• corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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    22 hours ago

    I might have terrible grammar and everyone knows it except for me Do you notice people misunderstanding you? That’s how you’d know.

    The case where people know about a grammar issue but still understand the writer is a counterexample to your claim.

    As someone who was raised Rural and will drop a lot of dialect into speech, I’ve seen how it colours the response and taints the message. I’ve seen where people spot a bad habit and just let it go. People know.

    The more one learns about structure and form, the more one notices these gaffes; and not only does it change how the message was received, but it can also be one-sided. For instance: people who say “some emails” don’t realise how discordant it sounds to people who don’t say “some mails”. People who say “some email” I think aren’t generally noticed by people who say “the mails”.

    What you do with what you notice? That’s on you. But in a world where first impressions are actually a thing, it’ll be noticed.

    • bryndos@fedia.io
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      7 hours ago

      Misunderstanding is where I’d put the dividing line between style and grammar, or at least useful grammar.

      I didn’t know anyone cares how I pluralise emails though; I’ll be making sure to include the ‘s’ from now on though, maybe I can use it to literally get some nob-heads to reveal their true nature.