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Life Divergent
Tune in to listen to us as we discuss our experiences of living life divergently.
Life Divergent
EP 8 - Grammar Pedantry Syndrome
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In this episode we discuss issues that neurodivergent people can have with grammatical and punctuation errors. We do a lot oh joking around in this episode, but please know, we do not look down on anyone.
Hello, welcome. I'm Trina. I was gonna let you introduce yourself this time. Hello, my name is Jason. Heads up might have been nice, huh? And this is Life Divergent. In today's episode, we're gonna be discussing grammar pedantry syndrome.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's it's a thing informally or pop culturally, but regardless of what type of EE it is, don't hold us accountable for diagnosing yourself, or there's no instance in which we are responsible for anything you do with this information. General disclaimer: we're not doctors, we're not lawyers, we're not anything worthy of time or attention. So don't give it that.
SPEAKER_02We are saying I've been sick all week. Um, it's still a little iffy, but um yeah, so as he was saying, Grammar Pedantry syndrome is um not um what am I trying to say, a real diagnosis or anything like that. It's pop psychology, if only I could talk. All right, yeah. I have a friend.
SPEAKER_00It's a yellow Yoshi.
SPEAKER_02It is, and he walks, in theory. He's not gonna walk on my hand for you.
SPEAKER_00He is not.
SPEAKER_02He makes he can walk on air. There we go.
SPEAKER_00He tries really hard.
SPEAKER_02He has a little red shell. Yes.
SPEAKER_00There there was a previous episode where I brought this friend.
SPEAKER_02Yes, you did. I love that friend.
SPEAKER_00If if this friend decides to turn itself inside out.
SPEAKER_02Aha.
SPEAKER_01It's an angry version.
SPEAKER_02Pigs fly. Right, and Yoshi goes in here. He doesn't turn himself out inside out, but he goes in here, in theory. Okay, very good. So there are our friends, and here we are in our episode. So, grammar pedantry syndrome, as we said, is a pop psychology term. It's not a clinical diagnosis. Um, still a lot of researchers these days are linking the behavior to obsessive-compulsive features and perfection perfectionism.
SPEAKER_00I don't know what you wanted me to add right now.
SPEAKER_02Nothing really. Okay, but I guess um the point of our episode is why do neurodivergent people care so much um about grammar, punctuation, and that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00Because people are wrong and they need to know it.
SPEAKER_02Is it just because we like to be text? No, that's not why. We actually have this thing inside of us um that can be like an anxiety thing that causes us discomfort like and physical pain when we deal with things like that. You want to tell us kind of why, Jason? Why grammar hits us differently?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Languages were built a specific way for a specific reason. So people might not understand the rules. People might say, oh, you know what I meant. It's like perhaps in a specific instance here and there, but everything about a language was designed specifically for clarity or to make a specific point in whatever instance. So if you are not precise, or if you have a typo, or you speak in shorthand or whatever, it can lead to some confusion. And so it's critical for people who need clarity, and and I know that uh specifically, or especially people on the spectrum who have a strong dislike for being misunderstood, it's important to say what you mean, and it's important that people can understand you.
SPEAKER_02Right. Um, I know a typo, like if I'm reading, for example, a book, something that I perceive to be a typo or a grammatical error or a um punctuation error sends me for a loop. And it's hard for me to pick that book back up or to have faith in the book, if that makes any sense. It's it's difficult me for me to trust that book. Um it it it's it's too much for me. Do you have any um things like that? In books and having a lack of no, just um typos and meaning other than what you've already said. Um, can we start this again?
SPEAKER_00Why?
unknownI don't know.
SPEAKER_00This is fine. Listen, it's like 7.50. I'm un medicated today. My ability to stay focused is negative. So if you can just understand that's where I am and like pull me in if I seem like I'm not as responsive.
