Why is it so many people today don't seem to know the difference between "woman" and "women"?

[FunkyMonkee]

Woman: a single person of the female gender.
Women: a group of 2 or more people of the female gender.

Updates

3 mo

An example I just found here seconds ago.
"Would you date and have sex with a plus size women? or is this just a fetish?"
I guess nobody but me also knows nothing about proofreading?

[hahahmm]

Or maybe the words are merging because so many women act the same?

I'm joking.. but in your example it could be that the "a" was accidental or that the "women" was a typo. We can't know which

[FunkyMonkee]

There's no typos in speech.

[AviatorTom]

Women is an irregular exception to plural words in English. Some people think the plural of woman should be womans. And sometimes auto-correct prefers women even when the singular woman is correct.

[FunkyMonkee]

People don't use auto-correct when they're talking.

[CozyCoffin]

When they talk, they would say women. I have yet to hear anyone say women when referring to one singular woman.

[Lliam]

I think it is woman. And mo than one is wimenses. I thought ebrybody knowd that.
Just like breast. 2 or mo is breasteses. Right? I loves breasteses.

[FunkyMonkee]

I gotta have me some breasteses!!

[RavVid]

You can use woman in the sense of all women but if women is used in referring to one or woman is used to refer to a group it is clearly wrong.

[FunkyMonkee]

Most often, I hear them say, "a women".

[RavVid]

Where didn't they go to school?

[FunkyMonkee]

I know! Lol.

[RavVid]

Still it is not as bad as misspelling four letter obscenities. That is what worries me most

[CozyCoffin]

I find that everyday usage changes more than proper language. Often times, a good portion of people make mistakes and it's quite east to do, especially in the written form.

[FunkyMonkee]

Occasional mistakes is one thing but, to make the same mistake constantly tells me it's not a mistake, it's lack of knowledge.

[CozyCoffin]

They could also not care or not know the language enough.

[FunkyMonkee]

Most of the people I've heard use it are American.

[CozyCoffin]

I don't see why national origin matters in terms of that. However, i have known many people that the school systems have failed who are Americans, so that makes sense.

[CozyCoffin]

It is also really easy to miss a one letter difference, and hit submit. Why assume that they don't know the difference, instead of chalking it up to a simple typo.

[CozyCoffin]

I often confused the words seam and seem, thinking for some stupid reason that both were spelt the same.

[CozyCoffin]

After practice, I have remembered the difference. To Johnny, it seemed too quiet, but it was just Jane the seamstress.

[FunkyMonkee]

At least 50% of the time, it's verbal, not written. No typos in speech.
As far as typing, "A" is one row lower and "E" on the keyboard and two keys to the left of "E".

[FunkyMonkee]

I know how bad that is! I once saw someone (at LEAST college age) attempt to write the phrase "once in a while" by typing, "wants and awhile".
When I was in high school, there was this kid in my class that STILL couldn't read!! This one teacher we had was trying to teach him to read via those Dick & Jane books! At least 17 years old and he's REALLY STRUGGLING to get through just one line from that book!! It took him nearly half a minute just to read, "See Dick and Jane run." HOW do you go through 13 years (or better, if he flunked any grades) and STILL not know how to read?

[FunkyMonkee]

I've never had this before but, for some reason, as of about 6 years ago, I started writing, "here" when I wanted to write, "hear" and vice versa! Around the same time, I also started writing, "my" when I wanted to write, "me", and vice versa.

[TheGuyWhoKnowsStuff]

People don't know how to write without slipping in an accidental double entendre either.

[HawkPerception]

There's a lot of people that don't understand basic grammar. It's not a generational thing.

[FunkyMonkee]

I know but, it's only very recently that I've noticed so many don't seem to know this single difference. They don't seem to have any problem with "man:" and "men"! I understand that, sometimes, it could just be a mental typo where, you MEANT to say, "woman" and some thought popped into your head that made you realize you should've said, "women" and still said, "woman" even though the rest of what you said was correct so, I tend to wait to see if it happens more than once before I know they actually say it wrong.

[Anonymous]

There isn't anyone who doesn't understand the different (except maybe some ESL people), but there are people who mistype it and don't notice because spell check won't catch it.

[FunkyMonkee]

Because both are real words but, again, there's no spell check for people speaking.

[Opinion Owner]

I have litterally never heard someone say women when they meant woman, or vise versa, irl.

[FunkyMonkee]

I heard it at least twice yesterday and a few more times in the past week or two.

[Opinion Owner]

While that's not impossible, it's extremely unlikely. So I won't actually say you're lying, but...

[FunkyMonkee]

Not these days. I've heard and seen it quite a few times the past few months.
It's like how NOBODY started using the word, "So" at the beginning of nearly every statement until about 15 or 20 years ago. Now just about everybody does it! The first time I heard it was when Steve Colbert was interviewing some middle eastern girl that accidentally shot herself in the head and lived to talk about it. I just took it as either someone not a native English speaker not knowing you aren't supposed to do that or it's BECAUSE she took a bullet in her brain that she does that. Next thing I know, everybody's doing it!! Well, EVERYBODY hasn't taken a bullet in their head!

[boobliker]

we men see you mostly more than two at a time, so think on that.

[FunkyMonkee]

I mostly see them one at a time but, even if I did see more than one all the time, I'd still know the difference between women and woman.

[boobliker]

too shay

[FunkyMonkee]

Who's Shay?

[Sparkie460]

I know the difference between woman, women and girls

[FunkyMonkee]

Me, too.

[Sparkie460]

Must be the age I guess 🤔

[Jamie05rhs]

Some people here are from countries where English is not the primary language.

[Anonymous]

Well if she old enough to cross the street...

[NathanDavis]

they're all women though...