10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling

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  • skywalker
    skywalker Posts: 1,533
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    YES! I love this thread, LOL.

    As for the alot vs. a lot- read this blog. It's one of the funniest things I've ever read... but that's because I'm a grammar Nazi.

    http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

    "You're right! Alots are known for their superior swimming capabilities."
    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
    Thank you for passing that along. I'm a fellow grammar Nazi. :drinker:
  • PJilly
    PJilly Posts: 21,656 Member
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    If you're an extreme grammar Nazi, you'll find the caption on that website's first cartoon amusing — "I only have two fingers" — because *that* is grammatically incorrect. It should read, "I have only two fingers." :wink:
  • PJilly
    PJilly Posts: 21,656 Member
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    Another common mistake I see: People sometimes write "should of" instead of "should have."

    That said, I don't get annoyed when I see any of these errors on MFP. I do get annoyed when I see them on communications my kids have brought home from school. It's no wonder everyday people get confused when so many teachers and school administrators don't have a grasp of how to properly use the English language.
  • SassyMissDasha
    SassyMissDasha Posts: 614
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    Too funny!!! Your and you're drive me nuts .. Your so beautiful .. my beautiful what???
  • PJilly
    PJilly Posts: 21,656 Member
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    Or how about adding apostrophe + s to make something plural? That makes it possessive, not plural!
  • Michellerw1
    Michellerw1 Posts: 367
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    I wrote a post the other day about something being "weird." Someone actually corrected me and said "I am sure you mean 'wierd'". Haha, it gave me a good chuckle.
  • MisdemeanorM
    MisdemeanorM Posts: 3,493 Member
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    Loose & lose misspellings drive me nuts, but I can understand the confusion because choose and lose sound the same and loose does not (really) but looks like it should. Of course, it's just a matter of learning which to use!!

    My HUGE pet peeve in the south is people not knowing the difference between Sale and Sell when written. They say "sell" with such an accent it sounds like "sale" and then in the written form use sale not sell. Our local paper actually had the headline "local auction barn sales its last calf" -- they got a letter to the editor from me on that one!
  • DwightJenkins
    DwightJenkins Posts: 58 Member
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    Okay, as long as we are all giving horror stories... I swear this is true...

    While in the Navy, I worked with a 2nd Class Petty Officer, (think middle management for you civilians). He was sending a letter to a person asking for some information, and he wrote, "Please send me the Pacific details about the issue....." I read it and told him, "It should read 'specific' NOT 'Pacific' (and yes, he DID capitalize it) His response? "Oh, they'll know what I mean" and he sent it that way.

    Arrrrrrggggg!!!
  • MisdemeanorM
    MisdemeanorM Posts: 3,493 Member
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    \ Do you know what really bugs me? When people try to sound like they are using correct English by saying, "and I" As in, "Sally and I went to the store," instead of "Sally and me went to the store." That particular example is correct; it should be, "Sally and I" However, there are incorrect ways to say "and I" For example: "Jack invited Sally and I to dinner." Wrong. In this case it should be "Jack invited Sally and me to dinner," because if Sally was removed from the sentence and the invite you would not say, "Jack invited I to dinner." See? Sorry, it just bugs me. Whew! That felt good.

    Oh yeah! I forgot that one! That has to be my BIGGEST peeve! Mostly because you know the person is trying to show how smart they are by using I and they are so wrong!!!!
  • flwyland
    flwyland Posts: 142
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    "Nucular" instead of nuclear.
  • jacolyncoker
    jacolyncoker Posts: 86 Member
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    You're all acting as if you've never made a grammar mistake in your life.
  • Jennwith2ns
    Jennwith2ns Posts: 296 Member
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    Haha. I'm not perfect at grammar, but lose/loose drives me insane! So many people on FB do that, ugh! It's even harder not to correct spelling errors.. I try my best to mind my own business.
  • DwightJenkins
    DwightJenkins Posts: 58 Member
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    You're all acting as if you've never made a grammar mistake in your life.

