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Where are you from?

  • An English speaking country (I have good grammar)

    Votes: 37 61.7%
  • Non-English speaking country: Europe

    Votes: 15 25.0%
  • Non-English speaking country: The Americas

    Votes: 3 5.0%
  • Non-English speaking country: Africa

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Non-English speaking country: Asia

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • An English speaking country (I know my grammar isn’t great)

    Votes: 5 8.3%

  • Total voters
    60

Future-Proof

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 29, 2018
133
109
Where are you from? Poll:

Just trying to understand grammatical errors on this forum. If your first language isn’t English then don’t worry, you’re doing well!
 

Huntn

macrumors Core
May 5, 2008
23,396
26,520
The Misty Mountains
My first language is English, and many of my errors in this forum regard auto-fill, unprecise typing with my thi bs and failure to go back and adequately proof read. ;) Most irritating is that spell check and word suggestions on my iPad is significantly less robust than google... significantly, and that my iPad does a poor job of figuring out what I want to say. :p

Thisisanexample: iPad suggests “the insane ample” and “the insane maple”.
 
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Gutwrench

Suspended
Jan 2, 2011
4,603
10,530
My mistakes, which are many, are mostly from carelessness and moving too fast; while others are from not applying myself in the formulative period of school...so it’s a product of bad habits, the speech from my family and geo-location.
 
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FeliApple

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2015
3,356
1,865
I am a non-native speaker, but I love the language. In my opinion, my English level is good - compared to other non-native speakers. (If you want an academic reference, I have a C2 certificate from Cambridge), but I have a lot of room for improvement. I'm enthralled by some posters - I guess they are native - because they have such a brobdingnagian amount of vocabulary that I'm very envious of.
I try to acquire as much vocabulary as I can, but I am deeply aware that I will never reach that point.
 
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Juicy Box

macrumors 604
Sep 23, 2014
7,517
8,849
Where are you from? Poll:

Just trying to understand grammatical errors on this forum. If your first language isn’t English then don’t worry, you’re doing well!
I guess it being a second language would be a huge issue in a forum like this.

Even if someone speaks English well/correctly, doesn't mean that their posts will be correct. I think this is more about laziness than grammar. Besides, I think grammar-nazis are worse than someone making a little grammar mistake.

Also, I find more mistakes when I post from my iPhone than sitting in front of a computer using a keyboard. I suspect I am not the only one.

Honestly, the MR forum is much better than many other forums I see when it comes to the readability of the threads.

Besides, it is a tech forum, not some scholarly review.
 

shyam09

macrumors 68020
Oct 31, 2010
2,228
2,498
I looked back at many of my emails from my high-school days and I'm astonished that I used to write like that.

This was when I was 17.

hey ms. <teacher>
<name> (period 3)

i was just looking at <Univerity> and i came across that they go by a point method. so does that mean that once you are beyond the "required points".. you are admitted or is this to narrow the list of applicants down? and then from there they pick the highest people.

i also came across a forum that mentions <Univerity> admission essay readers dont really go through the essay. in other words they go and see if you left any thing out in the application that can earn you more points. Basically what the post said was that the readers at <Univerity> dont care if you have a tearful story, rather they just scan it to see if you can get points..
so i just wanted to know if this was true or not?

also i was looking at something that <Univerity> gives 300 points too.. it was called 1st generation. is this only for students who dont have parents with college degrees? thats my first guess. so just wanted to make sure.

thanks

The cringe is real.

A bit about me: English was my first language, though I grew up learning English and Gujarati (my mother tongue) at the same time. My parents spoke Gujarati at home as English was their second (third for my mom), but I was exposed to English (via TV, parents lived in the hotel they managed, friends, cousins, etc.).

My turnaround happened in college when one of my history professors gave the class a lesson on how to address emails when reaching out to a professor.
 
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Scepticalscribe

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Jul 29, 2008
63,832
46,278
In a coffee shop.
I looked back at many of my emails from my high-school days and I'm astonished that I used to write like that.

This was when I was 17.



The cringe is real.

A bit about me: English was my first language, though I grew up learning English and Gujarati (my mother tongue) at the same time. My parents spoke Gujarati at home as English was their second (third for my mom), but I was exposed to English (via TV, parents lived in the hotel they managed, friends, cousins, etc.).

My turnaround happened in college when one of my history professors gave the class a lesson on how to address emails when reaching out to a professor.

That is so awful, it is actually funny.

In an earlier life, I used to be a university teacher (yes, history and politics); and yes, many were the occasions, when returning graded student essays, or term papers, one felt obliged to draw attention to such matters, even though this was not, strictly speaking, what I was supposed to be grading the essays on.

My brain hurts from reading that. :eek:

As does mine.

It's no surprise that my 11th grade AP English teacher asked me if English was my second language as he read the essay I was typing over my shoulder. I felt insulted and humiliated at the time, but looking back, that should have been my wakeup call.

Wake-up calls can be a good thing, if you heed them. And can identify them at the time.
 
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Falhófnir

macrumors 603
Aug 19, 2017
6,139
6,990
I like to think I’m reasonably grammatically accurate - I’ve noticed I’m better than iDevice autocorrect lately, at the least! :p
 
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dk001

macrumors demi-god
Oct 3, 2014
10,528
14,858
Sage, Lightning, and Mountains
American English with a mix of dialects (15 16 7 11 13).

pbox.php
 

FeliApple

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2015
3,356
1,865
For the English-as-a-second-language folks, what I found crucial was interest. When I attended English classes - since primary school, as my school was bilingual - I could clearly notice a difference in every aspect (vocabulary, grammar, etc) between the ones who didn't really care, and the ones who did. (The school itself was good, and therefore, the bilingual capacity wasn't its only advantage).
I've had some classmates who evidently weren't interested, and - even when we reached the final stages of school - made mistakes that were too simple (I have seen a few write "I doesn't", and not on purpose) but I knew they didn't care about their English development, and that was reflected in their performance.
Something that caught my eye a few years ago, is that I have begun to read more books in English, and realized that my vocabulary was lackluster (or I wasn't satisfied with what I had). Therefore, I decided to - instead of guessing the words's meanings by context - search and store as much vocabulary as I could. After a few months, I could definitely perceive progress, amplifying my spectrum in order to be able to express myself more accurately and precisely. I am not there yet, but I have made progress.
 
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Mefisto

macrumors 65816
Mar 9, 2015
1,447
1,803
Finland
Northern Europe, English as a third language here. The main reason I write to forums (and read them) is to kind of train my English further and to maintain the level I already have. Currently I don't use English that much while at work, so this is the next best thing.

Just FYI everyone, I invite people to correct me if I happen to write complete nonsense! I'd much rather be corrected than keep being wrong.
 
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