I have a crippling lack of keyboarding skills. (I blame my Freshman year typing teacher, Sister Mary Agnes, who let me get away with murder in her class.) However, I really, really make every attempt to spell correctly and double check things whenever I can. I know that I do not catch everything - but I make the effort. In chat, I am totally forgiving of spelling/typing errors since I make a ton myself. And, I do not sit around trying to catch people's errors when I read things - nobody is perfect and I don't expect perfection.
But, Kids? When you are waxing poetic about your new slave/lover on the picks page on your profile, you have time to spell check. You took the time to post a lovely picture and write up a whole sonnet on her. Don't drop the ball now. I realize that not everything can be caught by spell check though. This is why you might want to have someone look over your work for errors. (Hey, how about your new slave?) When you write about her ‘tiers’ flowing down her face and hitting the ground, you probably meant ‘tears’. And when you pledge your ‘sole’ to her you are simply offering her your shoe.
Granted – there was nothing as egregious as an ‘I love ewe’ in the profile I was reading, but…OMG do not get me started on the whole cum/come issue.
Some people may think this is petty, but that is just because they don’t know the hole tail.
*Yes, I know it should be ‘whole tale’ – I am trying to be ironic here.
*Note - I am not including non-native English speakers in this pet peeve. I am impressed as all get out if you can speak more than one language - you are 1,000 times smarter than me. I was referring to native English speakers who do this.
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Yes!!! The constant misuse of homonyms drives me nuts! I'm always embarrassed, even in chat, when I inadvertently type 'their' when I mean 'there'; I *do* know the difference.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I suspect a lot of people have had the equivalent of your (not you're) Sister Mary Agnes for English teachers.
I'm exactly the same way. Here's another one for you that I keep seeing on the Fashion Planet feed that's driving me CRAZY -
ReplyDeleteIt's not "I seen" - it's "I saw".
LOL...Roisin and Kristianne - Those are good ones.
ReplyDelete*Note - I am not including non-native English speakers in this pet peeve. I am impressed as all get out if you can speak more than one language - you are 1,000 times smarter than me. I was referring to Americans who do this.
Did I expose myself as a crazy stalker - admitting to looking at an ex's profile page?
My tiny insecurity hairs are standing up on the back of my neck. Now I need to log in from work to proof read my picks.
ReplyDeleteAs a design school drop out I am pleased that I figured out to type on the side of the keyboard that has the alphabet on it. I have no idea when to use 'their' or 'there', but at least I have not degraded to text message speak.
I lov my gf. My nu slave S luvly.
Casius - LOL!
ReplyDeletePlease don't be paranoid. I don't think anyone goes through profiles with a red pen in hand - I don't (usually...lol). Anyhoo, I already know how smart you are, so no worries.
ur so knd 2 me
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm so glad I'm not the only one. Sadly I've gotten so used to it in the US at large, I *almost* don't see it.
ReplyDeleteone agan yu wite god article! Your gr8.
ReplyDeleteHmm, I guess I should actually put some people in my picks lol. Knowing my spelling skills it will require a mandatory spelling, grammar and thesaurus check. I suspect that I am Sister Mary Agnes' secret love child from before she signed up to work for The Big man.
As far as chat, I am a lost cause. While my job requires me to type everyday, my coordination seems to shut down a bit while in SL. I guess there are so many pretty things to be watching on the screen, and I normally need to be looking at the keyboard :-) I actually know what words to use and even the proper punctuation at times. However, I just plunge ahead. I often don't bother to correct as *many people often do. I prefer to just go with the flow and hope that I am talking to a highly chat tolerant person. Now some things I do intentionally. For emphasis I will add some extra m's, o's and "..." here and there. Someday I should really review chat I have done in the heat of passion (and ladies I do a whole lot more than "ohh, yes baby, yes" and the pretexted Xcite for the love speak challenged ;-) Perhaps I kid myself that the weird expression on their face is from passion, and in actuality it is from puzzlement over interpreting "i kis yor beats sa i silful y toch you tnedr..." well you get the idea....
Eye have know idea what your talking about Tymmerie. Eye think(there for I am) that yew may have two stop looking at that pour boys profile. Hes probably already suffering enough over loosing you.
ReplyDeletelol All joking aside, do elaborate on the whole cum/come issue.
I dream of the day Second Life has some sort of spell check option, I'd be in heaven. Then I wouldn't have to tell the hubby how much I like to "fick" him. Tho that sounds kinky!
Typos in chat make me giggle, but I do get annoyed at the basic things like "you're" and "your." Especially in profiles when you have TIME to think. "Your my favrit angle and my hart is with u always!"
ReplyDeleteNothing drives me crazier than the "I seen" thing. I had a friend who said it a lot, and it just made me want to smack her.
HAHAHA!
ReplyDeleteI am by NO means perfect with my grammar and writing skills but for the LONGEST time some git had a mispelling in their profile that drove me friggin nuts!!
I never said anything, cos I would have just yelled incoherently, but it made me want to twat them about the head everytime I saw it! lulz
Don't get me started.
