Breakfast Topic: Are you a Trade Chat grammar narc?
by Robin Torres 
Dec 13th 2008 at 8:00AM
Trade Chat, as you know, includes a lot of things besides Trade chatter: Guild recruitment, LFG, general help, gold spam and, of course, every topic under the sun. It also includes a lot of typos and grammar errors. Some of them are pretty benign, but others are so bad it's hard to decipher the meaning. And then there are the pet peeves.
You're a literate bunch. Do you correct people in Trade Chat? If not, do you mind or care when people do? And doesn't it take longer to type "ne1" than it does to type "anyone"? I know it does for me.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
Shaun Dec 13th 2008 8:06AM
That shit bothers me so much that I had to leave general, trade, and local defense.
So now I just correct people in vent when they pronounce the "h" in herbalism.
Mat Dec 13th 2008 8:19AM
If you are English then you pronounce it wrong. If you're American then, well, you pronounce it wrong but at least I don't have to listen to you do it ;)
'erbalism is my all time most hated American pronunciation. I know thats just how you guys do it I just thought it was funny that you have singled it 0ut in the other direction :)
Scelerat Dec 13th 2008 8:37AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hJQsvoY6VU
Or you can search youtube for Eddie Izzard Language, if you're smart and don't trust links. The relevant joke is around 50 sec in. :)
JuicedCardinal Dec 13th 2008 9:34AM
@ Mat:
I actually think it's the English who pronounce it wrong, period. The H is pronounced in neither Latin nor French. The English just do it differently from the rest. I'm assuming you don't pronounce the h in honor or hour, do you?
I'm actually not a grammar narc in WoW. Some things will annoy the hell out of me, but I just ignore it. Sometimes, it takes too much effort to educate people who don't care.
JJV Dec 13th 2008 9:51AM
I prefer to take the sarcastic approach in the chat. and most others do too, its a lot of fun ^^
Herbalsim = HER-Balism
Pronouncing the H ftw
Cyanea Dec 13th 2008 10:41AM
Trade chat?
You mean that /2 channel I left on day one and haven't looked back on?
Mitawa Dec 13th 2008 11:03AM
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/herbalism
ûr'bə-lĭz'əm
No 'H' at the beginning, you English guys are wrong ;)
Tyrannus Dec 13th 2008 11:48AM
That's the problem with using an *American* resource to check the *English* language. Best go to the source and check the Oxford English Dictionary; according to the universal truth that is Wikipedia, the OED is suitably diplomatic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_words_of_disputed_pronunciation#H
I don't know, damn colonies getting restless again :D
Mitawa Dec 13th 2008 12:31PM
Naw, see you're just cheating there. You're not allowed to use sources culturally relevant to you!
Fireflash38 Dec 13th 2008 1:10PM
The biggest pet peeve of mine, and it is used absolutely everywhere: Subjunctive case conjuctions.
If I /were/ a paladin. Not if I was. Unfortunately, it is so common to use the singular conjuction that it is seen as correct.
Promote literacy, use the correct conjunctions when using the subjunctive case!
In the words of the Fiddler on the Roof: "If I were a rich man..."
Chris Anthony Dec 13th 2008 2:28PM
If it were truly a pet peeve, you'd know that English doesn't properly have a subjunctive, just uses of the linking verb that mimic the Latin subjunctive mood. (In truth, the insistence that "proper" English follow Latin patterns dates back only to the 19th century.)
Zarfay Dec 13th 2008 8:40PM
You DON'T pronounce the H? wtf kind of moron calls it 'erbalism'. Personally it annoys me when people say re-agents instead of reegents.
geekahedron Dec 15th 2008 3:38PM
It *is* pronounced "ree-ay-jent," as seen in every dictionary out there (even good old Oxford).
As for the pronunciation of "herbalism," consider the distinctly British example of "I'm so 'appy to 'ave you 'ere!" I find it patently ridiculous that a people so incapable of pronouncing the "h" in nearly every other situation would find its omission such an atrocity in this isolated case. On the other hand, while ridiculous, I don't find it surprising at all.
My pet peeve is that nearly all of the "disputed" words and pronunciations orginated in Britain. Then the Britons changed their minds about how things should be and subsequently became annoyed at Americans for using the forms they (the British) originally gave us. Aluminum, anyone? Soccer? Both words of British origin, whether they'll admit it or not.
JubeiSaotome Dec 23rd 2008 3:47PM
In Australia, Herb IS pronounced with the H. :P It's quite the opposite here, hearing ERB.
Skorn Dec 13th 2008 8:08AM
"And doesn't it take longer to type "ne1" than it does to type "anyone"?"
It may take you longer to type "ne1" than to just type out "anyone" because that's what you're use to. But think about it, If you are use to typing "ne1" you would type it faster than "anyone" simply because its shorter.
RogueJedi86 Dec 13th 2008 8:53AM
If you type it correctly all the time, soon it becomes second hand and you can type correctly effortlessly. These people typing wrong are just digging themselves into a progressively deeper ditch. I type right, and it is no effort at all to do it right, since I've been doing it for years.
Joshua Smellie Dec 13th 2008 10:55AM
It's normal for me because I try to use proper grammar and pronounciation anyways. Sometimes I don't use capitals, sometimes I use shorthand, usually I do when I'm in a hurry (like in combat).
It's second nature to me, I can type fast and well but sometimes I make a lot of mistakes (mainly because I don't touch type properly, I don't touch type at all).
Personally, I don't like shorthand. Things like "lol" and "rofl" and stuff like that is alright but shit like "ne1" I don't like because I don't feel the English language has to be raped like the rest of the world has been.
butler Dec 13th 2008 1:33PM
useD to
Drewnami Dec 14th 2008 2:27AM
When people say "plz" because it's shorter than "please", I say "no" because it's shorter than "yes".
Magibon Jun 30th 2009 7:03PM
I absolutely hate when people spell rogue as 'rouge'. No, it's not just a typo; some people really spell it wrong.