Lose or loose, confusion over spelling

suelld

I think one of the reasons you might be seeing more incorrect spellings/attributions to the words lose/ loose is simple … * interactive text!
I often fire off a text without checking the find that interactive text has ‘ corrected’ my spelling incorrectly ( tho occasionally usefully!)

I think you mean predictive text where the mobile/computer or whatever thinks it knows what word you mean or plan to use. Yes sometimes it will just “offer” suggested spelling but in my experience seems to be on another planet with the wildest ideas of its own.

Are children still taught to spell? Or how to use a dictionary?

Since the 1960s, it has been assumed by many teachers and parents that if children hear the correct pronunciation and read the correct spelling of words often enough, they will automatically speak and spell correctly.

My experience, both as a teacher, and as as a learner, have shown me very clearly that this so-called natural method, just does not work.

Those linguists that thought it would, overlooked the fact that for the first five or six years of our lives, we are continually corrected for slips in our first language.

Second languages are subjected to corrections in the school-room, but not when you are using them in the "real" world, as it is considered impolite to correct an adult or even a teenager. Bilingual children are corrected in both their languagues, but , there too, this process tends to stop when a child is about twelve.

I suspect that the tendency to confuse similar words is due to spelling not having been considered important.

Charleygirl5 To my simple mind practise is to do something, a verb, eg practise the piano, practise football. Practice is a noun, eg the chiropractor has his practice down the road. The doctors' practice is in the surgery where they all practise medicine. Hope I'm not confusing you even more.

What confuses me is the choose yet lose and the chose yet loose.
Why are two words with the "oo" sounded so differently. I was good at English well into adulthood yet seems to me relatively recently these words became complicated in their sounds.

I get confused with spelling so I try to find a different word to suit the phrase

on the same thread - look at people who get confused over hanging. I was always told that a person is hung and a picture is hanged

7hgu

I’d love to know if anyone has used Vintage Cash Cow - all views welcome …. good, bad, indifferent? Thanks..

7hgu
The best thing is to start your own thread, otherwise your question is likely to get lost. I’m actually interested in the answers you get.
Hopefully my spelling is all correct here.

I think one of the reasons you might be seeing more incorrect spellings/attributions to the words lose/ loose is simple … * interactive text!
I often fire off a text without checking the find that interactive text has ‘ corrected’ my spelling incorrectly ( tho occasionally usefully!)

I’d love to know if anyone has used Vintage Cash Cow - all views welcome …. good, bad, indifferent? Thanks..

A lot depends on where and when people are taught. I can spell, and mental arithmetic is second nature to me, but nothing beyond that for the latter. I was educated in Scotland during the late 40s and early 50s, and it was hammered into us, literally. Are children taught times tables now?

One word flummoxes me, and that is practise/pracice. Any bright suggestions please?

crazyH

Without being self-congratulatory - I never get confused with words - confused with other things for sure, but not with words😂

I'm always saying the wrong worm

As a teacher in Essex I got really irritated by kids (and parents) writing “would have” instead of “would’ve”.
“Would of” just doesn’t make sense, and it would have been more elegant to write “would have” wouldn’t it!

To me it's paid/payed.

Beechnut

Magenta8

kircubbin2000

I don't think these people are dyslexic just uneducated. Probably never read a book.

I'm reading a William Boyd book and in the first chapter I've already had to look up 2 words!

No one minds a typo or slip up but it's very annoying to see so many people with such a poor standard of spelling.

kircubbin2000 I read as many, if not more books than the average GN and my spelling is appalling.

By the way, I recommend "An Ice Cream War," "Any Human Heart" and "The Blue afternoon."

My husband was the same as you Magenta with his reading and spelling.

I’ve read all of William Boyd’s books bar one or two. My personal favourite was The Romantic and I also really enjoyed Love is Blind. Will shortly start on the latest, The Predicament.

I get confused with worse and worst.

Wonderful irony.

Sadly I suspect that it's the lack of knowledge amongst many teachers, whose 'woke' education is very much lacking when it comes too grammar/ spelling etc., and they are not told to insist on learning more.

Toetoe

I'm sure I was taught this in school . Yet nowadays the word presant ( a gift) is spelt present . I'm confused . Please put my mind at rest .

Present - as in time - now
Presant - gift

They are both spelt the same - present.

Children aren’t taught English anymore!
Spelling definitely not
Even some teachers don’t know the difference
And children are not corrected as it might upset them! I was told this when I did volunteer tart TA work in a primary school!
So sad that we have generations of illiterate children

Correct spelling, grammar and comprehension have been dying a slow painful death for years since the Sixties.

This has been due a number of factors including the globalization of English and the use of text messages.

Plus the massive drop in eductional standards

bonbons01

Which version of the Oxford English Dictionary is that from RosieandherMaw?
Have you read different manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales, eg. the Ellesmere version or one the Harley manuscripts?

Middle English was not standardised and didn't suddenly appear in 1150 either, but started to slowly emerge from 1066, approximately.
Whilst today, it is often cited that Middle English covers the period between 1150 - 1500, it is, as is pointed out in the version of the Oxford English Dictionary you cite it does "roughly" gauge the period.

Since Middle English had no standardised orthography, scribes tended to spell words phonetically, by regional dialect or to fit the metre of the verse in poetry.

Returning to the example of The Canterbury Tales, there are well over a dozen manuscripts. In these, there are a number of variants of the word present, even sometimes appearing in the same manuscript depending on who scribed it. Examples of variants include: presant, present, presen, present and presantt.

Interesting post Bonbons01.
You make a very good point.
I tend to judge correct spelling according to the accepted contemporaneous version.
But , hey , no -one's arguing with the late , great G Chaucer .
🤣🤣🤣
Am I right .....?

I don't know how seriously people take correct spelling and grammar these days.
Texting has produced all sorts of abbreviations that mean people don't need to spell the whole word.
I think it's tragic not to want to use the beautiful language that is the English language correctly.
But I'm an old pedant so I would say that , wouldn't I ?
🤣🤣🤣
Not acceptable to make fun of someone who can't spell because they were never taught or haven't had the practice, though.

Grandma70s I totally agree with you.

Magenta8

Being dyslexic goodness nose how many words I spell incorrectly without realising. I must get right up the pedants' knowses every time I post.

Brilliant. 😄

Autocorrect reverted the last but one variant I highlighted, it should read as presentt.

Which version of the Oxford English Dictionary is that from RosieandherMaw?
Have you read different manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales, eg. the Ellesmere version or one the Harley manuscripts?

Middle English was not standardised and didn't suddenly appear in 1150 either, but started to slowly emerge from 1066, approximately.
Whilst today, it is often cited that Middle English covers the period between 1150 - 1500, it is, as is pointed out in the version of the Oxford English Dictionary you cite it does "roughly" gauge the period.

Since Middle English had no standardised orthography, scribes tended to spell words phonetically, by regional dialect or to fit the metre of the verse in poetry.

Returning to the example of The Canterbury Tales, there are well over a dozen manuscripts. In these, there are a number of variants of the word present, even sometimes appearing in the same manuscript depending on who scribed it. Examples of variants include: presant, present, presen, present and presantt.