What's the story with people being unable to use basic words

wandererz

I see it on multiple forums/posts.

Is it an education thing or a cultural thing?

Examples would be :

• Been/being
• Their/they're

And more.

Drives my head in. What's happening with the state of education in the country that English speaking people cannot write proppa English?

Bricriu

Correction to part of above post:

'Drives my head in.' recte 'Does my head in.'

AyeGer

Not a great start OP, corrected on the first reply 😂😂

FortuneChip

You couldn't of had a worst start

arctictree

You should read the local Facebook groups. My head hurts reading some of the posting there....

artanevilla

I think your bean factitious.

plodder

On a seperate note. OP should have went to grammer school.

blackbox

On a seperate note. OP should of went to grammer school.

...corrected that for you.

_Kaiser_

Wreckless instead of reckless always annoys me. See it a bit on this site.

Also "could care less" to desribe the opposite - "couldn't care less" is what you mean!

jiltloop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122610853#Comment_122610853

This is the one that annoys me the most, it's so ubiquitous.

I think it's from people confusing should've, could've etc and thinking that it's "of" instead of "'ve". Drives me mad!

zell12

Verbally - specific instead of pacific. anartica instead of antarctica.

jiltloop

In England people always say "I was sat there" instead of "I was sitting there", I always found that mildly irritating but I can pass it off as an English colloquial quirk. But recently I have heard Irish people saying it like that and that just shouldn't be allowed, not acceptable at all because it's not common here and it should be kept that way IMO.

Shoog

There are a hell of a lot of dyslexia suffers out in the world and it's not the impediment to getting on that it used to be. I managed to bypass all grammar lessons for that reason but now have a degree so it really indicates very little if you get some grammar wrong.

I find grammar Nazi's far more annoying.

steinbock123

”COULD OF” - Drives me bananas!”.

nachouser

Your so bias!

Flaneur OBrien

"irregardless"

Enough said about that one!

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611185#Comment_122611185

i once used the word 'artic' - referring to a lorry - online, and was archly corrected with 'i think you'll find it's arctic'

_Kaiser_

I STILL hate that stupid "Happy out" phrase… Makes no sense!

"Happy Out"… where? Outside?

Think it started in Wexford about 20 years ago - at least that was the first time I heard it used.

Donald Trump

I know words. I have the best words. But there's no better word than stupid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjZHDcKCA-I

plodder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611172#Comment_122611172

"could care less" is disturbingly common in the US.

Here's a rather defensive defence of it (or should that be defense?)

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/could-couldnt-care-less

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058368818/whats-the-story-with-people-being-unable-to-use-basic-words

I am not sure if I mix up Been/Being but often Their and There (rarely they're), also I am not too worried on boards.ie, so I will be very lazy on them.

Dubliner's will largely mix up Our/Are/Or, you'll find we pronounce them all as ARE, so we are not hearing the difference. It is something that parents really should correct.

chopperbyrne

Subject line should have ended with a question mark.

Kalimah

I have a friend who says supposebly and chimbley as well as I done, I seen, I should of went, etc etc. I should tell her that as well is two words, not one, as is a lot. I can think of plenty more examples.

It's not dyslexia, it's laziness, people who don't read or possess books, and teachers who are probably guilty of the same mistakes.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611202#Comment_122611202

I'd agree but as a dyslexic but I find much of that to be an excuse not to try.

I can one up you by saying I have a Master Degree. (How they read my thesis I don't know).

Why did you ditch grammar lessons? I'd argue most English speaking countries avoid teaching grammar.

If you can gain an Education, you can work hard to overcome dyslexia.

cml387

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611202#Comment_122611202

And as for apostrophes in the wrong place….

Conall Cernach

The English seem to have a habit of talking about the floor rather than the ground when talking about outside. They talk about dropping something on the floor even if it's the middle of a street or up a mountain. You hear it a lot in football "he's thrown himself on the floor there" etc.

wandererz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122610853#Comment_122610853

All pacifically intentional.

Roald Dahl

it's instead of its for the possessive form of it is another one you see all the time. I guess it's because nouns take an apostrophe in the possessive and this leads to confusion.

Now, I am well aware of the difference between their and there, but have occasionally read back over stuff that I typed and realised that I had - to my horror - used the wrong one! 😊

zell12

I've just after been to the shops

Imagine trying to decipher that sentence as a learner of the english language!

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611284#Comment_122611284

Again something your parents should teach you.

There was a thing about 5 years back of Dubliner's saying "it was Trune, he trune it" seems not to be around as much now.

