By Anonymous - 08/05/2012 22:10 - United States - Chandler

Today, I corrected someone who spelled "learned" as "learnt" on my favorite forum. Nothing could've prepared me for the torrent of abuse that followed from the non-American members. Now I'm banned for "trolling," and all my 7,000+ posts since 2006 are gone forever. FML
I agree, your life sucks 17 428
You deserved it 41 608

Same thing different taste

Top comments

WHAT???! You mean the Internet isn't American?? You should totally sue!

nadnerbz 6

I hope you learned you lesson. Maybe learnt?

Comments

Let that be a lesson to all trolls on here. If you can understand what the person is trying to say, it's not really that big of a deal

That sounds like the Nuremberg of grammar Nazism.

biggestfan23 - I hvae a tset for yuo. Cna yuo raed thsi? Chacnes are vrey good taht yuo can, but deos taht mkae it ok? No it does not.

I find it immensely hypocritical that OP's post has a majority of YDIs (I'm assuming because he corrected someone else's spelling), and yet 90% of people on here spend their time correcting others' grammar and spelling.

nope, the YDI is for mis-correcting spelling and getting banned for failing

You forgot the full stop in the end... :D

Rule #1 of grammar nazism "Always do your research before correcting someone"

7000 posts in 6 years? You should be embarrassed. I had over 150,000 posts on my favorite forum in under 1 year. That was a very dark time in my life.

Marcella1016 31

38, like I said on another post, I doubt he got banned for incorrectly "correcting" someone. He 1) was probably a huge jerk - "omg learn how to spell go back to your country it's learned not learnt fuckwad" or something utterly unnecessary like that. And 2) he probably has a history of being a huge troll on that site in general. I mean, what are the chances they delete all 7000 of his posts for saying "*learned"? He was probably a known asshole and he finally learned his lesson through the sweet, sweet vengeance of karma. We don't know the full story, but he probably ******* deserved it.

I think I have almost 10k posts on fiesta onlines forums, under the name drigr, and I don't even visit those forums anymore. Moral of the story? You 7,000+ post meaning "nothing" isn't the end of the world.

Except that 'learnt' is a commonly accepted way of spelling it depending on the circumstances. I once almost got banned from a US site for writing everything like we do in NZ (and the rest of the word) ie colour and realise.... People should just accept that the English language has changed and always will change...

37- I meant little things like you're and your. People who type like the way you showed is an abomination

JasonEP 3

88's probably right. There's no way OP could have gotten banned and had all their posts deleted if what she did was just politely correct someone's grammar.

127 - are* not is. "People" is plural.

Obviously the YDI is in not realizing that "learnt" is standard elsewhere (as compared to me) in the world and in not accepting the internationality of the internet.

38 and 88 - let's start withe basics shall we? OP is a she and not a he... Now that we have this settled, kindly continue...

^ correction - *with the basics... Damn iphone auto(in)correct! FML please increase your time limit on editing - especially for mobile devices...

I have a question, why do people always fix others posts? I don't see why it is such a big deal.

76 I don't see how that's possible that's about 500 comments a day

TheBonzaiGirl 0

Well, I certainly hope you learnt your lesson.

215, I don't know why bragging about any number of comments is logical. Do whatever makes you happy...I couldn't care less what anyone thinks of my number of posts whether it's too few or too many. I'm doing what I want to do because it's my time to be spent as I see fit. Why pity?

Well it depends. If the forum was Facepunch, she totally deserved it for even going on that website from Hell.

76 you realize that 150000 posts is like 410 posts a day? Considering most people are only awake for an average of 16-17 hours, that's like 35 posts an hour or something. Where did you find time to do that especially if you have a job/school? Sounds kinda unrealistic..

#76 said he was at a very dark point in his life when he was posting 150000 times in one year. Dark indeed.

