Spelling and the internet?

[Mosaic]

:redface: Thank you, Darshiva! (Just a test you know.. I really do know the rule - I just forget to apply it when I'm tired or change my mind in the middle of the sentence. *note-to-self: Be more aware of this when tired* :redface: ):

I have
You have
He/She/It has
We have
You (pl.) have
They have​

As for the magical moving cursor, do as Zorba says. It is easier than keeping your fingers/hand off the touchpad while writing.




Gisela: I'm with you getting confused of reading bad or incorrect language when you are trying to learn. I've actually discovered that I need to be picky of the language used in books and novels I'm reading in English. The main reason I choose to read a book written in English, which also has been translated to Norwegian, is to improve my own language. I've seen books that I could not continue to read because they would ruin everything I've learnt so far.




:think: They never touched that subject at the 2h Hungarian-German language course I once attended (not having learnt German prior the course made it a bit more challenging though :lol.



I have British English and Norwegian (bm) as default in M$ Office, but if a part is written in American English it is identified as that because I've ticked the check box for identifying language automatically. (I write different languages daily, so changing the normal template would be p.i.t.a. )




You may be right about this. Norwegian is also considered a relatively simple language (though, some of the foreigners I work with that are trying to learn Norwegian probably don't agree), and I am seeing the same trends here. Ordinary people are being understood despite getting sloppy and don't bother to correct themselves (whatever official language they write, as you may know - we have two official versions of Norwegian; one is constructed and based on dialects, the other is a remnant of Danish which has been modified heavily) - and then there are all the dialects themselves..

The grammar question of the day:
Is it correct that all countries, languages and nationalities are always capitalized in English?

Your grammar question of the day
That is what I was taught way back in the day. I have noticed a trend with younger folk to use lower case/no capitalisation, that maybe a flow over from text messaging, it's easier and quicker to write a message without using the shift key. You also see a lot of lower case I, as in first person written as i. Maybe in 10 or so years written English will only make use of capitals to start sentences, lower case will become the norm - I hope not though.

When I first moved to Australia back in the late 70s, an elderly gentleman heard me talking and came over to me and said "I hope you don't ever lose your accent and pronunciation of the Queen's English", he then went on to say that when he was at school he was taught to speak as I did ( with an Aussie accent of course) and he had noticed that the young folk of the day had begun to speak very fast, tended to slur or swallow their words and a slightly Americanised way of speaking had begun to creep in. He also noted that I said the letter H as 'aitch' whereas Australians were taught to say 'haitch'. It was an interesting conversation and shows how speech alters over time. Mind you, in the first 18 months to two years here, I often found it difficult to understand Australians when they spoke, and they also found the way I spoke quite funny and my accent was what they called prim and proper
~Mosaic

 

[Kashmir]

The grammar question of the day:
Is it correct that all countries, languages and nationalities are always capitalized in English?

Yes - or is it a trick question?

 

[SeeJaneDance]

When I was in school (in the US) most of our teachers were actually pretty lax about whether we used US or UK English, as long as it was spelled right for one of them. There were probably a disproportionate number of us that liked British lit, though.

I find I'm more apt to get confused about certain spellings now, but I'm not sure if it's due to the time I spend on the internet, or the lack of time I spend reading. I will say that it burns me up to see mistakes in printed books. That's where a great deal of my spelling and vocab knowledge came from, and I feel like it's a publisher's responsibility to keep standards.

To the question of the day: we were taught that you capitalize all proper nouns and variations thereof. Basically anything that could be considered a name. (Whether of a person, thing, or a place.) We also capitalize certain ranks and titles, when they're being used as a title for a person (ex: President Obama, Senator McCain, Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, etc...)

 

[Daimona]

Yes - or is it a trick question?

Thank you, Kashmir. This is no trick question. Apart from how to write country names, I've been mixing capitalised/non-capitalised letters for nationality/language for years (I'm also mixing this up in French, so a follow-up would be; is it the same in French, or is nationality capitalized, but not language? though, that may be to off-topic of this post, which is English spelling).

 

[nightdancer]

It's interesting, really. I've noticed a distinct correlation between people's "not caring about spelling and punctuation on the internet" and my "not caring enough to read their posts".

 

[Mithra]

Hi,

So reading this tread makes me wonder.
I'm Dyslexic+ English (American or any other ) is not my native language.
Know sometimes I'm harder to understand , I make so many mistakes.
Dos this make it impossible for me to interact on a forum like this one?
Is it just to annoying for native speakers to read my texts?

M.

 

[Daimona]

So reading this tread makes me wonder.
I'm Dyslexic+ English (American or any other ) is not my native language.
Know sometimes I'm harder to understand , I make so many mistakes.
Dos this make it impossible for me to interact on a forum like this one?
Is it just to annoying for native speakers to read my texts?

From another non-native speaker: Don't worry!
Dyslexia does not equal sloppyness (whether it is your first, second or fifth language).
Just do as good as you can and enjoy interacting with us at the forum, most people will ask if they do not understand.

 

[Kashmir]

I'm Dyslexic+ English (American or any other ) is not my native language.
Know sometimes I'm harder to understand , I make so many mistakes.
Dos this make it impossible for me to interact on a forum like this one?
Is it just to annoying for native speakers to read my texts?