SPEAKER_02Okay, got it. All right, so then there's um hyperlexia and patterns. So many of us who are neurodivergent, we um hyperfocus on words, spelling, and pattern breaks. It's essential for us to have that that clarity, as we said earlier. Um, and errors can feel physically grating. Like, I guess, like if you run your nails down a chalkboard, the way that affects me is the way that grammatical and so forth errors affect me. I'm not saying I'm never wrong because I am a lot, and fortunately, I have people around me who will correct me.
SPEAKER_00Um and that's okay. Like, I'm okay with being corrected because I mean, how many people out there really want to go around just being wrong all the time, knowing that everyone around them knows it? Like, that's horrible. Then, like, that's like when you find it's okay. So it's like you found out your fly was down for like eight hours today, and then you're if you never knew, you never knew, but when you find out it's like a horribly embarrassing, why did nobody tell me? This is how long was I like that? This is the verbal equivalent of your fly being down.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Except, is that painful for you?
SPEAKER_00Not the the error portion of it. The the only part of it that's like I meant the fly thing. I mean sometimes the if you zip it up too quickly, yeah. I mean that's got a little bit of something about Mary in there, which is I mean, that can be physically ripping. But as far as you said with the errors and the the nails on the chalkboard, that doesn't, I don't feel that way, but when I I I don't really correct people anymore because in the instance where I would, and they would be annoyed by it or refuse to change or refuse to even look, I'm not telling you I'm right. I'm giving just just look, figure it out for yourself. Don't just assume that I'm wrong because you don't like how it makes me feel. That that's what's grading for me is people's inability to accept that maybe they're not perfect any of the time, as is made evident by the increase of my volume. I it drives me insane.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um, there are uh a great number of people who find it difficult to um take any sort of feedback in a positive way. Um, that's one thing about um like us, anyway. We are good at correcting each other, but we also welcome being corrected compared to some people who try to correct but aren't good at the constructive criticism themselves.
SPEAKER_00No, you're using the wrong there because you're stupid. Like, don't be that guy for sure, right?
SPEAKER_02Okay, um, and then you know, I understand some people because you know we struggle with um neurodivergence on several levels, but there are some people who do struggle with um rejection-sensitive dysphoria, and that's something that's common in ADHD and in autism, and for people like that, if they get pushed back on um it being corrected and that kind of thing, that can be painful. Um, for us, because at least for myself, it's the only person I can really speak for, um, because I know how it feels for me, if things are wrong, I'm trying to help people who might feel the same way, but unintentionally hurt them, especially you know, if they're neurodivergent as well. So that can be one of the unfortunate consequences. And I kind of, as you said earlier and I agreed, have stopped correcting people so much. I will correct people in my own little circle, um, but other people in general, I don't bother anymore. I just stay away from people now.
SPEAKER_00The the RSD comments can be uh as you're saying, refer like what the hell am I trying to say? If if you provide a correction and someone pushes back and you have the rejection sensitiveness, uh that that pushback can be hard. The other side of it is people might be resistant because maybe they're the ones who are just RSDing all over the place. You provide a correction, and that's like suggesting that they're wrong, and that can be interpreted as a sense of rejection of their place in a social setting. And those two things can work against each other.
SPEAKER_02Right. So you have yeah, um, so when um when talking about this, I think that I do like the term grammatical pedanter syndrome compared to um other things that are used, like um especially I know grammar police is used often, but so many times the label grammar Nazi is used, and I very much dislike that. I find it highly objectionable.
SPEAKER_00First of all, because I don't like the word Nazi, but because it's just a word, it's like it describes the type of like those were what you don't like the word Nazi?
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_00That's not like a slur, it's just that's what they were called.
SPEAKER_02I know, but it it makes it seem like you're assuming that you're trying to control people by correcting people.
