I got a lot of comments with my other rant... so here's another one. Actually, it's been circling in my mind over and over for a long time. Others have addressed this issue, but...
It's similar to my other non book review. What are word pet peeves you have? Does misuse of the word "real" annoy you? How about they're vs. their vs. there? Or when someone writes "congraDs" for "congratulations" - which then should be congraTs.
That last one bothers me. There is one person, a very nice person, who I am sure is a terrific person, who always writes "congraDs" - and we visit a lot of the same websites/chats etc, and she always always always writes congraDs. It drives me batty. Makes me cringe like nails on a chalkboard. Does she just not know how to spell it? She must see everyone else writing "congrats" or "congratulations" - where does her D come from? If you, person, are reading this, I'm sorry if you're offended. Really, I don't mean to be bitchy or hurt your feelings, but why?
A lot of my friends haven't figured out you're vs. your. Many of said friends are in law school. That just annoys me more.
Or, if you're going to use a word, use it properly. If you're going to talk about a fashion faux pas, write faux pas. Not faus pas. Faus pas doesn't...
I'm giving myself a headache resulting from cognitive dissonance. Of course, I'm also a hypocrite, because three years ago I didn't know foie gras was foie gras. As in, the goose liver pate - I knew how to say it, I knew what it was, but not how to spell it. In fact, I wrote it phonetically, and one of my terrific oh so kind and down to earth friends (am I over the top yet?) mocked me. Mercilessly. Brought it back up a week later, even. Joy.
What about you? Are there little word things that just drive you batty? Harmless typos I'm ok with. Everyone makes them - I make them constantly. But certain words, you just... need to learn how to type.
Anyone feel the same?
p.s.- Ok, I'm not done yet. This isn't words - but it's people not getting it. Someone will ask a question in a blog, and a commenter will start talking nonsense. Or, just be *wrong.* You can't correct them - then you'd be bitchy. But they're wrong! And not only were they wrong, they were "wrong" in a way that makes them look good and tolerant, and everyone else who expressed their opinion correctly, bad. Grrr.
***ETA*** Another thing. Someone posted "unmistakable lines." Ones like Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. Hers was "oh damn spot." Which, bothered me, and hurt me a little on the inside. If you're going to start the thread, take the care to make it right? I'm not saying she had to have the "Out, damn'd spot" exactly - "Out, damned spot" would have been just as ok. Even "Out, damn spot." But there are worlds of difference between "Oh" and "out" there. Oh, would be Lady MacBeth making an observation. Out if her going batsh*t insane.
You're and your.
Their and they're and the rest you mentioned before. Sometimes I read a personal blog on a webpage and I wish the writer would check before they post. Too many typos and I stop reading.
"I can fix a bad page, but I can't fix a blank one." Nora Roberts
www.angelinabarbin.blogspot.com
Good point
Hi Angel,
I'm glad you agree. I only read author blogs, so generally the spelling is ok. Yahoo groups, however, and chats as well as blog comments can be a big mess. I mean, I didn't know the difference between your and you're until 8th grade (seriously, I don't know how/why nobody had taught me that before then) - but... I did learn it in 8th grade.
Ummm, it's foie gras, not
Ummm, it's foie gras, not fois gras. LOL
Of course, I know that you know that, but you spelled it the same way: "I didn't know fois gras was fois gras". So it just goes to show that even when we are trying, we can still make mistakes.
"Perhaps what the average member of a group is capable of doesn't limit what a given individual can accomplish." -- Boston Globe, letter to the editor
March's Member of the Month!
I have to catch myself ......
