A question for pedants - what has happened to the "double el"

Grannyknot - I often am defeated by attempts to reproduce posters' names on Gransnet. My iPad knows better and sabotages my efforts to get them right. A very quick double click, or accepting an unwanted full stop, seem to help. Anyone have a remedy for this or is it just me?

Janerowena - I too noticed and was irritated by 'nucular'. I think it may come from US military usage, along with 'negatory'.

fascinating - the whole thread I mean,

It's not how skilled readers read (and believe me, there is a difference between 'experienced' and 'skilled').

As I said before, it seems to us as if we are reading words as 'wholes' because we are experiencing the end result of brain processing which takes milliseconds. It's not conscious, as it would be with a child learning to read who sounds out and blends the graphemes in the word, because we are highly practised at it (though what happens when you meet a completely unfamiliar word?). But the brain starts the word identification process by identifying the letters in the word. If you think about it logically there is nothing else it can do. If it worked by word shape alone you'd soon be in trouble!

The reason people can read the silly meme is that the words are all very short; they're familiar and they can be easily worked out as anagrams. It doesn't work with more complex words.

Here's an explanation of it:

www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/people/matt.davis/cmabridge/

P.S I was, though, very startled on another message forum when someone said they'd tried it out on a friend who was a medic and they didn't notice there was anything wrong with it..

P.P.S The meme has been doing the rounds for years; I've had a bookmarked link to the explanation for about 10 years

Isn't that how experienced readers read though?

Oh dear, not the 'Cambridge Research' meme again!

It's not 'Cambridge research' and we don't read words as 'wholes', we just think we do because our brains process them so fast that we're not aware of processing individual letters. In fact, there is a whole body of genuine research which shows that we do just that.

If it didn't matter about letter order in words what would we do with words such as dairy/diary, trail/trail where the transposition of just two letters gives us completely different words with completely different meanings?

As an ex-remedial reading tutor this meme drives me crazy

Ex-teachers will have had plenty of practice at this verbal form of the old Eric Morecambe/Andre Previn joke about playing the "right notes, but not necessarily in the right order."
Spellcheckers have their place as long as you are aware of American/English variations, but predictive texting on iPads can come up with some weird and wonderful suggestions.
Nothing beats the" human eye " though.

An interesting thread.

You might like this:

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mind. Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a
wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the
first and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a
taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This
is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by
istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig huh?

Ah the old ones are the best aren't they, Trisher?
November 2011 and 2010 I believe (both times by Gracesmum )
But as I say again and again, if a thing is worth saying it is worth saying thrice twice

Excellent trisher.

Any more of the same? Please.

Trisher's poem - part of my job was making up worksheets to help children with learning problems, spelling was a big problem. I used to make up stories with lots of spelling mistakes for them to spot and correct. But our poor secretary found them very difficult to type - took her ages!

I was watching a programme about precise measurements the other night, and Marcus du Sautoy, the presenter, said 'nucular'. His piece was followed by a man with a very strong Russian accent who pronounced 'nuclear' perfectly. I found myself yelling 'If a foreigner can speak English correctly, why can't you?' at the television.

Trisher.....great poem.
I am definitely very pedantry I zed !!!!!!!
Oh is that rite or rong ?
Actually I find it very difficult to read misspelled words and it hurts my ears when they are spoken. Super annoying. Adults should be able to talk and text correctly.

When I said 'go to settings' I meant, of course, go to the internet settings...

You can have the computer set to UK English, but the internet settings can still be on US English.

I use Google Chrome, and changed the language input settings (go to settings, advanced settings and scroll till you see Language input). I had to add UK English, then click on the tab which said something like 'use this language for spell checking'

It will likely be something similar on other web browsers.

Thank you bags.
You can tell that I'm a techno numpty can't you?

Having said that, I've learnt more from the straightforward explanations that members post than any book. Or even any grandchild.

I have not encountered this problem on Gransnet or any other site.

Try it in all your iPad keys, dusty. Any letter that has an accent in other languages has alternative options which you'll see if you keep your finger on the key and move to whichever you want. Here are the Es: èéëęėêē. Have fun.

Gotcha bags

trisher that poem! Eish.
www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=eish

I' ... didn't know that. Thanks bags.

A friend of mine often wore a T-shirt that said "If all else fails, lower your standards"

gknot, the inverted comma thing I've posted about in the past is not caused by autocorrect but by my sloppy typing. The inverted comma uses the same key as the ordinary comma. You have to keep your finger on the key a split second longer for the inverted comma so when I type a comma instead of an inverted comma it's me making the mistake, not the machine.

I don't care. If I'm in the mood to correct from US to UK spelling I do, if not I don't.
Quite like the z instead of the s.

It doesn't matter what you have set your computer to, if the site you are on doesn't agree with you! If Gransnet uses Proboards, it is an American company.

Here's a poem to confuse you more!
Eye have a spelling chequer,
It came with my Pea Sea.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss Steaks I can knot sea.

Eye strike the quays and type a whirred
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am write oar wrong
It tells me straight a weigh.

Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your shore real glad two no.
Its vary polished in its weigh.
My chequer tolled me sew.

A chequer is a bless thing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right all stiles of righting,
And aides me when eye rime.

Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The chequer pours o'er every word
Two cheque sum spelling rule.