Losing the Grammar Race: Trump Backers

Democrats' supporters make fewer grammatical errors: study
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 7, 2015 11:00 AM CDT
Losing the Grammar Race: Trump Backers
In this Sept. 28, 2015, file photo, a supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is seen in New York.   (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)

Can you guess which 2016 campaign supporters have the best grammar? Grammarly conducted a study on the comments left by supporters on the candidates’ official Facebook pages—seriously—analyzing them for grammatical mistakes. It turns out Donald Trump's supporters aren't making English great again: They made the most errors among supporters of 19 campaigns with an average of 12.6 per 100 words from April to August, per the Washington Post. Other findings, per Politico:

  • Rick Santorum's supporters were close behind Trump's with 11.5 mistakes. Marco Rubio's supporters made 8.8 mistakes, while Rand Paul's backers made 8.4. Those supporting Carly Fiorina had the best record among the GOP with 6.3 mistakes per 100 words.

  • Hillary Clinton's supporters tied with Fiorina's backers. But while 6.3 errors looked pretty good on the GOP side, Clinton's supporters had the most errors among Democrats.
  • Democrats can boast of having better grammar in general with 4.2 mistakes on average. GOP supporters made twice as many with 8.7. Republican supporters, however, were more concise, averaging 32.4 words per comment, compared to 41.8 words among Democrats.
  • So whose supporters won the grammar battle? That would be those backing relatively-unknown Democratic contender Lincoln Chafee. They made just 3.1 mistakes for every 100 words.
(More Donald Trump 2016 stories.)

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