Do you use correct English when you are talking to your friends?

[Channa]

When we're communicating with our keyboards to our friends, we tend to type quickly to get our message across. Some of us don't care about grammar and spelling while others type as if they are writing a essay. I think practice makes perfect so what's your take on this?

Its good when you are talking to someone you use proper English. It makes a lot of sense. And it is important too.

[katara]

I wouldn't say I use proper English when talking or texting to friends and that is only because I feel confortable when I am with them and don't have the time to worry about grammar or the vocabulary.

[Channa]

I don't correct them unless the mistake looks like it's going to be embarrassing for them if they repeat it in front of someone outside our group. Otherwise, as long as we're understanding each other, I think it's fine.

For those of us who speak English , we should speak properly. Why I say so because I come from Jamaica and we speak different and so it is very important to speak properly.

[rahimbahrain]

Well, it doesn't matter, if I am talking or writing, I always try to use correct language complete with proper accent, appropriate vocabulary and good grammar.

Of course, this doesn't mean, I am always perfect.  I may try and fail, but I never fail to try.

[JohnSword]

I live in Singapore, which is well-known for Singlish, which is basically English with elements of Chinese and Malay incorporated into it.

While I use standard English when it comes to work, me and my friends feel more comfortable conversing in Singlish.

[Akiyama]

Hi,

Usually I speak correct English, but there are a few occasions where I use slang by accident. These moments don't happen often, but I usually always notice it when I do it.

Akiyama

[brothainarms]

I try to... I have quite a few friends who are grammar nazis so I find myself thinking about whatever I'm about to say before I say it.  I guess it's good practice for me! 

[Shamde]

I definitely use correct grammar when possible. Spelling I am much more lax on, assuming they know what I mean, that's fine. I'm not going to go spell check a word every time I'm not sure! Not in a casual setting anyway. I get really mad when people needlessly correct me. If they knew what I meant, and they know it was a typo, it's really not necessary!

[myreallife85]

When i chat with my friends, i use comfortable words and easy patterns. Casual English is the best when talking and joking with each other.

[Lodismel]

I actually do use correct English when I'm talking to my friends. Unless of course I'm being silly and not doing so on purpose. There is a difference between correct English and Formal English though. I'm definitely not formal at all. In fact I think people would be shocked at a lot of the dumb things that my friends talk about.

[lllllllllllllllllllllllll]

As far as grammar is concerned then I talk to them in a proper way. It is a nice opportunity to practice the language, and practice makes perfect. You can use slang without sacrificing the grammar. I mean you can say "can you lend me 5 bucks?" which retains the grammatical correctness while using a slang instead of saying "can I has 5 bucks?"

[sos]

I don't usually use correct English when talking to my friends in fact it would be awkward.Being a youth the main form of communication is usually slang of a language we call "sheng'" which is a mixture of Swahili and English.

[WeDontSleep]

Huh, that's an interesting question. What is "correct English"? I talk to foreigners almost every day and I just talk the same as I talk to my university professors. Maybe it's just the way I was taught or maybe I have never been exposed to the the different ways of communicating in English.

[Cadence]

I think this depends on who I'm talking to. When I talk to my american friends I tend to use less correct english because of the simple reason that they don't. When talking in english with my swedish friends (yes, I do this, not sure why) I am more keen on using correct english, at least in writing. Me and my boyfriend both writes and speaks almost exclusively in english with each other (even though we both speak swedish) and we tend to do it in a less serious way. Not that our english isn't good but we generally don't care for correct pronunciation and substitute correct grammar for more lolcat-like talking (i can haz?). I really don't know why we do this. Maybe because we're weird..

[pahagwl]

English is not my first language so, I have not achieved the amount of fluency which the native speakers do. This is the reason due to which I occasionally make mistakes while having conversations with my friends in English. Though I continuously try to weed out the mistakes from my language.

[Litnax]

Guilty as charge - I never use correct English when chatting with friends, especially my own Malaysian friends. I do strive to use correct English when I chat with my penpals online though.

[Emmanuel]

Almost never. Me and my friends all use slang and acronyms out loud as satire. It's gotten to the point where I think we've created our own dialect. People eavesdropping on our conversations can't understand us. 

[Cookiesandcream]

I think you have the entire keyboard, you should use it. I personally don't like shortening words or phrases and i'm not used to them either. My friends and I are the same in this case so it's not really a big problem for me.

[Takedon]

All of my friends are used to writing really wrong on Facebook and on internet in general but I tend to write correctly because if I start writing like them I might forget how to write correctly, like they did.

[erikao1o]

I use so much slang when I'm talking to my friends! To a person who is just learning to speak English, how we talk would definitely be difficult to understand. A lot of the words we use have double meanings, and some things are even inside jokes. I can't imagine trying to listen to the crazy things we talk about!

[CeliVega]

It depends. I try to use perfect english during communication whenever possible, but when I am speaking with some really close friends I tend to mix it up but putting in a few local languages to make our interactions more "fun-sounding". It's important to remember not to get used to it though. Sometimes you get so used to it that you forgot that you have to use a more formal speeches in certain circumstances!

[Trellum]

In the written form? Yes, definitely!  Because if I don't take the time to write proper English when I'm communicating with friend online, then there is a huge chance this will become a habit and little by little my spelling will just get worse and worse, so will my grammar.  Yes, I know it sounds silly, but it can actually happen, at least to me (I know myself).

I'm guilty of doing something far worse than this tho, I'm guilty of not putting a lot effort into SPEAKING  proper English when I'm with people who are close to me.  Yes, my accent is horrid, because I'm not putting  a lot effort into sounding better, because well, I'm just chilling!

But this is awful and needs to stop!  I did this in the Netherlands, I was aware of it, but it wasn't until I watched a video of myself and heard myself talking that I realized my accent was really strong!!!  Yes, to my dismay!  I need to work on that if I want to find a decent job soon...

[justusforus]

I always like to write and speak properly to friends and even folks I am just meeting.  There is so much slang and short cuts these days and I think it leads to sloppiness and bad habits.

Like the word "irregardless" is so often used, I think others pick up on this improper word since they hear it so much.  I would never correct anyone in a way to hurt their feelings, but I think we all should strive to be, talk and by way of example do all we can to the best, not worst or simplest, of our abilities.

[Jane Hastings]

I like to talk or write to my friends properly because I don't want to be misunderstood and I think they also want that. But we don't use complicated words just to sound smart. We simply use simple words so we can understand each other easily. I tend to correct myself most of the time but sometimes I just don't care as long as the recipient understood my message. 

[Pink Glitter]

I must admit that when I am with my friends my proper English take a back seat. We slide in to lazy language and use a large amount of slang. Many of the grammar rules go out the window. The endings of some words get dropped. Yes we do know how to speak proper English , but in a casual setting we often relax the rules.