Dear reader.
It has come to my notice that the standard of typing and spelling on the forum is pathetic. One of the most frequent misspelled words is 'their'. It is often spelt 'there', or as one of our renowned politicians says, “Der”.
No space between the end of one sentence and the next. No question mark at the end of a question. Isn’t that bad? No use of the comma and no full stop at the end of a sentence. No capital letter at start of the sentence and a small i instead of ‘I’. No use of ‘ in ‘I’ll’.
Some people are too lazy to spell Portugal, just use P or PP for Portuguese people.
I could go on but I think I’ve made my point, don’t you?
What ever happened to the art of letter writing? I think it has died with the advent of the computer and email.
I am glad I got that off my chest!

You are absolutely write.

yes dits disgosting

good fing i hada proper skooling ..honest?

Somebody else a while ago had the temerity to question the punctuation, spelling and grammar of contributors, and got ripped apart by forum lions.

Be interesting to see if you receive the same treatment.

Oh and BTW, I agree with you.

Bring 'em on!

Brin Em on!

I think the word is them

Ah Guest,
I am glad to see that you are thinking! By the way, the first word is 'bring'.

Come on. People are dieing in Africa for goodness sake!

people are dying(not dieing-get it right ) all over the world my friend but life goes on

My pet hate is when people say 'I brought a house' instead of 'I bought a house' i.e. using the past tense of 'to bring' instead of 'to buy'. A Portuguese friend asked me if he was using the wrong verb, as he hears it so much amongst his English clients. The problem is I now listen for the error so much, I am starting to use the wrong one too!

My mum always writes and says 'access' when she means 'excess' and vice versa. So she always has to pay 'access' on her luggage and has an 'access' on her insurance policy.

By the way, where does the term 'pet hate' come from?

Mind you, I wouldn't want to have to write such formal letters as the Portuguese. It takes forever to write a Portuguese letter. All those 'V/Exas' and 'Exmos Senhores' etc.

Actually Joe's post has made me feel very guilty
Once an avid letter writer I hardly ever put pen to paper nowadays!
I've been writing to my old work mate Sheila (who lives in Belgium) for over 35 years....
but over the past 2 years.and using email..my letters have trailed off....and she doesn't have a pc so can't keep in touch that way
My late Mum was a wonderful letter writer and had the most beautiful hand writing..we were 'penfriends' till she died (88+)..
She had very little schooling and started work at 14..but her spelling and grammar were spot on...
but that was when learning the 3 Rs was of prime importance!
Are we gradually losing our 'English' & grammar and the art of letter writing..with most folk using a pc now?

I actually think the problem has become much more apparent because of texting. You can still write a good letter on the pc - all mine are written this way and emails can be written properly.
I think it is so important to learn the language you are using correctly and so lazy and ignorant not to at least try. Of course much is down to schooling in my opinion.

However, I do have a problem with making many mistakes through not being able to type well. So I use a spell checker when typing letters and such and try to re-read what I type here before posting it. I don't always have the time though.

J

'Exmos Senhores' ???

Excelentissimos haha

IMHO

I think it’s wonderful we can communicate with one another in different parts of the world using the written world. Before emails and forums, I would hardly ever communicate in writing ….one page of Basildon Bond to my parents in Australia once a year, now we’re emailing regularly.

These forums are a bit like pub-talk aren’t they? We’re adlibbing, and it can get intoxicating. The ones that can’t spell are like the ones in the pub who can't talk proper (not because they are drunk, but because they didn't go to school)

I agree that communication is the most important thing, especially when attempting to speak another language. A lot of people don't try to speak because they are afraid of making mistakes and that is a shame. However, it is also a shame that people seem to be losing the ability to write properly. Text messaging is one thing, but when people write emails and letters using the same abbreviations I do worry if the English will disappear as we know it.