Social Media Grammar Blunders That Will Make You Laugh (or Cry)

Have you ever scrolled down a post or a comment on social media and seen a grammar mistake that changes the entire meaning? Or have you ever posted something and typed a wrong grammar and got corrected by someone or even a 'grammar police?' It can be funny, hilarious, cringe, and embarrassing and even leave you shaking your head! But at the same time, it can be dangerous and misleading people to misinformation or miscommunication, especially if it's an important post, even if it's only a simple mistake. 

Worry not! Everyone makes mistakes, for non-native speakers or even for native speakers themselves. Mastering English itself is not as easy as it seems, especially mastering grammar. Even famous people can make grammar blunders too!

Kim Kardashian, a celebrity, once shared a post with a basic grammatical error, and the internet quickly exploded by making fun of her! The post itself is a photograph of Kim and her daughter on her trip to Italy with a caption "Site seeing," and posted it on Instagram. Kim might have meant to write "sightseeing" but ended up writing the word "site" and changing the whole meaning. The internet quickly commented and made fun of her because of those simple mistakes. 

Another celebrity, like Justin Bieber, also made a grammar mistake on one of his hit songs, "Boyfriend," by an 11-year-old boy! In the lyric part, "If I was your boyfriend, i'd never let you go" caught the boy's attention because of the incorrect use of the subjunctive mood where it should be "if I were your boyfriend" and gave him an "F" for his bad grammar. 

But how did this happen? And how big is the impact on online communication? We will be talking about common types of grammatical errors, why they happen, how to prevent them, and their impact on online communication.

Common Types of Grammatical Errors in Social Media

There are so many types of grammatical errors that could happen in social media, but here is the common one! 

1. Common Typos

This is the most common one; even simple typos can change its meaning. A lot of people usually make these mistakes because of misplaced apostrophes or confusing homophones and do not care if it is incorrect as if they let it go and used these on the internet. In fact, it really does matter. For example:

"It's" and "Its" 

"It's" is a contraction for "it is," like in the sentence "It's a sunny day," while "its" is a possessive pronoun used to show ownership, like in the sentence "The dog wagged its tail."

2. Tense Errors

This one is almost common and easy to spot, and everyone has probably experienced this at least once. The incorrect word between past, future, and present tense can be so confusing if we wrote it wrong. For example:

"Saw" vs. "Seen"

While "saw" is a simple past tense, "seen" is a past participle. Both words are from the word see. People usually wrote, "I saw him yesterday," which is incorrect. The correct one is "I saw him yesterday."

3. Misusing Plurals

This one is very rare but also funny to read. People often wrote "childrens" or "womens," while children and women are words containing plural nouns, no need to add s. 

4. Wrong Comma Placement

This is one of the fatal ones out of all. One wrong comma placement and you either become a joke for everyone or you're in a serious situation. 

For example, instead of writing "Let's eat, grandma," you wrote "Let's eat grandma." That'll be a hilarious fail or either a scary sentence. Imagine people thought you'd be eating your grandma over a simple comma mistake. Don't do that!

5. Overusing Abbreviations or Internet Slang

Using abbreviations or internet slang is basically a shortened word and acronym. Like when people write "you are" as "u r" for shorter or "easy" as "ez." Or abbreviations like "LOL" (Laughing Out Loud) or "BTW" (By The Way).

You can use this when texting a friend or someone, but remember, not all people like to read this kind of text and prefer the long one, and not everyone understands what you're writing. There's also a moment where a person misunderstood a text from a TikTok meme where he messaged his crush and confessed his love, and his crush replied with "aw tysm," which means "aw thank you so much," but instead he read it as "autism." We wouldn't want that, would we? 

How did this happen? How do we prevent it?

Have you ever wondered why these grammatical errors could happen? There's some reason why this happens. 

1. Fast Typing or Writing and Autocorrect

This is why you should not type quickly even if you are in a rush! Especially when you type a message to your professor or boss, which can cause incorrect grammar. And what about autocorrect? Autocorrect can be useful at some times but can also be annoying; That is why you have to double-check your writings before finishing it. 

2. Lack of Grammar Understanding

This probably happens to all people, especially non-native speakers. It is okay if you do not really understand grammar, but you also need to learn it, especially if you want to write something on social media using English. 

3. Chill and Lazy Behavior towards Grammar

People often used simple words with incorrect grammar because they were too lazy to type. They would have thought as long as the others understood the point, there was no reason to be specific with grammar. It might seem unnecessary, but if you are doing it continuously, you can lose your grammar knowledge due to using too many simple words or sentences. Don't be lazy! 

Their Impact on Online Communication

 There is a lot of impact that could have happened from these grammar mistakes. Either it will be a funny comedy effect where people laughed at these mistakes, or even serious effect where it can cause a huge misunderstanding. But what if we have already posted it? Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy! You can edit your writing on your post or simply delete it and make a new one with edited writings. 

Now we know all about grammar mistakes, the cause of grammar mistakes, how to prevent it, and their impact. Grammars in this era are still relevant especially in this digital era. It can cause from a funny situation to an awkward or confusing situation, the worst being the serious situation. So next time, don't make any grammar blunders online!