SPEAKER_00Um, you said you didn't like the word Nazi, but you don't like the expression grammar Nazi in the conversation.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um because it assumes that you're trying to control people. Um, when really it's a night neurodivergent trait, and there's no malice, there's no superiority in it, it's just there's something in you that uh uh yeah.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, grammar Nazi is obviously their negative associations with the term Nazi, so it's not the people who prefer correct grammar and who correct people, they didn't come up with that label, really. It's it's people don't like being corrected, and they use the label grammar Nazi by demonizing the people who are trying to help or trying to deal with their own internal struggles. It makes them feel better about the fact that they are perhaps being corrected. So instead of reflecting on yourself and accepting that, God forbid you might be wrong about something ever, we're just gonna disparage or say something negative about these other people who are dealing with issues of their own or trying to do things the right way.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it um it also kind of villainizes, um, and it turns neurodiversity into a stereotype in a sense, um, instead of acknowledging or recognizing that you're just wired differently. As you said the other day, and somebody said they really liked it, um, that you know you're you're using a different operating system, um, and your operating system is wired for clarity.
SPEAKER_00Um I didn't even know I had wired.
SPEAKER_02Number five is alive.
SPEAKER_00Anyway.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Did you ever see that move?
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, but I mean listen, you can just tune me out. That's fine. I bring no serious value. It's all jokes all the time.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Anyway, so moving on. Okay, so it's do you have to wonder why we're talking about this? If some because some people think it's just about correcting people, because you need to know that I'm better than you, which is not the case. Or I feel better about myself because I'm pushing everyone else down. Again, that's not the case. It's behavior that's linked to things like uh perfectionism or even obsessive-compulsive behavior, like either OCD or or OCPD, depending on how you feel about correcting people, which is a whole other episode.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So um what happens is you have this brain loop where a typo can feel like chaos, which triggers an anxiety response. And then fixing that typo can bring you a sense of relief.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so and then yeah you have people who like to to exploit that that anxiety response or that stressor or whatever because it's funny to them. Perhaps a little bit of a digression, but you know the the expression whatcha doing. Whatcha isn't really a word, but it's an expression, you know, it's fine. I was talking to someone, and they would like if they're reaching out, they might say whatcha doing. And then a couple times they said what doing. And I'm like, whatcha doing's already shorthand. Now you're just saying what doing? What next you're just gonna put the letters W D. What do? And now that's all I ever get is W D for what you're doing. Just because one time I suggest like I was annoyed, like jokingly, but I suggested, oh, why don't you just do that if you're gonna do it wrong? And that's just all I get now forever.
SPEAKER_02So um, yeah, that's unfortunate when people do it intentionally because they know that it bothers you.
SPEAKER_00That's a whole conversation and a half. Like people who make it for sure. They have this enjoyment of seeing others suffer. It's like, what kind of person are you, really?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, as you said, it's a whole different um conversation, but really it's like just to be clear, it goes beyond just bother. Um, a fly flying around my head bothers me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But this goes beyond that.
SPEAKER_00Um I know it's like you want to smack the fly, sure. I mean, I guess people who are wrong, you want to do this thing. Anyway, those are just jokes, officially.
SPEAKER_02Um so what um some researchers have found is that this GPS, which again, pop psychology term, not a clinical diagnosis, um, is more common in introverts and people with intolerance for ambiguity. Now we were talking about um how clarity is the onus of the speaker, but we agreed that it was also the onus of the receiver if the receiver realized that the information that they received wasn't clear. Um, however, if you don't know the questions to ask, then you don't know that the information that you received was wrong. Did I say that right?
SPEAKER_00I think so.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00You use the word onus, which I'm sure, I mean, I had never heard of that word before, but contextually you can figure out. But I think what's appropriate for this episode is me saying you're using a word that I don't understand and I don't like how it makes me feel. So I'm gonna think that you're pretentious for using that word.
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you. I appreciate it. So would you like me to tell you what onus means?
SPEAKER_00No, I know what it means. I was saying I could I figured it out contextually. That was easy enough, but that's not a word I'd heard before.
SPEAKER_02Oh, wow, cool. All right, so um you seem pleased with that.
