What spelling mistake do you hate/notice the most?

Perhaps empathy, understanding, kindness, forgiveness, sensitivity, acknowledgement of diversity, avoidance of superiority, valuing others for who they are, an interest in others’ views and ideas however expressed, and tolerance are more important?

Pantglas2

I remember fun mornings during COVID when Miss Marydoll ran her Maffs Klass and I, Doodle, Squiffy, Oops, Charleygirl and countless others all had fun misspelling our posts phonetically, quite often to rude effect😂

English is a fascinating language with lots of different pronunciations of the same letters, surely some leeway with spelling can be given in most instances?

I loved all your posts and also you all! 💕

Pantglas2 Miss Marydoll gave me detention for “stiffgit*

Germanshepherdsmum

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

No I don’t think people absorb it but am rapidly coming to the conclusion that bad spelling and/or grammar are not unique to our century. But before the advent of Social Media we generally only read what we saw in books, newspapers or letters from friends and family.
As a teacher I used to get letters from parents excusing their child’s absence (flue/flew and the classic dire rear )which raised a smile but other than perhaps a poorly written receipt or bill from a tradesman, I just did not realise how many adults have poor literacy skills.

Children do still have to learn their spellings at school but perhaps forget what they are taught as quickly as they forget the dates of long ago kings and queens as they fail to see the relevance.
Secretaries who prided themselves on their accuracy used to be adept at correcting their bosses’ spelling and grammar but most people write their own emails and letters - without checking. And spell-checkers/predictive text are a recipe for (often surreal) disaster.
So, do we value accurate spelling and grammar?
If we don’t there is no incentive to “get it right” is there?

I remember fun mornings during COVID when Miss Marydoll ran her Maffs Klass and I, Doodle, Squiffy, Oops, Charleygirl and countless others all had fun misspelling our posts phonetically, quite often to rude effect😂

English is a fascinating language with lots of different pronunciations of the same letters, surely some leeway with spelling can be given in most instances?

Fuschia instead of fuchsia, even done by plant nurseries! The plant is named for a gent name of Fuchs.

Also discrete/ discreet, fazed/phased, etc etc.

Germanshepherdsmum

Ect.

I hate ect too.

from Pooh.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Stood for standing!

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.

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

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'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.

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

^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...

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

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.

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.

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!

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".