A light-hearted thread about misspelling pet peeves (add yours if you wish)

[Bonobo]

I have two major pet peeves that set me off:

"Loose" instead of "lose": As in "I am afraid Obama will loose in 2012."

"Lightening" instead of "lightning": As in "The sky was filled with lightening."

What bothers me the most is that I have seen a steady increase in these 2 errors and am afraid that someday no one will even be able to spell it correctly.

Not that its the end of the world, but it bugs me.

Anyone else with others?

[BulletproofLandshark]

1. Confusing "their", "there", and "they're".

That one always drives me nuts.

[SoCalDem]

2. pett peaves?

misspelling "pet peeves"..:evilgrin:

[treestar]

3. I am with you on "loose"

That one just seems so dumb - using that indicates a person who does little reading. At least where it is not a typo.

[muffin1]

4. Judgment spelled 'judgement'. nt

[Barack_America]

9. Is that technically a misspelling?

[muffin1]

19. Really?

I was TAKEN DOWN at work for spelling it with an 'e'. It was very embarassing! This was years ago, and I never spelled it that way again. I guess we do learn new things on DU from time to time.:-)

[WinkyDink]

130. Well, "technically" would be pretty much the definition of "misspelling".

[hlthe2b]

11. Why? They are both correct...

:shrug:

Much like "canceling" or "cancelling"-- both correct.

[Demeter]

29. British Vs American Spelling

There are scads of these little differences.

[WinkyDink]

131. We don't spell it "colours" here either.

[blm]

14. judgement is the original spelling and it is still accepted

Main Entry: judg·ment
Variant(s): or judge·ment \ˈjəj-mənt\
Function: noun
Date: 13th century

1 a : a formal utterance of an authoritative opinion b : an opinion so pronounced
2 a : a formal decision given by a court b (1) : an obligation (as a debt) created by the decree of a court (2) : a certificate evidencing such a decree
3 a capitalized : the final judging of humankind by God b : a divine sentence or decision; specifically : a calamity held to be sent by God
4 a : the process of forming an opinion or evaluation by discerning and comparing b : an opinion or estimate so formed
5 a : the capacity for judging : discernment b : the exercise of this capacity
6 : a proposition stating something believed or asserted

[Romulox]

65. In the US legal world, it's "judgment", full stop!

Do you see how I mixed a US spelling with a britishism? :silly:

[WinkyDink]

133. "Accepted" is a good way not to have one's submission here accepted, IYKWIM.

[daggahead]

5. Not so much spelling ...

... but grammar:

The misuse of the apostrophe, especially when something that should be a plural suddenly becomes possessive.

Example I saw yesterday - "Fresh Strawberry's - $3.99 a quart"

[tilsammans]

18. And along those lines . . .

"The Smith's invite you to their holiday party."

[Barack_America]

24. I'm a big fan of "it's" as the possessive form of "it".

And when I say "fan", I mean :eyes:

[Chef Eric]

58. And "who's" as the possessive form of "who." nt

[surrealAmerican]

61. On a related note ...

... I've also been seeing a lot of misusing "whose" and "who's" lately. They are NOT interchangeable.

[geardaddy]

76. Yes, that's mine, too.

That's known as the "grocer's apostrophe" or "greengrocer's apostrophe"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grocer%27s_apostrophe#Greengrocers.27_apostrophes

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. seperate/separate

"your invited to the picnic" cringe

[blm]

7. your and you're....

as for lose and loose, I just don't get how people could mix those two....but, it seems to be increasing

[AnArmyVeteran]

103. Your kidding me aren't you? You must have lost you're mind! :)

Yeah, they are my pet peeves too. I see them all over the place.

[leftynyc]

8. You're vs your

Drives me crazy.

[HughMoran]

50. That's the only one of all these that really bothers me

[leftynyc]

66. I'm also sensitve to

they're, their, there. But the original one makes my teeth grind.

[HughMoran]

78. This one is sometimes a 'typing quick' error

Granted, I will almost always catch the error, so I do consider it sloppy practice to hit post without fixing it.

[spartan61]

10. I get upset when I read

"your" instead of you're. (i.e Your having a bad day.)

My other pet peeve is the wrong spelling of separate. So often, even on signs, I will see it spelled seperate. Arrrrgggg!


Oops...sorry for the dupes. Didn't see that others beat me to our mutual pet peeves.

[pinboy3niner]

12. "Lead" used for past tense

That and "loose" are two I've seen frequently here.

Of course, my biggest peeve is my own typos. :)

[WinkyDink]

134. YES!!!!!! "LEAD" FTW!!!

[tekisui]

13. One I still have a problem getting straight: effect and affect.

[SteppingRazor]

83. That's easy, really: In general, affect is a verb, effect is a noun.

There are exceptions, but that holds up for most uses.

