If egregious grammar errors appear in a television show, novel, or newspaper article it does annoy me. Sometimes I make quick assumptions about people on social media who use would of instead of would have, particularly if their argument is also weak or false. But then I always remind myself that not everyone has access to good education or good teachers and some people are dyslectic. A surprisingly large number of people are functionally illiterate through no fault of their own, and even more are non-native speakers. And then I feel a little ashamed of myself for judging the language of total strangers whose story I do not know. A language that is constantly evolving and probably leaving me behind. What I think of as a grammar issue could actually be a neologism. I am awful at mathematics, as are many people who are good at languages. And no one makes me feel bad or stupid about that. So I wouldn’t say my heart rate increases at grammar issues. It does increase sometimes these days when I read the news though…
The only time I ever correct someone’s grammar is in class, or if it is in a private situation and someone has asked me to correct them. If someone makes a potentially embarrassing mistake during a personal conversation, I tend to reply using the correct word so that I don’t correct them outright, but they will know the word for future reference. For example if someone says ‘we have lots of whores on our farm’ , I would reply ‘oh I love horses! What kind of horses do you have?’ …. and hope that they don’t ACTUALLY have whores on their farm.
Hm, this is interesting. From the description of the trial, it sounds flawed to begin with.
If someone were to have a few speaking errors (one that trips me up when hearing people speak is “a orange” or something similar – using a instead of an. It interrupts the flow of words.) it wouldn’t be an issue, but the study sounds like the speaking selections were intentionally worse over time. That would raise my heart rate, for sure. I would feel deliberately annoyed.
I find I notice more grammar issues when they’re ones that others have corrected in my own daily use. Ones that will always stick out:
Stationery/stationary
Fewer/less (this one has gotten VERY bad in the past few years)
Nauseated/nauseous (relevant since I’m in hospitals frequently and I find doctors and nurses look at me strangely when I correctly use “nauseated” instead of “nauseous”)
The phrase “Drive safe” versus “drive safely” has been a sticking point for many years.
These things used to stress me out more when spoken or written (reddit is a cesspit of the example of how cutting funding for education limits how people can effectively communicate. I’m constantly having to ask for clarification because people make NO sense in writing.) but as I get older, and realise how limited education is and how little is able to be taught properly by harried teachers, I find that I am less distressed by it. I try to use words correctly and write by example.
Though I WILL correct stationery vendors who misspell stationery (that takes a bit of diplomacy!) That is a huge trigger/annoyance of mine, but so many people don’t ever know the difference. I also try to look at these things with curiosity instead of anxiety.
I totally get you with the nauseous vs nauseated thing. I read nauseous repeatedly in a Michael Connelly book today and I wondered why it had not been picked up in the editing process. Unless it has passed into common use. I have also corrected stationarywhen it is on an Etsy shop, because people could be losing out on sales.