Don’t you just hate those people who hound you for using improper grammar at the most ridiculous times? Why does it matter if you write “go get you’re calorie-laden ice cream” or “Thomass posts are so lame”? I’m confident that you’ll get your message across, even if you do misuse your participles and gerunds. It’s no surprise that Grammar Nazis are viewed as pretentious and unhelpful human beings.
The title isn't italicized! It's in quotation marks! It burns!
Well, I’m one of them.
I don’t claim to be an especially knowledgeable person when it comes to the English language, and yet, I can’t help myself from correcting errors I see. Everywhere. Whether it be my nine-year-old cousin stating that she’s “good” instead of “well”, or when my friend texts me saying “you “dont” have any real friends” as opposed to “you “don’t” have any real friends”, I feel this urge to fix their grammatical mistakes.
I haven’t always been like this. Several years ago, when I first joined Goodreads, my reviews was horrible. I literally cringe whenever I read my earlier reviews, solely because my grammar was so bad. Now I am careful to utilize the correct “your, you’re”, or “they’re, their, there”. I still make the occasional mistake, but their they’re happening less frequently now.
There are a few reasons that I transformed into a Grammar Nazi. One reason is that I’ve been learning more about writing and how to write well by attending school and taking Honors and AP English courses. Another reason is that I love to read and write. I entrench myself in amazing books, so I hope my own writing should improve as a result. Although there was that one incident…
–
I walk into my Latin class, expecting another fun-filled lesson about subjunctives and indirect statements.
“How are you doing, Thomas?” my Latin teacher asks.
“I’m good, thanks, how are you?” I say.
“You’re not good,” my Latin teacher replies.
Oh, snap, I think to myself, what have I done? Did I fail that test last class? I’ve done all of my homework this entire year! Could he be referring to that time when I was three-years-old and wrote on the walls with marker? Calm down, deep breaths, deep breaths…
I stare at him.
“You’re well,” he says,” remember what we learned about adjectives and adverbs? You cannot be good, you can be well.”
“Oh, yeah, I’m well, thank you for correcting me,” I say. He doesn’t know about the marker, whew…
–
After having my Latin teacher correct me numerous times, I now always say that I am “well”. I suppose classical conditioning in a sense can support your use of proper grammar – if you’re always around people who use it, or if you’re constantly corrected by Grammar Nazis like me, then your own grammar will improve. It’s a win-win situation.
What do you think of Grammar Nazis? Do you dislike them, or are you one of them? I left a grammar mistake in this post on purpose, see if you can find it! Now I’m slightly afraid people will point out things that I thought were correct…
I really need to catch up on my reading, so, see you guys next post!
the quiet voice 