View Full Forums : The Spelling Police


Thicket Tundrabog
01-18-2005, 08:43 AM
Yup... I'm guilty. I cringe in righteous indignation when people continuously misspell words. Sometimes I will even correct them, usually with some cutting humor.

Random Player: Level 54 Rouge LFG.
Thicket: Rogue is a character class in Everquest, Rouge is what women put on their cheeks to make them look rosy.

I was more than a bit surprised when I read the following.

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I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnre waht I was rdanieg The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabridge Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mned deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thoughtslpeling was ipmorantt

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I don't know about you, but I could read that spelling monstrosity almost as quickly as if there were no spelling mistakes.

Thicket

Panamah
01-18-2005, 09:44 AM
Yeah, that's pretty remarkable.

But I know what you mean, I internally cringe sometimes at spelling errors. It's like hearing someone sing off-key. The ones that get to me most are when they use a word that sounds like another word, but the wrong one. Like waist instead of waste. Then there seems to be an epidemic of people that can't spell really simple words, like coming.

Ok, now that I've confessed my fussiness someone will point out my typos to me. In advance, I hate you. :D

Jinjre
01-18-2005, 10:24 AM
You both might appreciate a small book called "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" It's a semi-humorous, semi-instructive guide to punctuation, aimed at those of us who cringe at spelling errors or at a lack of parallelism between two linked phrases.

Leafblower
01-18-2005, 10:26 AM
Ok I'm going to stick up for my fellow bad spellers. I can read and understand anything , but the rules of spelling are beyond me. I will not use some words in a post because I can't remember how to spell them and the spell checker can't figure out what word I want. And there are the words I misspell no matter what. Tomorrow is one of them, I have to look it up everytime. Shoot I still sing in my head " i before e except after c....." horribly off key of course :)

I do have to agree with the rogue misspelling though, they could have looked and their persona and gotten the word...lol

Panamah
01-18-2005, 12:28 PM
I could use much more education in grammar. For some reason I managed to escape the school system without learning all those rules. Fortunately my love of reading means I picked it up intuitively and hope I'm doing it correctly, without really knowing whether I am or not.

I hate seeing my own misspellings, usually they are just typos but there are some words I've probably got in my head incorrectly. I think probably the best thing for spelling is to be a voracious reader when you're young, and to learn phonetics. Then you can always sound out a word and get a good shot at spelling it correctly, and hopefully you've seen it in print enough to be able to make a fairly good guess at whether it has 2 of these, or some weird exception.

And another thing is to use spelling checkers and look up words in online dictionaries. Eventually over time you will remember how to spell separated! That was one I was always flubbing and I would make myself concentrate on the word every time I looked it up so I would remember it.

Arienne
01-18-2005, 12:29 PM
Yeah I've always had a tough time when I see people mixing up "they're" "their" and "there"... as well as other similar sounding words with different definitions. See... when I read I don't read for sound but for context, as I feel most literate people do. Even after years of EQ and being online, I still have to stop, backtrack and re-read a sentence when it has a similarly sounding but incorrect word in it.

Sadly, I see this more and more in business these days as well. I can't give a CEO or CFO any real credibility if they don't know the difference. E-mails are pretty telling these days. Even with spell check! Kind of like wearing your underwear on the outside. :D

Tinuvieyl Gilthoniel
01-18-2005, 02:07 PM
My spelling abilities leave a bit to be desired, but I'm lucky in that I usually know when I've misspelled something. I usually will add 'sic' (though technically 'sic' implies that the mistake is intentional) just to let everone know that I am quite aware of my shortcomings in regard to spelling. Also, when i use the incorrect word (i.e. there instead of their) I usually notice and will rush to correct myself before anyone else has the time to point out my stupidity. If I write a letter or e-mail, I tend to proof read it obsessively to avoid these mistakes. (You'll notice that many of my posts have been edited :tongue: ) And finally, in regards to grammar, I actually do quite well, surprisingly.

Panamah
01-18-2005, 02:40 PM
Would you please lay their book there when they're done with it.

(Lay, lie is a hard one for me)

I will lay down and sleep.. right?

