Is it proper to correct someone's English?

Question

Last night, I was somewhere and there were two people engaged in a discussion about politics. The guy said, "Irregardless of ..." and the woman said, "Irregardless isn't a word." So, for the next minute they are going back and forth about whether it's a word or not and totally forgot about the point he was going to make.

Your thoughts?

Answer 1

No. Don't correct them unless they are very close friends or family.  

Answer 2

She didn't have a real argument so she tried to pick a fight where she thought she could have a chance of winning - it's something stupid people do.

Answer 3

The basic rule of manners is not to offend someone else. So she was wrong to bring it up. Am betting that she was changing the subject for a reason and that was the best she could come up with.

Unless they were good friends and this was how they interacted with each other.  

Answer 4

It's rude. Especially in that situation

Answer 5

I think it is the right thing to do, I grew up with my mother correcting my English and find that I am very well-spoken as a result.

It sounds to me that the 2 were having a very healthy debate about grammar and I believe in healthy debate on any topic.

Answer 6

I feel its extremely rude to correct somebody. Its like sayining to somebody" Im smarter than you and i wil prove it by correcting you"..

Its annoying...

Its like when these yahoo trolls correct ppls spelling..like get over it..

Answer 7

i tend to just let other people correct them for me, but then if they keep using the word then i do correct them.

Answer 8

Maybe if it is a friend and it's done in kind of a humorous manner. However, it might be a good idea to do it to a stranger or if it is someone you know and it will upset them.

Thanks for asking.

Answer 9

Nah... I wouldn't even care. It's her problem if she can't speak English correctly. I don't correct people.. not my job really. As long as I understand them and the point they are trying to make.. fine by me. No need to make them feel I'm smarter than them.

English is not my native language.. or even if it was.. still I wouldn't correct them people.  

Answer 10

It depends on who when where etc; if it is two people who know each other really well, and not in front of a large group of people, I see no problem with it if the person doing the correcting is polite about it, otherwise, I would say it is rude.

Answer 11

It is only polite to correct someone's grammar if you are an English teacher and they are your student.  

Answer 12

It's rude to correct people's English unless 1) they are writing a paper and ask for your help, or 2) they are from a foreign country and struggling with the language, and seem open to advice, or 3) you are a teacher and your students are the one making the mistakes.

Everybody makes mistakes, but when you're trying to say something, you don't want to be interrupted by somebody saying "you said that wrong". It's just plain rude and thoughtless.

Answer 13

Not overally but sometimes as some people are actually grateful as they don't want to consider looking ignorant. It all depends how you correct them. If it is in a polite non pompus way then yes it is fine but if you tell them in a pompus arogant way they its probably best not saying anything.

Answer 14

A lot of people use the word "Irregardless" even though it is not listed as being a word defined in the dictionary.  I personally try not to correct someone as it often offends them by implying to them that they do not speak correctly.

Answer 15

It depends on the situation. Correctly someone in public isn't really appropriate- its better to take them aside later and mention to them that they used a made-up word. Don't embarass them, just let them know that for future reference they might not want to phrase their points that way, because you don't want them sounding ignorant either. But there's a time and a place and sometimes, it best to just let a little grammatical mistake go.