I'm a speed typist and I have to catch myself when I'm typing words that sound the same but are spelt differently ...... I make the error quite a bit esp. with there and their ... or your and you're ...... often times it's simply because I had typed the one spelling not too long before and it came automatically when I was typing ... and because a "spellchecker" won't catch it, I have to really take my time to proof read my comments
another one that really gets me is .... to, too, two .... and it's one that again I find myself making if I type too fast
the congraDs thing ... well, that's common for people who tend to spell phonetically ...... my mother drives me nuts sometimes with her pronunciation of some words .... because English is her second language she often says a "D" sound instead of a "T" sound .... and vice versa .... drives me buggy but hey she's Mama! ... what can I do? .... so my Mom would definitely misspell Congrats as Congrads LOL
another one that drives me nuts is when someone uses exclamation marks at the end of every sentence .... I read those exclamation marks in the way they are meant to be read ... they heighten the excitement of the sentence ..... and after awhile if every sentence is made to be "exciting" I get heart palpatations! .....
on a support group forum I participate in, there was one lady who ended everything with an exclamation mark ... and it made all of her comments so agitating ..... I had to stop reading her comments, which I really hated doing because she was on the support forum seeking support ..... so then I finally found the courage to explain to her how her constant use of the exclamation mark was effecting me, and she toned down her comments .... so much better and now she gets lots of replies when she needs help
somehow over time, spelling and punctuation have fallen behind ..... those three basic R's are being lost because we rely on the technology that corrects us automatically
~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog
Have I got a place for you!
Sounds like you're a perfect candidate for our Grammar Girl thread, I'm sure you'd enjoy hanging out with fellow grammatophiles there
Jayne
Community Manager
"We cannot really love anyone with whom we never laugh." ~ Agnes Repplier
then and than
I always have a problem on deciding whether to use then or than. other words I can tell don't belong and are the wrong spelling and it does drive me kind of nuts but I get their meaning(I've gotten good at reading typo). Things like their,they're, there spellchecker doesn't catch and then if you don't write out the reveiw in Word first your post doesn't even go through a spellcheck(the first two weeks after switching computers, I didn't have a spellchecker) I'm kind of leery when answering people about books or correcting them because I don't want to come across as a know it all but bookwise I belong to a book site that has a lot of information and half the time I want to know the answer too.
Christa ~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Challenge Blog
My Shelfari Page
*laughs*
FF - that's so funny because I thought about checking it - and did, and copy/pasted the first google hit I came across in case I did misspell it.
That'll teach me to be lazy. THAT'LL TEACH ME.
Heh
Katherine,
I type very quickly too and I've been spolied with microsoft, and now even firefox correcting mistakes. However, for some reason the eharlequin boards don't allow the spell check. Sadness. I admit to getting mixed up with "i before e, except after c"- and all that.
My mom.... hm - I don't know. She's quite good at spelling - my dad is another story. Both of them came to the US in the 70s so it's "been a while" - but they came in not knowing the language at all.
I have a problem with exclamation points, smilies, and ellipses as in, I use them too much. *angelface* I try to tone it down sometimes, but I just can't help all of it.
Actually...
Jayne -
I hate grammar. I stink at it. When we had a grammar unit in my gifted class, I almost got a C. It was the first time in my life I'd almost gotten a C and I freaked out. The only grammatical... "thing" I can find with confidence are appositives. Not even nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, "simple" things like that. I got too tripped up in 8th grade and never recovered. Taking classical chinese and trying to parse sentences in an ancient language was pure pain for me.
Haha - I think that might e one thread I'll hide from.
Hmm...
Christa,
I didn't think of then/than. Some words that I have to think about are effect and affect [and sometimes both do work!] or principle/principal, capital/capitol. Spell check won't catch any of those.
I'm too lazy to write out posts in Word - which resulted in my faux pas and google betrayal in this post.
I don't correct people on blogs, generally, unless it is something I am 100% sure about, and I know the person will take it well. e.g. - telling people a film was from Dreamworks, not Disney.
Less/fewer
I hate it when people dont know when to use Fewer and when to use Less.
One is volume, one is quantity, Examples:
Michaels car uses less gas than Georges car.
Georges car gets fewer miles per gallon than Michaels car.
Does that make sense?
And yes, the Four/fore/for, two/too/to, then/than, your/you're, their/there/they're all bug me as well.
I used to work with a girl/woman who would put a ? at the end of every sentence...."my name is Veronica? How can I help you? it just makes her sound so dingy.
My puncuation thing, is I never know when to put the apostraphe (sp?) ahead of the s or after the s. is it Michael's, or Michaels'
I am sure there is more, but I can't think of them right now.
