I guess some people interpreted the joke as confrontational and admittedly it does not contribute to the conversation. Nonetheless, I just could not resist.

Thing with HN is you get a lot of english second language posters... who actually didn't learn those words in school.

Huh, I would suspect that in modern times English is widely taught at schools all over the world, unless I am horribly mistaken. The quality of teaching is quite another issue and it's usually lacking - to which I can testify from my own experiences with post-Soviet secondary education system. Regardless, I am not starting a grammar crusade here, more like making a small remark.