Thank you for the info and for highlighting how lazy I am for not checking myself!!!

I'm lazy and proud of it.

Back on topic:

The miss use of there, their and they're does get to me, but I'm sure I miss use the English language all the time without knowing it.

Spot on Oakman.

I think on a webforum like Flirtbox people need to climb out their own bottoms and *allow* others to make mistakes with the English language.
It's not always a person's mother tongue, and even when it is, who made the rule that we all have to be word-perfect? Typing is hard enough for some people, without worrying about the spelling and wotnot. Not everyone got A for English at school.
So what?
If it irritates a person I would suggest that is just proof that person is intolerant of imperfection in others.
And it just makes me laugh that EVERY time a person comes on here and moans about others writing skills, they make basic errors themselves.
Years ago, my partner was a proofreader for a publishing house and some excellent story-tellers (big authors) are so dyslexic or incompetent writers but boy-o-boy they write some fantastic stuff that millions of people want to read, *after* the proofreader has done his job. It would be illiterate gobbledygook otherwise, fantastic writers nontheless.
TW, you start by complaining about others beginning sentances [sic] with the word "I", but your own grammer [sic] and spelling leave a bit to be desired....Not that I am pulling you up on it, but it is so ironic, we've had threads before people write "I'm sick of poeple speling badley on here"...
Why cant people just accept that we dont all have or pretend to have a chuffing Phd in Written English?
No, its not a reflection of someone's IQ or ability to hold a decent conversation, or whether or not they would be ideal dating material, unless you intend to base your future relationship on perfect chuffing written English, ie are you looking for a virtual partner down the modem and you are so intolerant you won't abide the occasional mistake?

As for beginning a sentence with "I".

I suggest to you that may be because a lot of these threads are asking for other people's opinions.
When talking with friends, someone says to me "What do you think?" my reply is usually, "I think...."

Personally, I dont care less about a person's grammar, spelling, use of the English language, as long as I get the jist of what they are saying.

It's the chuffing txt spk crap that I can't deal with, it's too much like hard work.

looks like a few more [sic]s need to be handed out. Thanks RG for writing an essay on what we were all teasing TW about.

Oh and TW: its = belonging to it
it's = it is

your = belonging to you
you're = you are

geddit? [sic]

I once dated Miss Use. She came in very handy

Love you will find only where you may show yourself weak without provoking strength. --Theodor Adorno

Well I dunno no y I shud bovva to rite propa, wen their aint ne one carin!

Sometimes I read books written around 1880s and find it so amazing just how much the English language has altered over time. The sad thing now is that children are growing up without a clue on spelling, have no idea how to use a dictionary and would be useless in any job requiring alphabetical filing.

Although I'm actually not bad at English Grammar and spelling myself, I do get lazy when posting on sites like this, and I have my own shortened words, some of which reveal the area where I grew up, and others that are commonly used and will soon be adopted as part of our language.

It's always funny to me when I become aware of the old fashioned terms/words being used somewhere and my grown up children don't know what's being referred to. Maybe it would be fun to have a thread about words 'past and present'

Frock = a dress
Wireless = radio.....(lap top now? maybe)........and so on

Apparently kids nowadays don't know what a satchel is.

Now back in my day....

Back in my day we laughed at any kid with one.

You wish.

What a brilliant thread, even if it is covered in [sic]! I'm a great advocate of Lynne Truss' work myself; the woman who used a semicolon as a weapon of literary snobbery at the age of 14.

He walked on, his head in the air.
He walked on his head in the air.

That is a very good question.

Would that sentence require a colon or a semicolon?

Neither. The comma would suffice I think? A colon or period full stop would mean that the second bit "His head in the air." would not be a viable sentence, standing alone.
(God, I feel like I'm back in school!)