Thursday, April 17, 2014

Things That Annoy Me Thursday: Writing "I Seen.."

"I seen it outside," someone posted on a message board.

I cringed.

"You mean," I typed, "you SAW."

Okay, so I didn't. I wanted to. But if you correct someone online, they start to rant about grammar nazis. And I'm not, I swear, I just know the basics. And I figure everyone else should know them too. I mean, suppose they have to write a paper for school and write "I seen?"

I once had a friend who always said, "I seen..." and I wanted to screech, "It's I SAW! Dammit!"

I should have.

She turned out to be crazy.

Maybe it's why she didn't know that I seen wasn't correct.

I've noticed "I seen" all over message boards and I have to wonder, do people think this is the right way to talk?

My son Tommy is getting a Facebook account next year. I already warned him I'd correct his grammar.

"I just don't want you to be an adult who writes your welcome. I don't want you to type that you can't breath because you have a cold. It's BREATHE, son. With an E. Many adults don't get that."

Tommy rolls his eyes at me, but I'm serious.

I do not want him to be a grown ass adult writing, "I seen the craziest thing at WalMart today!"




27 comments:

  1. Okay I may have slipped now and again.....I blame it on living in Utah for too long they speak horrible english there!

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  2. First time commenter to say that I think the grammatical error that gets me the most is when people write things like, "It's my husband and I's anniversary."

    I mean, seriously? I's? Who could possible think that is correct? I want to tear my hair out as I scream, "My husband's and MY anniversary, not I's." We do not make the pronoun I possessive. We just don't.

    Ahem, thank you for letting me vent.

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  3. I see a lot of "loose" in place of "lose" too. What?? Yesterday I thought about writing *you're in a few places where deserved, but I didn't.
    I wish you had written *Saw on the message board!

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  4. I know my phone does silly things with the auto correct sometimes. And my BFF has no problem correcting me on FB.

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  5. I saw on Pinterest a saying that read something like, "If you use 'I seen' in a sentence, I'm going to assume it won't be followed by 'Anything in a book'."

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  6. I completely feel your pain! My nieces is really bad at this, but in Spanish. She refuses to let us help her because she thinks she speaks perfectly and OMG help! lol

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  7. Don't even get me STARTED on shit like this. I'll go OFF! haha

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  8. I have to physically restrain myself from correcting online grammar errors all the time.

    I am that ahole who emailed her friend about the correct use of an apostrophe. It drove me mad! I couldn't take it.

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  9. I can't stand it either. It's not being a grammar Nazi to notice that basic and elementary words are not spelled or used correctly. What really gets to me is when my stepkids' schools post things on facebook full of "I seen" and other butcherings of the language. What can they possibly teach if they can't type or write properly themselves?

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  10. Giiirrrrrl. In the part of rural Missouri where I grew up, "I seen" is the norm. As is, "I done" (as in, "I done that last Friday"), "I ain't," and a whole bunch of other annoyances. I know many otherwise-intelligent people who speak like this and think it's perfectly okay. And as you can imagine, my Facebook feed is also full of it. :/

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  11. I also want to correct grammatical errors as well, but I stop myself. When I lived in central Kansas I heard many people use seen instead of saw. It drove me crazy!

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  12. LMAO! I think I do this at times and I have my teaching degree. Sad really. I blame it on living in the South. I say im 'fixin' to go to walmart. It's bad!

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  13. I'm a proud grammar nazi!! Can't get it. Just as I cannot understand people who cannot spell if their life depended on them and decide that they are smarter than spell check :-)

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  14. It's funny if that person is trying to sound ghetto but so sad if that person thinks what they are writing is correct.

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  15. So funny that this is your topic today because someone just did that on facebook this morning, and my brain threw up. I can't stand it.

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  16. My parents call me the "grammar queen". I try pretty hard to always write with proper grammar. Sometimes I mess up though. One of my biggest pet peeves that I've seen a lot lately is "I's". An example: "John and I's niece..." Definitely not grammatically correct and it drives me nuts!

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  17. biggest pet peeve ever. Right up there with "your, you're"...and "their, there, they're"

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  18. I think people get confused because they are both used for past tense; and they assume they are interchangeable. No.

    Who has seen the wind?
    I saw the wind.
    But..also
    I have seen the wind.

    Participles people!! Learn them.
    I just made my expensive English degree totally worth it. :)

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  19. I'm a grammar nazi for sure, particularly with "your" and "you're". One of them is a combination of two words, I don't think it's that hard to remember which one you use!

    My high school English teacher's grammar pet peeve was "separate". He said if you EVER spell "separate" like "separate", you would fail his class haha

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  20. THIS! I see it ALL the time and I don't know why?! Who speaks like that?!

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  21. People who say and write "I SEEN" is an ongoing joke at our house. I think most of Kansas thinks that the correct way to say it. It gets on my nerves more than any amount of chalkboard screeching - ugh!

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  22. I thought it was just a southern thing!

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  23. I'm an English teacher, and I can fully commiserate. It's all like nails on a chalkboard to me. Thanks for teaching your son well! From all of his future English teachers!

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  24. I seen that too.
    Sorry, I had to.
    That crap drives me insane. All of it. I have cousins who I swear are so close to illiterate, and I had to block them on Facebook because their posts made me cringe. I think you should have to pass a basic spelling and grammar test to be able to use the internet. (kidding, sort of)

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  25. I'm with you on all of that! It makes me crazy when grown adults don't know basic grammar. It's not brain surgery.

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  26. I know exactly how you feel! I have PACIFIC peeves too! LOLOLOLOLOLOL

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