Natalie Colgate

Some people can’t stop themselves correcting another person’s grammar and some people don’t mind such feedback.  Most people however hate being corrected by anyone but especially by their partner on the first date.  Reese Witherspoon famously admitted that she was not impressed when her date corrected her.  Write Well’s blog post on this topic elaborates a bit more.

Debretts, the modern authority on Etiquette, says “there is a fine line between interest and intrusion” and “a good conversationalist strikes a perfect balance between talking and listening. By picking up threads as they go along they create a multi-layered conversation and a sense of intimacy – the other person feels sure that they are listening, and interested.”

The rule of thumb could be to only correct someone else’s grammar for three reasons:

1. you’re the speaker’s parent
2. you’re an English teacher
3. you’ve been paid to correct the speaker’s grammar, such as assisting a toastmaster with his/her speech