215 - that was about 6 years ago. Since then I've gotten married, bought a home, went to University, and am in the process to be a Police officer in my city. I go to the gym or go jogging 4 times a week and volunteer every Friday afternoon at a police station. Thank you for your opinion of me 6 years ago. Even then I had a social life, but I posted...a lot.

And that's actually only 14 posts a day. Sometimes I would make 100 posts in a day. I don't see how you think it's so hard to make 150,000 posts in a year. it wasn't a forum like this, where each post is a whole paragraph. a post could be as little as one word. if you have a conversation with somebody on the forum, you could post dozens of times in a matter of minutes. If anybody as ever been on Nexopia.com, you would know how easy it is to post. the average post counts are about 25,000 - 30,000 on that site.

You fail at understanding what "hypocritical" means. It would be hypocritical if they did not say that she deserved it. Grammar Nazis do not like incorrect corrections any more than they like errors. Why would Grammar Nazis like people who correct people when no error was made? That's just silly. You should look up words before using them.

Spottedfeather 7

The OP was correct in giving the correct spelling.

76, you should be embarrassed because you have no life

WHAT???! You mean the Internet isn't American?? You should totally sue!

I'm a lawyer call me at 1-800-interesting man

OP YDI. It's foolish to be proud on the Internet.

Trolling is illegal in Arizona look it up bill 2549

Wow. But YDI for trying to shove your American spelling down everyone's throat.

I really am a lawyer. Please, don't call me with this piece of shit!

Da_Bauss435 8

I guess his lesson was "learnt"

115 is telling the truth 'and language... Used to harass, annoy, offend...' is a class a misdemeanor under the bill.

dominic1221 6

The "annoy, offend" part got removed from the bill. Jeez, even on an FML about not bothering to do the research, people still make claims without bothering to do the research.

Wow, I must be way behind the curve because Ich stille doÞ spæk Þe Middel Ængliss!

115- did that shit actually pass already? If so I need to move ASAP

282 - It was the people of the USA at the time who wanted to be anti-British. They decided a good way was to remove letters from words just do they wouldn't speak "the queens English."

Or better yet, just nuke them. That's what Americans do, right?

Guys, most of us Americans are aware that the Internet is not 100% American. I realize that words like color, favorite, etc are spelled differently in Europe or Canada or Australia. OP made a simple mistake because we have learned (or learnt I guess) to spell it that way here.

339 - I think you have that backwards...

Kefka91 15

339 - And he forgot two steps, it should be: 1) Ban gay marriage 2) Marry first cousin 3) Drop nuke 4) Sue 5) ??? 6) Profit

The gingers have souls kid's fault. Watch some of his recent videos

338 - Canada or Europe or Australia? Are you not forgetting some continents - Africa? Asia? South America? Have you heard of any of these?

Well let's see, Africa, Asia and south America last time I checked don't have ENGLISH as a primary language, just in case you forgot.

Awkward turtle...I live in Africa, and my country's first official language is English (and, just for the record, it's not Americanese, it's actual English)

Very true, we didn't mind speaking the Queen's English, but had to differentiate ourselves from you queens that spoke English...

nadnerbz 6

I hope you learned you lesson. Maybe learnt?

If OP was correcting something into American-English, I'd say it's a safe bet that the admins weren't pro-American...maybe they were just sick and tired of her correcting people?

You should've used your "sarcasm sign"...

nadnerbz 6

Haha wow, I never even saw that. I even went back and edited this once. My apologies

Comment moderated for rule-breaking.

Show it anyway

254 reread the FML then reread the comment ... Now slap yourself in the face

22cute 17

I got a serious FML "warning" for writing that sitting down to pee is not the end of the world. I think they've gotten crazy strict.

292 we dont want anymore damage to their pretty little brain. :)

umm..learned is the American way of spelling it, learnt is the British way of spelling it. Both are right. Perhaps check before you correct them? refering to the person who posted this FML by the way

That really sucks, I feel really bad for you, as long as you said it in a nice way, they really should not have gotten worked up about it.