No - but it does help that you have filled in your country.

That said, some people's spelling and grammar can make it very hard to work out what they mean. I suspect this is the case for you too as when you are not fluent in a language poor spelling can make it hard to work out what the mis-spelt word is meant to be - and a dictionary won't help! (this is from personal experience)

Also, it sometimes seems as if some people almost revel in their poor English - as in I'm too cool to spell in that boring standard way.

 

[Zorba]

Hi,

So reading this tread makes me wonder.
I'm Dyslexic+ English (American or any other ) is not my native language.
Know sometimes I'm harder to understand , I make so many mistakes.
Dos this make it impossible for me to interact on a forum like this one?
Is it just to annoying for native speakers to read my texts?

M.

Usually, non native speakers of ANY language speak it far better than the natives! Slang and other idioms don't translate well - as the non native speakers don't know much, or any, slang, they can't misuse it!

No worries...

 

[Zorba]

Also, it sometimes seems as if some people almost revel in their poor English...

I call this the "proclivity to wallow in ignorance" - a uniquely American trait, it seems.

 

[Ariadne]

I call this the "proclivity to wallow in ignorance" - a uniquely American trait, it seems.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Oh, if only!

The stories I could tell you about things I was told about the US when I lived in Canada... and they would look at me like I was the one who was ignorant because I didn't already know whatever it was! Because after all I was from the US so I should know exactly what they were talking about! :lol:

Shall I tell you a few "Newfie" jokes? A Newfoundlander told me them all.

Trust me, no one country has a corner on that market.

Has anyone noticed their spelling has taken a bit of a nose dive since they started using the internet ?
...
But if your spelling has taken a turn for the worst, how's your hand writing these days ?

I'm from the US but the internet has helped my spelling improve (and my handwriting is fine too). The reason is that anytime I'm unsure how to spell something, or wonder if I'm using a word correctly, I have this handy online dictionary I can look it up in a matter of only seconds.

Is there an online dictionary for the Queens English as well?

 

[nightdancer]

Mithra,

I find that those who speak English as a secondary language are more careful. As I've said before, it takes a native speaker to really murder the language. You're doing just fine.

 

[Mithra]

TNX ,

You al make me feel so welcome.
I might not be the best writer in English.
But I do know a thing or 2 about loving Belly dance so I'l be back

M.

 

[Zorba]

But if your spelling has taken a turn for the worst, how's your hand writing these days ?

Hand writing is a TOTAL waste of time. Its atrocious, its terrible, its unreadable. Its been that way since cursive was forced down our throats in 3rd grade - my printing is much better, but even that is terrible. I learned how to type in the 5th grade and haven't looked back since.

 

[gisela]

I do all my note taking and brain storming for art projects by hand. The flow of thoughts doesn't work with a computer for me. Besides I need to make tiny drawings and also take it with me anywhere, as I usually think best on a bus or train. Handwriting doesn't affect my wrists as I suspect an ipad would. I can handwrite very neatly when I have to.

Oh, I do the choreography drafts by hand as well. Anything creative needs to be by hand for me.

 

[Shanazel]

My speling has impproved thanks to inturnet as has my grammar. Them spellchick programs are amazzing.

My handwriting... let us call it "innovative" and "distinctive" and go on to happier subjects.

 

[nightdancer]

Gisela,

That's really funny; I am totally the opposite. I type much faster than I can write, so if I am doing a creative "brain dump", I have to type it. My handwriting is, for the most part, somewhere between chicken scratch and a doctor's, so if I type it, I actually have a hope of reading what it said. If I try really hard, I have lovely handwriting, but then I have to work very slowly.

 

[Kashmir]

I'm a write-by-hand for creative ideas person too. I even design my software with pen and paper - then type it up once I have the main concepts in place. It is partly because I write faster but also I like to use space on the page and add diagrams etc (especially for choreography)

 

[Zorba]

Gisela,

That's really funny; I am totally the opposite. I type much faster than I can write, so if I am doing a creative "brain dump", I have to type it. My handwriting is, for the most part, somewhere between chicken scratch and a doctor's, so if I type it, I actually have a hope of reading what it said. If I try really hard, I have lovely handwriting, but then I have to work very slowly.

Ditto me. Hand writing, either cursive or block printing is S-L-O-W... But I can type like the wind - something I've observed many, many computer users cannot.

But my handwriting is terrible, regardless of how slow I go. Printing is OK if I go really slow - and ditto for my Greek. Greek doesn't really have cursive (and Greeks of my acquaintance don't understand the reason for it, nor do I...), so I'm printing anyway and going slow, so it comes out pretty good.

I always got Ds and Fs in handwriting in school. My parents made me practice at home - it really didn't get any better. Always too large, never properly sloped, and very messy! Its done nothing but get worse as I've gotten older...

Thank Goddess for computers and even typewriters!

 

[Zorba]

Another thought: I was in my doctor's office a few years back, and they wanted me to do an update on my address and insurance information. They handed me a blank form to fill out. I told them "Give me a printout of what you have now, and I'll redline any changes - I'm *NOT* going to crib all this out by hand!".

They didn't like that - I also told them they could just sit me in front of their computer for a moment...