Advice / Advise

I am renowned for being poor at spelling. I am somewhat dyslexic as are all my sons but I always cringe when I see ‘brought’ when it should be ‘bought’ but it is so often said.

Oh yes, 'gifting' gives me indigestion! And 'utilised'.

What about 'obligated' instead of 'obliged'?

I love Pedants' Corner - a place to be a grumpy old woman without offending anyone by correcting them! Yiayia4, none of this is aimed at people with dyslexia. I think (hope) we can all make allowances for difficulties like that, but sometimes it's nice to have a good moan about the misuse of language.

When you spell a word incorrectly do you spell it the same 'wrong' way each time?

You didn't answer this one, Yammy. Forgive me, I'm not being picky, I'm just curious because it's an area of education I worked in and I'm interested in.

If your DD consistently spells 'grandma' as 'grandmar' it seems to me to confirm that it's muscle memory of some sort that's doing the work. (It's not a serious error, at least she has it phonetically correct...)

alice threw the looking glass,
? in a fit of peak

MaizieD

^It wouldn't matter how many times I wrote a word out if I can not spell it ,it will be spelt wrong.^

Even if you were writing it out several times in succession with the correct spelling in front of you to refer to?

When you spell a word incorrectly do you spell it the same 'wrong' way each time?

If I was copying a word and making a list I would copy the right one at the top but if I turned the paper over and put the word into a sentence I would probably spell it wrong.
My DD still spells grandma grandmar she is worse than me and her daughter appears to be the same. Yet DD has a very good degree .
My DH when we wrote to each other used to correct my spelling and grammar with a red pen like at school, we just laugh now. It's just something I can do nothing about.

Ooh, you are a won.

I'll have to think that threw.

Please delete if not aloud.

I have difficulty with certain words, for example worse and worst. The problem is that “worst” just doesn’t look right to me. I do know which to use in practice, but have to look at it twice every time.

And ‘licence’ /‘license’ JackyB

Thanks choughdancer I have those battles too.

JackyB

I don't see how anyone can confuse "advise" and "advice" as they are pronounced differently. In fact use them as an aide- memoire. for "practise" and "practice" because those two are not pronounced differently.

It's because for a very long time spelling instruction has borne little relation to the actual sounds in the words. I've worked with many children who had no idea that the letters in a word were somehow connected to the sounds which make up the word. Once they discovered that, their spelling improved somewhat. But motor memory for the 'wrong' spelling is hard to eradicate.

sodapop

I am unsure about the use of 's' and 'z' as in legalise or legalize are they interchangeable or is one incorrect. This applies to other words as well

It's 'ise' in English, 'ize' in American English. I have an ongoing battle with my phone which insists on 'ize' and 'or' instead of 'our' in words such as colour; so far I have not let it win, even though it would be much quicker if I did!

It wouldn't matter how many times I wrote a word out if I can not spell it ,it will be spelt wrong.

Even if you were writing it out several times in succession with the correct spelling in front of you to refer to?

When you spell a word incorrectly do you spell it the same 'wrong' way each time?

I don't see how anyone can confuse "advise" and "advice" as they are pronounced differently. In fact use them as an aide- memoire. for "practise" and "practice" because those two are not pronounced differently.

I am unsure about the use of 's' and 'z' as in legalise or legalize are they interchangeable or is one incorrect. This applies to other words as well

Germanshepherdsmum

Will errant posters read and learn?

Sorry no, they will not if they are dyslexic like me. The auto-correct has just corrected dyslexia for me.
It wouldn't matter how many times I wrote a word out if I can not spell it ,it will be spelt wrong.
The odd thing is I am a very quick reader and must have taught myself to read before I went to school as my mother always said the teachers asked who had taught me and it wasn't her.
Many of my family are the same and unfortunately, I have passed it on. It does seem to be more girls than boys.
I help with crosswords like I am doing a general knowledge quiz.

MaizieD

And 'the vast majority'. What's wrong with 'most'
Yes!!
Or simply the majority. The majority doesn’t need qualifying.

welbeck

i wonder if the gifting term has morphed from tax exempt gifts ?

I think it is more a case of making a verb out of a noun

Medal - medalling
Podium - podiumimg (yes, actually)
Gift - gifting

Apart from anything else they sound quite different

Advise rhymes with size and advice rhymes with nice
So say it aloud or in your head and it should be obvious.

Whitewavemark2

Blimey

An enigmatic comment, Wwmk2

Blimey

Oh yes, drives me mad! There is a FB group I am on and so many posts start with "Could I have a bit of advise?" I'm shouting at my laptop "Yes you can - advice is the noun, advise is a verb!" (but of course I never say it).

^ I wasn't a secondary English teacher, but I assume these things are learned through reading - here are the words in context.^

It's not so much reading them in context as using them in context. Just reading them frequently presupposes that the 'look' of them is remembered. I've seen research that shows that this doesn't happen.

However, one of the key elements of spelling is kinaesthetic (or muscle) memory. Every single word has a unique series of actions involved in writing it, a unique 'rhythm' to it. The more often you write it correctly the more it is implanted in muscle memory and you get to a stage where it is *automatically' reproduced when you 'think' it. Those old fashioned teachers who made you write out a wrongly spelled word 10 or more times correctly were on the right track.

As for tricky words, like advice and advise, when I was at school we spent quite a lot of time doing exercises which involved writing them in a sentence in context. The sort of exercise condemned by 'never mind the spellings, just concentrate on 'meaning' type teaching.

Yiayia4

Not if you have dyslexia.Should I be banned from Gransnet.

No of course not! That is why there is Pedants' Corner for discussing things like this. I would never criticise anyone on the other threads.