4, it's the Internet. No one cares about how nice you are.

Marcella1016 31

Yes they do. Obviously a lot of people reported him for the site to ban him and delete his seven THOUSAND posts. My guess is he must've been an utter douche about it. I doubt the site would've been so extreme about it if he just politely corrected someone and was wrong about it (happens all the time). My guess is he was not only a douche in this situation, but had a history of trolling and douchedom on the site overall and this was the last straw. Sorry, OP, but I guess you had to learn not to be a jerk the hard way.

Yea true I didn't think about it that way.

Well then you won't mind when I call you an oblivious bitch for being one of the many ibiciles that think all manners, knowledge of the English language, and human decency means nothing when behind a computer screen.

b00kn3rd 14

Oh the irony of your post #104....

she* 81 But I agree with everything you said :)

104, well no I don't care because you are a random off the Internet, don't know anything about me and struggle to write coherent sentences. Yes, English does matter never said it didn't. All I am saying is, there are heaps of nasty or nice people on the Internet and it shouldn't matter how they treat you because they don't know you.

itsame0987 18

104 bipolar much? Holy crap woman take a few chill pills, midol, and get some tampons. Obviously you need it. Op that sucks if you said it in a nice way, but ydi if you were being a douche on the site. Can't tell without more information.

I know, I got very worked up over it, sorry.

The problem is the world does not like (to put it mildly) Americans for being so obnoxious about their ignorance of the existence of the rest of the world. (I went to a mid western American university and most people were unaware of where Asia is!) Never in another country have I met more people who collectively are so poorly informed about the rest of the world. So this poor yet just another ignorant guy got condemned by the rest of the world for his ignorant cockiness. It had nothing to do with him being polite or rude in his tone. Btw, this is how all South Asian people feel when they are looked on as 'terrorists'. And now that it happens to you guys its what you Americans call reverse racism.

Why correct someone on their english? Do you not have anything better to do than commenting on a forum about english spelling?

You picked the WRONG FML to say that on, friend. Prepare to get your ass appropriately flamed. And by the way, your comment should read, "Why correct someone on his* English*? Do you not have anything better to do than comment* on a forum about English* spelling?"

I'm thinking it should also be "something better to do than COMMENT..."...maybe some wise FMLer can confirm this?

it's a shame I can only hit the thumbs-up once... love your comments Doc

That is what happens when a fellow isn't good at anything else.

Actually 9 it is their, there isn't a gender specifically mentioned within the FML

35 it's actually a female...my app has a pretty pink female sign beside the OP's name

ginglederf 6

Sounds like their just a fellow grammar nazi

Starbucksguy - The "his" to which I'm referring is the person OP corrected, not OP. Bates123 - Actually it is not "their". "Someone" is singular, so using "his" or "her" is appropriate even if gender isn't specified.

whostolemylama - I don't give a flying **** if you like me or not. I love how you edited your comment after you noticed how ******* wrong you were. **** off and stop trolling me.

DocBastard...sorry, I misread your comment, hence why I thought it was meant to be "her"...apologies heading your way for a miscorrection of grammar

dominic1221 6

Ahahahah. Hahahaha! Hahaha! I'm so glad I got that in another tab. You can't hide it now, fucktard: Doc, I never liked you. Do not correct me on my English. I do not strive to write in peak perfection on anything but school work. And you are wrong. I'm sure the correct pronoun is not "their" because it not in parallelism with the subject/predicate "someone;" however his would likely to be in favor of male domination which is poor english. Best pronoun is "one" or "individual." Please do not correct me on English when you start a sentence with a conjuction. Thanks #53 - On 05/09/2012 at 7:45pm by whostolemylama

Operation: "Ass flaming" complete. Shutting down system priority now. *beeboop*

"He/she/they" is an old debate that boils down to style, because English lacks a pronoun for a definite singular person whose gender is unknown. (You can use "one" when it's an indefinite singular, though.) Prepare to accept a degree of ambiguity: gender ambiguity ("his grammar") or number ambiguity ("their grammar"). English is a tricky bitch.

