oilman_15106

Jay Leno can not spell worth a **** and look where it got him!

solveg

I have to admit my spelling has become worse with spellcheckers.

OR


Maybe it was always bad, but before spellcheckers I thought I was doing fine?

rainycamp

I think where definately on to something here.

RT

the only person with whom i am comfortable eschewing use of the shift key is e.e. cummings, and the only person who should spell 'you' with a 'u' and 'are' with an 'r,' is prince.

It hurts my i's to reed and right all little lettrs.

Beverly

+1

Sometimes my cell phone starts talking to me and I've never figured out what buttons I pushed to activate this feature. I always take it to one of the granddaughters and they reset it. It's become a family joke They always ask if I'm hearing voices again.

My DVD player is another great source of aggravation and frustration for me

yohannrjm

As long as their riding there bikes and using there peddles, why should we complain about there breaks?

Beverly

I think that's "breaks"

BlazingPedals

Quite a few of the errors everyone is gleefully citing are correctly spelled; they're just the wrong word! I don't think any web browsers are sophisticated enough to include grammar checkers. There's too many homophones out there in the forums to list, but one of my favorites is "waiting with baited breath." Ugh! I wonder if that's worms or cut bait?

I guess it's time to pull out the ol' Ode to Spell Checker, just in case any of you haven't read it before.

**********************

Ode to the Spell Checker.

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

BSLeVan

I had an English teacher my senior year in high school that made me memorize a soliloquy from Shakespeare. The rule was you weren't going to graduate unless you could recite the entire thing with no mistakes. I hated her for that. I also loved her, because she taught me that language is a living thing. It changes; it grows and moves with the people who use it. She also taught that the ultimate purpose of language, either spoken or written, is to convey ideas, thought, and feelings - to communicate with others. As such the imperative is always to seek the message the words are attempting to convey, and to convey the message so that others could understand it to the best of one's ability. I think most people attempt to do this.

BengeBoy 

Back in the early 90's, the folks who worked for me were preparing a major annual presentation for the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. This CEO (now retired) was famous for his attention to detail -- he would fly into a rage over bad spelling, poorly formatted spreadsheets, sloppy writing, and other errors in presentation. One day an analyst brought to me a rough draft of a financial presentation, and it was filled with spelling errors.

Me: "The financial tables are fine, but you have to go through and clean up all the spelling errors."
Analyst: "I can't fix the spelling."
Me: "Why not?"
Analyst: "The spell checker on my PC is broken."
Me: "Why don't you use a manual spell checker?"
Analyst: "Manual spell checker? What's that?"
Me: "Remember those things you saw back in grade school...your teacher may have called it a dictionary."

Really, he was stunned. He had never thought that he could find another way to check his spelling. And I learned not to assume that people knew how to use this "old technology" solution.

aubinmg

Let me help. The reset button on every cell phone is in the same place. The button is only accessible with a ball peen hammer. Works every time.

BFD

My Grammar died when I was a little kid. Grandpa passed away about 1980.

Artkansas 

Invoking the mighty Sheldon, I offer the version of it on his website. Obviously they are related, but I don't know which preceded which.

ODE TO SPELL CHECKERS

I have a spelling checker
I disc covered four my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot see.

Eye ran this poem threw it.
Your sure real glad two no.
Its very polished in its weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.

A checker is a blessing.
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when aye rime.

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

Bee fore wee rote with checkers
Hour spelling was inn deck line,
Butt now when wee dew have a laps,
Wee are not maid too wine.

And now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
There are know faults in awl this peace,
Of nun eye am a wear.

To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should be proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaws are knot aloud.

That's why eye brake in two averse
Cuz Eye dew want too please.
Sow glad eye yam that aye did bye
This soft wear four pea seas.

Jerry Zar, Dean of the Graduate School,
Northwestern Illinois University

yohannrjm

Damn! Some things I can't misspell even when I try! Edited above.

aubinmg

It's irritating enough to see their, there and they're used in the wrong places by people who speak only English not to mention rode and road but what really blows my gaskets in the indiscriminate and random use of that blasted apostrophe!

yohannrjm

What blasted apostrophe?

Ken Brown

Now, its time for you Americans would put the "u" back in colour and spell centre correctly.

Condorita

The blasted apostrophe Ken Brown left out.

Ken Brown

I considered that before I hit "send" and I think I am right, because "its" is not possessive. On the other hand, I am joining two words together. Oh, oh. Will wait for the English teacher's assessment.

Louis

It's a contraction of it is, therefore it needs an apostrophe.

Please report to the principal's office. A note will be sent home for your parents to sign.

cccorlew

"It's" for "it is" gets an apostrophe in place of the "i"
"Its" for "belongs to it" doesn't because it's the same as "his" or "hers," possessive words that don't get a apostrophe.

Next up: Sneeked vs snuck and Hang vs hanged. At no extra charge well include drug vs dragged.

nancy sv

I'm seriously wundering this won... I see alot of people right "peddle" for pedal. Is that the correct word in any country??

Trsnrtr

Many people have mentioned the word "loose" used for "lose" in earlier posts. I've even begun to see "loose" mis-used in the newspaper and on several quasi-news sites like VeloNews. I often wonder how long it will be before the proper spelling of the word "lose" gets dropped entirely from usage.

Digital Gee

Could you do lay and lie as well?

Boudicca

I suppose you could peddle your pedals on Craig's List.

To get back more or less to the beginning of the thread.