SPEAKER_00Like you're you seem pleased with that. Like you're impressed with what I didn't know.
SPEAKER_02You learned something.
SPEAKER_00I'm always learning stuff.
SPEAKER_02I was pleased because you learned a new word.
SPEAKER_00And I'm not learning things in life, I'm wasting my time.
SPEAKER_02Exactly that a burden, responsibility, or obligation to do something. That's for other people who might not have understood.
SPEAKER_00I know you're doing that for others who may not have really heard the whole sentence or had already tuned out because it's hard to stay focused.
SPEAKER_02Because we're all over the place, aren't we? We are. Um, so um for fun, or not for fun, but um we thought we would share some of the things that um really grind our gears.
SPEAKER_00That's that's a list, that's a whole list.
SPEAKER_02It is.
SPEAKER_00And I don't mean that kind of as a I don't mean that figuratively, we have a whole list.
SPEAKER_02We do, we have a whole list.
SPEAKER_00Um and I wanted to comment further before we get into that.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I'm so sorry. Go ahead. Oh, you're fine.
SPEAKER_00Uh I I did want to add comments, commentary to how it feels. I know that we talked about it briefly, but it's if there are typos or words that aren't being used correctly, or there's ambiguity, it's it's a stressful. Fixing it can be a relief, that's for sure. And that's kind of the the OCPD kicking in. Or I do know for some people, fixing it is like a requirement, and it's not relieving, it's just it's a stressor all the way through, and it's like something that has to be done. There's no relief afterward, it's just it's just a thing that happened that was stressful the whole time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, moving on until the next one, kind of.
SPEAKER_00And depending on the company you carry, that could be all the time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You know, I had um I worked at this company, and there was this one particular person who supposedly she was pretty smart and good at her job or whatever, but I could not work with her. And she was like the main person over this one department, and it was something that I was learning. And anytime she sent an email to me, I had to forward it to my boss and get her to um translate it for me because she didn't use proper punctuation, she didn't necessarily use complete sentences. Um, she would just throw down some thoughts, throw down thoughts, throw down thoughts, and it's like, I need complete sentences, I need A, B, C, D. And it's okay if you throw in an X and a Y, but they have to connect. Um, but I need complete sentences. Um, so I literally would have to send it to my boss to get her to translate um what the person was trying to tell me because she didn't have proper grammar, didn't have proper punctuation, and I could I couldn't do it. I just couldn't. I I still to this day don't understand how other people understood what the hell she was talking about most of the time. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I've had that issue as well. Dockwood at work. Like in a personal setting, I it's I'm fine telling people to clarify something for me. But if I'm like working with customers or clients and they send an email, I don't want to say, can you reword this in a way that makes sense?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that comes off as um yeah. Arrogant. That's not the word I'm trying to say.
SPEAKER_00Rude?
SPEAKER_02That too.
SPEAKER_00I'm telling them they don't make sense.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Or that's an inference they can make.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I never went back to that woman and told her, you know, I just went to my boss and said, please explain this to me in a way I understand. So yeah. All right. Um, I I get that some people are more educated than others. Um, and some people just have um ways that they're raised or um in their families that are different. So I'm not trying to judge other people. I'm trying to, well, I'm not even trying to do anything with the way that I feel. I just feel, but as we said earlier, in correcting, or when I was correcting, I would be trying to find some relief. And I think what finally ruined it for me was I was dating this person one time who kept saying things incorrectly, and I would correct him. And he just kept doing it and doing it and doing it. And so I asked him one time. I'm like, I seriously want to know when I tell you the right way to say things and you keep saying it wrong anyway. Are you doing it because you don't remember that I corrected you, or are you doing it because you don't care? And his answer was, I don't care. So that was painful. Our relationship didn't last very much longer.
