Hiya~ I’ma throw my 2 cents in..
As a native speakers I find that “bad grammar” is generally not bad grammar but.. something else? Not quite “bad writing” but it just feels
off.
(There are exceptions.. Ive read a few stories with grammar so bad I had to stop reading…)
I’ll try to elaborate on this a bit~ Personally, finding the right amount of a grammar to use and matching how your character speaks are what qualify as “good grammar”. Anyways~
As a non-native English speaker, I often ask myself what viewers mean by 'bad' grammar. Can someone give me an example? Is it beyond the right word choice and spelling? It's always hard to judge if my grammar is good or not if I don't know what people base grammar quality on.
Here’s my first example: your post. This fits exactly what I described above—it feels off.
I’d say that you’re using too much grammar in a way? And it also kinda doesn’t
flow. Each individual sentence in a vacuum is fine, but placed together in context it feels wrong.
Can someone give me an example?
This sentence to me feels wrong, out of place. It’s a fine sentence, but feels off. (If I had written this post I’d say “Can I have an example?”)
Also using “beyond” in the manner you did doesn’t really work. It gets the point across, but feels wrong and is technically (I think).
Read this:
As a non-native English speaker, I often ask myself what viewers mean by 'bad' grammar. Can I have an example? Is it more than the right word choice and spelling? It's hard to judge if my grammar is good or not if I don't know what people base grammar quality on.
I made 3 changes. 2 are highlighted in red, and then I removed “always” in the last sentence.
Why remove the always? It feels right. But also
I think it violates the maxim of quantity (basically you generally convey the amount of information needed, and no more or less. If you want to learn more, look it up). The always is implied so adding it is redundant and feels off.
No, thank you. I used it for quite some time, even the premium version, but it did not make me more confident in my own abilities. Also, Grammarly's comma placement is often weird. Grammarly is nice for the correction of spelling mistakes, however, it won't correct you if you use the wrong word.
I’m going to just dump my edited version here and explain after…
No thanks. I used it for quite some time, even the premium version, but it didn’t make me more confident in my own abilities. Also, Grammarly's comma placement is often weird. It is nice for the correction of spelling mistakes, but it won't correct you if you use the wrong word.
Almost all of these changes are for tone. The original text is far too
formal. This is a random thread not a piece of formal writing so it felt off.
First change, changed “No, thank you” to
“No thanks”. Might be breaking some rules here. I dunno~ but the important part is removing the comma. Thanks or thank you, doesn’t matter. That part is your voice—How do you want to sound? The comma adds formality and makes everything feel off, hence* its removal.
Changing “did not” to “didnt” is again just making everything less formal.
Changing the second grammarly to “it” is done because the subject (grammarly) should already be known from the previous context. Pronouns exist for a reason~
My last change was changing “however” to “but”. Same thing: reducing formality. However, the comma after however
could be left in. I removed it because that’s how I want the sentence to be paced. However, if you want a pause afterwards, keep the comma. This is more of a voice thing again.
*I tend to use some fancier words like “hence” but it doesn’t break the flow.. and just above I used however. I wouldn’t consider this to be formal writing, so, why’s it feel okay? I think it’s because I shift my tone to be formal, thus making it fit in. I dunno honestly~
So in short, a non-native speaker may be too 'good' at English, and because native speakers don't always follow strict grammar rules, they might think of it as 'wrong'. Edit: Too "good" may not be the right word.... They follow the rules too closely.
This above text is great and I have no comments on it~ To me, this sounds like a native speaker.
