A while back someone asked what the term grammar Nazi meant to me, this was my response; People who are overly aggressive when it comes down to grammar and spelling; I can see them getting mad at peoples who is does types likes this, but they can be unreasonable towards people who make simple mistakes. No one is perfect and these people shouldn't be chastising them for small errors, it really makes a person feel bad depending how out of proportion it gets blown. Not to mention some grammar Nazis are in no position to start yelling, because their grammar sucks too! But I hate spelling Nazis more, about a year or two ago they would always target me and make me feel stupid. (It's because of this I am particularly distaneful towards spelling Nazis). I was never a good spell and never will be, I can't help it. Long story short most grammar/spelling Nazis annoy me, I think they are unfair and unkind. Not all the time though. I also think some of them do it because they think it's cool or they want to fit in, I personally don't think it's cool at all, more so a sugar-coated way of cyberbulling. But that's just me. With this being said I have a strong feeling that I'm going to get a lot of 'this wasn't spelled right' 'there needs to be a comma here' comments, just to annoy me.

Said user responded; Ummm... well, that's pretty harsh. You know the 'Nazi' part is just an expression, right??? It's not cyberbullying and we don't necessarily chastise you, (nice vocabulary, by the way... too bad I'm not a Vocabulary Nazi...) we just always feel the need to correct these mistakes because we feel it's important.

To which I finished with;I know it's just an expression, I take no offense to the term Nazi. It was supposed to be harsh, sort of how the grammar/spelling Nazis are about well... spelling and grammar. Like I said it's nit always gonna be cyberbulling, some people are trying to help, but some go way overboard and cross that line betokening helping and hurting. In regards to the chastising thing, I base this on past expirance, people have gone all out, all caps on me, telling me how bad my spelling was and how much I needed to go back to pre-k. I can see why you want to fix some mistakes and stuff, I mean it is important but I've witnessed and defended a user who was being 'arrested' for making a typo! I don't really hate grammar Nazis, I haven't had a problem with them in a while, but I had a crappy past experience with them.

My main points above were that whilst some just mean to help the help is well...unwanted. They point out every little flaw in a person's typing which could make someone feel really stupid or negatively.

That in mind the person has just been singled out and silly mistakes that would've went otherwise unnoticed are now revealed for everyone to see and possibly laugh at. It's embarrassing. Just like having any other flaw pointed out.

Another thing is that some of them just come off as very arrogant and rude. Like they think that their ability to spell puts them in a higher place than another person.

There is also the fact that I have seen them target someone whose first language isn't even English, and that's not really fair at all. And people who simply made a typo.

I kinda have to agree with you there. I think you remember on Random when there was the question about spelling and grammar nazis and there was quite a large-scale war about it. If I recall, Wantadog happened to annoy quite a few people that time (funniest thing is, he wasn't even one - he just corrected people to annoy them - so typical of him). Anyway, I recall that people were quite offended to be corrected in front of lots of people, which is fair enough. However, there is also another element to it, as well.

I think that they could potentially be very helpful, if they went about it in the right way, instead of just targeting people over small typos and whatnot. But, even so, people probably won't be willing to co-operate with them, so it would probably be a waste of energy. I just like to be a spelling/grammar nazi, but only subject my own spelling to it. It doesn't change my annoyance with people that could have been good at spelling if they had actually made the effort to learn it.

Anyway, I don't like grammar/spelling nazis that actually make people feel bad. It's not necessary. I'd rather make a friendly suggestion to someone, pointing out that they spelled a view words wrong and offer the correct spelling. While apologising for pointing it out in front of others, if it bothers them.

Actually that's the question I pulled my response from lol. One of them anyhow. Yeah that was the one! Good times, good times. I was one of those people, it just reminded me of the not joking ones. Having your mistakes pointed out to everyone is pretty upsetting.

I agree there it could be helpful if done right. But the ones I have seen have been the ones going off for silly reasons. But I see the people doing it to be helpful and in a nice way as just that, people who are doing it to be nice. Grammar Nazis are the extremists. Reverting to a religion analogy The people who are nice about it are Christians and the Grammar Nazis are the Western Baptist Church. People co-operate much better with those just trying to help every now and again rather than the ones who do it all the time. Of course there still are the stubborn ones or the ones spelling badly for attention or to be a general spaz.

Exactly it's much better to say it kindly than be in peoples' faces. And the apologies do help.

Hahahahaha. So you do remember that poll. It was an interesting time on Random, around those days. As I recall, there were lots of trolls back then.

Yeah, totally agree. I don't get why it has to be such a big deal. I mean, personally, I hate spelling mistakes more than most, but I still don't really point them out to people. I guess they are just power-tripping, or something of the sort.

By the way, funny example! Christians Vs. the Western Baptist Church, eh... Awesome example and probably true, as well. Haha.

It depends what you would define as a "grammar Nazi." Some definition are wider than others. Mine's pretty broad, so I can see that many of them don't go overboard.

@blackpanther Oh yeah, really was an interesting era. There are still a crapload of them coming around.

I don't like them much either, but I too usually keep it to myself. A lot of them do seem like they are on some big ol' power trip.