Billy Mays

Best one I saw on Facebook was 'lack toast and tolerant'

gigantic09

You better not watch any of those traveller call out videos OP,for fear you wood be bangin yer head again a wall after .

Kalimah

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611310#Comment_122611310

I'm still trying to work that one out!

Kimbot

crips instead of crisps

Billy Mays

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611332#Comment_122611332

Lactose intolerant

LastApacheInjun

Honestly, I don't find it annoying at all. Obviously, if you are misusing commas (the old "Eat shoots and leaves" concept) that can actually change the meaning of your message. But their/there and other common mistakes don't bother me. Lots of people have trouble with spelling, lots of people probably did not get the education they deserved for a wide variety of reasons. As long as I understand what the message is, I'm cool with it.

I'm a solicitor, and I worked with so many people over the years who are so focused on drafting the perfect letter, or perfect memo. These people usually can't see the big picture on the message they are trying to communicate, or indeed the waste of time and money spent on endless drafts. Over the years I find myself judging them way more harshly than I do the person who gets the message across and is efficient in running a case to a timely and cost effective conclusion.

Greyfox

Anybody complaining about things like their/they're or a minor misspelling are just been a grammar nazi who need to get a life.

arctictree

There's a difference between bad grammar and people trying to spell words that they have never seen written down. Done deal is full of them and some are hilarious.

Also, you can really tell a lot about a person by their writing. We used to run an Airbnb and would get booking requests like:

'lookin 4 de place 4 a few nites'

vs

'We are a family travelling in Ireland for a few weeks and we saw your listing and would love to stay for a few days.'

8mv

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611433#Comment_122611433

Not at all. It's important to get those easy things correct.

Anyway, one that annoys me lately is someone looking for 'advise' instead of advice. One is a verb, the other isn't.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611217#Comment_122611217

is that real or has someone messed around with the audio? Please tell me it’s not real😁

thatsdaft

Man 👨 . Woman 👩 . Camera 🎥 . TV 📺

Raichų

Meh, I wouldn’t worry OP honestly. We all make mistakes, you even did yourself in the OP!

As a slight aside I often find it amusing that some people can offer so little insofar as intelligent discussion they will seek to pick out errors in spelling or grammar of a post they are replying to.

That one is always funny to me. So what if someone uses the wrong version of “your” or “there” if you understand what they meant does it really matter? I don’t think it’s a marked sign of intelligence necessarily and certainly doesn’t take away from someone’s argument.

I also suspect it’s some part due to autocorrect which in my experience doesn’t offer correction when the wrong “your” or “their” is used in a sentence. It’s funny if you stop people these days and ask them to spell a word they can get stuck because you kinda don’t need to know how to spell anymore with modern phones and computers you just need to be able to spell it roughly how it should be and spell check/autocorrect will do the rest.

Emblematic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611203#Comment_122611203

I seen that many times.

extra-ordinary_

OP made some mistakes to

wandererz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611531#Comment_122611531

Like I said, it was pacifically intentional.

Quantum Erasure

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611329#Comment_122611329

cant

plodder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611468#Comment_122611468

Could be wrong but I thought the 'lactose intolerant' example was more likely an example of speech to text through a phone. Similar sounding but correctly spelled words was the give away.

Your example is interesting as well. If we value brevity then the first one is more effective surely? But, there's obviously more going on in reality. I'd say linguists and psychologists have a bit to say about how we judge other people through that aspect of language (in-groups, out-groups and so on). There's a TD who says "should've went" all the time, and it used to grate with me, until I realised maybe it's a half conscious decision by him to keep on sounding like the people he represents, rather than "that shower up in Dublin". Irish voters would be very sensitive to stuff like that.

Just to make one other point, I agree there is often a dumbing down of meaning happening (for different reasons). The example mentioned earlier of "could care less" vs "couldn't care less" and the (weak) justification by the US website I mentioned.

A couple of the early usages of "could care less" they quoted were intended in an ironic/sarcastic tone, but that nuance of meaning has now been lost in the US as the two usages have exactly the same meaning now.

LastApacheInjun

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611477#Comment_122611477

Why is important? And what might be easy for you, might not be easy for someone else.

The Mulk

I received a text from an apprentice once, "the holesaler is owny atta opening", which i presumed meant, " the wholesaler is only after opening", explaining their lateness. It always sticks in my mind!

aero2k

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611244#Comment_122611244

The late, great Con Houlihan said "a man who can misplace an apostrophe is capable of anything".

(my phone mangled that a bit and I was tempted to leave it 😀)

ELM327

This is a damp squid!