I tend not to correct pronunciation. Mostly because I don't pick up on it fast enough - and it'd seem a little pedantic to say, after the current speaker has finished speaking, "oh, by the way..." (which might be met with an enthusiastic "Yes?") "you mis-pronounced 'schedule' by giving it a hard 'c'".

However, reading (be it reading over someone else's essay, in which case I'm sure corrective comments are welcomed; or on MSN, in which case...probably not xD) stuff, I generally correct glaring mistakes.

The things I hate the most are confusion with "their", "they're" and "there", because those are easily differentiable (not like a continuous simple function, but you know what I mean); "its" and "it's", because it's easy to work it out by considering "it is" or "it has" in place of the ambiguous word, and "you're" and "your", because...well...the most moronic of people should be able to grasp the difference.

Having said this, I'm much more likely to correct the spelling or grammar of someone I know quite closely. Perhaps I really am afraid and embarrassed to correct people.

On the other hand, in class, if someone explains to me their solution of a problem in mathematics (I'm sort of like...a student-mentor kinda person to most of the Further Maths set xP), and it's evident that they have made an error and are therefore talking crap in subsequent lines of logic, I'll often let them continue - I don't feel I have the right to interject.
Y'know when someone has an understanding of a topic and knows how to apply logic...their eyes light up, and you can tell they really enjoy the sense of academic achievement - I prefer not to ruin that immediately, for often the mistake is only a simple omission of a minus sign or something of the like, which does not necessarily render the remainder of the solution worthless; I don't feel spoiling their fun is justified.

I do believe, however, It is everyone's duty, to correct someone when they have made a mistake; perhaps the proposed correction may indeed be wrong, but nonetheless it will help better both people involved.
As such, I don't feel too embarrassed when corrected (especially if it's done in a constructive manner). I'm generally appreciative when someone points out that I'm talking rubbish.

And I'll bet every one of you a tenner that I've made a a gazillion spelling and grammar mistakes in this post. xD

Unless they want me to read over a paper and give them grammatical advice, I do not want to correct people over such small things as grammatical errors. I try not to correct people on pronounciation since different areas have different pronounciations, but I will ask a question about a word. For example, one of my Asian friends kept saying, "Damage!" whenever something went wrong, so in order to understand what she really meant I said, "Do you mean, damn it?" and that's how I correct people.

I will sometimes correct people on something big such as if a Doctorate says, "Pocahontas married John Smith" then I will raise my hand and ask, "Didn't she married John Rolfe?" However, it seems to be that the more intelligent a person thinks they are, the harder it is to correct them.

I don't mind being corrected on major things, but little things like grammar and punctuation just seem like nonsense. If a word is grossly mispronounced or if I'm doing a paper, then I don't mind being corrected, but I don't feel as though it is worth arguing whether someone should use a dash or a comma in a sentence. There are more important things in the world.

I came so close to doing horrible things to my roommate because of it. I'm sorry, but there are better ways to show that you are intelligent than to constantly tell people that they are wrong even though they are right.

I don't typically correct people I don't really know that well, but I do so if an error may impact him or her. During one group project a few semesters ago, I managed to be the person typing the essay while the group discussed what topics to cover, and I occasionally pointed out an error as we went through the paper together. Otherwise, I may only correct a person if the information must be presented later.

You.... need help.

And so do I, apparently. :/

I remember playing this game where we think of something beginning with each letter of the alphabet. The subject was fruit and vegetables and this guy was desperate to begin because he had in mind something beginning with A, so he said, "Asparangus" (Asparagus). Me and the other guy looked at him and then each other and we both couldn't stop laughing, and I thought my use of language was poor.

I can't imagine too many people around me who pronounce something wrong. It is usually me who language is poor which is why I am the one who talks a lot. I wouldn't think I'd be in a position to correct them and then I doubt myself. I remember someone picking on me because of the way I pronouced one word, and I get embarassed about it.

I don't normally correct people unless I'm critiquing a work or some other. One of my pet peeves are (you're, your). Is it that hard to un-conjugate a word if you're unsure? As for others catching my errors, I thank them. I try hard not to use incorrect grammar. That is unless they mock me; that just gets mean.

As for speaking, I would correct people if they're practicing on their language. Although I have seen people laugh and correct them in a sort of mocking manner, which always pisses me off since they're trying to practice another language. The last thing they need is embarrassment to hinder them to speak more.

I correct my fiancee a lot, and that's the last person you'd want to correct, next to Freddy Krueger or someone.

Darn those 'rr's.

I don't correct anybody except for my family members. And the only thing that get's me is the word, good. and that's only because my of friend always telling me, when I said, "I'm feeling good," that it's "supposed to be well."

I wouldn't mind if someone corrected me though. I correct people in languages other than english though...

What a great question. I know I correct my friends, usually I use the phrase "actually it's blah blah blah" None of them seem to really mind. I when I get corrected I usually feel embarassed and stay quiet for a long time after the correction.

I don't tend to correct people's grammatical errors. However I have been known to correct spelling errors on essay extracts and stuff like that. Also, I don't mind being corrected, I guess it serves me right for correcting people's (written) mistakes in the first place, so if you can't take it, don't give it, I suppose.

