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Considering the entire SE network seems targeted towards the English language, I'm working under the assumption that we're only supporting questions asked in English ...

However, I know there are many WordPress users and administrators who are not native English speakers. When they visit this site, I expect a few botched questions and maybe some poorly used colloqualisms and such. However, how far should we go in correcting the language used in the question? Should we fix grammar, clarify terms, and otherwise "clean up" a non-native speaker's original text?

Furthermore, what should we do to protect people who's English isn't up to par from attacks by the grammar police?

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    @EAMann - Wow, the grammar vigilantly was pretty harsh there; I don't condone that at all. Agree with @Jan Fabry, clean up grammar where it helps make the question more clear but I differ in that I think we should (politely) call out the the grammar vigilantlies when they are too harsh.
    – MikeSchinkel Mod
    Commented Oct 12, 2010 at 8:01
  • Native speakers can be just as bad (obscuring the message and making it close to incomprehensible for those who are not used to it): Sentence fragments, run-on sentences, unable to know the difference between then and than (or you're and your. Or "there", "their", and "they're". Or "where", "were", and "we're". Or "affect" and "effect"), etc.
    – Peter Mortensen
    Commented Nov 7, 2023 at 20:20
  • cont' - an example encountered today, "where" vs. "were"
    – Peter Mortensen
    Commented Nov 7, 2023 at 20:59

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Yes, clean up language errors, since they make the question more clear. In the first "WordPress vs wordpress" discussion, I think we all agreed that editing to fix spelling errors and clarify meaning are no problem.

If the question is really unclear you can add a comment and ask for clarification. If possible in the form "Did you mean A or B?", since the original poster may not know that their words can be interpreted both ways.

And what with rude grammar police members? I would ignore them, and lead by example.

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