ReplyDelete*Your/you're (I even saw one huge display ad in-world that had "yo'ure")
*Its/it's = I have given up that it's will ever just mean "it is" again.
*Then/than
Okay, my eyelid is twitching now so that's probably enough. X-D
At the risk of going off topic - if the Avatar name is something like "robb356 Masala" I pretty much expect the profile to read like they randomly spilled a can of alphabet soup on the screen.
ReplyDeleteWell I wonder how many accounts are actually run by 13 year olds? Though, I think mis-typing may transcend age. I have heard that the use of "big" words and actual punctuation was the sign of someone over 30 (darn I have already used 10 words over 5 letters :-). Not that someone in their 60's can't text chat with the best of them. I just wish I didn't drop so many s's off words in chat and type "god" so much when I mean "good". Hmm, maybe that was just form mom's upbringing of me.
ReplyDeleteBy the way Tymmerie your blog is sooooo god :-)
Now... imagine that English is not your first language and you don't speak it or even read it in your every day life (RL, of course). Sometimes, I don't have a clue what people mean when they misspell something...
ReplyDeleteOmg - you guys crack me up!
ReplyDeleteBaron - you are right. People in general have gotten so lazy!
Jerremy - are you trying to use my blog to pick up chicks?
Lisbeth - I died laughing at yours. Nope - can't elaborate on come/cum. LOL
Alicia - yes - saw/seen is an annoying one!
Willis - you really never told them? You must have been ready to snap! LOL
Avalon - LOL your poor eye!
Casius - I agree. And you have to be pretty set on a name to be willing to put numbers next to it just to have it.
Ana - I *have* thought of that! OMG English is so weird anyway (IMHO) with all of its contradictory rules, odd spellings and slang. To tell the truth, sometimes I can't tell what people write when typos are involved either! LOL
I can handle the spelling errors. Without spell check, punctuation approval and whatever else word has to offer me, my dyslexia shines though loud and clear.
ReplyDeleteWhat I cannot stand is text chat. SL is not your phone. There I said it! DOWN WITH TEXT CHAT.
Thank you for this opportunity, I feel so much better now!
(as a side note, I'm a your/you're with it's and its confused kinda gal...just saying)
Misty - lol I am glad I was able to help you let off some steam!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, even as a non-native speaker. My friend Johan has just posted a similar article at http://www.johanyugen.co.uk/?p=19
ReplyDelete@Ana
I know that situation too well: Sitting in front of your screen thinking "Ehhh, what did you just say?"
Yes, I messed up linking that URL correctly, but at least I spelled it right, so what? ;-)
ReplyDeleteTimothy - thanks for posting that link! it just goes to show how annoying lazy spelling is for everyone!
ReplyDeleteOh, I didn't say anything cos' he kinda mispelled everything and anything, and sometimes just to annoy me.
ReplyDeleteIt was a fairly amusing wrong spelling though, kept me and my friends somewhat amused for the longest time :D
I'm not natively English-speaking, but I do know the differences between
ReplyDeletenow/know, your/you're/ur, then/than, and so on.
The problem is, when I'm busy typing, I'm doing so many things:
- thinking of what to say
- translating it
And I do that all through saying it out loud while I type. So I regularly do many homonym errors :( I hate them myself, and I always correct myself as soon as I can. But they're just one of those things I can't avoid.
Daman - you are a person who impresses me! You even do your wonderful blog in English!
ReplyDelete@Daman
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly what is happening to me and it's even more frustrating when you know it's wrong, but can't avoid it nevertheless. My worst example lately was typing "just" instead of "used" ... I think I blushed in RL for that one!
Uf... I am not the only one!
ReplyDeleteI improved my English in this year of SL but there are still some words that puzzle me. Anyhow, I usually understand the whole idea of the sentence which makes it a lot easier.
Thanks to all the people in SL that helped me by having convos with me that helped me learned a lot more about English. The English I knew was from High School and that was ages ago.
The funny thing is that everyone takes for granted that everyone in SL speaks/writes/reads English. Me included... My bad.
The other funny thing is that some people didn't believe I was Portuguese when I told them... Of course, that made me smile.
Tymmie, I totally agree with this write right idea. It annoys me to see people misusing their own language. People can play with words but to do that people have to really know their language and typos are always funny.
What I mean is seeing my language written with letter that we don't even have in our alphabet like K, W or Y. That's a new slang used by teenagers in text messages and sometimes I don't understand a thing.
Great post, as usual, Tymmie!
Ana - Thank you! I have to tell you I was also surprised when I first realized you were Portuguese. Very impressive skills!
ReplyDeleteAnd, I have to say it...kids these days! [shakes head]
I feel the same about pix/pics. Its annoying
ReplyDeletethis is old I know... but I have to add to the pet peeves in spelling. Grown people talking like children absolutely drive me nuts. Not to mention constant typing in slang. I know the people behind these avatars cannot possibly be complete idiots.
ReplyDelete