Do people even bother with spelling any more?

[Wat_Tyler]

The Ford Dealership on my way into work has a big sign advertising -
"2005 FORD EDDY BEAUR ESCAPE! $322,99!"

I think they mean Eddie Bauer.

Seriously people - the English language is on its knees.

[jackster]

1. My pet peeve is...

...the usage of AMOUNT where NUMBER is correct.

For example, the AMOUNT of people should be the NUMBER of people.

This is becoming more widespread - I hear it more and more frequently and it DRIVES ME CRAZY!

[auntAgonist]

43. then instead of than.

My house is bigger then your house.

It's twenty years older then the one next door.

:eyes:

[Cuban_Liberal]

2. Nice comma placement, too...

:eyes:

[Wat_Tyler]

3. I mean, it's on a FUCKING SIGN!

Thousands of people pass it every day - get it right!

[Cuban_Liberal]

7. We're becoming mathematically illiterate, too.

God help this country if our calculators all decide to die--- there'll only be about 6 of us left in the US who know how to do math with just paper and pencil.

:silly:

[Wat_Tyler]

11. Right - calculators have rendered arithmetic obsolete.

[tigereye]

20. veteran of Catholic school here-

we had to memorize all that stuff. And there were no calculators back then. Oops, they were called your "brain."

[moggie]

19. Apostrophes

Increasingly, I'm seeing "it's" used in the possessive sense in places like magazine articles and product packaging, where until recently one would have expected the copy to be checked by someone literate before it went to press. Dammit, don't companies care any more?

[deutsey]

4. Ask this guy

[Wat_Tyler]

5. No - you see, he has a dispute with a local Irish family.

That's perfectly good spelling.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

6. wut do u meen?

gramor = EZ

seriously though, i can't help but think that that in 10-20 more years it will be much worse. All these kids growing up using chat clients and text messengers are not exactly going to be grammar rangers. the constant use of abbreviation/shortcuts is going to have its effect. sux 2 b u.

[Wat_Tyler]

9. I know that language evolves over time,

but I think we skipped the evolution part this time around.

[Cadence]

44. Yeah, it's (de)evolving.

I remember a time when I used to really pay attention to everything that I wrote. Check for grammar usage, spelling, comma placement. Now, sometimes I find myself seeing a mistake and leaving it there. Like I've given up inside. The weird thing is, I hate that I do that. I've also noticed spending so much time on these boards, and getting used to seeing written language minus proper punctuation, poor spelling etc., that I've started to forget language rules.
The internets is definitely havin an effect!

[tjwmason]

8. Spelling is a recent invention

It arose shortly after the printing press, before that one would have a number of 'conventional' spelling for a word, but no set rules. As society moves back towards a visual culture it is no surprise that these nasty things fall by the way-side.

That said, when things are spelt incorrectly due to ignorant morans not knowing better - that is a problem. (Myself being foremost among them.)

[Wat_Tyler]

10. I wouldn't say spelling is a nasty thing.

It is of course true that standardized spelling is a result of mass publishing, but I think that a unified structure for grammar and spelling simplifies communication and limits confusion.

[tjwmason]

15. But there is a nuaced middle ground

between rigid spelling rules (which are nasty), and complete spelling anarchy. Allowing freedom within the bounds of reasonableness permits the use of spelling variations for purposes of emphasis, irony, and plain simple variety, which in turn makes for a more interesting language. Of course the purpose of writing (indeed of language as a whole) is to permit easy communication, and thus variety needs to sit hand in hand with ease of comprehension.

That said, anybody who drops the 'u' from colour or honour should be shot immediately.

[Wat_Tyler]

17. You know, I think color and honor are actually more historically accurate.

Very odd really, but in strict historical terms, US English is truer to Elizabethan English than well, English English.
Not that that really matters, but it is a weird little fact.

[tjwmason]

28. Not everybody thinks so

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Colour

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Color

Messing up spelling to make life easier was a common American sport. I would also point out that the etymology leads more easily to colour.

[tigereye]

21. spelling rules in English are horrifyingly inconsistent

as I note when my kid is studying for a spelling test.

