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In the #algorithms channel on Libera IRC (earlier on Freenode) that its operators and I have been operating since 2007, we have always had the following note in

• raverbashing 5y ago
  Well, usually, the worse offenders of the English language are the native English speakers. They are the ones who make basic mistakes like "it's" in place of "its", "who's", etc and other similar basic mistakes. Sure, non-native speakers sometimes make mistakes but they're usually specific ones, like picking the wrong verb or preposition, not using an idiomatic expression, etc.
  • KptMarchewa 5y ago
    "would of" "could of" are mistakes which no non-native speaker would make.
  • pxeger1 5y ago
    Honestly (as a native speaker) I find the mistakes of native speakers like you describe much more jarring. When I read "to" instead of "too" my brain gets stuck because I "heard" the wrong length of vowel. When an ESL speaker uses an incorrect construction it's much less annoying for a reason I can't really explain - even if it's actually harder to understand. Although I'm hesitant to say it, maybe it's just because they're trying harder. Sometimes I can even tell what their native language is based on the mistakes when I also speak that language, and it makes me chuckle (e.g. unorthodox commas by German speakers).
    • asddubs 5y ago
      yeah I got that one too (non native speaker), where things that sound the same sound different in your brain, even though they don't really if you say them out loud.
    • Beldin 5y ago
      A thing I've heard several Germans do (myself also not native speaker btw, not german though), is translate "biss" always as "until", never as "before" or "by". E.g. "we have to hand in the homework until Friday". It's one of those things that once you've noticed, you keep on noticing and cannot unnotice. You automatically start thinking "wow, that's a lot of handing in! "
      • dmurray 5y ago
        Funny, I would think of this as a word order error instead of a vocabulary one. As a native English speaker, I would say or write "we have until Friday to hand in the homework". It crosses my mind that this may be regional use and not completely standard - I'm honestly not sure.
        • tempestn 5y ago
          It could be either one. You could also say, "We have to hand in the homework by Friday." Depends on which meaning of 'have' you're using, with 'have to' meaning 'must' in this case, as opposed to having an amount of time.
      • taejo 5y ago
        I had a moment of confusion wondering why one would translate "biss" as "until" instead of "bite". "Bis" with one S is the word that should sometimes be translated as "until", "before" or "by". Another one is "seid" which is always translated as "since" but should sometimes be "for" (e.g. "I've worked here since four years")
        • Vinnl 5y ago
          Funnily enough the reverse also happens. Native Dutch speakers will use the Dutch translation of since (in the sense of "ever since") to say because (i.e. "since" in the sense of "since you didn't call, we left without you"). This is an Anglicism, because "sinds" doesn't mean that at all! Or at least, not yet :)
        • pph 5y ago
    • Vinnl 5y ago
      I'm not sure which I find most jarring, but "should of" is definitely up there.
    • tempestn 5y ago
      I think it's that usually ESL mistakes make sense. Generally it's going to be because they generalized a rule that doesn't apply in that particular case, or that they've used a construction from their native language that is different in English. Whereas native speakers do weird things like using "they're" for "there" as I mentioned in another comment. Obviously you can still understand how that mistake happens, but it doesn't feel logical in the same way that many ESL mistakes do.
    • KptMarchewa 5y ago
      My pet pevee is "loose" as lose.
    • felix318 5y ago
      And what about this now common usage of “they” instead of he/she? As a non-native speaker it always makes me go “who the heck are ‘they”? If it’s OK to offend the grammar to avoid offending people, why not just go all the way and also change the conjugation? “They is” sounds just as jarring but it’s not confusing and with time it will become natural. That said, I also have trouble with plural “you” and there is no fix for that other than the hideous (and sexist) “you guys”.
  • pygy_ 5y ago
    English is not my first language, and even though I used not to make these kind of homophone mistakes, I started making them once I became fluent.
    • tempestn 5y ago
      Tangentially but on topic, you have me questioning whether "used not to" is grammatically correct in English. I would say, "I used to not make these kinds of homophone mistakes," and the other phrasing definitely sounds wrong to me, but I'm not 100% confident it is.
      • pygy_ 5y ago
        I stumbled on it, but didn't bother checking :-) It appears that "used not to" is not common. "Never used to", or "didn't use to" would have been better.
  • zerocount 5y ago
    The texting culture we have today only makes matters worse. I'm seeing more people not capitalizing the first word of a sentence, ending declarations with question marks, puting a space between the sentence and the question mark, etc...
  • tempestn 5y ago
    Even worse than it's/its and who's, which in my opinion can at least be understandable mistakes, are things like when someone uses "they're" in place of "there" or "their". I could understand mixing up the latter two, but it's like, what do you think the apostrophe means, exactly?? Obviously the answer is that they don't think about it at all, but it is indeed a bit jarring.
• avgcorrection 5y ago
  Often it’s just a humble brag.