Back in college I tended to make a production about it. You know something like "wait, wait, hold on. How is it that you are able to BREATHE!? I mean, bleeding christ, how the fuck did you get here? Why am I friends with you? I am drowning in a deluge of HICK SPEAK. ;____;" I think it was for failing to use the subjunctive. As in, I think he said "If I was gay..." Everyone would laugh. And then EVERYONE would refuse to use the subjunctive. =(

Actually this particular incident likely didn't happen, however it still serves as a model for the type of thing which did happen. I just can't remember; it's been so long. =(

I will only correct someone if I am alone with them. If there are other people present, or even someone within earshot, I refrain from making a comment. People can get embarrassed if the are shown to be wrong, so I avoid embarrassment. I know this because one of my friends had a habit of correcting people when there were large groups, and it was always embarrassing.

I do make mistakes of my own sometimes, though. Some words, I've never heard someone speak, but I've read them in books, or I may come across a word I've never seen before, and read it out loud phonetically. I don't see how a person can speak perfectly all the time without being corrected, so I don't think it's wrong to correct someone, just some wrong instances.

I usually only correct those who make corrections. When I talk to people familiar with Des Moines, Iowa, I used to pronounce the silent "S". When you say Des Moines, you say "De Moine". Of course, the tables turn when you talk about Des Plaines, Illinois. "What? Did you just say 'De Plaine'? Do you think you're Tattoo or something? 'De Plaine! De Plaine!' It's DES PLAINES joker."

It urks a lot of Chi-town natives when you pronounce the 'S' in 'Illinois'. It is pronounced 'elle-noy', not 'elle-noise'. It doesn't bother me too much, but it is a nice distinction to tell who really is an Illinois native.

I haven't met many people who don't know that you don't pronounce the 's' in Illinois, and I'm not from there.

Don't suppose anyone's heard of a little book called, "Eats, Shoots and Leaves"?
http://www.profilebooks.co.uk/images/titles/t325.jpg

Lynne Truss was inspired to write a book about the "inner stickler" in people (the urge to correct spelling and grammar - particularly in terms of punctuation and stuff) also doubling up as a brief history of punctuation, because she read in some leaflet, "The panda eats, shoots and leaves":

"A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

Why? asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

I’m a panda, he says, at the door. Look it up."

I find that more amusing than I probably should.
Anyway - the book came with a bunch of stickers. These stickers were mostly punctuation marks, but some were blank. The idea was to use these to rectify punctuation omissions/mistakes in posters - like on a shop that sells "Video's" or something similar.

Ha! Do you happen to go to college in Texas? ;_; Not that I'm 'drowning in a deluge of hick speak' there, but I've heard plenty of errors and such. If I make one little grammatical error in my speaking, my grandma or my viola teacher are allllll over my ass about it. Sometimes I try to correct myself, before they do. I know when I'm using bad grammar, and frankly, I don't give a damn.

Hell yes, that's what this makes me think of! I love books that poke fun at language; there's another book, Ella Minnow Pea and while it's not about punctuation and usage of language, it's still amusing.

I'm not really fussed about people's mistakes any more unless their grammar is so bad that I can't understand what they're trying to say. It's always fun when someone complains about others' "spelling and grammer" though.

That would be too good to be true.
It doesn't actually happen...does it?

A lady at my church always says Tusami instead of (t)sunami. She also says Science-tology instead of Scientology. Drives my up the wall.

tusami!! haha!! that would erk the hell outta me!! today a friend of mine kept saying facsilime instead of facsimile!! i corrected her like 3 times & she still couldn't get it right!! it's prolly a bad habit of mine - but i look at it this way - i'm just trying to help them to keep from looking dufus-y in front of someone who might really matter!
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Listen to Bunny Gamer by Xiu Xiu : napster.com

"me". Drives me up the wall.

I almost forgot...my grandpa was just as bad as my mom with spanish (maybe that's where she gets it from). He would always say Ree-LEN-o for relleno [reh-YEH-no] and occasionally say tor-TILL-uhs for tortillas. Gah, I could never get past that. I mean, come on. It's not like we haven't been eating mexican food our whole lives >_<. The 'll' makes a 'y' sound!!!

Except for that it's "Hal-a-pen-yo."

The one that pisses me off the most is the word "both." I run into a ton of people that pronouce it "bowLth." There is no L in both.

My mom has a tendency to say "acrosst" instead of "across." I have no idea why she's adding the t at the end.

I try my best not to correct people in person at all unless we are very close friends. Most of my friends would appreciate me saving them the embarassment (as would I). I usually approach is with something like, "I could be wrong, but I think it's pronoucned..." Or I'll just end up working the same word into the conversation and pronounce it correctly myself. For the most part I figure, "who am I to correct anybody?"

It only bothers me if somebody corrects me when they're acutally wrong, or if they do it in a condescening manner.

I know. That's why I said I got her to not say it with the 'PEE' in it.
:p

(My bad; I totally read what you wrote wrong... Open mouth - insert foot!)

Haha! awesome. Where is your mom from? Mine has trouble pronoucing Spanish too. Every time she tries she ends up speaking sort of a pigeon english that she picked up in Nigeria as a kid. Totally crazy.