SHAMUS_the_WITTY 18

Whostolemylama- I gotta give you props. You successfully caused Doc to lose his cool. On the flipside, you probably SHOULD strive for the best grammar that you can on the internet. You get a lot more respect when you do.

Doc, I do believe that "they" is in fact an acceptable first-person singular pronoun for a subject of which the gender is not known. It is only recently that it has become considered "incorrect". I'm hiding behind bulletproof glass as I type this, in hopes of being spared of your fury.

jasmine1259 2

The grammar nazism on this site has reached beyond annoying. You know it's a problem when people start getting into fights over it. Why do people get so worked up over the smallest things?

Okay, just to make this clear now, the correct word would be 'their'. It makes perfect sense for it to be 'their' when the gender is unknown. We naturally would do so anyway. For example if a barrel of monkeys were stolen we would write a headline like this: "A barrel of monkeys was stolen today however, the culprit's gloves were left behind. Their actions will not go unpunished." It is a lot neater than saying 'his/her' and it is less sexist than assuming someone is male or female based on what is said about the person or by the person.

BFMV1225 7

Easy, the same way you comment while you have nothing better to do.

MoogleSam - I'm afraid you're mostly wrong, though not entirely. If the subject of the sentence is singular, you can't just change it to a plural because the gender isn't known. It's becoming more acceptable, but it still isn't considered correct grammar.

I'm pretty sure "their" used to be acceptable for quite some time, fell out of favour, and is now becoming more commonplace once again. Also, I would like to take this time to point out a dictionary definition of "their": 2. His or her - used with an indefinite third person singular antecedent

rallets 22

hes gone guys. shields down.

imavelociraptor 6

It's even funnier because #6 has a spelling error in their username Whostolemyllama not whostolemylama

64, since when is individual a pronoun? And Doc, most languages change almost continuously. While it may be considered unacceptable today, it could be more than the norm in about 50 years' time. It's just like the debate between "disinterested" and "uninterested", "imply" and "infer", and so on. I have to agree that "his or her" sounds better in this context, because this isn't really one of the grammatical rules that makes no sense; but there is a lot to say for using language in a descriptive, rather than a prescriptive, way.

64, since when is individual a pronoun? And Doc, most languages change almost continuously. While it may be considered unacceptable today, it could be more than the norm in about 50 years' time. It's just like the debate between "disinterested" and "uninterested", "imply" and "infer", and so on. I have to agree that "his or her" sounds better in this context, because this isn't really one of the grammatical rules that makes no sense; but there is a lot to say for using language in a descriptive, rather than a prescriptive, way.

sslayer777 1

Doc, why "his" instead of "their"? Not condemning, simply asking reason so I might be able to better my grammar?

Thank you, 203. If it's any consolation, it is almost 4am... Apologies for the double post too; damn app. Redirecting warheads without further ado.

Why does it have to be 'his' the op never even mentioned gender so their is correct

Their is plural meaning that more than one culprit is involved in a situation, whereas saying his or her shows that only one person.

gmc_blossom 21

64- You told Doc not to correct you. I'm not Doc, so it doesn't matter if I do, right? Well, I'm pretty sure that where you said, "I never liked you," it should instead read, "I've never liked you." You're saying that you have never like him, therefore the contraction for "I have" would be needed. Also, to all of you people jumping down Doc's throat, just calm down. He's way more intelligent than half of you on here, anyway. It could very well read either, "their" or "his," I do believe. The pronouns "he" or "his" can be used to describe anyone. Not necessary men only. Haven't you ever heard human beings being called "Man"? There are most definitely women on Earth, but it's what is said regardless. Just because the pronoun "his" is used, it doesn't necessarily have to insinuate it's a male. I do believe it was used more in older writing, and not so much nowadays. The pronouns "they" and "their" are used now because it's the more modern age, and using them is less sexist. So, either pronoun would work here.

