What is the deal w/ grammar and spelling?

The problem is that people simply don't care about grammar and spelling. If you don't care, you won't be bothered to use a spellchecker. It's kind of a catch-22, because if you're a poor speller, you tend not to be bothered by (or even notice) poor spelling, and so you don't see the point in making an effort just for the benefit of others. Most people I know who aren't naturally good at spelling and grammar will put the effort if it's for something "important" like a job inquiry, but apparently Yahoo! Answers doesn't qualify as important.

JeepDrivr has a point---many people (especially those who post questions in the Languages section) don't speak English as a first language, but those generally aren't the culprits. It's actually pretty easy to tell when grammar and spelling errors are a result of unfamiliarity with the language and when they're just due to laziness.

Anyway, I sympathize with your frustration. I take a stand by refusing to answer poorly written questions...I figure if they can't take the time to ask nicely, I won't take the time to answer. :)

I know what you mean. It drives me crazy. I can understand if English is not the person's native language, but there are so many people on here, especially the young adults, tweens, and teens, who are typing in ways that I have no idea what they are saying. Don't they want to express themselves intelligently? There are so many words in the English language, but they can type 100 words and only use about 30 actual words that can be found in the dictionary. And like you said, the grammar- oh my gosh. You talked about the teachers. Well I have seen parents get mad at teachers before because points were taken off their child's paper because of grammar and spelling errors. The parents encourage the misuse of the English language by doing this and also by not communicating with their kids. Many kids start school without language skills because no adult would talk to them intelligently, and it continues as they grow up.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

I agree. I think some of them are trolls. They do it on purpose. I wonder too why some don't just look in the search engine. But then a troll doesn't really want an answer. And there are far too many of them here. They have turned Yahoo Answers into a joke!

Haha. I've only just joined this site but it may start to annoy me after a while. I'm going to be ever so careful to spell this all correctly now.

Jenn

You are not the only one. I am stunned by it myself. Particularly the nonsensical ways people phrase questions, etc. What really gets under my skin is the confusion about the possessive & plural forms of nouns & rampant misuse of apostrophes.

You're right.

However, every time I start to think that, I try to remimd myself that not everyone here has English as their first language. But you'd think that people would make a little more of an effort.

I'm with you... It drives me crazy reading some of the questions and answers on here. Unbelievable, but very entertaining at times.

Yer rite. Bad ritin is a ubombannashun.

Yeah yeah, put a sock in it. You should learn how to write.