Community Chat

[Kachina624]

@libbyannE  It's not just the number of errors seen on a daily basis, it WHERE you see them.  I see misspelled words in everything from newspapers to billboards, places where people certainly should know better.

[Moonchilde]

I'm not meaning to single anyone out in this thread, because I've seen this mentioned in many threads, but -

If people dislike what autocorrect does so much, why not just disable it? I have never used it and wouldn't ever want to. I do have predictive text turned on, so that if I typo a word I see it, if I doubt the spelling & highlight a word it will correct it if misspelled, or with a many-syllabled word I can just tap it to appear. For me, all that serves the same purpose as autocorrect & spell check.

[jlkz]

In my 4th " career " as an adjunct college professor teaching a Communications course, I assigned mini 2-page papers on different components of Listening Skills.

Spelling was always an easy thing for me.  

However, after reading so many consistently misspelled words, my dictionary was opening itself practically to check words that I KNEW how to spell but was questioning after reading: commitment, offering, etc.

By the end of the course, my students spelling improved but I wonder with all the texting and acronyms if it will still be good in the future.

I can remember a Latin professor describing a list found from Roman times which instructed the citizenry to say      

" occulus " I and not  " occlus "....so some things never change !

[jackthebear]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

I think 98% of the people who use the word "literally", use it incorrectly.  The should be using "virtually" instead.

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most are working for QVC

[Tinkrbl44]

I was the citywide winner of the national spelling bee in 6th grade, and my mother was so thrilled my name was in the paper.  Frankly, I was embarrassed by her excitement.   LOL  

I think I was good at spelling, in part, because I was read to at an early age.    As a young adult, I did well with proofreading as a side job.   Mistakes just jumped off the page!     Obviously, that was before spell check.    

I also believe that the more we read, the more we're exposed to correctly spelled words, which also expands our vocabulary.    Reading to small children is SO important.   

[LilacTree]

As important as spelling and grammar is sentence structure and repetition.  Knowing when to make a new paragraph, when to use quotes and parentheses, etc.

As an avid reader all of my life, I learned English by reading, as my mom did.  I was never great at conjugation, sometimes couldn't tell the difference between a verb and an adverb, or even an adjective.  But I always knew what a sentence should look like, how it should sound when spoken, and how it should be written.  Strange, I know.

One thing reading could not teach, however, was pronunciation.  I read the entire Odyssey pronouncing (in my head) the heroine's name as "Pen-a-lope" instead of Pen-el-o-pee."  (Actual spelling "Penelope.") 

At work they used to call me "Mrs. Webster" and I wound up as the informal proofreader of almost all reports that went out of the building.  I wrote their letters and one boss used to dictate his emails to me while I typed them, automatically correcting any errors.  I enjoyed it.  Another would say "write to so and so and tell him blah blah blah."  I would write the letter and he would sign it without even reading it.

It's so hard not to correct some really outlandish grammar, spelling, etc. when I see it.  However, I have found it unacceptable here, so I have learned to ignore it.

As someone pointed out, it has nothing to do with IQ.  I am horrible at math and always was.  Algebra?  Forget it.  I failed it.  Good thing my other grades were high enough to give me a B grade point average.

[Shop Till you Drop]

This isn't the same thing at all, but I detest the word Tater, just the term gives me the creeps,  then to hear someone say how much they love  to eat taters...sends me over the edge.  But that is a me issue, just hate that word...

[beckyb1012]

as or is it has?  I always have to ask myself this question and consider if I am using the correct word in my sentence.  I have brain freeze with those two.

[chickenbutt]

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Shop Till you Drop wrote:

This isn't the same thing at all, but I detest the word Tater, just the term gives me the creeps,  then to hear someone say how much they love  to eat taters...sends me over the edge.  But that is a me issue, just hate that word...

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I can relate!  I have some words like that, that I call 'baby talk' words that annoy me.  That is one.  'Veggies' is another one for me and 'hubby'.  Just annoying and cringey, nothing more.  

I also don't like 'fridge', but I don't even know why.  It just bugs me a little - not any kind of major problem.  Sometimes, here, I see 'frig' (rhymes with big?) and I guess that is a regional thing, as I've never heard anybody call a refrigerator 'frig'.

Words - weird.  hehe - some words that bug me I have no idea why, they just make me cringe.  No offense intended toward anybody.  It's just that kind of 'fingernails on a blackboard' type of 'sound' thing for, really, no good reason.

[SilleeMee]

I was just thinking about a person I know personally who is illiterate and how life without the written language must be a real challenge. Spelling for this person doesn't mean a thing. Being illiterate puts limits on many things that  a person can do like joining a forum like this one or texting/reading on a cell phone. Sad indeed.

So my thoughts about misspelled words are not so critical. Those of us who can read and write at all are blessed in many ways. I'm thankful that I can do that.