Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Grammar Snobbery

I'm such a grammar snob....... I went to a particular cycling association's website, really just looking for a map, not to join their group or anything. But their website and all associated postings were so fraught with spelling errors that I clicked out. Even the map has terrible misspellings on it. Says a certain rule will be "strickley enforced." Don't they get the red squiggly lines like I do? I could attribute this snobbery to the fact that I'm an English teacher..........

.....but I have to admit that I was this way long before I started that career. In fact, (God forgive me), when I was a teenager and my mother and I were in church together, whenever the pastor made a grammatical error (and he made tons of them), Mom and I made eye contact with each other all the way across the sanctuary. No wonder I've been told I'm on the express train to hell.

I asked the woman at the Publix bakery to fix the writing on my sister's birthday cake. The cake was intended for three family members, so I asked that it say "Happy Birthday, Y'all." They had spelled it "ya'll." The lady looked at me like I was crazy when I asked her to move the apostrophe. So I told her MY SISTER was the grammar snob!!!!!!!!

I'm not this judgmental about most things, just spelling and grammar. Sigh. But I don't correct my husband, so maybe that can earn me some points back.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If your a grammar snob then I'm a book whore! Glad to be in good company!

susan said...

I'm a grammar snob, too. Been correcting people since high school. It's only natural that I'm an English teacher. Oh, and my dad does has ridden the Bike Ride Across Georgia. He is no longer the president of the Murfreesboro Bicycle Club so I don't read their site. Hope it wasn't theirs with all the mistakes!