Mistakes are everywhere. Just yesterday I pulled out of my letter-box an advertisement with a misused verb. But do those mistakes prevent people from understanding each other? Well, it depends.
In most cases, mistakes don’t play any significant role. In verbal communication, some mistakes are just not distinguishable. Even written language still has enough room for one to make a mistake and get away with it. For instance, the above-mentioned ad used plural imperative mood instead of you-form (in Russian, there are plenty of finite forms, depending on person, number, gender, tense, and mood). Does it necessarily mean that people this ad is addressed to will not understand it? No, it doesn’t. Actually, the majority of the target audience will not just disregard the mistake, but won’t see it at all.
Being grammatically perfect is sometimes not only unavailing, but obnoxious. There is ample evidence that Internet communication is spoken language rather than written. Forums, blogs, social networks are full of language mistakes. Moreover, grammatically correct speech happens to have a hostile reception. And trying “[t]o punctuate, to correct—forever more” [Porter], “or to take a lead pencil against a sea of comma misuse, and by opposing, end them” [ibid.] would end up with a big quarrel, nothing more.
So whether ‘tis nobler to pursue grammatical perfection, that’s not the question. It is, definitely. Yet sometimes it is noble enough to accept mistakes of others. Paying attention, being unselfish, considering circumstances—that is, to my mind, the answer. After all, what we are looking for is not perfection, but mutual understanding, isn’t it?
Porter—Porter, Megan. To be, or not to be. [Blog post.] Cited from Write101x MOOC materials.
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