Is Grammar Important?

[the_7th_swan]

So, reading a story where the author used the word 'preposition' several times. Problem? She meant to use 'proposition'. A single letter difference but a meaning apart.

Preposition: A word that tells the author where something is located: under, by, in, beside, on. I parked my car under a tree.
Proposition: A suggestion, proposal or offer. I have a

Comments

[finlaure]

As a beta for several people that do not speak English as a first or even second language I can totally understand that English is so very very very hard to learn. I find that non native English speakers seem to try harder to get the languages correct.
When dealing with reading fanfiction stories I must admit that bad grammer will stop me before a missing or weak plot will.
Computers now have this Wonderful thing called Grammer and Spell checker,,, USE it people.
just my humble opinion.

[the_7th_swan]

I find it interesting that your annoyed by grammatical mistakes *because* you speak English as a second language and tried so hard to learn them. For some reason, I imagined that people speaking English as a second language would be more fogiving of such errors but how you've explained it totally makes sense!

And, now that you mention it, the few wonderful ESL writers I can think of on the top of my head all show excellent grammar in their work.

This comment certainly provides food for thought. Thanks for contributing to the discussion, Fin! <3

[ferneberga]

Maybe you could write a dissertation on this for publication in a teacher's journal or similar.
This problem of bad grammar, etc., is not exclusive to English.
Living here in the Spanish State it is frequently common to see gross errors committed in Spanish not just by students, but also journalists, politicians and similar.
People tend to think it's not important, and that a text is still comprehensible. But come on, pull the other one it's got bells on people! A badly written text hinders comprehension -I'm standing on my translator's soapbox here, but it's a fact.