Nothing wrong with being a grammer Nazi so long as you don't let it drive you nuts (or anyone else for that matter). Grammer nazi's are interesting people....

But I must agree with the other posts that tell one to make friends with the fact you will muck up any new language you learn. I am really only fluent in English and know a bit of spanish due to my job in resturants. I believe I have an unspoken agreement with the spanish speaking population... thou shalt not laugh at me or make fun of my awful grammer and accent when attempting to speak your language and I won't do the same to you when you speak english poorly. Its works out about 99% of the time. The other 1% are are jerks and closed minded losers not interested in expanding their little world. If it comes up I just calmly tell them that its cool to correct me, its the only way I will learn to do it properly. And as noted in previous posts just because grammer might be proper it is not necessarily the way it is spoken by the natives.

Burgandyrose:Nothing wrong with being a grammer Nazi so long as you don't let it drive you nuts (or anyone else for that matter). Grammer nazi's are interesting people....

GrammAr Nazi.

Love,
The Spelling Nazi.

(Sorry, someone had to do it! )

If somebody speaks broken German to me, I make my best efforts to understand them. It's better if they speak broken German to me than if I had to speak their language. I guess English speakers feel the same way if I speak bad English. (I'm much better at writing than speaking English, so don't use my writing style to judge about how I speak English!)

tommjames:

jchthys:The grammatical error that makes me cringe the most is something like "He gave the book to Katherine and I".

I find this error absolutely excruciating. Every Wednesday morning a company-wide email drops in my inbox with big red bold letters saying Fire alarm test today at 12:00pm. Please email Gordon and I to confirm you heard it. Drives me absolutely mad! Worst thing is I know for sure if I politely pointed out the error I'd get into some silly argument along the lines of "well my teacher always told me to say Gordon and I, not me and Gordon." Sigh.

The one that drives me nuts is misuse of the word "myself". For example, something like Fire alarm test today at 12:00pm. Please email Gordon and myself to confirm you heard it.

tommjames:

jchthys:The grammatical error that makes me cringe the most is something like "He gave the book to Katherine and I".

I find this error absolutely excruciating. Every Wednesday morning a company-wide email drops in my inbox with big red bold letters saying Fire alarm test today at 12:00pm. Please email Gordon and I to confirm you heard it. Drives me absolutely mad! Worst thing is I know for sure if I politely pointed out the error I'd get into some silly argument along the lines of "well my teacher always told me to say Gordon and I, not me and Gordon." Sigh.

The worst thing is that my teacher actually did always tell me to use "Gordon and I" not "me and Gordon!" It was only in maybe year 11 that I found out on the internet the reason for using I vs. me — which is of course the difference of the dative/accusative and nominative. I mean, thanks for telling me... >.<

English only has grammatical case left in our pronouns, yet we still screw it up. Makes you wonder if a case system is ideal in an auxlang (I'm just saying...). Although I happen to like how I can invert the word order in my questions in EO as I would in English.

Ailanto:The one that drives me nuts is misuse of the word "myself". For example, something like Fire alarm test today at 12:00pm. Please email Gordon and myself to confirm you heard it.

Keep in mind though that "myself" can be used emphatically, and this is a separate function to the reflexive pronoun. In fact, here, you could call it an emphatic pronoun (loosely speaking).

This all does remind me though - EO is great for learning many things in grammar, but it does not substitute English grammar, which is different. English grammar is quite unique in that things like "myself" have evolved long past their original reflexive usages akin to the Latin su- root, with "_-self" doubling now for emphasis (similar to how "ge-/ye-" in English changed from a participle marker to an emphatic particle/prefix. Additionally, English grammar does not fit the same box as EO. "If you see my book, give it to bob or I" is pretty alright in English. It might not be right for Middle English or Old English, but things have changed to the point where the rules of grammar those languages abided by no longer fit the foot so to speak.

So, basically, while it is good to see the structure of language from EO and Latin's point of view, remember to think like the uneducated English speaker that's inside all of us once in a while.

Burgandyrose:Nothing wrong with being a grammer Nazi so long as you don't let it drive you nuts (or anyone else for that matter). Grammer nazi's are interesting people....

Please, no misuse of the word Nazi. Nazi's was murderers.

When I am without hope about the english language, I read this message and it calms me. Thanks.

Francisko

andogigi:As far as English goes, I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over it. The great mass of people in the US and abroad tend to misuse our language in sundry and creative ways. A slip of the tongue here and there will probably be missed by most people.

I mention this because you simply can't be self-conscious when you learn a new language. The simple fact of the matter is that you are going to make mistakes. It is best to make friends with that fact, accept it, embrace it, and not shy away from it. Too many people are so afraid of making a mistake in their new language that they never use it. Because of this, they never improve. They fall into a vicious cycle which ends with them throwing their hands in the air in disgust.

In short, just start telling yourself that it really doesn't matter.

Rule 1) Don't sweat the small stuff.
Rule 2) Realize that it's all small stuff.

I wanted to say about the second message of this group.

Fracisko

Francisko1:When I am without hope about the english language, I read this message and it calms me. Thanks.

Francisko

andogigi:As far as English goes, I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over it. The great mass of people in the US and abroad tend to misuse our language in sundry and creative ways. A slip of the tongue here and there will probably be missed by most people.

I mention this because you simply can't be self-conscious when you learn a new language. The simple fact of the matter is that you are going to make mistakes. It is best to make friends with that fact, accept it, embrace it, and not shy away from it. Too many people are so afraid of making a mistake in their new language that they never use it. Because of this, they never improve. They fall into a vicious cycle which ends with them throwing their hands in the air in disgust.

In short, just start telling yourself that it really doesn't matter.

Rule 1) Don't sweat the small stuff.
Rule 2) Realize that it's all small stuff.