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Some people write "then" when they mean "than." Is it normal to be infuriated by this? Even on this site, one of the messages that indicates when a post was made reads "More then half a day ago". I can't stand this and other absurdly simple errors. Doesn't anyone else go insane seeing this all over teh intarwebs?
People who make stupid mistakes like that should be put on a spike and spit-roasted.
If you can understand what they are try to say something, than what's so upset about it? After all, it's just a word.
One wonders how so many have failed to learn the difference between 'then' and 'than'. Astounding - and, yes,infuriating - that our highly developed nations have such lowly education standards.
To the OP I think you need to chill out. Its not like everyone is going to spell/write perfectly 100 percent of the time. If people make a typo every so often but spell it right over 90 percent of the time I do not see the point in getting angry. You sound like you have severe OCD. Maybe you should get that checked.
I would say it's improbable that the majority of these 'then' misuses are typing errors. The occurrence rate is high among forum posters, who often repeat it multiple times in the same post.
Actually certain words are often misspelled, and misused, very often. There is a list of words like this. Another word that people seem to misspell a lot is the word "Straight". This word seems to be messed up a lot.
Both in real life and on the internet. Another mistake people make is irregardless. Oh and "Conversating" which should really be "Regardless" and "Conversing".
Yet if you look at other words simply adding ing at the end of a word is generally the rule. So its not hard to see where people make that mistake.
YES. I hate that. I also get ticked off when people pronounce 'et cetera' as 'ec cetra'
I don't get too upset about it, because I know a lot of people are not as educated in the English language as others. Most people my age do not speak with correct grammar when on the internet, but I prefer to. My mom was a college English teacher, therefor I get corrected a lot if I use much slang and jargon. It can be highly annoying at times, though.
See also:
-alot
-there/their/they're
-ya/yea instead of yeah
-any use of letters to replace words
-its/it's
-using apostrophes to denote pluralization
Oh I agree! It really pisses me off when people say "it's just words, and the only thing that matters is that you understand what I am trying to say". Wrong! Words ARE what help us understand each other, and precision in this matter really denotes that one cares about others. Writing something properly means acting justly in everyday life.
hahaha i mean "infuriated" is a strong word.
but i'm a grammar freak. i correct my family all the time.
i'm not upset by bad spelling or grammar. some people did have those things stressed so much in school. it's just reading what they want to say is the important thing.
Woah..."TheManagement" made an appearance!
Cool.
I don't see the point in getting all pissed off about something so small, but I can understand.
hmmmm...for someone so big on grammar i am pretty sure that your question "annoyed at people" isn't correct. I think it should read "annoyed by people" or "annoyed with people." but what do I know
Thanks for your interesting comment, shakalohawaii! Actually, "annoyed at" is quite a normal construction in English. It's been in use since as early as 1838 (see Southern literary messenger
, Volume 4, on Google books), and hey, maybe even earlier. Cambridge and the OED both attest this usage, and MW confirms while indicating that some confusion might exist over what the best preposition is in a given situation. Say, for example, however, that "annoyed at" was not a very acceptable construction. I would simply retort that it is still eminently logical to any native speaker and far, far less contentious than misuse of "then" for "than."