Terri
Got Books?
spelling errors
I think most people spell words the way they pronounce them.
It is not perscription, it's Prescription....its not Hunnington, it's Huntington.
A friend of mine is going to UCLA, and she has a t-shirt that reads: " I iz a coledge studint"
Terri
Got Books?
RE: RANT? ME? NEVER...
Great thread! I guess I'm not the only one that proofs my posts to see if the spelling is okay. ~~ HEE HEE ~~
A couple years ago, I looked over a few themed papers I had written for school (and earned good grades with). The grammar was awful! It made me angry to think that either I was "pushed" through school without an education, or my instructors had such little grasp on the English language that they had no clue.
I would have not given meself a passing grade.
"I went to a FIGHT the other night...and a HOCKEY GAME broke out!! "
HockeyDET@comcast.net
"il était une fois un foie gras qui avait la foi à Foix"
Sounds like they need to bring back dictation in schools LOL
Dream Team 2008 Challenge blogs
No more excuses, just READ!
HAHAHA
Terri -
I want that tshirt. Only I want mine to say "I iz/est in law skooz." I know if one prof saw me he'd yell at me. Many lawyers don't have much of a sense of humor.
I... admit I hadn't really noticed fewer/less mistakes. Now I'm going to be paranoid! lol. I admit I went through your sentences and thought "
Georges car gets less miles per gallon than Michaels car." hmm - interchanging the first definitely doesn't work.
I get a bit mixed up on the possessive apostrophe's too. (Like - is that right there? Or no? Did dictionary.com lie? Will the interwebs betray me again?)
I have a confession...
HockeyJock -
To my utmost chagrin... I do not edit my posts. No indeed. I do not prewrite or rewrite them. I'm terribly lazy. Maybe I also think, if I don't look for them in the first place, it's ok if they're there. If i do re-read and find a mistake, I will of course fix it.
:P Or rely on FakeFrenchie to point it out. However... I don't edit my book challenge blog posts. Shameful, isn't it. Especially considering the original post
.
Oh noes
Sadhbh -
lol - I don't get it!!! I don't know French! And I've actually never had foie gras. I a) don't like liver, b) don't like goose. Well, I don't know if I've had goose. We once had a goose (cooked) - but I don't think I ate any of it. Not that I haven't eaten a whole host of other weird things.
Ah dictation... I'd be happy with kids being able to read. Or even speak. One of my fourth grade classes didn't know what the Civil War was last week. Or the revolutionary war. Or who we fought against. Or who George Washington was. I could have cried.
Great subject...
And I have to admit I'm a bit anal about grammar & spelling too. Not that I'm perfect at it, but obvious errors really bug me. I know that in the text message world abbreviations are quite politcally correct, but they bug me. Especially i instead of I. I (as in me) should be capitalized! I usually write my blogs on Word and copy over. At least then I have the benefit of spell check and a thesaurus. But comments, like these, I tend to type off the cuff, so I do try and slow down and double check my work.
I laughed about your spelling errors from your "educated" friends. I remember losing marks on an assignment when I was fifteen because I misspelled development. I was shocked, because I was anal then too. I took great pleasure in proving to the teacher that her spelling of developement was incorrect - and I got my marks back!
Another problem I have is our Canadian/British spelling. Colour, neighbour, favourite - those are the correct way for me. And check is a check mark or a verb, as in to verify. Cheque is the monetary item. Our computer system at work is from the US and it still, after 10 years, ticks me when I see the word check instead of cheque.
It's funny how these things can get to us....
~ ElleJay - Team member of Novel Obsession
There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the pleasure is having lots to do and not doing it!
Interesting
ElleJay,
I hadn't thought of the way different "cultures" might affect word processing programs. That would annoy me too.
I think when it started, the I/i really bothered me - with emails, even back ... oh say possibly 10 years ago. Or lack of punctuation. I have to admit, however, I've let the former go. Especially while im'ing.
