Does Grammar Really Matter?

Well if you look at how people used to speak... wouldnt that mean that now is more simplfied then back then? I mean is thou understanding thee words which have come forth of thy mouth? Bitch no one understands the words that are coming out of your mouth =w= which is still more simple then sa... shake spear. But yea when it comes to formal writing structure like a book or a game or somehting like that doesnt it bug you when there are errors?

oh and yes the english language is indeed going down hill

To be honest, I can give a shit regarding the "degradation of the English language." You and I are typing perfect English, so until I see the day that everybody is talking in SMS language or l337speak, I would not worry about "degradation of the English language."

Regarding your example, it depends on who you're speaking to. I guarantee you that an Asian saying that in my community would be looked at as a loser and wannabe-gangster. Most people I hang out with don't speak that way either, and I highly doubt that there are a lot of people who consistently speaks slang in their everyday speech. I don't mind slang precisely because it's used everywhere and most people understand it, but I don't use it too often. Once you're in the workforce, everyone is mindful of what they say to their coworkers and bosses. As mentioned before, there's a time and place for everything, slang included.

Well.. as long as I can easily comprehend what one is saying... so that's like... 90% grammer need. lol

There is a flaw in your argument, namely that back when people used thou, thy, and so forth, this was for both speech and writing considered the correct form of communication. Using dawg, fo shizzle, and other slang have never been correct when writing something, no matter how "cool" some people think it is to speak like that.

It very much bugs me when I find errors in formal writing, both structural and semantically.

I know this is not the same thing, but in Denmark where I live I now a days have a hard time watching televised movies since we sub all the movies in stead of dubbing them. This may seem better at first because what you hear and see fit perfectly, and it is much nicer than dubbing, BUT the translators always makes mistakes, often small ones, but also sometimes weird or funny ones, and I can't help but read the subtitles and get incredibly annoyed

There's a lot of ways.. wait... There's one right there.

EX: Alot
CEX: A lot

Its one of the reasons why the English language is the hardest to learn due to it's mixture of ( " , ; : . ? ! & ). Aint is really now considered a word, It's even in the dictionary. Of course the real way of spelling Aint is either Aren't or Not.

A little (There's another one)

EX: Alittle
CEX: A little

LOL, there's ANOTHER one! XD

CEX - Correct Explain

Breaking it down makes it sound like SEX since the letter "C" makes a slight Ssss sound.


Its a salad of grammar I tells ya!

I agree, though I have to disagree about you example with Alittle/ A little, I have never seen anyone write that as one word, nor have I ever been in doubt. The other examples however have given me some trouble from time to time

If you're a grammar nazi it can really burn when someone comes in with their "whit", "lulz" and "w00t", but sometimes you have to learn to lay off too. I see no real problem with 1337-7ypi|\|6, as long as you can still contribute with proper sentences during serious discussions. Myself, I use words like lol, w00t and pwned way too much, though I still have proper grammar when needed, see?

A lot of famous writers have essentially given the middle finger to grammar in their writings. William Faulkner, for example, used a ton of "improper" sentences; he could make one sentence last for pages, thanks to a lot of commas and semicolons and such. Of course, he always had a reason for doing so, but it makes you think. If the best writers can flagrantly toss grammar aside while writing masterpieces, then why should we worry about everything looking neat and prim and proper when we write something? At least, that's what I always thought in my writing classes, when my teacher told me that I couldn't have my characters use improper English or that I couldn't use sentence fragments.

Just felt like throwing that out there.

Artistic licence is one thing; not having even the most basic grasp of your own mother-tongue is another altogether.

With many people on the internet I seriously wonder whether they also talk the way they write[size=8][actually, I know they do][/h]. A ghastly sight to behold, I'm sure.

Grammar matters to me, especially when turning in a paper or what not, but I'm not concerned if other people don't use correct grammar.
I used to be a grammar Nazi, but I've let it go.

If grammar is shot to hell, how will we ever read the translated doujins? D:

as long as I can understand him, it's cool either way.

Grammar matters, and I really think you should have made this a poll. More and more, I've seen online and in schools a rapidly decreasing ability to form a proper sentence. When corrected, most people give the addict's excuse: "I could write it correctly, I just choose not to."

Grammar gives us structure in our language, which makes up a core of our culture. If the core of our culture is weak and corrupted by lack of caring, what will happen to our culture? Imagine a whole world filled with bad grammar. Then again, if the whole world used bad grammar, it wouldn't be bad, but normal. Anyway, it would eventually degrade until the point at which there is no return, because people don't know what how the words should actually be put together.

I used to do my fair share of paragraph role playing in Yahoo! Chat user rooms (when they still existed - dates me back a bit), and from what I remember, proper grammar was simply a status symbol and a way of getting others to "stfu." It somehow marked "elite" players from "inferior" players, and helped the "elite" win many a pointless chat room argument EVEN THOUGH many "inferior" players were much more prolific, creative (even in a literary sense), and less flowery in their story-telling, or RIGHT in some of the chat room arguments. I love English, so I don't mind when someone flexes their grammar elbow or rubs on that Oxford comma too hard, but all this grammar nazism that some people lord over others, especially when they were able to get a point across just fine, is unnecessary.

Plus, when I get lazy or I'm fapping or some shit, I don't want some fuckin' asshat trolling a hentai forum of all places to correct my faulty grammar.

edit:

Well, er... they did it for the sake of art or to convey something. Artful rule-breaking expresses intentionality, is functional, "makes you think," as you said. We're not writing masterpieces when we're posting on a forum. I'm merely pointing out the difference between intentional rule breaking and unintentional rule breaking, but honestly, I don't care when "sum1 types liek tihs."