How to politely correct someone's grammar
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Anonymous
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I've ordered twice from two small businesses and their email communication used improper tense as well as the wrong use of the word there/their and know and now.
How do I bring this to their attention? *apologies if my grammar is incorrect 
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Anonymous
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Goodness gracious, no, there is no polite way to correct someone's grammar. You can do it for your students, you children, spouse and work colleagues who you train and oversee. But a random email from a sales rep? Are you also going to take off a star on their review for poor grammar? Eyeroll... |
Anonymous
You don't as the PP said unless it is someone you know well like your child, student, coworker, etc. you should just let it pass or is it past (j/k)? Or am I? |
Anonymous
| If someone is speaking I would correct it, but an email? no way. |
Anonymous
Also rude. The best you can do is model appropriate use and hope they catch on. |
Anonymous
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I'm an English teacher and my family accepts my compulsion to grammar police them. My students accept it because I am their teacher. I never, ever correct random strangers (except on anonymous forums!) because it would be very rude...but I WANT to correct them.
Bite your tongue, OP. I know it hurts. |
Anonymous
| You don't. |
Anonymous
| Just don't. |
Anonymous
| There is pretty much no polite way to correct someone's grammar. |
Anonymous
| A friend of mine corrected other people's grammar all the time and it was supper annoying. There is no polite way to do that and why does it matter to you anyway. |
Anonymous
| "Hey dickwad, don't split infinitives." |
Anonymous
| Np here. Wouldn't you, as a small business owner, want to know if your business was not being presented well? I would. |
Anonymous
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Agree with previous posters - you don't.
But are they even native English speakers? But on the subject of "correcting" there was a recent DCUM exchange that comes to mind: OP in that topic repeatedly wrote that she is going to do what is best for "he and I" (English might not be her native language but she said it so many times that I was considering starting a drinking game based on that thread). One of the posters had a great response - will try to find it - but I doubt that she got what they were very politely trying to do. And English is not my native language either 
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Anonymous
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Found it! 22:47 message on this page:
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/240/485520.page#7292230 To the writer of this message - I marveled at it it was right on so many level - but my guess is that all went above OP's head anyway. Oh, well
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Anonymous
| I only correct my DH's and kids' spelling and grammar. I do this only when they are receptive to it and not in front of other people. |