Follun
01-18-2005, 04:39 PM
I've always remembered it as you lay something down, but you lie down. Separate still bugs me to no end when somebody misspells it, mainly because 4 years of Latin with a crazed spelling teacher taught me to instantly notice many of the common misspelled words.

Anka
01-18-2005, 05:25 PM
Of course being English I'm well beyond worrying how words are spelt and misspelt on US messageboards.

Tiane
01-18-2005, 05:25 PM
Spelling and grammar mistakes used to annoy me a lot more. Back in the BBS days people were much more ruthless and/or literate, and the errors were few. With the internet and forums like these, it's gotten worse, and so I've let my expectations slide quite a bit, at least when it comes to actually reading these forums. I try very hard to keep my own spelling and grammar errors to a minimum, but sometimes when I'm in a hurry and I've typed in a questionable phrase, I just let it go.

However... what REALLY annoys me these days is that all sorts of spelling and grammar mistakes are making it into published printed material! I mean, come on, where are the editors! It's terrible... 20 years ago they would have been fired for letting this stuff slip through, and it speaks very poorly for those publications that dont seem to care or even know that they've screwed up.

It drives me batty!

Aidon
01-18-2005, 05:59 PM
Of course being English I'm well beyond worrying how words are spelt and misspelt on US messageboards.

Spelt...that typo for splat right?

and misspelt is a taxidermical mishap?

Anka
01-18-2005, 06:27 PM
Exactly why I'm well beyond worrying.

Grenoble
01-18-2005, 09:45 PM
Bad spelling does make me nuts, particularly in printed material. Although, in all honesty, I don't mind a word or two spelled wrong, or an occasional typo. It's when people horribly mispell something, hotkey it, then SPAM IT A HUNDRED TIMES.......

Biggest pet peeves: 'wut' and 'n e'.....oh, man, hear my teeth grating?

Jinjre
01-18-2005, 11:32 PM
I don't mind spelling mistakes on boards/IM etc nearly as much as when I find them in published works. Newspapers, novels, technical documentation-anything that, in theory at least, has to make it past an editor before going to print, those errors drive me batty.

I have a leatherbound version of The Complete Works of Jane Austen. It has more typos in it than any published leatherbound book should possibly have. A few things that I saw that made me grit my teeth: using a double comma,, mispelling "will" as "wiil" (I mean, honestly, a spellchecker would have caught that), placing periods. where they don't belong. I really felt cheated on that copy. Even Cliff's Notes have better editing.

Since I read a fair amount, some of it published in England (or at least using British English), I've found that I now "mispell" words like 'gray' and 'neighbour'. Maybe I'm just going nutters.

Fyyr Lu'Storm
01-19-2005, 01:00 AM
I am a great editor.

I can find typos in (the supposed correct parts) of spelling tests.

Sight speller myself. Rely heavily on mw.com when working with new content, but can see errors (usually) a mile away, and down a block, after they are already printed.

I remember when that Cambridge thing was passed around awhiles back, I thought it was cool.

Fyyr Lu'Storm
01-19-2005, 01:02 AM
Since I read a fair amount, some of it published in England (or at least using British English), I've found that I now "mispell" words like 'gray' and 'neighbour'. Maybe I'm just going nutters.

I am quite sure that both 'grey' and 'gray' are acceptable in American English.

Unless you know of another spelling.

Stormhaven
01-19-2005, 08:36 AM
I usually spell check posts and emails, and whatever else I'm sending if the audience is larger than myself. However on IM, I know I'm guilty of "type first, read later." Instances of "teh" (just a plain slip of the fingers) and shortcuts like oic, afk, brb have become common vernacular for me to use. So have "grunt sounds" like meh, errr, uh, feh, pfft, and of course, my favorite, WRAA!!! The worst is when I hit the space bar too quickly (and end up with "abou tthings") or when your hands get one row off on the keyboard, and you end up with the right keystrokes, but the wrong letters. I know that there have been *several* times in EQ guild chat where I said something, and quickly followed it up with, "Uh, ignore that, I have no idea what I was trying to say."

Anyone else have mental blocks with some words? My mind refuses to learn how to spell "maintenance" or "business" (among others) without needing the spell-check.

