Ten Words You Need To Stop Misspelling

[Adrock-JD]

It's a fucking used car, not "pre-owned."

 

[Musik2400]

I hate spelling mistakes too!! I once had a manager who's spelling was horrendous. She once put a sign up (computer printed) that looked like this

Debit and Credit is down. Sorry for the [STRIKE]inconviece[/STRIKE] inconvience.

Thanks, Managment.

 

[TommyTrojan]

The contraction thing kills me--you're vs your, it's vs its... It's a mistake that's easily avoided. Just take apart the two words of the contraction and see if they fit.

For example: "IT IS a mistake that's easily avoided." The two words fit, so you use the apostrophe.

"This Dildo needs to be put in IT IS place." That doesn't make sense, so you use the one word "its" without the apostrophe.

Simple.

 

[Musik2400]

The contraction thing kills me--you're vs your, it's vs its... It's a mistake that's easily avoided. Just take apart the two words of the contraction and see if they fit.

For example: "IT IS a mistake that's easily avoided." The two words fit, so you use the apostrophe.

"This dildo needs to be put in IT IS place." That doesn't make sense, so you use the one word "its" without the apostrophe.

Simple.

Well with Its It's I'm more willing to forgive, as I think a lot of people fall into the trap that in many cases 's means possessive. A lot of people tend to just not realize that It doesn't follow the rule I think.

 

[72-Jay]

It's a fucking used car, not "pre-owned."

I agree completely on that one...I hate car commercials that say pre-owned, the thing is used LOL

 

[gsdx]

end done foreg3t ware n wear

I'm beginning to get used to seeing 'underware'. I don't like it, but I'm getting used to it.

To be honest, I think English is a dying language.

 

[chatolandia]

qué?

 

[Wilde Oscar]

I love The Oatmeal. His comics are brilliant.

Definitely is a word I always have trouble with for some reason. I tend to spell it as definetely, until that little red line reminds me what a dumbass I am.

 

[LittleDove]

I'm always mildly amused by the eBay sellers who are trying to sell bowls and list them as bowels.

Something else I've run into quite a bit lately is pre-used. I haven't figured that one out, yet. I've seen it in contexts where the person could be meaning you get the thing before anybody has a chance to have used it, as in some sort of strange euphemism for new, and I've seen it in contexts implying that the item already has been used some before you get it, as if the person hasn't quite got a grasp on the meaning of the simple term, used.

 

[frankfrank]

And tea not [STRIKE]herbal infusion.[/STRIKE] KAWPHY

People who misspell "discreet" are annoying...

Not to mention that DISCRETE actually is a word, but I don't entirely understand its meaning...it's a technical word which has something to do with audio quality or something.

while we're at it .. can someone explain me where that sudden surge of "of" comes from? In the past few months I have seen a lot of sentences like

"I could of met him in the park"
"I would of stop that behavior"
"I should of had more vegetables"

Yes, as somebody else said..."would've" and "would of" are homophones, though the second choice is never proper. I don't know anybody who accurately and emphatically pronounces "should have" clearly.

I've seen at least 10 different spellings of 'does'.

DUZZ. OK, now you have eleven.

I'm beginning to get used to seeing 'underware'. I don't like it, but I'm getting used to it.

To be honest, I think English is a dying language.

So if there's "skid marks" in it, does it become malware?

"PLED" for "pleaded" is one that always rattles me like fingernails on a chalkboard, and almost everybody uses is. I won't.

 

[grady26]

So let's add the confusion with "then" and "than."

 

[Críostóir]

People who misspell "discreet" are annoying...

Not so much a misspelling as a misusage. 'Discrete' is a real word, so the spill chuckers won't catch it.

Discrete means separate and/or distinct.

Discreet means without show, not drawing attention.

So you may sneak discreetly into your closeted boyfriend's house, and you may do so on several discrete occasions. If you do so under cover of darkness but stay there fucking him relentlessly for a solid week, the occasions within that week are not discrete, but you're still being discreet. If you come every Friday in a fire engine with sirens blaring and big LED signs saying "HERE TO FUCK MY CLOSETED BOYFRIEND," the occasions are discrete but there's nothing discreet about any of them! (Also your friend won't be closeted long.)

Well with Its It's I'm more willing to forgive, as I think a lot of people fall into the trap that in many cases 's means possessive. A lot of people tend to just not realize that It doesn't follow the rule I think.

