Comments on: Are You a Grammar Nazi?

By: Jake P

Jake P — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:20:10 +0000

These types of discussions always get people going, don’t they!

I have a client for whom I referee office grammar debates on a regular basis–one of her staff members is the worst kind of grammar stickler; i.e., one who is frequently wrong. It’s kind of enjoyable to deflate his balloon while citing CMS chapter and verse.

When I was a wet-behind-the-ears editor, I used to get upset about people not knowing the rules. Now, my only goal is to fix it when I can, not worry about it when I can’t, and laugh at it when it’s funny.
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By: --Deb

--Deb — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:58:00 +0000

Love. I don’t think I’m a grammar Nazi–I’m not nearly strict enough, or mean enough to those who flaunt or don’t know the rules. (Real Nazis weren’t usually very flexible that way.) But, a grammar snob? Probably a little. But then, I LIKE knowing rules and I LIKE the way the language works when it’s being used properly. I understand people being confused … it is English, after all … but couldn’t they at least try to use it correctly? For me?
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By: Vanessa

Vanessa — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:00:07 +0000

After reading this article, I was writing my daily blog post, and I began to write a sentence where it was grammatically correct to use “whom” and not “who.” Yesterday, I would have used “who” and told all the stuffy grammarians to go stuff themselves. But now that “whom” is really on its way out of the English language, I started to feel a little nostalgic so I wrote “whom.” Soon I’ll be writing all my posts in iambic pentameter.
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By: Natalia Maldonado

Natalia Maldonado — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:59:13 +0000

Jenn, my mother does the same thing when she watches the news! Despite the Real Academia Espanola though, I think Spanish is still pretty fluid. Different countries have different words for the same thing, even to the point that one might be considered obscene in one country while it’s perfectly acceptable in another.

I agree with Justin though, that our language breaks its rules much more than other languages. I learned English when I was five and I read a lot, so it was relatively easy for me, but I can see the frustration when we have words like laugh and though, where the gh’s are pronounced completely differently.

Good luck with the Spanish lessons! At least you have the essentials down: Tengo hambre!
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By: Yo

Yo — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:45:18 +0000

That’s my point exactly. I’d love for one of these Grammaritarians to explain to me how to divide one fraction by another (without Googling it). I know how, and I don’t make fun of writers who don’t. Because it’s not cool, man, not cool.

By: Jenn Escalona

Jenn Escalona — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:15:15 +0000

Why’d you have to bring up math? Terrible, terrible math.

By: Yo

Yo — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:09:51 +0000

If every writer who secretly laughs at spelling mistakes and grammatical errors were forced to complete a math problem at the end of all their articles, we would not have this problem. People forget that, while they may be a great speller or grammaritarian, they probably suck at basic math, geography, science or something else. So get off the high horse and remember what you can’t do that other people may find easy.

By: Jenn Escalona

Jenn Escalona — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:50:08 +0000

Hi Corwin! Funny – I was just writing a post preemptively agreeing with you.

By: Jenn Escalona

Jenn Escalona — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:49:04 +0000

That’s really interesting that you would bring up Spanish. I’ve probably mentioned before that my husband works for a Spanish-language news network (it’s a trusted name in news :p) and he is all the time complaining about the writers and guests there abusing Spanish. Though I still think he’s a bit of a snob (I hope he doesn’t see this :p) I think he may have more room to talk since you guys have the Real Academia Espanola which is actually meant to regulate the language. Though, personally, I think language is such a a fluid and ever changing thing that it can never truly be regulated or boxed in. (Also – haha – I apologize for the lack of accent marks back there. I don’t have the codes memorized to type those suckers!)

Natalia, on a totally different note, I’m trying to learn Spanish so I can actually communicate with my in-laws beyond “Buenas,” “Ciao,” and “tengo hambre,” and it is incredibly difficult. I envy you your awesome bilingual abilities, but despair of ever attaining the same. Just thought I would throw in a gripe!

By: Justin Corwin

Justin Corwin — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:42:21 +0000

An interesting point possibly relating to what Natalia is noticing is that many other languages are much more regular. So misspellings and poor grammar violate fairly ironclad rules, and may actually confuse people.

English is a gigantic vocab list and common-use syntactical rules, for the most part, our tenses are very irregular, we have no rules for subject-object relations, etc. So more seems arbitrary to the user.