(no subject)

[conuly]

There's a difference between grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, and this is the only time I want to explain this. When somebody is writing, and they type "I wanted to sit her", nobody thinks they made a grammatical error, or that they are ignorant. It's just chalked up to bad typing skills. But when somebody makes a mistake and spells "their" when they mean "there", all of a sudden everyone is on their case about grammar, sometimes even insinuating that somebody who makes such a mistake cannot POSSIBLY have a good point, since they can't speak their language properly.

Now, for the ignorant, let me explain that their/there/they're are homonyms. So are to/two/too and your/you're. These are words with different meanings which sound alike. When speaking, we have no way of distinguishing "you're book" from "your book", except that we know that nobody would ever say "you are book". In a perfect phonemic system, there would be no difference in the spellings of the words either, because they'd be spelled exactly as they're said. That is why people make spelling errors, because they either do not know which spelling is all right, or because they are rushed and make mistakes. Unless you honestly believe that the person is thinking "I am going as well the store" or "the book is that place book instead of mine", please stop calling this a grammatical error. Don't say you're correcting it because you're a grammar freak. It's a spelling mistake, a typo, and not all that big a deal.

Comments

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

*cookies*

You made a great point, and one I'm guilty of. I have mental slips while typing all the time-- no matter how often I make fun of their/they're, I tend to add 's for plurals and getting horrified when I do.

I'm so tired I can scarcely make any sense.

[conuly]

I do that too, and have to go back and correct them. And today, I couldn't spell "formala" or "babboon" correctly. Urg.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

I got two hours of sleep last night, and I just got done writing an essay on tribosphenic dentition in monotremes, marsupials, and placental mammals. That's difficult. Using impossible words while running low on energy. Phew.

I think I've been guilty of scolding people who misspell two/to/their/etc. of grammatical errors, but really, just cause everyone else does. ;) I never really thought about it, but I'll try to be more correct now.