- This topic has 46 replies, 30 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 1 month ago by .
-
Posts
-
throughout the many posts and forums, there is one spelling mistake that keeps on coming up. it makes my every bone twitch, because if you spell this word wrong it means something totally different. a desert is a large piece of dry land, that seldom has enough water. a dessert is a delicious sweet usually served at the end( or if your me-at the beginning!) of a meal. one very easy way to make sure you spell this right is dessert is with 2 “s”, not one, because when it comes to dessert, you always want doubles:)
As a public service, to prevent further misspellings between words that are very similar, I present a poem by Ogden Nash:
The Lama
The one-l lama,
He’s a priest.
The two-l llama,
He’s a beast.
And I will bet
A silk pajama
There isn’t any
Three-l lllama.*
— Ogden Nash
*The author’s attention has been called to a type of conflagration known as a three-alarmer. Pooh.
The Wolf
Another frequent mistake I have noticed here is confusing “your” with “you’re”.
Your is a possessive form, your hat.
You’re is short for you are.
frumgirl, did you notice YOUR mistake/YOU’RE mistaken?
Your and you’re are two pet peeves of mine. I also notice quite often that people write loose (meaning not tight), when they mean LOSE (as in, where oh where can my car keys be?). ALSO, and goodness knows I really do not mean to sound critical, but I have seen this error repeatedly. It’s = it is. “Its” without an apostrophe, is the possessive non-gendered form for “belonging to.” Too often people will write the former when they mean the latter.
I wouldn’t say these errors make my bones twitch, but I do notice them…
How about: THERE – THEIR – THEY’RE
Easy mnemonic device is:
They’re there to be used in their proper place.
Oomis- unless you’re a member of the Greengrocer’s Guild- then it’s all seriou’sly.
(See, OOM? Back in the game!)
I have also seen many people misspell “definitely” as “definatly” or even “defiantly” (notice that the latter will not get picked up by a spell-checker because it is actually a different word).
I agree with all of these points. And I am glad to see haifagirl is not the only one who cares.
I’m not even a native speaker of English, but I can’t imagine ever making the kind of mistakes many people make online.
can we please point out that a plural word ending with ‘s’ does NOT need an apostrophe? I cringe when I see words like nail’s or pizza’s
JOIN THE NSPMA – NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF MISUSED APOSTROPHES
notasheep – I will gladly join the National Society for the Prevention of Misused Apostrophe’s… ;-p
Nota a misused apostrophe is hardly a catastrophe.
JMH – ha ha ha.
I would like to point out that most people probably know the proper spelling of these words. However most people don’t view their comments in the CR as being so important as to spend time proofreading their posts. These aren’t essays, articles or even blog posts. They are comments on an internet forum.
i think capital letters should be banned. the shift key is terribly mislocated.
Whom
Reminds me of the joke.
Knock Knock.
Who’s there?
To.
To who?
To whom.
Oomis- unless you’re a member of the Greengrocer’s Guild- then it’s all seriou’sly.
(See, OOM? Back in the game!) “
I beg your pardon??? What?????????? I am not One Of Many… In any case, I didn’t quite understand what you posted – could you explain your point, please?
Goq – it may not be a catastrophe but it is basic grammar that is learnt in primary school and shows major ignorance from the people who misuse apostrophes in plurals. I get worried when I see basic spelling and grammar mistakes written on letters that come from schools (as an example) – a person who cannot use English properly, teaching? The best education we can give to our kids is to employ educators who are themselves educated.
(On a side note connected to this last point, I have seen teachers who are excellent at teaching and discipline, but actually have no idea what they are teaching about and are making major mistakes in their material).
Oomis: SORRY!
🙂
Yes I know you’re not OOM. This is a joke intended for the Discworld spamming joke thing that she seems to be in charge of. You just happened to bring up the point (which drives me half crazy sometimes) that triggered it.
Ignore me :).
benignuman: The problem is, I see these things a LOT in really public forums such as circulars. If people are trying to advertise their products, shouldn’t they care about presentation and grammar?
JMH, WS: Very nicely done.
to realist.
I am sure you meant, “
…in their proper places.”
even books and newspapers are no longer edited and proofread properly. It used to be possible to assume that the grammar and spelling found in almost any published material was mostly correct. seems to be no longer true.
writersoul,
I agree in such cases. I don’t see how that is relevant, however, to CR postings.
can I point out that in certain frum publications the proofreading is either terrible or non-existent; the number of spelling and grammar mistakes, typos and sections of articles cut off due to the graphics layout I have found week after week…
^_^
i always wright your coz its easier than writing you’re.
Ai spehelinng mihstayc? Ay nevr mayk eny ov thoz. Grahymrr also.
I don’t know the origin of this little poem, but I first encountered it in middle school and it has charmed me ever since:
Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.
we read that poem in school also. It was supposed to teach us not to rely too much on spell check
nitpicker,
Absolutely wrong!!
Why can’t they all be in one proper place?
eg. I put all the forks in their proper place.
(not in their proper places, as you suggested.)
hint for desert and dessert- you want to get out of a desert as fast as possible so just one “s” but you want seconds of dessert so two “s”
Goq, I defiantly liked your little poem.
I defy anyone to come up with a better rhyme than yours.
golfer – How about a poem detailing the differences between defiantly and definitely?
When I hear other peoples’ judgement of poor spellers, my cheeks turn a pinkish colour. 😉
@Bookworm120 -Please do us all a favour and refrain from using words that aren’t recognized in the American English language.
Oi! You lot! Quit muckin’ about wiv the English language! (My Rose Tyler accent is baaaaad. :P)
(My Rose Tyler accent is baaaaad. :P)
I only know what you’re talking about because of my kids. I try to make it a point to watch at least a few episodes of whatever it is my kids watch, if only so that I can talk to them about it or make fun of it. 🙂
My youngest is a big Doctor Who fan.
The Wolf
Ai spehelinng mihstayc? Ay nevr mayk eny ov thoz. Grahymrr also.
Hay Muesick Mann Yu spelt evry werd en yur poste: rong soe hou kan yu sai thatt yu, donet spel theengs rong
bi, thu(way yur gramur iz horibul;
Now some lessons in Grammer, thre proper way to use a semicolon; it should always have a comma later in the sentance, before the period.
the first spelling mistake you made is majoUr.
@Bookworm – LOL! Ur actually not half bad 🙂
@This name is already taken (what type of username is that anyways??) – your posts make me want to pull my hair out!! I can’t stand this thread…
@The Wolf – That’s fantastic, brilliant and geronimo! 😀 Another thing Rose is notable for saying is “Bad Wolf.” Thought you might appreciate that.
@streekgeek – Ah, thanks! 🙂This statement is false.
street geek– itt cant bee thaat bed
and the reason i chose this screen name is that if s/o else tries choosing it they’ll get an error “sorry, this name is already taken”
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.