Standards of Spelling | David Mitchell's SoapBox

David Mitchell discusses the standards of spelling and the unnecessary use of elaborate words
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David Mitchell, star of UK TV favourites Peep Show and That Mitchell and Webb Look, brings us his unique perspective on the issues facing men of the world today.

• Category

  Comedy

[MisterBrauer]

These have to be some of the best punctuated and grammatical comments I have ever seen on YouTube..

[LaliEmiru]

I'm not an aggressive person. And I'm certainly no grammar nazi, since English is not my first language and I make mistakes myself. But I will cringe whenever people say, or even worse, write "would of". Where does this undying anger come from?

[signevent]

It shows that having a good example leads to better education.

[Jackhorse42]

We shouldn't ignore what a person says simply because they made a grammar error and are therefore absolutely beneath you grammatical gods. I posted a comment yesterday critiquing an item considered for inclusion in a game I play, the only response I received was a man saying, and I quote, "@ The Devil's Avacado: 2 grammatical errors found.".

[David Cobb]

Really David.... "insentivised"? I know you meant "incented". Why do we keep making words longer? (I blame change-management consultants!!).

'Incent' is the verb and 'incentive' is the noun. But then 'insentive' the noun begat 'incentivise' the verb.

Then 'insentivise' the verb gave birth to 'incentivisation' the noun? And if the noun is 'incentivisation', will the verb now to be 'insentivisationalise'? When does it all finalisationalise?!

[jdowl21]

the muddling up of the words 'too' and 'to' will takes years off my life, the amount that stresses me out

[Mullac254]

I hate it when people say, ESPECIALLY TYPE, "would of" instead of "would have"

[Jamie Holding]

The "N" on the blackboard really annoyed me.

[Matthew Thacker]

Of course, starting a sentence with either of those words is fine. As are many things that are technically incorrect. Missing out the apostrophes in 'don't' or 'I'm' for example, won't cause any problems, they will be easily understandable. I'm not a person who disagrees with the way in which anyone decides to communicate online. I was simply replying to a person who was angered by grammatical errors by pointing out some small mistakes in his comments to show them how easy it is to slip up.

[ceres10813]

I have read articles that suggest Grammatically there is no issue with starting a sentence with 'And', 'But', or 'Because', even though this is what they teach in school. Either way, in the context of a conversation I don't think it matters what you start your sentence with. If he was writing an essay I'm sure it would be another matter.

[Matthew Thacker]

Indeed, I don't believe it to be a good rule, nor have any actual use. However, much like many of the grammar rules in English, it's still in use (maybe?). While I was in school, starting a sentence with an 'And', 'But' or 'Because' would have been seen as incorrect and I'd have been marked down because of it. It may be different nowadays though, seeing as it's been a few years since I was in lower school.

[Jake Hedges]

"Standards of grammar Nazism"