw this picture this morning, thought it would be appropriate.

 

I feel the same. Not a real grammar nazi here but at least get the basics right. English is not my second language but I make an effort to use the correct terms and grammar. When I am in doubt I look for the correct way either using spell check in MS Word or online. I don't just thumb-suck it nor go with the flow.

Clear and proper communication is very important. And there is an old saying: "What happens on the world wide web stays FOREVER on the world wide web." :eek:

 

try watching this it's a review of a flash game, the grammar was so bad it was made into a video with over 1.8 million views. Pretty funny too.

[youtube]4Z2Z23SAFVA[/youtube]

 

Indeed. Language is about communication, and I seriously doubt people have genuine difficulty in reading what someone's saying, so even something written in non-standard grammar can do its job perfectly. It doesn't frustrate me at all when someone is deliberately lazy, because that's just making their own life easier.

Obviously, there still exists a standard - if someone's not aware of the mistakes they're making, or hyper-correcting themself, then I might judge. A wee bit.

 

Like most of the responses, for me it depends on exactly how poor we're talking about here. The occasional spelling error or dropped comma will make me twitch mentally, but I'm not going to get on your case about it unless I have to actually work to translate it into recognizable English before I can understand what you're trying to say.

I have, however, been known to use white-out and a pen to correct truly egregious errors in my favorite books. And if you ask me to proof your paper? May God have mercy on your poor misbegotten soul, because I don't know the meaning of the word.

 

I just learned the difference between e.g. and i.e.! I'll try to remember. I'm often beating myself up about my grammar. I try really hard.

Lolspeak bothers me when people use it constantly outside of the proper environment. The same with that textspeak. If a person makes an effort and I understand what they're saying... good enough for me.

In high school I once wrote something like "people should have comas during their sentences" xD

 

I tend not to mind too much outside of people using text-speak or blatantly refusing to capitalize, well, anything. Mostly, I figure that if I can understand you, there isn't a problem, but if most of your words are misspelled or your entire post is written in a terrible parody of English... I get frustrated and, admittedly, judgmental.

Outside those two things, though? Live and let type.

 

Really poor grammar does give me a headache.

 

I can totally make mistakes and I can be very forgiving if other people do as well, but I do get a bit annoyed when it seems like the person hasn't even been bothered to learn grammar. We're supposed to use it for a reason, and it really makes things easier to read/understand. I do have trouble sometimes of taking someone seriously if the person is barley using any correct grammar.

 

My biggest problems are when it's their first language, they don't even show the smallest bit of effort, and it's near impossible to understand them.

I used to freak out over every tiny little detail, but I make mistakes too, so I can't be too mean about it.

I have a hard time sometimes understanding what other people mean though, so if I can't understand them normally, how would I understand them when they don't even try to make it where everyone knows what they're saying?

I mean this for typing, writing, and just plain speaking. As long as you can get the basic idea of what they are saying or are trying to say, I'm fine with a few mistakes here or there. Even if it's horrible, really I just want the person to attempt to do it properly. Even just a try, no matter how good they actually are at it.

 

As long as I can understand what the other person is trying to say, I don't really mind it.

 

For me, if someone uses a comma improperly, I am not going to care. What does bother me, though, are really basic things that people should know by know. Things like your/you're, they're/their/there, then/than.