TLDR: Learn your basic grammar people!
I know it’s a common thing on social media, and I know that most people say, don’t worry about it, it’s just how it is these days, but when someone uses the wrong words (usually homophones) it drives me nuts. And it drives me nuts not because I think: “those posters are uneducated idiots” (though clearly they are), it drives me nuts because my brain reads the words as they are written and sometimes that means the sentence doesn’t make sense to my poor little brain.
A big one for me is “to” and “too”. It’s like the people who don’t use “too” when they should don’t understand or respect the power of the word. It’s a very important distinction.
Same goes for “allowed” and “aloud”. Though this one has become massive since the advent of Facebook groups with rules. People are forever posting: “Admin, please delete if not aloud” and I’m always left to think:
- It’s allowed not aloud, and
- Read the damn group rules to see if it’s allowed, then you won’t need to start your stupid post with the caveat. Further most people who do this are like those who start a sentence with “I’m not racist but…”, most often they know their post isn’t allowed, but if they post it anyway to get it in front of as many eyes as they can before the Admin comes along and takes it down.
Another is “Who’s” and “Whose” this one is a little more understandable, but still an annoyance.
Then there’s the usual suspects: there, their, they’re; then and than; etc…
I know we all mess up sometimes, we all miss an apostrophe here and there, but serial offenders should be banned from the internet. Like how we had to earn our “pen licence” at school. People should need to pass basic grammar proficiency before given access to a keyboard.
End of rant. 🥴