BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / BBC Sherlock Fan Forum makes it onto YouTube

**Posted by TeeJay** February 22, 2014 11:46 am

I just stumbled across this via Tumblr:

It uses our forum to give a showcase of exceptionally bad grammar. I'm not sure whether to be amused or annoyed, to be honest. First of all, it appears to be a bogus post they're showcasing. I tried searching for it, and neither the thread nor the post seems to exist--unless the search didn't pick up on it.

I mean, I'm all for the message they're conveying. My toenails curl when I see people constantly confusing your and you're, than and then, lose and loose, would've and would of (the latter of which doesn't even exist). I get it that there are people out there who may have dyslexic disorders and don't know better, but I think in most cases it's just sloppiness.

But anyway... why did they have to use an existing Sherlock forum to give it a bad name when it's not even a real post they're referring to? Did they ask permission?

Last edited by TeeJay (February 22, 2014 11:46 am)

**Posted by Harriet** February 22, 2014 11:54 am

Or simply not being a native speaker and probably much better with a language those people will never learn,
so who cares, actually. I admire those here who write in a foreign language so bravely.

**Posted by Mattlocked** February 22, 2014 12:02 pm

I don't remember a topic "Cumberbatch sightings" in here, so it's probably fake.
Anyway, I don't care, as it is just an example for all those grammar mistakes in all forums around the www.
And although I'm quite sure I've probably made at least three mistakes only in this little post, I like it that some people try to remind us not being too sloppy while writing posts or messages.

Last edited by Mattlocked (February 22, 2014 12:02 pm)

**Posted by tonnaree** February 22, 2014 12:24 pm

I try to be careful but I am a horrible speller! I've gotten so dependant on Spellcheck in other forums! I also get to typing so fast sometimes I'll hit that submit button before I've double checked my post.

**Posted by Harriet** February 22, 2014 12:56 pm

Right, Mattlocked, the example they show on their screen is a fake.

**Posted by saturnR** February 22, 2014 12:57 pm

"Cumbatch Sightings" is not a forum subdivision so the example they are using is most likely a fake but it's really cool that we're known enough to warrant people bothering to use us in their videos

**Posted by Harriet** February 22, 2014 12:59 pm

It's for sure a fake because there are no such comments in our database.

Last edited by Harriet (February 22, 2014 1:02 pm)

**Posted by KeepersPrice** February 22, 2014 1:27 pm

As an English major in school, I thought this was cute. But I'm glad it was a fake posting on our Forum because we do have so many English As A Second Language (or third, or fourth, etc) members here that it wouldn't be fair to single us out.

I'm taking this in the spirit it was intended and literally (ha, ha) like the message they are delivering.

**Posted by Be** February 22, 2014 2:00 pm

Funny video. Can anybody recommend some software to help us (not native speakers) here with the spelling?

**Posted by TeeJay** February 22, 2014 8:22 pm

Be wrote:
Funny video. Can anybody recommend some software to help us (not native speakers) here with the spelling?

Some browsers have built-in spell check, like Firefox. There might also be browser add-ons for that. Of course for looking up things, there's always the online dictionaries, like LEO for German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and a number of other languages.

**Posted by saturnR** February 22, 2014 10:23 pm

I haven't come across truly horrendous English here. You guys should try reading Chinglish. You end up more confused than if they didn't bother translating the signs into English.

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** February 23, 2014 9:01 am

Oh my God, that's so cool that they used our forum. Wow!

**Posted by belis** February 23, 2014 9:19 am

I was worried for a second that one of my posts is going to be on display.
English is a second language for me and I have dyslexia so I'm sure thare are some attrocious examples of bad spelling and grammar in what I have written on this forum.

With regards to the video itself they say that there is no such thing as bad publicity. lol

**Posted by KeepersPrice** February 23, 2014 2:01 pm

belis wrote:
With regards to the video itself they say that there is no such thing as bad publicity. lol

Yes, didn't some famous actor once say, "It doesn't matter what they're saying, as long as they're talking about me."

**Posted by SolarSystem** February 23, 2014 5:34 pm

Haha, I actually think this is hilarious, and I couldn't care less that they chose our forum to help them get their message across.

**Posted by Mattlocked** February 23, 2014 6:26 pm

KeepersPrice wrote:
belis wrote:
With regards to the video itself they say that there is no such thing as bad publicity. lol

Yes, didn't some famous actor once say, "It doesn't matter what they're saying, as long as they're talking about me."

Hehe, actually I wanted to say exactly this the other day, but didn't know how as my English is too bad.

**Posted by ancientsgate** March 10, 2014 7:05 pm

TeeJay wrote:
I just stumbled across this via Tumblr:

It uses our forum to give a showcase of exceptionally bad grammar. I'm not sure whether to be amused or annoyed, to be honest. First of all, it appears to be a bogus post they're showcasing. I tried searching for it, and neither the thread nor the post seems to exist--unless the search didn't pick up on it.

I mean, I'm all for the message they're conveying. My toenails curl when I see people constantly confusing your and you're, than and then, lose and loose, would've and would of (the latter of which doesn't even exist). I get it that there are people out there who may have dyslexic disorders and don't know better, but I think in most cases it's just sloppiness.

But anyway... why did they have to use an existing Sherlock forum to give it a bad name when it's not even a real post they're referring to? Did they ask permission?

There is bad grammar and spelling on this forum, but it's [not its] certainly no worse than what I've found on other fan-based sites I've visited. No idea why they singled us out. We do have a lot of non-native-speakers contributing, but I've almost always been completely in awe of their (not there, not they're, lol) proficiency.

Spelling and grammar rules are, as one of those puppets observed, something we all should have learned back in 3rd grade, but we also know that English has the reputation of being very hard, even for us native-speakers. In fact, for us, oftentimes a word is misspelled or misspoken so often, the "wrong" had become "right" in common useage, which compounds the problem.

No one is writing the Great American Novel here, so I think we can relax, eh?

**Posted by ancientsgate** March 10, 2014 7:11 pm

tonnaree wrote:
I try to be careful but I am a horrible speller! I've gotten so dependant on Spellcheck in other forums! I also get to typing so fast sometimes I'll hit that submit button before I've double checked my post.

I miss having a spellchecker on this forum, too; I wish it could be installed here.
Although spellchecker can be deeply flawed as well. For example, it's no help when trying to choose between their, there and they're, or loose and lose or it's and its. All it can spot is whether or not its own internal dictionary can find a word spelled that way or not. Even worse is that auto-correct feature so many people love to use on their mobile devices-- ugh, I hate auto-correct.
A big solution to spelling, grammar and format mistakes is to always do a simple, fast proofread before hitting "send", or by using the "edit" function, once the post goes up. Easy peasy.

Last edited by ancientsgate (March 10, 2014 7:12 pm)

**Posted by ancientsgate** March 10, 2014 7:17 pm

TeeJay wrote:
Be wrote:
Funny video. Can anybody recommend some software to help us (not native speakers) here with the spelling?
Some browsers have built-in spell check, like Firefox. There might also be browser add-ons for that. Of course for looking up things, there's always the online dictionaries, like LEO for German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and a number of other languages.

It's also easy to intstall a simple English dictionary on any computer. I use the free version of WordWebPro. http://wordweb.info/
Not only correct spellings and definitions of words, but it's also a thesaurus, with synonyms and antonyms. I use it daily and find it a big help.

**Posted by tonnaree** March 10, 2014 7:18 pm

I have to say though, even just compared to the comments sections of most news sites we are all outstanding linguists here!