Saturday, 27 August 2011

  • Maybe It's a Nerd Fetish

    For some reason, I find good grammar incredibly attractive in a guy. 

    Even if a guy is nice and cute and all that, I still get a little turned off if he uses "your" when he should use "you're" and doesn't know how to use "through" and "threw." Semi-colon issues are forgivable, though, if they're infrequent. 

    If I meet a guy and (usually through gratuitous Facebook-stalking) see that his grammar is impeccable, it's quite a few points for him. Maybe it's just because I'm an English major and know too few straight guys who know the logistics of the English language, but I think it's kind of hot. 

    Am I just a weirdo? Or am I just a typical English major? Well, probably. 

    Does anyone relate? 

    (I apologize in advance if I've offended anyone with this post. It's merely a personal quirk and by no means a deal breaker.)

Comments (17)

  • ScorpioInBlack@xanga

    I thought I was the only one.  It drives me crazy, too!  That's because I like to write...

  • Lakakalo@xanga

    v‾v ˙ʎɐʍʎuɐ 'ɹǝɯɯɐɹb buıpɹɐbǝɹ 'ןןǝʍ  ˙ɯɐ ı uɐɥʇ pɹıǝʍ ɐ ssǝן ɹo ǝɹoɯ ou ǝɹɐ noʎ
    ˙ɹǝɯɯɐɹb ɹǝdoɹd ǝsn oʇ ǝɯ ɹoɟ ǝɹnʇɐubıs ɐ ɟo buıɥʇǝɯos ǝɯoɔǝq s,ʇı 'spuǝıɹɟ ʎɯ ʇsbuoɯɐ  ˙uoıʇɐɔıunɯɯoɔ sıɥ/ɹǝɥ oʇuı ʇɹoɟɟǝ ɐɹʇxǝ ǝןʇʇıן ʇɐɥʇ sʇnd ʇsɐǝןʇɐ uosɹǝd ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʇ uoıʇɐɔıpuı uɐ s,ʇı 'uɐǝɯ I  ˙op I

  • wyrdkismet@xanga
  • laytexduckie@xanga

    I tend to find proper grammar and spelling very attractive too. I cringe when I see people misuse "your" and "you're." Especially when they try to one-up someone by saying, "Your retarded."

  • thatsnotarealword@xanga

    I suppose I'm the opposite. After a few linguistics classes and enough time spent in creative writing workshops, I have nothing but dirty looks and snide remarks for anyone who changes my semi-intentional mistakes. (I have to differentiate between my grammatical mistakes and those times when I leave out the verb of the sentence or some sort of negation marker. I much appreciate an editor at those times...) 


    I could say that, as a linguistics student, prescriptive grammar is the hallmark of cultural homogenization and has less to do with communication and more to do with socioeconomic hegemony - but, I'm actually more bothered by grammar correction as a writer. If I (hypothetically) legitimately don't know the difference between "they"/"their"/"there", I certainly don't want someone to correct me. I'm speaking in my native iteration of English which is neither right or wrong - just different. I want my voice to represent me and not my publisher, even if that means I'm committing grievous language faux pas. (Besides - have you read poetry in nonstandard English? It's downright beautiful.)
  • mystic_sapphire@xanga
  • anchoredreams@xanga

    I totally can relate. I love my nerdy boyfriend and he loves his nerdy girlfriend :)

  • Neko_Akuryou@xanga

    I'm like this and my boyfriend has been like this, even before he left Chemistry for English.

    I mean, I know this isn't true with everyone who types in chatspeak or with the wrong homophone for the given statement, but I feel a lot of people who do not use grammar at least somewhat properly act in a way that reflects it (such as them not putting effort into anything).

  • Hinase@xanga

    Not really. Grammar is less of what I care about and what he actually means beneath those words. I'm a writer but I'm not going to be crazy about it. Grammar has never been that important to me...

  • testyman666@xanga

    Women are so easy...

    All us men have to do is make sure we get the its/it's, they're/their/there and your/you're right and dresses fly off their bodies followed by floating underwear.

  • P0RCELA1N_D0LL@xanga

    I can't stand the your versus you're error either, but if they constantly make the same mistake, then it was intentional and they never corrected or bothered to change it. grammar mistakes makes a big difference because one time a guy texted me, "your hot" and I was too disgusted to find it a compliment sometimes I give him the benefit of the doubt that it was a typo until he does it again with something like..."your cute" then I try to indirectly correct him by saying something back to see if he'll take the hint, such as, "you're cute, too," but some people don't get it and he probably thinks that my version is the wrong one however, grammar mistakes isn't the main dealbreaker.

  • littlemiss_understood@xanga

    I'm definitely like this! My brain works quite slowly as well, so if they don't use the correct word (your/you're etc), I find the sentence difficult to understand haha

    P.S. I love intelligent guys <3

  • bread_withbutter@xanga

    yes yes yes! hahahah. even though my english isn't fantastic. XD

  • usagiidesu@xanga

    Same here. I really hate it when people get you're and your messed up especially.

  • vanoakenfold@xanga

    From an English grad to an English major -- what may get your goat, though, is to realize that grammatical correctness is fairly recent historically, and that the idea of prescriptive linguistics as demonstrated by teachers of English as "correct" instead is actually a misinterpretation of how language actually operates, as descriptive linguistics. Language describes ideas, and there is no actual "correct" method to describe something except within a colloquial formality such as medical terminology and style-book techniques like Chicago Press or Associated Press. The "correct" way to spell a word, for instance as listed in a dictionary, is instead actually just the statistically most common way a word has been found to have been spelled in the past -- the dictionary is not a method for prescribing how a word may or may not be used, as it is most often employed in a classroom setting. A dictionary is a newspaper of words and how they've been used in the past, according to a set of parameters the publisher arbitrarily assigns the collection, rather than as a guide for how words are allowed to be used. If enough people begin employing "ur" in place of "your" or "you're" eventually there will be an entry for "ur" in dictionaries, on the identical basis that the entry for "your" exists.

  • anonymous

    I hear you, sister! I'm intrigued by what vanoakenfold and thatsnotarealword have to say, but I can't helping thinking someone wasn't paying enough attention in school when I see "your" confused for "you're" etc.

  • yan_ni@xanga

    it definitely annoys me a lot when someone writes the wrong grammar or misspells...!

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  • merrymoth@xanga
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