A while back, I wrote about thesaurus.com and the stupid definition I'd found for oral. Well, I actually wrote them, and very politely told them that they are a bunch of asinine wankers (paraphrasing here) if they think "verbal" can mean "written". Surprise surprise - I haven't heard a thing from them, not even an automated reply. Wankers.
I'm not the only one who likes to have things spelled properly, and thinks that words have meanings that represent concrete things and ideas, am I?
I came across a posting on some other site with (some other) smart-arse writer saying he was looking for someone who knows the difference between they're/their/there, your/you're and some other common misuses. He was listing his age at not much under 40, which I thought of as a personal cut-off: anyone under forty is very unlikely to know the difference between syntax and sales tax. I didn't bother to check if he had a public school education or not. Like it or not, bad grammar and bad spelling are signs of sloppy thinking, and the current cult of SMS abbreviations (u = you, et cetera) is not really going to improve the language.
There is a difference between using a second language badly and not bothering to learn your first language properly, so I don't need lectures about that, either. Language usage changes with time; basic rules of grammar get stretched but remain the same. If you have a clear idea of what you want to say, and say it clearly and grammatically, most people will manage to get a clear idea of what you had to say. Surprising, but true. It's/its your/you're option to learn how to communicate. They're/their/there will be more on this cite/sight/site regarding language, I think it is more important then/than blogging about my toenails.
FROM CITY TO FARM or I'VE GOT THE COCK, NOW WHAT .... Ramblings political, humourous, opinionated and/or creative writing from a man in flux
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About Me
- Rikk Utas
- recently retired to southern Mexico from Canada
Oh, but your toenails are such a riveting subject ;)
ReplyDeleteDid, I send the Leno clip about the contest between the old guys using Morse code and the young kids texting? Morse code won and it doesn't use any kind of abbreviations.
no, u didnt but dont, thx dot dot dash dash
ReplyDeleteThis hits a nerve with me. I do not profess to be an expert (on anything!), but I do try my damnedest to use the proper words. (well, unless I can't remember them, then I make things up! But that's old age, methinks...)
ReplyDeleteOne misuse that has recently been driving me crazy is an advertisement on Facebook - the text reads something like: Obama has an IQ of 130. Take our test to see if you are smarter then Obama. I may not be smarter than Obama, but I'm smarter than the idjit who wrote that ad!!!!!
I saw a Canadian version of the ad, using Harper. Poor second-class Harper's IQ is only 125. But they spelled 'than' correctly!!
I love words and always get a kick out of rants such as yours. I learned a long time ago never to write my frustrations out as you have. The chance of my screwing up grammatically or typographically would increase dramatically with the length or severity of my rant. So I'll just enjoy yours instead. Thanks. ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm here from Baggie's. :)
Welcome, Hilary, thanks for posting a comment. I don't worry about making grammatical mistakes, although I'm sure there are a lot of people who would delight in pointing them out to me if I did. Do you think I should maybe make a couple and see what happens?
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