A bit of a rant

Don’t worry – it’s not about the Germans. They’re still being utterly charming.

No, this is a language rant; one that probably won’t make me terribly popular, but well, I’m used to that so here goes.

Part of the fun of being a blogger is reading other people’s blogs, and I read quite a few of them, written by both native and non-native speakers of English. Maybe it’s because of the line of work I’m in, but it saddens maddens me to see how many of these blogs are rife with simple grammar and spelling mistakes. And yes, I’m talking to you, native English speakers.

As a newbie language learner myself, I have the utmost respect for people who write in a language that is not their mother tongue. Learning a language is bloody hard, and if I ever get to the stage where my German is that good, I’ll probably be too busy doing happy dances around Berlin to even think about blogging.

My problem is with native English speakers who consistently make simple errors – things like confusing ‘its’ and ‘it’s’, ‘they’re/their/there’, ‘affect’ and ‘effect’, and don’t even get me started on the heinous misuse of apostrophes.

NEIN

Yes, it’s a busy world we live in. Yes, we’re all short of time. But if you expect other people to read what you’ve written, the least you could do is read it yourself first – and reread it – before hitting ‘publish’.

But, as I’m a kind soul really, I thought I’d mention a few of my pet peeves, in the hopes that someone, somewhere will read them, reread their own writing, and save my eyes from rolling dangerously in my head.

You’re welcome.

1. It’s over there in its place on the shelf.

2. They’re over there in their house.

3. Your trousers might be loose if you lose your belt.

4. You’re the greatest. Your knowledge is second to none.

5. Then I drank my beer. It was better than any other beer I’ve ever had.

6. Bad spelling and grammar affect me greatly. The effect is a lot of eye-rolling and sighing.

And if you’ve ever written ‘should of’, ‘would of’, or ‘could of’, you should probably be put down.

Right, I think I’ve made my point. Feel free to share your pet hates in the comments below – I’m sure I’ve missed a few. And if you spot any mistakes in this post, please feel free to shoot me.

 

Images taken from Apostrophe Catastrophes