There was something else I saw on a blog that made me cringe, but I can't remember it now. Haha, that's good I forgot - but bad because now it's going to bother me! (Oh and it was atrocious too!) OH. Past/passed, kneel/kneeled/knelt. I saw someone write "pasted" and winced.
womans instead of women
I remember a speech class from 10 years ago and half the class used womans instead of women. (Nobody get mad, but it was in MS.) The professor told me it is hard to correct a student when they have heard certain language their whole lives.
"I can fix a bad page, but I can't fix a blank one." Nora Roberts
www.angelinabarbin.blogspot.com
a friend of mine
is from the phillipines. Their language doesnt have words like He/She, Him/Her (personal pronouns?). She refers to everyone as "She".
I think it is hard for some people whos first language is not english. Even if they have been here for a long time.
My trainer at the gym, is from Russia. She came here at age 13, knowing no english at all. She is now 26 and still has trouble with the languange. I have to explain myself to her sometimes. I think its because she doesnt "live" in the language. She only speaks english at work, or when she is with people who dont speak russian.
She lives in a neighborhood where there are Russian shops and most of the people are from Russia. Her mother doesnt speak english.
Terri
Got Books?
Gaaaah
Angel,
That would have driven me BATTY. I mean, yes, it's hard to make changes. But you know what? That doesn't mean it's ok. You know? Once they know how something should be said, they should make an honest effort to fix it.
In college, a ton of my friends said "FreshmenS" and "mealplanS" like "I have a lot of mealplans left this week." I'd be like "no, you only have ONE meal PLAN. you have a lot of meal swipes left." And none of them got it.
Yes...
Terri,
I know what you're saying. Believe me. My parents came to the states when they were in their late 20s. However, they've both been here for more than 30 years. They still mess up. However, they try. My parent's constanty surprise me, both ways. Sometimes, my mom "decides" she speaks 0 English, and is completely unintelligible if/when my friends are over (I've just decided she's shy.) Other times, either parents will bust out a word/phrase that has me doing a double take and asking them "whoa- where did you learn that? even I don't speak that formally!"
Yes, part of it is environment. I had a friend who was born here and still had an accent [I swear some of it was affected.] Or friends who moved here in 4th grade, etc, but still made mistakes as college seniors. I understand it's hard, but after 12 more years of school - especially being in school... some of those mistakes should have been fixed.
Aliquis
I heard later that the professor was fired for losing it on a class.
"I can fix a bad page, but I can't fix a blank one." Nora Roberts
www.angelinabarbin.blogspot.com
Oh no!
I hope... wow.
Oh my goodness - I bet there's a story there.
ummm...
I'm very guilty of the their and there....I have to proof for that one all the time.
Laughter is an instant vacation- Milton Berle
grammatical-errors
Hello_All,
I-am-the-daughter-of-a-school-teacher.My-grammar-was-always-being-corrected.One
thing-mom-went-in-orbit-about-was-when-kids
would-say,'I-saw_two-twins'...She-would-say,
'Twins-means-two'.If-you-say-you-saw-two
twins,that-means-you-saw-4-people.'Don't-say
you-saw-three-triplets,that-means-you-saw
nine-people.My-own-pet-peeve-is-when
people-are-talking-about-real-estate-they
say-they-spoke-to-a-"Real-A-Tee"-person.
There-is-no-"A"-between-the-'L'-and-the-"T"
in-'Realty'.The-correct-pronunciation-is
Real-Tee.I-see-people-on-the-boards-say
probably-but-really-they-write-'prolly'.Is-that
a-contraction-for-probably-ride-the-trolley?
Such-is-life.
Aurelene
I had the opportunity of
I had the opportunity of going through school during a period of time when the school system was not sure how it wanted to handle grammer, spelling and phoenetics. I never learned nouns, verbs, adverbs, commas, semi colons etc. My father or husband reviews all my letters so that I don't sound like a total idiot at least on paper. Thank heavens for the School House Rocks tunes when I was younger. I still remember learning conjunctions from that series. Great topic and I might even learn something from it. My most troubling words are affect and effect.
Bonsal
I was just catching up with
I was just catching up with this blog and I want to go back to a prior post. One that has to do with British spellings vs American spellings.
