Friday Funnies: "u" versus "an individual"
Want to know why Fandom Grammar is here?
This may seem like one of those apocryphal funnies that gets posted around on Facebook, but I tested it out, and yup, these are pretty much the kind of autocomplete results you get from Google for these phrases. It's not Google or grammarians or any other social arbiters being elitist-these are autocomplete results compiled and run automatically through Google's algorithms. Millions of searches and selections confirm that these are the likely phrases being searched for.
True, there is an argument to be made that someone searching for "how can an individual" is likely to be looking for a result based on a "society/individual" type of question. To get a wider look at usage, I ran the experiment with:
Does that mean you should never, ever use "u"? There's no reason not to and good arguments for it if your social circle uses it widely in messages to each other. However if you are texting, emailing, or communicating in writing in any way with someone outside your close social circle, it's better to use correct spelling and grammar. Otherwise, fairly or not, you are likely to be judged unfavorably. And that's why Fandom Grammar is here-to help you look your best in writing.
This may seem like one of those apocryphal funnies that gets posted around on Facebook, but I tested it out, and yup, these are pretty much the kind of autocomplete results you get from Google for these phrases. It's not Google or grammarians or any other social arbiters being elitist-these are autocomplete results compiled and run automatically through Google's algorithms. Millions of searches and selections confirm that these are the likely phrases being searched for.
True, there is an argument to be made that someone searching for "how can an individual" is likely to be looking for a result based on a "society/individual" type of question. To get a wider look at usage, I ran the experiment with:
- "how can u" (incorrect/highly informal)
- "how can you" (correct spelling)
- "how can one" (more formal phrasing)
- "how can an individual" (highly formal phrasing)
- "how can u": see above
- "how can you": a few results that don't imply drunken hookup regrets
- "how can one": out of all the results, "get herpes" is the only below-the-belt phrase
- "how can an individual": finally, "get herpes" disappears from the autocomplete choices
Does that mean you should never, ever use "u"? There's no reason not to and good arguments for it if your social circle uses it widely in messages to each other. However if you are texting, emailing, or communicating in writing in any way with someone outside your close social circle, it's better to use correct spelling and grammar. Otherwise, fairly or not, you are likely to be judged unfavorably. And that's why Fandom Grammar is here-to help you look your best in writing.