Panamah
01-19-2005, 10:05 AM
LOL! I was just on another message forum and someone posted something with some of the most atrocious spelling I've ever seen and the last word in their post was "ansouse".


I was so curious, I had to ask, so the next attempt was "anxouse".

Guess what the word was?


anxious

Aidon
01-19-2005, 11:47 AM
I usually spell check posts and emails, and whatever else I'm sending if the audience is larger than myself. However on IM, I know I'm guilty of "type first, read later." Instances of "teh" (just a plain slip of the fingers) and shortcuts like oic, afk, brb have become common vernacular for me to use. So have "grunt sounds" like meh, errr, uh, feh, pfft, and of course, my favorite, WRAA!!! The worst is when I hit the space bar too quickly (and end up with "abou tthings") or when your hands get one row off on the keyboard, and you end up with the right keystrokes, but the wrong letters. I know that there have been *several* times in EQ guild chat where I said something, and quickly followed it up with, "Uh, ignore that, I have no idea what I was trying to say."

Anyone else have mental blocks with some words? My mind refuses to learn how to spell "maintenance" or "business" (among others) without needing the spell-check.

Maintenance is my nemesis. I always want to spell it maintainance or maintanence

Thicket Tundrabog
01-19-2005, 02:15 PM
Judgement/judgment, acknowledgement/acknowledgment gets me almost every time.

Naphtha was my nemisis (nemesis?) for many years but I've finally gotten it straight. It's not naptha.

I used to cringe when people said 'irregardless'. In the sixties, it was improper English, but things have changed. It's used so extensively that it's now accepted.

Another word that bugs me is 'unthaw' (e.g. I'm going to unthaw my frozen water pipes.) It's 'thaw' dammit. Unthaw means you are going to freeze the pipes.

Panamah
01-19-2005, 02:25 PM
"Near miss" is one that makes me nuts.

Stormhaven
01-19-2005, 03:01 PM
"Necessarily"... hate that word. I use it so often too... never can remember how to spell the freakin' thing.

Anka
01-19-2005, 03:23 PM
I used to cringe when people said 'irregardless'. In the sixties, it was improper English, but things have changed. It's used so extensively that it's now accepted.

Used extensively in one country I think. Only accepted in one country too.

To be honest I'm not so bothered about odd words. It's when people stick the same meaningly phrases into every sentence, which might be a peculiarly new British disease, I get annoyed. It's just so lazy and uncaring for the listener. Today on the radio there was someone saying "If you go 20 miles away like they speak like with a different accent. I know my cousin, like, you know, has a west country accent like but I don't. At the end of the day you know it can be quite funny like, as my daughter has like a west country accent too you know like." Yes, it really was that bad.

Stormhaven
01-19-2005, 03:47 PM
Brits have Valley Girls now? :D
Like, oh my god~!

Vindler
01-19-2005, 04:49 PM
Like has evidently left the building!!!!

Tiane
01-19-2005, 05:19 PM
Lol... took it a while to get across the pond!

That's like, hilarious.

My nemisis, although I think I've finally beaten it: Ridiculous vs Rediculous.

And the annoying turn of phrase infecting everyone lately: "I, for one, blahblah..." Usually without even the commas.../shudder... and here's a hint, when that construction is overused, like it is now, it loses all meaning and importance! Stop using it! Ahhh!

Panamah
01-19-2005, 05:23 PM
I hate it when someone uses the same phrase all the time. Sometimes I run across people that have a handful of phrases they think makes them sound smarter or more powerful and they use them every opportunity. It always seems like they're people that are insecure about their education or knowledge that do that.

Anka
01-19-2005, 05:42 PM
Oh this verbal garbage has been going on for a while but it's everywhere now. It doesn't matter whether it's a schoolkid from Newcastle, a housewife in London, or a brickie from Birmingham, they just can't seem to stop uttering these redundant and meaningless words in their sentences. I can assure you that they don't sound much like valley girls though.

jtoast
01-19-2005, 05:43 PM
hate it when someone uses the same phrase all the time
I get accused of that all the time at work. I especially overuse the phrases "Your happines is not currenly one of my major concerns" and my one of my favorite phrases from Acts of Gord (http://www.actsofgord.com/) "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I subscribe to the theory of intellectual osmosis. As such, I must now cease our conversation and move away from you before my intelligence begins to drop. Good day."