[tjwmason]

29. That's half the fun of the language n/t

[tigereye]

35. yes, but it certainly can be difficult for those with

who have forms of dyslexia or other processing problems. I see a number of kids and adults who have reading difficulties in my work and it really puts into perspective how difficult spelling and phonetic processing can be for some. I spell very well, and I never realized how hard it is for many people.

[tjwmason]

36. My dyslexia is quite mild

Also (without being boastful) I'm not exactly in the double-diit I.Q. class, but it did take me a long while to get many spellings. I still can't spell out-loud and have to write words down.

I don't know about elsewhere, but recognition of dyslexia and subsequent remedial action has only really started recently. I got the tail-end of it at school (mid 1990s); and my local education authority bought me a computer at university.

[tigereye]

37. yes it is astonishing how few schools really pay attention

to these things and get help for kids and adults. It's not as if this information or remediation is that new.

[tjwmason]

40. I found that by being taught many aspects of the structure of language

I could understand why words are spelt in bizzare ways, and thus spell better. F.W.I.W. I outperformed both of my parents on a recent test we took (as a joke), neither of whom are dyslexic.

The only problem I still have is that my writing is horrendous, that it aided by my being left-handed.

[tigereye]

45. my husband is mildly dyslexic

I have noticed that he doesn't take the time to actually sound out all the phonemes in some unfamiliar words or guesses the gestalt of a word (skims it) instead of saying the correct one. Otherwise, it didn't seem to have affected his ability to read a great deal. I will have to wait and see how my son develops his skills with unfamiliar words.

[kick-ass-bob]

32. drop the 'u'?

It wasn't there in the first place!
:P

on edit: corrected spelling! :P

[tjwmason]

34. R.E. your edit

I rest my case.

[arwalden]

12. Your Correct!! They Should Of Proof Red It, But Whose Going To Notice?

[Wat_Tyler]

13. Anal nerds like me!

Moast peepul jussed doant cair ennymoar.

[oneighty]

27. Yes your is

veri rite. Arwalden,

810;

[arwalden]

14. Does It Also Bother You When Someone Uses An Upside-Down "W" for "M"...

and vice-versa? I hate seeing all caps... then suddenly an upside-down exclamation point for a lower-case "i". Or the flipped (mirror-reverse) ampersands and the upside down "S" and "B" --- everyone knows that the little curves go on the top and the big curves go on the bottom!

Or... do they do it on purpose for effect?

[Wat_Tyler]

16. No attention to detail combined with sheer laziness.

[asthmaticeog]

18. Sorry, what was all that again?

I don't speak Canadian.

[Wat_Tyler]

23. I said 'the dumb sheep yanquis will never get this one'.

I'd have thought that was obvious, eh?

[asthmaticeog]

26. baaaaaaaaa.

[aden_nak]

22. No tehy dont.

[progmom]

24. Nobody cares.

Papers in college are now graded almost entirely on content, not spelling or grammar.

Nobody cares a whit anymore.


And it makes me really mad!!! :grr:

[Wat_Tyler]

25. Yeah. Standards are plummeting.

[txaslftist]

30. Hell, he made a lot of really good shows.

90210 was huge. Plus his daughter's kinda hot in an "I can't really act but my dad is the producer." kind of way.

I think Spelling is fine. I don't know what you have against him, frankly.

[Wat_Tyler]

33. It's his hair. Pure and simple.

[Withywindle]

31. I've been having too much fun here at DU

doing drive-by spelling corrections on people's posts with my trusty Blue State Red Pen.

Mostly I comment on the mangling of various Democrats' names. Poor Mary Landrieu. Poor Barack Obama. There seems to be an almost infinite variety of ways to misspell them. Are they really that complicated?


Then again, I'm in Illinois, which gave the political world Dan Rostenkowski and Jan Schakowsky and Rod Blagojevich, so I guess we have a higher bar of what's hard to spell and what's not.

[Schema Thing]

38. Knot me!

[ernstbass]

39. your vs. you're

nobody gets these right anymore

[tjwmason]

41. Your being silly

Everybody can get them right, and just because you're homophones are confused doesn't mean that our's are.

[redqueen]

42. No.

I fight my inner spelling/grammer/usage Nazi every single day. In real life and online. No place is safe.

[DS1]

46. Yes, they don't.

;-)