SPEAKER_00I would think that's less painful, at least for me, because it's like if you don't care, then it's like okay, sure, you just it's not something that's important to you. But it's important to me. Yeah, I get that. But if some people I'd rather you not care than be irritated as if it's frustrating for you that someone's calling you out, like at least not caring, it doesn't mean it's not like a personality quirk that needs to be removed, just like I'm just repeating myself at this point.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So shall we get onto our list?
SPEAKER_00We're not finished with our slides. You you I know you're excited to to rant about these things.
SPEAKER_02Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00So, what can you do about this? If if you if you're a sufferer of incorrectness, there's something else. Um, you made a comment about people being uneducated. Now, I I wanted to chime in with that's not a bad thing to not have an awareness of a topic or to not have that knowledge. It's just a thing. So if someone references an ignorance on a topic or being uneducated, some people might say it as like an insulting way, but it's just, I mean, look at the definitions of the words or what the phrase really means. It's it's just descriptive and be honest with yourself about whether or not it's true. If there's a topic like grammar, you're not really familiar with the intricacies, you might be ignorant to that topic, you might not be as educated, but that's that's okay if that's just where you are. You know, just understand where you are in a skill set or a development, and then be okay with that and stay there, or work toward getting you know stronger in that ability.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_02That's fine.
SPEAKER_00It's nothing to worry about.
SPEAKER_02Right. Again, this is kind of a touchy subject where we could come across as dicks and um like um arrogant and so on, but that is not the way it's intended because honestly, as I've said a number of times now, it physically bothers me. Some of these things, like I cringe, um not cringe, but anyway.
SPEAKER_00It's very important to understand that when people are talking about knowledge, level of education, or just skills that you might be developing. Commentary on that has nothing to do with the quality of your character and who you are as a person. So in theory, in a perfect world, you sh people shouldn't be bothered by it. You would, I mean, that's not how people work, but and that's also like the data version of me talking. Um, so I'm just saying try to not take it personally, it's just stuff.
SPEAKER_02Unless the person is in fact being a dick, then you can, but we're not, so don't. Yeah. All right. Um, so what you can do though, if you um are find yourself in a situation where you need to tell people, you know, like if in a work situation or something like that, in a place where you feel safe, you can tell people, look, you know, my brain reads language literally. I'm not trying to be critical, I just need it clear so I can follow um what's been said. Um, so anything else on that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, actually, there's a strong difference between saying, hey, you know, I'm I read language literally, I just need it to be clear so I can follow. You could say that, sure. Certainly don't say you're stupid and it's pissing me off. Probably the wrong answer. You know, don't do that. You gotta just try to be understanding and you know, communicate clearly.
SPEAKER_02Well, if you're expecting someone to understand where you're coming from, you need to understand where they're coming from as well. And it has to be uh symbiotic.
SPEAKER_00I don't know why it's hard for me to be serious sometimes, just I'm joking a lot. I don't know. All right, so you want to talk about the things that you hate?
SPEAKER_02Sure, why not? Um, I'll just start off with and also in general, redundance redundancies drive me insane, and also is one of the biggest ones, and I've noticed that it has crept crept creeped crept into our um society more and more lately that people will be and also all you need is one or the other, and or also because they mean the same thing, and to put them together is being redundant. How does that affect me? It it it it it yeah, it does. It does. Is that a is that a clarity thing as much as just that's as much as I can clarify without ripping my and showing you inside of me and the pain that I'm in when just me saying it myself, it it's bothersome to me.
SPEAKER_00There are there are a few things that stand out. One that I've recognized that I was doing within the past five years, I recognized it was saying things like, you know, I've got to get this done. You know, if I'm at work, then I looked at it like, I've got to get this done. I have got to get have and got are effectively the same thing. Why am I using both of those words? I mean, that technically have is in possession of got is the past tense of I acquired XYZ. So just pick one. And so now that I recognize that I see it everywhere, and it's just like that's that could be more clear. I don't know if you're saying that it's something that you're in possession of, or have did you recently obtain it? Like, is that the point of the conversation? I just say I've gotten. I've gotten that's I have gotten. I can't, I don't even want to talk about what you just said. I don't even know what that is.