Panamah
01-19-2005, 06:24 PM
LOL! Well, it wasn't quoting so much as using a 3-4 word phrases. One woman used "Evidently" all the time. And in such a snotty superior tone, it made me furious. Another guy seemed to use "I don't understand why...". This was always a put-down phrase. "I don't understand what is so complicated about this?" And it was always something he knew nothing about, so explaining to him why something was complex was more difficult than actually doing it yourself. "I don't understand why this is taking so long". He wasn't asking for understanding, he was just trying to be subtly insulting. Once I said to him, "You're right. You don't understand. If you did understand you wouldn't need me."

Gosh, this one fellow I worked with was like a parrot. I just can't recall the phrases he overused.

Anka
01-19-2005, 07:20 PM
One friend of mine likes to use phrases from cult films and comedies. That's all fine, apart from I've often never seen the film in the first place or I've forgotten the lines anyway. I'll stare at him with a vacant expression when he does this, so he then thinks himself put out for having to explain which obscure piece of sci-fi his line came from. I'm sure there are easier methods of conversation.

Grenoble
01-19-2005, 07:38 PM
Ouch, Anka, I have a similar friend. The guy can watch anything once and quote 80% of it, be it movies or television.

Any ensuing conversation with him is full of quotes. I only watch football, Sopranos, and Carnivale, so I nod and smile a lot.

Aluaeia
01-19-2005, 08:42 PM
I want eidetic memory :/

Aidon
01-20-2005, 03:59 AM
I'm a soldier therefore I'm a defendant and judge?

My russian is horrid.

Nimchip
01-20-2005, 11:26 AM
I like to correct spelling mistakes a lot and make fun of people that talk liek thiz n r stoopid n type like the chat-born language it is. It sucks, learn to type... i'm not even from the U.S. well, technically i am but my main language is Spanish... and I don't like to insult americans by typing some "slang" that I learned in the internet.

Follun
01-21-2005, 03:49 PM
Like is really bad in the Mid-West. Every time I turn a corner, I hear somebody (usually in the 5-25 age range) say "like" every two seconds. Mischievous also bugs me. I always hear people say it as "misscheeveus", and they will say it repeatedly, only increasing my pain. There is no "i" in the "-ous" ending, therefore, it's "misschiuvous".

Jinjre
01-21-2005, 04:10 PM
Oh, if we're going into pronunciation:

Library has 2 r's. Two. LibRaRy. Not Libary.
Frustrated has 2 r's. fRustRated. Not fustrated.
Ask does not contain the letter x. If you axe someone, you should go to jail.
Statistic has 2 s's, not 3. StatiStic. It is not StaStiStics.

The number of public figures who need a lesson with a dictionary and a speech coach are surprisingly large. The number of people who make it into broadcast positions who can't pronounce words correctly is horrifying to me.

Have our standards really slipped this low? Or have we become a nation where "average" is good enough, and if half the population mispronounces a word, that becomes the standard for everyone else?

Panamah
01-21-2005, 04:18 PM
I've known a couple of otherwise intelligent people who couldn't pronounce simple words correctly. One is my dad... he says "misconscrewed" he says "cucumper" instead of "cucumber". Hmmm... maybe they were early warning signs of Alzheimer's.

A lawyer friend of mine says "Breh-fuss" instead of "breakfast". She's got a few other funny ones. She's a brilliant woman, graduated from Berkeley, is a professor now.

Another one a lot of people mispronouce is pundit. I know I have a tendency to pronounce it "pundint". I remember hearing the "Way for Words" guys arguing over how to pronounce ogle. Is it aw-gul? Or oh-gul? I think I pronounce it both ways. :D

Tinsi
01-21-2005, 08:30 PM
I remember hearing the "Way for Words" guys arguing over how to pronounce ogle. Is it aw-gul? Or oh-gul? I think I pronounce it both ways. :D

With all the authority I, as a non-native English speaker, can possibly muster: Of course it's oh-gul!