Why are so many people unaware of the difference between "to and "too"?

Question

I just read a question: "Am I to easygoing?" I see it all the time, even written by people with college degrees. How can it be that so many people don't know what should be taught in elementary school? People frequently write "your" when they mean "you're," "there" instead of "their," and "ya'll" when it should be "y'all." Why doesn't our educational system turn out people who can write basic English?

Answer 1

I agree with you 100%!
Another blunder that really burns me is the use of apostrophies to pluarlize things:
She had two cup's of coffee.
WTF?! I see that in advertisements both in print and on TV. I shake my head in disbelief.

I too would love to know why our students are not taught basic English...I remember having to diagram sentences to gain a complete understanding of the parts of speech. It's blatantly obvious that these young folks are not learning much.

Answer 2

Hi! Good grief, yes! (Do you love Guyster's answer?!? I do!)
It's probably a lack of education for SOME of the younger members here, but I think it's just plain LAZINESS! on the part of most.
Most people here seem literate. I'm an English major, with a minor in Journalism, and that "stuff" drives me CRAZY! How hard is it to type one more "o"?? Gaaagh!
Although, with The Weed's "no child left behind" ...ah... policy... I think we can expect real semi-literateness to become the norm, very soon. Now there is a truly BAD IDEA! The teachers have very little choice but to teach the minimum, and pass EVERYONE, no matter how apalling the work! This, coupled with the abject lack of interest in seeing to a child's genuine education, both by the child's parents and the teachers who just "shuffle 'em through", and out.... Well, I don't expect it to get any better. Do you?
A PARENT should INSIST! that their child be taught what they have been sent to school to learn; and a parent should know if they are not! The classrooms are too crowded for any teacher to do it all. Parents have a responsiblity toward a child's education, too.
It is especially disheartening when I have several contacts who have English as a 3rd, and some cases 6th or7th language, and their grammer and spelling are excellent!
"Moon :)" is a case in point.
Everyone blows it, or commits a typo, now and then.
The rest is just sloppiness!
And, to be fair, I also object to the holier-than-thou types here on Y!A that nit-pick what is clearly a NOT-English-as-a-first-
language Q or A. In addition to several other things I can think of, it's just plain RUDE.
Thank you! I love this Q! }:>


edit: For "prettile" It DOES matter! You have missed, (thereby PROVING) "stufftokn..." 's point! (And mine, among others...)

And, to add insult to injury, Yapoo is telling me it can't save my Thumbs-up,-any of them- OR my star for you! I'll try to remember to come back later.

Answer 3

The educational system is but one equation to the answer, the other is lack of parental/adult assistance of the children at home while they do their homework. I notice a lot of today's parents simply "do not care" or "do not make the time" to assist.

The other is the lack of funding provided by States and Counties to the schools; hence, classrooms become stretched with the limitations reached on classroom size. California is a good example of this, as are other States with a dense population count.

To your basic question - people are lazy on the one hand and do not care as long as the letters resemble the message that the person is trying to convey - the rest becomes a deciphering adjustment to the reader.

Just one perspective of the many you are likely to receive here on Y!A.

Good question....star is coming

Gerry

Answer 4

It does'n, t Mater *** long *** us normal people know what we mean.Proper grammer has no logic.Silent letters, e changes vowell sounds c has to sounds when we have k and s. Do we even need Q. Its apparently apparently usless without the letter U following it around everywhere.we need more letters because with vowells you can't pronounce an un familiar word right because the vowells could be any of the different sounds and no one remembers those symbols denote which sound to use. I gave up on proper grammer a long time ago.
Also the history and stuff you learn in civics is all damned lies.

Answer 5

I know what you mean. I read annual reports all day written by people who work with young children, who apparently also have the same grammatical skills.

One problem I see a lot of is that people don't know that "you're" is a contraction of "you are" and that "your" is a possessive pronoun.

Answer 6

Because the educational system is too busy accomodating people who don't read or write ANY English. As an American, I am usually disgusted with the state of education in this country, and I can easily understand why most of the world sees us as ignorant...

Answer 7

You have pointed out something that has annoyed me since I started using YA. I'm afraid that this whole spelling issue is going to end up like the usage of "who" and "whom". No one seems to know who from whom, so they just ignore it. We are all poorer because of it. By the way, I always use "spell check" and so should everyone else. So there.

Answer 8

That's what happens 4 days out from Christmas everyone is just a little bit Typsy

Answer 9

Haha!! English is my second language, and I frequently wonder the same thing, when I read questions and answers written by native speakers...

Answer 10

I agree with you, and I appreciate you pointing out the proper way to spell y'all. I wasn't aware it had been standardized.