SPEAKER_02I didn't say bottom.
SPEAKER_00I'm done with what I just said. You can move on to the next thing.
SPEAKER_02I'm so sorry. But you know, it's funny because that was a similar thing that happened to me. That was something that I noticed on my own and in a very similar way. All right, the lack of the Oxford comma. You want to explain what the Oxford comma is, Jason, for people who might not know what the heck I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we call it the correct way of doing things.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so there I don't know if that's universal, everyone sees it that way. But if you have a list, you list your first item, you put a comma, you list your second item, you put a comma, and then you would say and the third item, like x, comma, y, comma, and z. Some people don't put the comma before the end, so it's x, comma, y, and z. That can be confusing if you do not do that, but that's her item. I I have strong feelings, but I don't want to just dominate this whole angst.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, my thing was okay, if you're telling me that it's okay not to use that additional comma, what if I'm telling you that at our luncheon today we have three different kinds of sandwiches? We have peanut butter and jelly, egg and cheese, and sausage and bacon. Do you know? Like if I didn't say we had three kinds, if I just said here are the kinds of sandwiches we have peanut butter and jelly, egg and cheese, sausage and bacon. You might think we have four different sandwiches.
SPEAKER_00A lot of ands in there. You only have one comma, just who knows? That could be a mess of stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't know if that was the best um clarification, but for me, I need that comma. If I don't, I mean, again, when I see some of these things, it wrecks me, especially if I'm reading or it's like a a stop. That's how it feels inside of me. All right.
SPEAKER_00I have an example that perhaps doesn't have a lot of sandwiches involved.
SPEAKER_02You don't like my sandwiches? Well, there's a sandwich here in a little bit, so go ahead.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's like uh we were we're gonna go bowling with my friends, John and James. That's when you say my friends, comma, John and James, right? And and so you have you don't have the Oxford comma, you just have the one, my friends, John and James. And that's what you would do if you're separating that because you're letting people know who your friends are in that context. Now, if you're not actually friends with John and James, but you're also going bowling with them and your friends, you could say, I'm going bowling with my friends, John and James. Like those are the people. And so the the Oxford comma identifies that you're you have a list and not that you're describing the thing that you had just said or a uh qualify.
SPEAKER_02So say going with your friend and then John and James.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because you know you don't use the Oxford comma. You said my friends, John and James, and you text someone and they're like, I didn't know you're friends with John and James. What are you doing? Because I'm a high school person, I want to create drama all the time. You're not friends with them. It's like, nah, I wasn't saying that I left out this comma. Trust me, I don't really like these people. Don't worry about it, we're just friends, nah, it's cool. And then it creates a whole issue. All that. All that. Yes, this is a real life scenario, I presume. Of course, if you're the type of person who's gonna get angsty about a comma, you're probably not old enough to be going bowling and hanging out with the bros, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_02I get angsty about commas.
SPEAKER_00Then you're not old enough to hang out with the bros and go bowling.
SPEAKER_02Probably not. All right. Next.
SPEAKER_00This is more uh a greater for you, so feel free to take over that.
SPEAKER_02Towards, forwards, backwards. I don't like that S. Towards I mean it's it's it's regional, sure.
SPEAKER_00America and Canada tend tend to not have the S and toward. But what's the point?
SPEAKER_02Like the um Oxford comma thing. Some people might say, what's the point of that? But it's regional, but it still hurts me.
SPEAKER_00There is a whole court case where uh uh employees of a company were compensated with significant overtime because of a lack of an Oxford comma and an employee handbook. That's interesting.
SPEAKER_02I'll have to look that up.
SPEAKER_00There was something about it. I remember reading about that, and I was like, yes, plus one for Oxford, comma.
SPEAKER_02Yay! All right, so um go ahead. You want to do the next one?