Its/It's follows the rule exactly. People are simply following the wrong rule. 's is possessive FOR NOUNS. No personal pronoun has a possessive ending in 's.

I tell people who have trouble with this to substitute he/he's/his and use the its/it's with the same number of apostrophes. No one would write *"Alan couldn't find he's wallet" or *"Alan isn't here because his in California visiting his Master."

 

[Críostóir]

Can we just establish that the dictionaries are updated from the language, not the language from the dictionary.
Thus, if enough people spelt a word incorrect, it could become legitimate.
I ALWAYS spell the word definately wrong, i spell it how i hear it, so i don't care who it irks.

So you defiantly misspell 'definite'?

But if that spelling became legitimate, you'd lose the connection to 'finite' (which everyone spells correctly, because it's pronounced FIE-NIGHT).

Come to think of it, here's a good mnemonic for spelling 'definitely' correctly: after the prefix it's spelled the same as 'infinitely'.

Finite. Infinite. Definite.

And you miss the point about spelling. You may not care who it irks, but that's not the point. It's that they'll estimate your level of education or intelligence lower than they otherwise would. They will also estimate your level of respect for them lower than they otherwise would, but in that case they're correct, since you actually DON'T care who it "irks."

 

[frankfrank]

Can we just establish that the dictionaries are updated from the language, not the language from the dictionary.
Thus, if enough people spelt a word incorrect, it could become legitimate.

I can think of one right away. JUDGEMENT shows up in many dictionaries noawadays, alongside the traditionally-proper JUDGMENT. (Was that judgement rendered because he PLED guilty? haha)

Its/It's follows the rule exactly. People are simply following the wrong rule. 's is possessive FOR NOUNS. No personal pronoun has a possessive ending in 's.

Very true, I didn't think of that & good to see you point it out.

What we have are TWO different rules - one is an actual rule...the other one is a rule of thumb which tends to be true...and the two different rules entirely clash with opposing results.

Yes, true, I don't think that English EVER uses apostrophes in possessive personal pronouns. (Other than the its/it's quandary, I do see her's a lot...which is of course wrong.) But this clashes with the RULE OF THUMB...other than those few personal pronouns, none of which take the apostrophe, the possessive uses 's: Judy's, children's, a doctor's opinion, etc.

It becomes "S-Apostrophe" or nothing at all where it's a plural ending in s, such as The Martins' house, States rights, etc. Let's say instead of Martin, though, it's Martinez - would it become Z-Apostrophe in that case?

Of course there's also the 's when a noun is COMBINED with a verb (almost always IS) "He's sawing my legs off" or "Uh-oh, the Sun's going supernova" or it's not 3:30 yet...or other innocuous statements like this, lol.

I think some of the confusion comes because "it" isn't always thought of as a personal pronoun because, unless you want to disparage somebody even worse than calling them the N-word or F-word or calling a woman the C-word, you don't refer to a person as "it." You just don't.

 

[frankfrank]

Defaintly? Does that mean that you faint if you see somebody using bad grammurrr or speling?

True the definite/(in)finite connection may be sketchy and archaic nowadays, but it IS a good mnemonic device as somebody else mentioned.

 

[frankfrank]

I'll defiantly continue to misspell defaintly, lol.

 

[cityboy-stl]

Supposed to, not "suppose to".
Used to, not "use to".

 

[Críostóir]

If a person is going to judge any aspect of my character based on how i spell, they are fascists and not worth caring for anyway.

Wow. Then everyone who is likely to employ you for any purpose beyond manual labor is a fascist. This may be true in the UK; I can't judge. Remember that people who read your writing usually know nothing further about you.

So yes, you could even say i'm defaintly opposing the correct grammar.

Your misspelling of your own misspelling makes me think you're actually dyslexic, and making a virtue of necessity. Having extra difficulty spelling is nothing to be ashamed of; one of my favorite writers, Samuel R. Delany (famous for science fiction and fantasy novels with significant and sympathetic gay characters) is so violently dyslexic that he once turned in a high school paper written backwards from beginning to end - without realizing he had done so.

But to claim that your spelling is "just as good" as the conventional one is just ludicrous and wrong.

 

[Críostóir]

By spelling it correctly??? That's what i call deviance!

You're definitely a defiant deviant...in fact your case is definitive.

 

[Críostóir]

Teh instead of The

Isn't that usually intentional? Or a typo...as opposed to a misspelling where the person really doesn't know how to spell the word.