    Oh I make plenty. But I do care if I do, and I try to not make mistakes. My post was about someone that didn't even care if he did. That's just unacceptable, especially in a business setting.
  • MFPfriend
    MFPfriend Posts: 1,121 Member
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    You're all acting as if you've never made a grammar mistake in your life.

    Oh I make plenty. But I do care if I do, and I try to not make mistakes. My post was about someone that didn't even care if he did. That's just unacceptable, especially in a business setting.

    Agreed. I make mistakes all the time- and I'm totally okay with people correcting me. I really don't even correct other people when they speak incorrectly. I don't know, it's just something that bothers me.

    And also, someone mentioned the "should of vs. should have"... I used to always do that! LOL, when someone corrected me, I fixed it right away.
  • MisdemeanorM
    MisdemeanorM Posts: 3,493 Member
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    You're all acting as if you've never made a grammar mistake in your life.

    There is a difference between making occasional mistakes or typos and not learning the correct usage of everyday words and phrases. I personally have nothing against typos in forums or casual emails and even in the occasional work document - it happens - but people should know the difference between they're / their / there, its / it's, possessive / plural / plural posessive, etc - even who vs whom is not difficult if you take the time to just learn it.
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
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    :drinker:
  • lilmissy2
    lilmissy2 Posts: 595 Member
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    Lots of people I have worked with over the years have tried to argue with me that 'dietitian' should be 'dietician'. Um, hello! I know how to spell my own profession! haha. I think it is actually correct with the 'c' in America though (but these people weren't American so no excuses haha).

    One of my English teacher's pet peeves was people saying 'I this off Brian' rather than 'I got this from Brian' hehe.
  • questionablemethods
    questionablemethods Posts: 2,174 Member
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    Heh.

    My biggest pet peeve is when people get so infuriated by the grammatical "mistakes" of others (mistakes in the prescriptive sense). Language is fluid and changing and I think it is fascinating, personally. For example, "an apron" used to be "a napron". It changed because, over time, enough people made "mistakes" with the form that the mistaken form became the accepted standard. Does anyone care now? Has everything gone to *kitten* because of it? Nah. For the large part, we all still understand each other just fine -- or at least as well as we always have.

    Sorry, I just had to butt in and give my two cents. Carry on. :wink:
  • Ms_Natalie
    Ms_Natalie Posts: 1,030 Member
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    I have to mention this, but psychological research has suggested that some individuals cannot successfully learn how to correctly spell certain words. The cognitive functions of the brain become confused by what they initially thought was the correct spelling and the actual spelling of the word. Hence the existance of memory/language problems such as Dyslexia! If it was that easy to learn the correct spelling of every word, don't you think everyone would be capable of spelling?

    I still struggle with certain words and know that the one word I had significant difficulty with "Licence" took me a long time to get correct. Another one I have problems with (although they are getting better) is the difference between AFFECT and EFFECT and this is pretty tricky when persuing a career in Psychology! Whoooops :ohwell:

    Hope you all had a lovely weekend! :flowerforyou:
  • MFPfriend
    MFPfriend Posts: 1,121 Member
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    I have to mention this, but psychological research has suggested that some individuals cannot successfully learn how to correctly spell certain words. The cognitive functions of the brain become confused by what they initially thought was the correct spelling and the actual spelling of the word. Hence the existance of memory/language problems such as Dyslexia! If it was that easy to learn the correct spelling of every word, don't you think everyone would be capable of spelling?

    I still struggle with certain words and know that the one word I had significant difficulty with "Licence" took me a long time to get correct. Another one I have problems with (although they are getting better) is the difference between AFFECT and EFFECT and this is pretty tricky when persuing a career in Psychology! Whoooops :ohwell:

    Hope you all had a lovely weekend! :flowerforyou:

    Oh, I have nothing against those with difficulty learning it. I think most people here mean to say that people who refuse to learn how to use them. I have people in my English class who, for the life of them, cannot figure out the difference between certain words- and I'm totally cool with that.
    I speak for myself (though I think others may agree) that we speak for those who refuse to learn.

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