SPEAKER_00Subject verb agreement.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00One that an ex of mine, I have a lot of stories that exes used to do. Why were why was I with these people for as long as I was, honestly? Girls, you have neurodivergences. Probably. Uh there was someone who said, Where's my keys? And I'm like, Where is my key? That's not how that works. It's where are my keys? Or is where is my key? Take your pick. There's a reason why things are done a certain way for a certain reason, so just please do it correctly. And I, being younger and ignorant on this topic, I would just straight up say that's wrong. And then she would continue to do it because she knew it annoyed me a little bit, knew it bothered me. Which I mean is fine. I probably deserved it if I'm just calling it out. Yeah. A little bit controlling. Stop doing that. You're wrong. It's like just Jason, shut up. The things I've learned.
SPEAKER_02I think I like that phrase.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so I've learned a lot in the past 20 years. I am no longer the ignorant fool I was, I'm only the ignorant fool I am. It's a very different person.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Anyway, so that's my frustration on that.
SPEAKER_02It's just Yes. I don't like that either. And I hear plural.
SPEAKER_00Sorry, is singular R plural. What? Is singular R plural? I R plural.
SPEAKER_02And it happens all the time. All the time. And you know what really gets me is when I see people in a profession, like in the media, on radio, on TV, because back in the day this didn't happen. People didn't say, There's ten dogs over there when they were reporting on the news. But you hear things like that nowadays.
SPEAKER_00And I can't. Yeah, we got a whole slew of things to run through.
SPEAKER_02Yes, we do. Alright. So here's one. Make me a sandwich. Poof, you're a sandwich.
SPEAKER_00I think that's the dumbest joke.
SPEAKER_02I know it is, but it illustrates the point, don't you think? It should be. Make a sandwich for me. I know I do this too. I do it all the time, and every time I do it, it irks me. So there's that one.
SPEAKER_00I have a lot of comments on this specific example.
SPEAKER_02Comment.
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_00Uh there's some amount of misogyny in the comments I want to make. Huh? There's some amount of misogyny in the comments I want to make. Because I joke about things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
unknownWhat?
SPEAKER_00You want me to you want it? Is that what you're asking for? That's up to you. You want the joke? No. I mean, it's your podcast. This is gonna tank.
SPEAKER_02It's my podcast. Okay. Are you gonna tell me?
SPEAKER_00This specific type of grammar correction is really it primarily applies to men. That's a joke. I do that. As if it's the men telling the woman to make them a sandwich. That's the joke. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02I got you.
SPEAKER_00It's not a real thing, but there are dicks who actually make me a sandwich. I can make the joke because we all understand that we're not really like that. If I if I were to say that joke to someone who actually believes that and they're like, right? Then I'm all then it's uncomfortable for me. Cause it's like I didn't know you were you weren't supposed to think that's a real thing.
SPEAKER_02No. What what is it that I give off that makes you think that I think that way? Alright. Um, you want to do the next one?
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah. I mean it's not as big of a deal. What? I said it's not as big of a deal. It's it's kind of I have a couple that are that are smaller. Like this one is the difference between amount and number. So uh what's what's a good example? When you talk about your example was the amount of sneezes or the amount of people. Amount is usually in reference to volume. Right. Uh number is quantity of like items.
SPEAKER_02Well, you would say there are ten people, not ten pounds of people.
SPEAKER_00It depends on how dominant people.
SPEAKER_02There's there there's there's a thousand people. There are a thousand people here today.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So that's there was another one. Um oh that's that's also along the same vein as less and fewer.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Because less again also talks about again also. See, I just did that. That's you did. That's that's and also. It refers to volumes, not quantity of.
