This is quite recent but I’ve been browsing Lemmy a bunch lately and quite often I see extreme grammatical errors.

I’m not talking about like, incorrect stylistic choices between commas and dashes, or an improper use of ellipses or missing commas or incorrect use of apostrophes in its/it’s or in multiple posessive articles or just plain typos or any nitpicky grammar nazi shit like that, but just basic spelling specifically.

It’s one thing when you can’t spell some pretty uncommon words and you’re too lazy to look it up and/or use autocorrect, but it’s a completely different league to misspell very basic words, very recently I saw someone spell “extreme” as “extream” which is just kind of baffling, I actually can’t even imagine how one would make such a mistake?

And it’s not been an isolated thing either, I’ve seen several instances like that lately.

Am I going crazy? Is it just me?

  • Jarix@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    My older friend and i were talking about this a about 6 months ago. We both are convinced auto correct functions are getting worse. I suspect AI injection into the function somehow, but tin foil hat me also thinks it’s strategy to force more people to use microphone. Seems way more valuable to data miners

    • SgtAStrawberry@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      For me auto correct has a BIG problem when I miss a dubbel consonant. It will start suggesting words that doesn’t have a single letter in common with what I’m trying to spell, it will suggest completely wrong words and it will even suggest nonsensical words that doesn’t exist. Everything except the exact word I have spelt, but with two s instead of one.

      Like yesterday I was trying to spell I believe it was “Necessary” but I had spelt “nesesary” and it was like did you mean “Acceptances” “approval” “appel” “sope” “opposition” “operation” “passport” like that isn’t even close to what I’m am trying to type.

      So I can completely believe auto correct have gotten worse and AI dose seem like a likely suspect.

      Especially the times when I completely don’t know what I am trying to spell but it gets that “Trioqulationitasitq” is supposed to be “tribulation”

      I don’t know how in the world it can do that but think nesesary is supposed to be approval.

  • BlackSheep@lemmy.ca
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    13 hours ago

    Completely agree. I cringe on a regular basis. I never know if it’s “stylistic”, typos, laziness? Sentence structure has also gone for shit.

  • Sunsofold@lemmings.world
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    22 hours ago

    Don’t forget the internet is global. People for whom English is a second language are much more common than they once were.

  • Underwaterbob@lemm.ee
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    17 hours ago

    I feel like it’s gotten better. I certainly don’t miss the days of “definately”. I feel like that one was everywhere. Its death is maybe the one good thing auto-correct did for the world.

  • Letsdothisok@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    It’s the public school system. It’s amazing that our country still functions. I was lucky being private schooled.

  • jaxxed@lemmy.ml
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    24 hours ago

    I blame these f’ing phone keyboards and autocorrect. I can’t see what I am touching, I can’t feel it, there’s no feedback, and I have to look up while I type. Whoever came up with approach deserves… A bad case of indigestion.

  • collapse_already@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    I would not be surprised if autocorrect was a major culprit along with phone keyboards. You can type something correctly and have autocorrect make it wrong. It’s also super easy to get the wrong letter if you have normal sized hands and are typing on a phone keyboard. I have turned autocorrect completely off and am significantly less error prone as a result.

    I frequently decide against correcting an error if I think my intention is clear, and I am in a hurry. I don’t really care what strangers on the internet think of my editing skills.

    • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I hate this. For instance, using u instead of you, autocorrect often turns it to I. It also will fucking “correct” your to you’re when you typed your on purpose. I’m ready to just turn it off. It fucks up my posts, texts, emails all the time. I don’t have this issue on my laptop.

      • collapse_already@lemmy.ml
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        1 day ago

        I think you mean it will ducking correct…

        I turned mine off completely because it has bo comprehension of when an apostrophe is appropriate in front of the letter s. Forever making words possessive that were intended to be plural. Apostrophes do not mean “look out, here comes an s.”

        • SpraynardKruger@lemm.ee
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          18 hours ago

          Thi’s i’s new’s to me. Can you give example’s of when its appropriate to use apostrophe’s?

  • steeznson@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    Could be people using a second language like others have mentioned. Another thing could be British vs US english. Webster changed how words were spelt in the early 20th centry to make them more phonetic for Americans, i.e. “colour” -> “color”

      • steeznson@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        Yeah counterintuitively there are a lot of people who learn English as a 2nd language who have better grammar than native speakers because they actually learn the rules.

  • octobob@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    I swear to god working in an engineering field for the past 10 years or so has dramatically changed my grammar. Do you know who has the absolute worst grammar and spelling of anyone I’ve ever met? My boss. “First 2 channels shoul dBe woired for 0-10vDC” was a note he left on my desk yesterday. Do you know who’s the smartest person I’ve ever met when it comes to electrical? Also my boss.

    It’s never a 1 to 1 comparison of intelligence fwiw. Everyone in this field spits out emails in half-cobbled together sentences and phrases and it just works somehow. When I type out multiple paragraphs and overexplain things, half the time they’ll just come down to the shop to talk instead.

    But yeah I have realized that this will bleed out into the rest of my communication haha. I’ll look back at texts I send quickly to my fiance and see that I’m skipping words or saying shit wrong. Oh well, the ideas are communicated just as well most the time.

  • wildwhitehorses@aussie.zone
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    1 day ago

    I’m burnt out man. I just dont have the energy or the careth to be accurate or even care about a small thing.

  • gnu@lemmy.zip
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    1 day ago

    It’s not a recent thing, but I would say there has been a decline over the last decade or so. Not only does it seem like spelling and grammar are getting worse but I feel it is much more likely these days to find comments defending improper English rather than correcting it.

    I saw someone spell “extreme” as “extream” which is just kind of baffling, I actually can’t even imagine how one would make such a mistake?

    Maybe they had just come from dealing with large quantities of paper? Or enlarging a bunch of holes?

    • 3xBork@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Anti-intellectualism has been on the rise for decades and spelling gets worse? I am shocked I tell you!

      Also: inb4 the “language evolves!” crowd arrives.

      • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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        7 hours ago

        So true. People are likely being fucked up by poor autocorrect algos, as I noticed even mine messing up and turned it off outright, because I blind type like 89wpm on my phone anyway so I’m fine without it. Then they’re defending it like ignorant fools that they are, reasoning backwards and perpetuating anti-intellectualism