What spelling mistake do you hate/notice the most?

I think this thread should be under Pedants’ Corner rather than Chat where it could be avoided by those not interested in the purity of language.

Anniebach

Imagined GSM GN is a school ?

With some very bossy teachers

MaizieD

^The trouble with spelling is it looks right to the speller.^

That's the nub of the problem for so many people. Spelling has been mistaught as a visual skill for decades, which it isn't.

The criteria should be 'Does it sound right?' Spelling is about representing the sounds in a word by symbols for those sounds. Complexity kicks in as there are different ways of spelling most sounds and learning which sound spelling goes in which word is the hard bit.

How can I " hear" words like Edinburgh?

Surely it is a visual thing?

( genuinely interested)

Two things:
- loose instead of lose.
- "He was stood" - no, no, no - "He was standing." The BBC get this wrong all the time.

Also "I was sat". Not sure why this has now replaced "I was sitting".

zakouma66

MaizieD

The trouble with spelling is it looks right to the speller.

That's the nub of the problem for so many people. Spelling has been mistaught as a visual skill for decades, which it isn't.

The criteria should be 'Does it sound right?' Spelling is about representing the sounds in a word by symbols for those sounds. Complexity kicks in as there are different ways of spelling most sounds and learning which sound spelling goes in which word is the hard bit.

How can I " hear" words like Edinburgh?

Surely it is a visual thing?

( genuinely interested)

Pronunciation varies with accents and alters over time, so yes, some words when spoken (but not a particularly significant percentage of the entire lexicon) do get divorced from their original sound/symbol connections.

But the historical development of writing too place over a long period of time and was based on the breakdown of words into their component sounds and assigning a symbol to represent each of those sounds.

If you didn't do this how on earth else would you decide what each individual word would look like? ('you' in this context being the ancient peoples working out how to represent spoken words visually)

I have wondered this too Greta. There are lots of examples of this eg he was headed instead of he was heading.

As a Kronnerkly* bad speller, I simply fail to notice misspelt
(or is it misspelled) words. I would be hopeless as a proof reader. The neutral vowel sound gets me nearly every time.

I spell check (or is it spellcheck) several times whenever I post anything but I am sure some sneaky mistakes creep in. And that is before we get onto grammar, punctuation and syntax.

I am very sorry if this offends anybody.

*chronically

Most of the above mistakes, typos forgiven as I frequently press the keys in the wrong order.

Pet hate: "lead" (the metal) when it should be "led".

Not bothered by how people spell or miss spell words.My FIL my OH and my daughter were/are dyslexic They can spell the same word in three ways in one sentence
.If I had let it get to me I'd have been white haired or bald by 30.Its not always about education you know ,you need to stop sweating the small stuff!

MaizieD

^The trouble with spelling is it looks right to the speller.^

That's the nub of the problem for so many people. Spelling has been mistaught as a visual skill for decades, which it isn't.

The criteria should be 'Does it sound right?' Spelling is about representing the sounds in a word by symbols for those sounds. Complexity kicks in as there are different ways of spelling most sounds and learning which sound spelling goes in which word is the hard bit.

To my sons compleat, extream, definately all sound right.
Also 'ible and able' on the ends of words also seem impossible to sort out.

I also struggled with spelling as a child but somehow it did start to make more sense as I got older. DH doesn't understand why we all struggle. I've asked friends how they manage to spell well. One said well if you see a new spelling once you just remember.

People are just different. They have different abilities. We wouldn't judge people who can't draw, sing, dance or even do maths in the same way.

Greta

Also "I was sat". Not sure why this has now replaced "I was sitting".

This was commonplace in the northern town where I grew up, so I'm wondering if it's an example (as In "I was stood", too) of where phrases originating in a dialect have become frequently used.

An interesting thought Willow. It is certainly very commonplace now.

^To my sons compleat, extream, definately all sound right.
Also 'ible and able' on the ends of words also seem impossible to sort out.^

I absolutely understand that, Marmadoit, your sons are correct, they do sound right. I can't condemn incorrect spellings that 'sound' right. They're a huge improvement on the spellings that are wrong because the writer is trying in vain to recollect the correct sequence of letters, or what the word should 'look' like.

It's very sad that spelling has been taught so badly in the past that people think there is something wrong with them when they can't get it right...

I always wonder, do people not read books and absorb correct spelling and grammar? I suspect not.

I'm sure that not as many young people read books as they used to.

Social media is full of 'alternative' spelling and grammar. Plenty on Gransnet.

Germanshepherdsmum

I always wonder, do people not read books and absorb correct spelling and grammar? I suspect not.

I faithfully read at least 2 books a week for years. I was reading Turgenev at 14 or so.

Things change, our minds change.

Always had erratic spelling.

I can't honestly get worked up about spellings. Far more important things to worry about.

I remember seeing a programme on TV about the idiosyncrasies of English spelling and they used the example of being able to spell the word FISH phonetically using the letters GHOTI. I think it went something like this:

The GH as in the word enough
The O as in the word women
The TI as in the word opposition

I studied Pitman shorthand and I didn't find the symbols for the sounds too bad, as it is phonetic but transcribing into to English threw up the same old problems.

Stood for standing!

Septimia

Most of the above mistakes, typos forgiven as I frequently press the keys in the wrong order.

Pet hate: "lead" (the metal) when it should be "led".

You’ve got it the wrong way round.

Germanshepherdsmum

I always wonder, do people not read books and absorb correct spelling and grammar? I suspect not.

I think I said earlier we had a better stock of books than the children's section of our local library. My children had stories read to them, songs sang to then and picture books from birth.

Of course we read any books see t home from school too. They still were behind in reading and were poor at spelling. We bought and borrowed all the classics on tape/cds to try and make sure their lack of reading didn't mean lack of vocabulary or knowledge.

I despair of some of the posts on here. What don't some of you get!

Just to add before I clear off. All of my children did well at school got gcse English eventually, and good A levels. One is a graduate engineer, two are school teacher (with degrees in science/maths), the others have good jobs in their chosen field.

Those that are parents certainly read to their children. They read in connection with their work. They also have to write for work but get someone to proofread. Two buy and read books and two, like me enjoy audio books. I suspect the others like their dad read very little.

Germanshepherdsmum

I always wonder, do people not read books and absorb correct spelling and grammar? I suspect not.

Reading books might help with learning 'conventional/good' grammar but spelling is not a visual skill. No amount of seeing a 'correct' spelling will keep it in memory if you have always spelled the word incorrectly. Kinaesthetic memory for writing the word usually takes precedence over attempts to memorise the 'look' of a word.

Germanshepherdsmum

I always wonder, do people not read books and absorb correct spelling and grammar? I suspect not.

I always have a least one book on the go; novels, biographies,
non-fiction, memoirs; you name it. My house is awash with books. The only trouble is, I just don't seem to absorb correct spelling. I don't think I am, by any means, unique.