SPEAKER_02But do you see how we do this and it's painful for us to do it, but we can still laugh at ourselves because we catch ourselves and because of English, it gets kind of confusing because you're like, okay, look at all this money I have, and you're thinking about you got like a thousand dollar bills in your hand, but it's still like an amount of money.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_00You know, I have less money because money is a concept, but you have these like representations of the concept, which are like bills, which are quantity, like I have this number of dollar bills, but you wouldn't say I have this number of money. So it gets kind of it's difficult to know exactly which one to use in some situations. Now, if you're more educated on the topic than I am, you might say it really isn't.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, nerd.
SPEAKER_02Like that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Anyway, pressing on.
SPEAKER_02And that's just the thing. As I said, there are things that I still do that I wish I didn't. And speaking of wishing, I wish there was is incorrect. It's I wish there were. Anything that it's like the subjunctive form. So anything that's like a wish, a dream, I dreamt that there were, something that's not real.
SPEAKER_00Like a hypothetical, too, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yes, a hypothetical. It would be I wish there were rather than I wish there was.
SPEAKER_00That's if you're wondering what does it matter? It's like it helps distinguish the real from the unreal, you know, especially if you're writing. It can get kind of confusing if you're talking about something that actually happened. You know, how am I framing this with respect to my interpretation of what's being told?
SPEAKER_02For me, it just hurts.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean, it matters to me why, but it just hurts. Okay.
SPEAKER_00I mean, there are a lot of things. We could probably just pick a few of these in the interest of time. Because I'm this is not a comprehensive list, and I'm sure if we just stayed here for an hour, we could just nitpick every little thing in the world that stands out as marginally incorrect. But the whole point is the the this is why that we have these conversations, even with each other, because it's it's for clarity and we need that to happen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so next time you're in the presence of a person who's neurodivergent, or if you're neurodivergent, just take a moment to explain to people why you um are expressing a need for clarity, or why you might be correcting them, and hopefully there'll be more understanding in the future.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I got it. There's one I keep looking at this one on this list, and it's driving me insane. I have to say it. I have to say it. Say you mentioned and also, because it's redundant. There's no need to say I thought to myself. Who else are you gonna think to? You can't, oh I thought to my mom. No, you're not psychic. There's no like telepathy. You think to yourself. That's the only way you can think. I just say I thought or I was thinking. Obviously, you thought to my like if there were any point zero zero one percent chance that you could think to any that that statement couldn't apply, why? There, it's just it it's always assumed. Like, if you say if someone asks you what you did this morning, oh, I woke up. Well, of course you woke up, you're here. There are just some things you don't say.
SPEAKER_01Oh I'm back.
SPEAKER_00So I I have a strong opinion on it. Little rant. All right, well, that's outside the scope of this it for our nonsense today.
SPEAKER_02But again, please take this with all the lightheartedness that um we've presented it. And um, you know, again, if we say things that in our podcast and you listen to them and you hear us busting out with some nonsense, correct us. We're gonna be okay with that.
SPEAKER_00And make sure that if and when you do, it's coming from a place of help and not from a place of I want to piss these guys off because they think they're better than us. So I'm gonna find some little niche nuancy thing they're wrong about and then slam them in the comments because they need to go to hell for wanting to be right. So, yeah, don't do that. People are dicks. I'm just saying, please don't. We have feelings too.
SPEAKER_02We do, like people might be hard to tell, but we do. All right, on that note, in the next episode, we are going to be discussing AUDHD, odd combination of autism and ADHD.
SPEAKER_00Is it real? Spoiler alert, yes.
SPEAKER_02Anywho, I mean, as Jason told me last week, we could just answer the question and not do an episode, or it could be the quickest episode ever.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think we're gonna get into it. Like news articles and things, it'll be a question. And if like the answer to the question is one word, then don't write the article about it. Like, like, are these people destroying XYZ? It's like yes, just am I gonna click the link and it's going to be a solitary word? No, then just don't don't do that. Let's okay, these aren't rants. I need to stop. We just need to move on.
SPEAKER_02This is but there it's kind of involved, so that is what we will be discussing in the next episode. Until then, goodbye.
SPEAKER_00See ya, pals.