dominic1221 6

Holy ****, are you blind or something? Not only didn't you see the whole "#53 - On 05/09/2012 at 7:45pm by whostolemylama" at the end, you didn't use your brain and situational awareness to figure out what my first sentence meant, and neither did you bother reading the other comments where some guy made the same mistake and was corrected. In case you still don't get it: I was quoting what #53 said before he edited out his comment. Jesus ****, people like you make me fear for my country. You fail about a hundred times harder than the OP.

Thumb me down for this comment i dont care, but why are so many people so hardcore about being a nazi and correcting other people? I mean personally, as long as it is easily readable it is fine.

Doc sorry but that's completely wrong. Care to look at an actual definition of "their" rather than making one up? "Belonging to or associated with a person of unspecified sex: "she heard someone blow their nose loudly."'

Yes Bates, that's become a definition of their as English has evolved. Ask any English teacher and he or she (not they) will tell you that "their" is plural.

"Their" used as a singular non-gender specific pronoun is a caving in to the idiocracy who can't be bothered to write "his or her" or "one's". It's like the whole "could care less" debacle. Yes, some dictionaries may deem it acceptable. But aren't we capable of using reason and figuring out that a plural doesn't become singular due to our own laziness? If everyone were to revert to using language correctly, the incorrect common usage would be removed from the dictionaries. To answer the "why correct grammar" question that was asked earlier: because I don't want stupid to be the new language.

341 - There's still a stylistic aspect to this debate, because "his or her" becomes awkward with repeated use, and because "one's" tends to sound pretentious in contemporary speech. OTOH, "their" is numerically ambiguous. There is no perfect word for this in English.

Shit's gone heated in this thread of posts....

BubbleGrunge 18

Personally, half of the FML world needs to pull itself out of DocBastards ass. He, indeed, did start all the shit on this thread by opening his mouth about something as simply as someone using the word "their." If he/she or one had been used, I'm sure Doc would have reamed her ass out for not using their. For all of you so called "grammar nazis", the term "friend" used in Doc comment was not a term endearment. It was obviously used in a sarcastic manner, therefore was used to infuriate Whostolemylama. Since we are nit picking at everything, you forgot the comma after the word "and" in your original comment Doc

176, it is considered perfectly acceptable (and hence grammatical) to use the "singular they" in writing, to avoid the generic masculine and awkward constructions like he/she. Language changes. Get over it.

It's in common usage and is therefore defined in the way in which I stated above. That's like saying when I call someone a Mug (as in moron/idiot) I am actually referring to them as a porcelain drinking device. Language evolves, that's the point, get with the programme and accept that you're wrong

I was under the impression that "their" started to be used as a singular possessive because it includes both genders. People used to use "his" as the default singular pronoun when it could refer to either gender, but people started to complain just like they complained about "mailman" and "stewardess" and other gender-specific words. Thus we have "their" in its singular use along with "mail carrier" and "flight attendant." It seems to be one of those things that's acceptable colloquially if not grammatically.

Bates, it isn't as simple as that. "They" is plural, and "their" is the possessive of a plural. Therefore it is plural. It has become commonly used as gender non-specific, but that doesn't make it correct. I've already acknowledged that languages evolve, so get off my ass about it. Bubblegrunge - There is no need for a comma after the "And" in my sentence. Nice try. I don't "ream" people for using proper grammar. Nice try again, jackass. You can get your head out of your own ass now.

