Do you ever correct people's English?

[Anonymous]

I have a dear friend who often misuses words when speaking. I tend not to correct her, because I don't want to embarrass her, but then I thought, if it were me, I'd want to know. And I make mistakes too (I know lots of people are going to find some grammer mistakes in this post!). My question is, do you correct people? Do you get mad when people correct you?

Recent mistakes include

Quote: "Potty training is a mess. He's totally digressing."
Pronouncing quinoa "kuh-no-ah" (though maybe this is acceptable?)
Pronouncing Grosvenor as "Groz-vuh-nor"

[Anonymous]

Nope. I might work it into conversation saying it the correct way, but I'd never correct them outright. Just like with my kids. I just repeat something back saying it properly. They'll get it.

[Anonymous]

Leave her alone, especially if she isn't from this region. People tend to pronounce things differently if they are not from the area. It sounds more like it bothers you and you are nit picking.

And I'm not sure what the problem is with your quote.... Potty training is a mess, He's totally digressing? Explain to me what is wrong with that.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely not- it's rude.

[Anonymous]

Miss Grammar, No decent person does that. Who would ever dream of being so rude?

[Anonymous]

How would you say Worchester or Forked River? Some names of places are not known to people from out of the area. I have lived here most of my life and 99% of the people say Grosvenor wrong

Mind your own business, is it harming your relationship?

[Anonymous]

The one that really bugs me locally is when everyone says OCTOquan River. It's the Occoquan. That guy on WTOP gets it wrong all the time.

[Anonymous]

Never. One of my closest friends says "less" sometimes instead of "fewer." It makes me cringe on the inside but I would never ever correct her in a million years. That said, I correct my son!

[Anonymous]

Only my husband's, and only when it happens more than once and is distracting me from being able to focus on what he's trying to say. Or if I think it's something that's actually a misused word (rather than pronunciation) that he'll carry over into his work (which consists of writing and public speaking).

I grew up with an English teacher mother and find it very hard to ignore verbal errors; I notice them every time, and spend the energy to not correct them when with friends. In general, though, I also find it hard to be friends with people who consistently make grammatical or word use errors simply because I can't filter them out very well.

[Anonymous]

I think its rude, even on DCUM! (Unless you really have no idea what the person is saying, or they were practicing a speach in front of you) NO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only my husband's, and only when it happens more than once and is distracting me from being able to focus on what he's trying to say. Or if I think it's something that's actually a misused word (rather than pronunciation) that he'll carry over into his work (which consists of writing and public speaking).

I grew up with an English teacher mother and find it very hard to ignore verbal errors; I notice them every time, and spend the energy to not correct them when with friends. In general, though, I also find it hard to be friends with people who consistently make grammatical or word use errors simply because I can't filter them out very well.

Really? You can't be friends with someone who makes grammatical mistakes? Wow, you're a sucky friend. I guess you can't be friends with any Internationals. How boring.

[Anonymous]

Totally rude, 99% of the time.

I do it to my husband once in a while, but that's a little different.

Also, my nanny & my next-door neighbor's nanny are not native English speakers and they both have explicitly asked me to correct them - sometime they will stop in mid-sentence, waiting to see if they used the correct word or if I'm going to offer another word instead - so in that situation, I don't think it's rude b/c they're trying to improve their English and they want to be corrected if they make a mistake; I'm not trying to embarrass them but rather to be helpful. But no, I would never correct another English speaker in the course of a normal conversation.

[Anonymous]

The only way I can see this as anything but unspeakably rude is if the misused or mispronounced word is in an area where I have specific, uncommon experience. If I had lived in Rwanda, for example, I might correct a person who pronounced the capital KIG-ali. But I would probably do it in the course of my own conversation, rather than as an outright correction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Leave her alone, especially if she isn't from this region. People tend to pronounce things differently if they are not from the area. It sounds more like it bothers you and you are nit picking.

And I'm not sure what the problem is with your quote.... Potty training is a mess, He's totally digressing? Explain to me what is wrong with that.

Regressing, as in going backwards. Not digressing, as in going off on a tangent.

I only correct my husband's. He's asked me to, because he wants to be corrected so he will sound professional and not misuse/mispronounce words in the workplace. But it works out well, because he gets to correct my horrific math all the time.

If it were a friend I was close with who had a sense of humor, I MIGHT make a joke of it. But, I'm more inclined to do as PP suggested and just use the word correctly myself.

[Anonymous]

... or sometimes you just wait for your opportunity.

After ~15 years of staying mum while my sister made the same grammatical mistake over and over, the other day she asked me outright, "Wait, which is right? Is this right?" and I told her.