My dd is brillant and reads a lot. Many of her favorite/favourite reads are Regency romances. She far prefers the look of words with there British spellings. One day she was marked down on a spelling word because she used the British spelling. When she pointed out, to her teacher, that in many parts of the world our spelling of the word is incorrect, the teacher gave her full credit.
Nancy
AS long as your daughter
AS long as your daughter uses British spelling consistently throughout the paper, it is not a problem. The problem comes from switching back and forth between UK and USA.
"Perhaps what the average member of a group is capable of doesn't limit what a given individual can accomplish." -- Boston Globe, letter to the editor
March's Member of the Month!
Wow
Hi Nancy,
I'm going to agree with FF - although I am somewhat surprised her teacher gave her full credit. Yes, in other places our spelling is "wrong" - but we're here, not there. I'm not trying to knock your daughter's writing - definitely, but I am still a bit surprised.
I'm curious to know what class your daughter is in ....
this must be grade school ..... once she gets to college / university she's going to have to follow what ever grammatical "style" the school follows, no ifs or buts
... I'm actually very surprised that the teacher gave her credit for words obviously misspelled in the "American" english style that she is being taught ..... I would think that is against the school policy
though that's great that your daughter let the teacher know that she knew the spelling was correct some where
~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog
My daughters a junior in
My daughters a junior in high school--she consistently uses the British spelling of words--she does not "see" them as being spelled wrong. She has an incredibly strong personality and is very articulate with her arguments. She is one of 3 contenders for valedictorian of her class. Our school district is very small and teachers have the students for more than one year. Each student is honored for their uniqueness in this district. Some class sizes are as small as 3 students (her AP USHistory), many are around 10-15 students, the largest core classes don't do above 26.
Nancy
What your daughter isis
What your daughter isis doing is good, though she should be aware that in college, the profs might not be so generous. I edit scientific papers in France and the rule of thumb is "follow the style guidelines of the publication." But most publications say that consistency is the key.
"Perhaps what the average member of a group is capable of doesn't limit what a given individual can accomplish." -- Boston Globe, letter to the editor
March's Member of the Month!
this is kind of funny.....
you know the game where the teacher will scramble the word and the kids have to unscramble the words?
Well, the son of a friend of mine got marked wrong because he unscrambled the word, but came out with the word the teacher didnt intend.
This child saw the letters OACT. Well he unscrambled the word and came up with TACO. He got marked wrong, because the teacher wanted the word COAT.
Terri
Got Books?
Terri - How funny, I
Terri - How funny, I immediately came up with Taco as well, wonder what that says about me- perhaps that I love mexican food. Seems wrong to mark down for another word unless there were clues - like you wear this outside - such that taco wouldn't fit.
Cady
TBR--The Born Readers
The teacher shouldn't have marked any of the alternatives
wrong - she just said to unscramble it to make another word, he
should have got equal points with someone who came up with coat while
someone who came up with both should have got full points
Hugs
Sadhbh
Dream Team 2008 Challenge blogs
No more excuses, just READ!
Wow
Looks like education is a hot topic! Good, because someone mentioned something about it today on... a yahoo group. It showed math problems "through the years" - and while yes, I admit some schools have gotten lax, or the system is a bit ridiculous, I was a bit offended as to the examples. I went through school during one of those earlier dates, and I definitely never had problems with that.
Oh, the age old age disconnect. Young'uns like me won't listen to "old people" and "old people" don't like "those young punks."
Nancy, I'm stil surprised as to what the teacher did. I thnk mine would have been vaguely understanding, but firm in saying, they understood what I was saying, but it was still wrong. I agree with FF. In college, her professors/graders probably won't take to it as kindly. GA's aren't the most sympathetic bunch, and I'll admit, with reason.
Terri - that is just wrong! Taco is a word, so the teacher should have accepted it! I can't believe she's just "closing off" children like that. I'm very disappointed.
Haha, again I'm dating myself. When I first glanced at the letters, I thought "ACT" - but what about the O? Standardized testing... *shudders*