Bubblegrunge - Yay!!! I have been quietly blown away by the number of buttkissers in this thread! Some of them are so far up doc bastard's ass that they are licking his uvula ;) Congrats for going against the flow ;)

thatoneguy79 10

Why should proper use of language be reserved for school work? Is the rest of the world of the world not qualified to experience your intelligence, or perhaps are you too lazy? A great saying goes, "Practice makes permanent; perfect practice make perfect." if you practice using proper language in all facets of your life, you will be less likely to make a stupid error on the "important" stuff. Doc; when you were in school learning to become a doctor, did you blow off practice with the thought, "eh, it's not a real person, I don't really need to sew them back up right."? No? Didn't think so. Anyone else who actually is old enough to have learned a trade?

agsilver 14

Exactly. They could have avoided this by just not being a ******* grammar nazi.

And you care about whether someone else uses a word correctly for what reason again? I would imagine if it were your "favorite" then you would be spending your time doing other things...

No it doesn't ... at least not American English

I'm aware of this...it's called "humour". You may have heard of it. Possibly spelt "humor"...

^ It was a joke, dumbass. And America is one of the only countries that doesn't use 'ou'. I think I found OP's twin.

American English is wrong. England invented it then the mostly uneducated immigrants to America spread errors. Favourite, colour, metre, realise, ect. are the correct spellings. And Z is pronounced zed, not zee.

44 - All correct except for "realise". The British started using the S in order to seem less American, but the original spelling is "-ize". Oxford spelling ftw!

Yup. In British english it does. Just like color is spelled as colour. The americanised is a bit different than the british standard.

RedPillSucks 31

Dudes. There is no standard English. English has been constantly evolving from its bastardized combination of French and German to what it is today. It is a complicated language with variants for each of the British colonies.

KingCeltic77 18

Are you insulting immigrants? My ancestors are Irish and I'm damn proud!

lepuppykicker 15

Everyone's ancestors are immigrants.

heartgrenade1 5

Right, kind of like how we invented the truck and elevator and the British renamed them lorry and lift, respectively. Also it was not "ignorant immigrants." Many words were changed on purpose to differentiate Americans from the British. In fact Samuel Webster (of Webster's dictionary) was the main proponent of changing those words. Far from ignorant or stupid.

44- And not a single **** was given that day.

Yes English is constantly evolving this is true, but when yours is the only country following the trend you need to consider it a bastardisation rather than evolution. I suppose also the fact that you are oblivious to the way everyone else spells things while the rest of us are aware of yours is also a factor of irritation.

I tried to stop myself but this is a pet peeve of mine. #44, it is "etc." not "ect.". It is an abbreviation for "et cetera".

HahaYDI 0

"American English is wrong" why does everyone assume that Americans are the only ones that adopted a language and made changes to it? Mexican-Spanish is different than Spanish-Spanish but no one ever brings that up. Educate yourselves.

heartgrenade1 I hate to break it to you, but America did not invent the 'elevator'. They were first used thousands of years ago, and primitive lifts have been used the world over ever since. 17th century European Palaces featured elevators, and it was a Russian, Ivan Kulibin, who built the first screw drive elevator in 1783, probably the first to pave the way for the more modern type. Then there was a whole load of shenanigans with hydraulic lifts, THEN, (in the 19th C.) some Americans (mostly Elisha Otis) perfected the elevator into what it is today. Improvement however, is not invention. I am also struggling to verify your claim America invented the truck - it's another one, like the lift, that numerous people from numerous countries contributed to in various ways, numerous prototypes can be seen from all over, and any single claim of 'invention' is likely to be flawed. I got the impression it had at least something to do with a German dude though.

mattysaysLOL 0

Hate to be a troller but aren't native Americans (or Indians) the definition of non-immigrants???

No, their ancestors came across the land bridge from asia, they would be called the original settlers.

Well, at least you American and British lot know which type of English to use. Us Canadians are stuck trying to figure out when we're supposed add a "u" and when we're supposed to leave it out. End result, everyone does whatever they want.

As bad as I feel for you OP, YDI for trying to correct someone without knowing anything about foreign grammar, or even finding out if it was correct english.