Is it rude?

[phionabrie 7]

Often while reading online communications (forum posts, facebook statuses, email and chat room messaging) I encounter misspellings and misused words that are too obviously not just typos, and make me cringe.  When encountering such abuses of the English language, is it considered rude to offer unsolicited corrections?  Or is it better to bite my tongue and let it slide since most people are unlikely to care enough to correct it anyways?

[Bob423 52]

Some people will overreact and call you a grammar nazi if you do a lot of the time. I don't think it's rude, but a lot of people do. I've heard that most people hate being corrected, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, since I will thank someone if they point out that I said something incorrect.

[Marked 197]

It depends on how bad it is... if they're going hard out and slaughtering the post (on purpose) then it's ok, usually someone will. The grammer nazi types will get you for no capitals or fullstops :P

[Bob423 52]

Dude, you need a period at the end of that. :P

[phionabrie 7]

I'm more of a spelling nazi than a grammar nazi; though using a word that sounds the same (or similar), but is spelled differently (which is a grammar error), drives me batty.  My boss constantly says ideal, when he clearly means idea, and it makes me want to scream.

[dolarmak 23]

lol

 

Some if a person is using the word incorrectly I say go for it. Letting them know they used the word wrong will help clarify what they mean so they can communicate better. Unfortunately most people can't handle the fact that they were wrong in any way, so they will probably get angry.

 

I think there is a time and place, and most people don't make the distinction. Online in a forum, no one cares that they misspelled something or that their sentence was structured incorrectly. It isn't worth your time to bother with it. Same with social media, don't bother because it's pretty useless.

 

At work it's a different story. People need to know if they are misusing words because if their instructions aren't understood it can cost the company thousands or more, or endanger people's lives. But be ready to seen as a jerk if you do it for something like your example.

 

Typos bug me too but I do them all the time, so i cut people slack unless it's work.

[Bigace360 38]

 

 

On Topic: When it comes to grammar Nazis, I can't tell if they got the point or they're just trolling. Most of the time they don't even answer you're asking and go ahead and correct grammar. This isn't an real life, this is the internet. Only time grammar needs to be correct is in this instance:

[Marked 197]

How do people even get these things mixed up... I guess given what I study if you don't know the basics you're going to get raped and pillaged. Eg does everyone know the difference between plaintiffs plaintiff's and plaintiffs' ? (answer: multiple plaintiffs, ownership to 1 plaintiff, ownership to multiple plaintiffs).

[phionabrie 7]

I usually get the point, but I can't always address it because of the distracting errors.  OCD issues I guess.