Thank you. :P

@whiteflame I suppose it does depend on one's definition. Mine is as I said above; I see the people doing it to be helpful and in a nice way as just that, people who are doing it to be nice. Grammar Nazis are the extremists. Reverting to a religion analogy The people who are nice about it are Christians and the Grammar Nazis are the Western Baptist Church.

Yeah, I can see how you might view them that way. There is no overt group, after all.

@Flame. Heh, if you'd been on Random on the question Zanhar and I were referring to, then you'd see what she meant. I believe even Wantadog made an attempt to act like a grammar nazi. Haha. XD

I think of them as snooty little brats. But that's probably just due to connotations. It's difficult to make random spelling corrections seem polite, especially if the person did not say anything like "I think I may have spelled that wrong".
Also, I find a person taking it upon themselves to educate someone on something so basic who is not looking to be educated at that particular moment to be a bit arrogant.
ESPECIALLY since these people tend to not be as perfect as they think they are. I think flawless spelling, grammar, and sencance structure is very rare, even among those who write for a living.

Yuss. Exuctlyy. Thts purty corect. Amma prood of mah grammah yo. Amma illiterate. Illiteracy FTW.

Being a self-proclaimed Grammar Nazi myself, I don't think they're all bad. I don't yell at people, I just point out a mistake as politely as possible. And we don't all think of ourselves as higher then those with "bad" grammar, I'm sorry if many come across like that. Sure, some can go overboard every now and then, but the people they 'target' go overboard in defending themselves too.

Gosh, love you too, cassie.

Grammar Nazi is just a silly title. And don't judge a single person by the title they flaunt.

Should anyone even have to defend themselves for spelling a word wrong?

@Cassie I totally agree with you! I don't mean to offended you DramaQueen but I too see it as very arrogant of them to go about randomly educating people when they don't want it. Who are they to decide who needs an education and who doesn't. Especially if they aren't perfect either. And I also agree that no one should have to defense themselves for making a typo or spelling a word wrong. If you don't know how to spell something you don't know how and you shouldn't get yelled at for it (unless you're doing it on pourpose to annoy people).

@DramaQueen not all of them are bad but the one's I've seen are.

I'm a grammar nazi. And not a self-appointed one either.

The only times I ever make people "defend" their grammar mistakes is when they're attacking others mistakes with errors of their own. (Or when they've handed me a paper to grade, and it's riddled with errors that shouldn't be there. But that's a completely different topic, I think.)

@Cassie. As Zanhar has said, some are not so bad... Not every one of them attacks someone for spelling a word... Sometimes they point it out, because they are actually trying to be helpful. Yes, there are some snooty, little brats out there, but they are not a majority.

@Bri those are the kind I don't mind. The kinds that help upon request or point out errors of a person criticizing another for the same imperfection. I don't really even consider that grammar nazism.

I think it's equally snobby, whether you're attacking someone or just feeling the need to correct someone for no reason, or "point it out".
It's actually more annoying to me when it's not done maliciously, because it seems like they genuinely feel it's their responsibility to tell other people whenever they make a spelling or grammar error, and that, to me, is the very epitome of arrogance.

@Cassie. And that's your opinion... I don't really care either way... I enjoy it when people point out grammar mistakes for me - that way, I don't have to do it myself. However, the 'epitome of arrogance' doesn't really sound right to me. So every grammar nazi out there is arrogant? Some people just genuinely think they are doing other people a favor, while some are, indeed, arrogant and snobby... That's really just a generalization based on your own opinion.

Yes, in my opinion, they are all arrogant (or at least being arrogant), whether they mean to be or not.

English has some of the craziest rules out of any language, very few people actually use perfect grammar. My opinion is that people attack others' grammar when they are unable to refute the position / points that those people have made. Their only way to discredit these opinions is to say that if you can't voice your opinion in perfect English then it is not valid.
I have rarely come across posts where it really does make no sense at all, usually due to improper word usage or drastic run on sentences. A simple your / you're or there / their / they're mistake does not lead to a question or answer not being understood,nor does it render it any less valid than someone who can type with 100% perfect spelling and grammar all the time.
Being intelligent is different than being knowledgeable, the same applies with wisdom being a combination and application of your knowledge and intelligence. Only 27% of the users on the 'internet' speak English, of the amount who DO speak English, only half have it as their main language, many speak multiple languages and or many also didn't fully finish school. There are also boundless other issues regarding ones writing and grammatical capability. I find that 'grammar nazis' as they say are people who have a heightened sense of self importance, educated, but are not yet wise enough to mentally connect with other humans. It would do them good to get off the computer some and socially connect, perhaps learn other languages, travel, be human.

@Cassie. Define arrogance...

Arrogance, to me (I'm not going to pick up a dictionary), is is believing that it must demonstrate that what you have to say is more important by finding a way to diminish what others have said, when it is completely unnecessary and you have nothing to gain from it other than your own self satisfaction.

^^^ Well said.

Indeed. Still, I don't think they are all arrogant - I doubt they all do it for their own self-satisfaction... Either way, I'm sure we can agree to disagree.

In some ways, they are trying to help, but they can go overboard.

^^ Yeah we can totally agree to disagree lol :P (very late response).