I’ve seen a number of posts lately like “How to get yadda yadda yadda” but when you click, the content is actually a question about the subject line, which sucks.

If you’re posting a question, please make it look like a question. It’s EASY… Just put a QUESTION MARK at the end of your subject line. It looks like this:

?

We’re pirates here, not fucking savages.

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    1431·
    6 months ago

    Arrrr, I’m here t’ make replicas o’ all yer punctuation!

    Avast, wher’ be th’ interrobang!?

    Seriously though, while this post is cute, let’s remember not everyone speaks English as a first language, and while many languages do use the English Alphabet, many do not and so there are still quite a few people unfamiliar with the proper English punctuation.

    • eltimablo@kbin.social
      481·
      6 months ago

      That’s great and all, but for those of us that do speak English and are expecting certain grammatical norms, eschewing those norms, regardless of the validity of the reason, makes it significantly harder for us to parse.

      The question mark is not a rare piece of punctuation, either. It’s used in China. It’s used in Japan. It’s used in Vietnamese, every Romance language I’ve ever encountered, and every Germanic language I’ve ever encountered. I’m not saying I understand all those languages, but I can certainly recognize when someone’s asking a question in one because the question mark remains the same.

      This is a piss-poor excuse and reeks of the attitude of one who’s never encountered a language that doesn’t use the Latin Alphabet even in passing. Oh yeah, by the way, it’s called the Latin Alphabet, not the English Alphabet.

      • TwilightKiddy@programming.devEnglish
        41·
        6 months ago

        Not to invalidate the point made, but…

        While Japanese indeed uses question marks, you can get screwed if you think that every sentence without a question mark at the end is not a question. For example, this is a grammatically correct question:

        それは質問ですか。

        • refalo@programming.devEnglish
          3·
          6 months ago

          for real… the か character I would even go so far as to claim is often MORE prevalent without the question mark.

        • eltimablo@kbin.social
          1·
          6 months ago

          That’s reasonable. I pulled that info from Wikipedia, and I don’t speak Japanese, so I just was going off that.

    • Dave@lemmy.nzEnglish
      32·
      6 months ago

      Isn’t that an argument for the existence of this post? Many don’t know this, well, now they do.

    • otp@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      152·
      6 months ago

      I can forgive the incorrect “How to get blah?” sentence formation, but leaving out a question mark (which are common across many languages) makes it look like purposeful clickbait.

      • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
        76·
        6 months ago

        I cannot forgive that. English is not a language that allows you to turn a statement into a question just by changing punctuation. This is covered in like day one: “What is your name?”

        If you learned English through media and not formal classes, you have even less excuse, because then you should be learning how people talk in the real world, not just formal classroom English.

        • otp@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          111·
          6 months ago

          It’s actually pretty common to change a sentence into a question with rising intonation in speech, which is pretty much just adding a question mark.

          “Fries.” is a statement of what something is or what someone wants. “Fries?” is asking if someone wants fries.

          “I said that.” is a statement about something someone said. “I said that?” is a question about whether they said something.

          Of course, we could add emphasis to any of those three words and end up with 3 different questions.

          “I said that?” … No, I guess it was your partner, not you.

          “I said that?” … Well, you sure IMPLIED it!

          “I said that?” … Yes, verbatim. It’s even in the video from last night.

          All from changing a “.” to a “?” in the sentence “I said that.”.

    • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
      11·
      6 months ago

      My (non-english) native language uses the question mark, but many don’t use it out of lazyness. I don’t think this is a local issue. Also, are there really that many languages that do not use a question mark? I would have thought that is the rarity.

      Besides, most english content I read on lemmy are not nearly that bad to justify that.

    • Ilandar@aussie.zoneEnglish
      144·
      6 months ago

      there are still quite a few people unfamiliar with the proper English punctuation.

      The irony of this coming from an American. You guys are so clueless.

      • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.eeEnglish
        9·
        6 months ago

        Yep, non native speakers get the punctuation right every time. Native speakers whose education system is in the toilet are the real perpetrators 😂

        • Ilandar@aussie.zoneEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          Actually my point was that Americans don’t always use “proper English punctuation” since they co-opted the language and then randomly changed a bunch of things for absolutely no reason.