English language of English people?

Question

Do you think the English used in this column is so poor that I reallty cannot understand: whole load of grammatical errors, not to mention the spelling mistakes? It is really shameful if such questions are posed by native English people. In fact, even Govt letters have grammatical and spelling mistakes. Come on! British people, Rescue your language!

I am only talking about errors and mistakes that everyone of us should try to avoid. What are you talking about?

Answer 1

Oh come on!!!

The English language is the bridge to world communication and ultimately we can hope for world peace and understanding.

Who cares if the i's are dotted or the t's crossed?

An American emailed me to criticise my grammar and yet I have worked in journalism for years!!!

The spell checker on Yahoo is often busy or will not work. Many people here only have a basic grasp of English.

The simple truth is that people who are so pedantic about grammar, spelling, diction and the rest are self serving egotists who get off on criticising others.

I would rather see a good question, a good argument - even if it goes against my beliefs, than an inane question like this this!!!

Answer 2

What makes you so sure that the ENGLISH which is mangled was written by ENGLISH people?

Most of the people using this site are NOT from England! And even the ones that ARE from England are not necessarily native speakers of English..!

Most of the garbled grammar on here is the product of non-native speakers. What's so wrong with that? You've done it yourself, and I'm not criticising you!

It WOULD be really shameful IF the questions were all posed by native English people, but they're NOT! This isn't called the world wide web for nothing!

Anyway, you can spot the questions mangled by English people quite easily because they use text abbreviations a lot - u instead of you, ur instead of you're or your - but they don't use Americanisms like 'color', 'could care less', or 'two thousand six' (instead of colour, couldn't care less, and two thousand AND six!)

Most British people do use fairly reasonable grammar. But you must remember that many people in Britain do NOT speak English as their first language - so I think they can be forgiven for lapses of grammar..! As for government letters and web-sites, yes of course there are too many mistakes! Even letters produced by schools, written by educated teachers, are subject to the occasional misspelling or poor grammatical choice! Most organisations have those problems though, including most governments!

Answer 3

I totally agree. It could be that many of the users of this medium are young (and not of middle years such as myself). On the whole it shows a "that will do" kind of attitude which seems to be prevalent in Britain today. At the risk of being a grumpy old man, the attitude used to be "Well, we are all in it together. Let's make the best of it." Now the British are so bombarded with spin; telling us from both corporations and government that this is the best that things could be at this moment. Of course, it is not. Life in the UK is mediocre (29th. highest standard of living in the world apparently). Surrounded by mediocrity, the youth of today are just following the example set by others.

Back to language in particular. Instead of relying on YA spell checker, I would advise anybody who cares to have an Oxford Concise Dictionary by their keyboard.

(Disclaimer. Any spelling or grammatical errors in this rant are the sole responsibility of the author. All rights reserved).

Answer 4

Objectively this website is often used just for fun by people of many nations and the English overall leaves a great deal to be desired. Some are in a hurry to ask questions or give answers and deliberately abbreviate to text speak . It is not ignorance, and spell check is there but they cannot be bothered. At the moment in England there is a comedian called Catherine Tate who speaks very much in the lingo of the street and many people think it is hilarious. Even the Queen has been heard imitating her just for fun, and no one can accuse HER of not knowing proper English.
It is a little unfair from Americans to criticise when many people on the other side of the pond speak or write atrocious English and speak in accents you can cut with a knife. My daughter has married an American and she has to translate for me sometimes when I am in the US because I cannot understand a word some people say, and I am a linguist!
I was reprimanded at JFK on arrival when, asked how long I would stay, I answered "A fortnight".
Incidentally, Yahoo spell check is not over bright and regularly tries to correct perfectly accurate English to incorrect forms.

Answer 5

I have been really disappointed in the language ability of the British people. Why do you make so many mistakes in English? Aren't you proud of the native speakers of the international language?
I have been studying English for 11 years at school and have been making my best effort to improve my English.
Brits, You Ought To Use Proper English.

Answer 6

Could not agree more,the english language is slowly being replaced by mindless morons using street talk,or being too lazy to use and pronounce all the letters in a word,and text speak should be kept to mobiles.

Answer 7

I couldn't agree more. I am a teacher of 8 year olds and I get very frustrated when even they write in text speak! As for the questions and answers on this site some of them are quite unreadable.

Answer 8

yours aint so hot! Anyway it's an old saying that only foreigners are taught the correct English, real English is passed on, learnt on the streets, at home, the next village etc. There's loads of different dialects, English is full of idiosyncracies and breaks all the rules.

Answer 9

With all the text-speak around now, not to mention city buses emblazened with "cumfy bus", I wonder how on earth kids learn proper english these days, it is a truly sad state of affairs!

Answer 10

I find it ironic that so many British people played down Americans' english while they are being criticized on how poorly theirs is in another thread.