[DeadGirlsDance]

When I was in Primary school we weren't taught any grammar. It was only at GCSE where my English teacher had to take it upon herself to teach us!

[camaieu]

I'm not saying that it's right for English natives to make these kinds of mistakes. Heck, I'm sometimes a bit of a grammar Nazi. But, as always, here is Stephen Fry to put everything into perspective:

[RachelSophia]

I've seen university websites, letters and even seen advertisements with BASIC grammatical and spelling errors.
It's not just because it may not be taught right in schools. It appears to have never ever been taught right... but they say English is one of the hardest languages?

My younger sister is very bad with her English, she actually says 'non-important' or 'in-important' rather that unimportant.

[green.tea]

(Original post by AnimalSpirit)

punctuation is for squares

[RachelSophia]

(Original post by Catherine.)
I'm not saying that it's right for English natives to make these kinds of mistakes. Heck, I'm sometimes a bit of a grammar Nazi. But, as always, here is Stephen Fry to put everything into perspective:

That video is brilliant!

[camaieu]

(Original post by RachelSophia)
That video is brilliant!

Isn't it just? I know that grammar is important. But language is a beautiful, wonderful thing, and it's quite often the case that the pedants simply don't revel in how great language really is.

[TheCurlyHairedDude]

I'm 18 and still don't know what the difference between effect and affect is?

[blueray]

(Original post by THEEIGTHWONDER)
I think your argument is flawed. I just done English at university and many in my lectures struggled with the difference. Your making a huge generalisation, not taking into account what the situation is etc...


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Did. This hurts my eyes!

[g_star_raw_1989]

Probably because it requires thinking.

[Arekkusu]

(Original post by raaachek)
Comma splices are the worst - they are EVERYWHERE!!!

Don't you mean "comma splices are the worst, they are everywhere"?!

[zachyg]

Whenever England play football, my facebook is plastered with "comon england!!'

I mean "comon", what even is that?

[gagaslilmonsteruk]

A bad education system and teachers with lax attitudes. It's left to the language teachers to teach us our own grammar - it's really no wonder that it gets them frustrated, when they'd rather be teaching us about their chosen language or the cultures of that country, which by far are much more interesting than learning English grammar you should have learnt in First School.

[gagaslilmonsteruk]

Oh and another thing I keep on seeing is 'Mom' instead of 'Mum'. I accept some people may occasionally get suffixes muddled with their American counterparts like IZE and ISE, but it is shameful that Mom is being used over Mum.

[Gales]

The French do it too! I've seen an awful lot of them get 'ça' (that) and 'sa' (his, her or its) mixed up.

[Gales]

(Original post by gagaslilmonsteruk)
Oh and another thing I keep on seeing is 'Mom' instead of 'Mum'. I accept some people may occasionally get suffixes muddled with their American counterparts like IZE and ISE, but it is shameful that Mom is being used over Mum.

Both 'ise' and 'ize' suffixes are acceptable in British English, with 'ise' being the most common.

[gagaslilmonsteruk]

(Original post by Gales)
The French do it too! I've seen an awful lot of them get 'ça' (that) and 'sa' (his, her or its) mixed up.

Can you give me some references/links please? I study French at university, and would just like to see it out of interest

[Fusion]

(Original post by TheCurlyHairedDude)
I'm 18 and still don't know what the difference between effect and affect is?

And presume/assume

[Emmie3303]

(Original post by rock_climber86)
Because we're not taught this properly in school. When I was in school grammar wasn't important! I decided to teach myself again from books and the internet because I became a pedant and hated spelling stuff incorrectly! In fact I'm still learning correct grammar to this day! I get the necessary and neccessary confused, as well as accommodation and acommodation. anyone know if there is an easy rule which I could use to decide of a letter is to be repeated in the middle of a word or not?

My year 5 teacher taught us all a good way to remember how to spell necessary. I still use it now to remind myself how to spell it correctly!

'You wear one cap and two socks'.
Necessary

[Gales]

(Original post by gagaslilmonsteruk)
Can you give me some references/links please? I study French at university, and would just like to see it out of interest

Nope, I have no references unfortunately. I only notice because my French friends do it quite a lot, they'll write 'sa, c'est incroyable' for example, instead of 'ça'.

There's a facebook group here about it, coincidently.

[Redheaded_Dancer]

Usually carelessness, but sometimes it's down to lack of decent primary school education. A lot of my friends went to a local primary school which isn't really the best to say the least and they were always getting the above examples mixed up