[tekisui]

109. I will commit that to memory. Thanks.

[Hannah Bell]

119. the confusion comes mostly with the verb forms: "effect the changes" = implement

v. "affect the changes" = influence

[bigwillq]

15. On a message board or in real life?

:shrug:

[cali]

16. Your OP is just rediculous!

:hi:

[seabeyond]

43. rediculous gets me, too. for whatever reason, it is offensive to the eyes

was perusing down the thread to see if it was already posted

it was, lol

:hi:

had to edit for a comma, since this is a spelling thread.

[patrice]

17. Just listen. No one knows what pronoun case is anymore, so most use

objective pronouns where subjective are required and, sometimes, subjective pronouns where objective are required. I think one of the reasons for this is that they no longer know what a preposition is, so they miss the fact that prepositions require objective case pronouns.

incorrect objective case: "Him and me brought the equipment."
incorrect subjective case: "The equipment came from he and I."

[patrice]

26. P.S. Sorry, that's about a light-hearted as it gets for me these days.

[pipi_k]

42. Another pronoun glitch that bugs me...

similar to the second example you give...

OK, I admit it. I watch NASCAR racing. It's only to fill the vacant black hole left after football season ends, but anyway, this one happens a LOT during the races.

So the commentators are yapping away during the race and the situation usually comes up where there's a bit of a contest between drivers. What we hear is something like, "Jeff Gordon got slowed down a little. There was some contact between he and Tony Stewart on the back stretch".

aughhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

Like nails on a blackboard.

[Iggo]

64. Just between you and I...

...it kills me when I hear people use the subjective form of a personal pronoun as the object of a preposition.

And it ain't just NASCAR. It's the entire sports/entertainment talking head sub-species. They're all doing it.

[Chef Eric]

47. Why are you using "they" to modify "no one"?

"They" is plural. "No one" is singular. They don't go together. Sheesh!

:)

[patrice]

55. Touche! Sloppy of me.

[October]

116. A few...

It has 2 c's and 2 m's: accommodation
It's two words: a lot, NOT alot
And please, it's not "could of," it's "could have"

[brendan120678]

20. I mispel werds alot. (nt)

[mmonk]

21. If it weren't for misspelled words, I would not have had as much fun the last few

years looking at right wing America's signs at protests. Personally, I'm thankful for misspelled words.

[Chef Eric]

59. I think misspellings & bad grammar can be useful clues about whom we are dealing with!

Pardon me for ending my subject sentence with a preposition.

:)

[mmonk]

63. No problem.

I do it all the time.:hi:

[Art_from_Ark]

121. A preposition at the end of a sentence????

That is something up with which I can not put!

[betharina]

22. prolly instead of probably and

tomarrow not tomorrow.

[Morning Dew]

62. I've always figured that the use of "prolly" is deliberate.

I will use it occasionally as an informal word to indicate casualness.

I never realized that some people don't know the correct spelling.

[Maru Kitteh]

123. tomarrow!

Oh MY GOD I hate that one.

Tomarrow? Marrow is in you BONES. Urgh.

[jp11]

23. My pet peeves involve me misspelling words, not being able to figure out the correct

spelling, being too stubborn to look it up and pulling a Porky and choosing a different word I can spell. :freak:

[Demeter]

25. We had a young (20-something) recording secretary

who typed "Wayne's coating" for "wainscoting". Silly chit didn't have the sense to ask.

[dixiegrrrrl]

52. In one of my patient charts, the transciptionist had written

"the patient's leg had gang green"

which, in a weird way, was sort of correct.

[hermetic]

27. How about

breath and breathe? I see that so frequently now. Makes me wonder.

[treestar]

33. Or having a closet full of cloths

[Canuckistanian]

28. I hate it when people misspell "Myasthenia gravis" or "longitudinality"

It drives me up a wall.

[Demeter]

31. Rather!

You crack me up, Canuck.

[pipi_k]

45. I blame Mary Poppins

for making me so anal about "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious".

[Arugula Latte]

118. People who do that are obviously morans.

[asjr]

30. The first time I heard a teacher say I seen her yesterday

I knew my daughter was doomed. I really believe grammar is no longer taught in school.

[Demeter]

34. Not to English Majors or Teachers, certainly

I was in engineering school, took a grammar elective because it was based on Chomsky's Transactional Grammar. It was appalling to sit with a bunch of future teachers who couldn't handle their native tongue.

[asjr]

37. What line was it in The King and I--You've got to be

carefully taught! Or am I "misremembering?"

[Demeter]

72. South Pacific--and that was about bigotry

The only musical reference I can think of might be this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I_qa24tcNw&feature=player_embedded

a better recording:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDrQz4RVLi4

[asjr]

102. You are correct! I am going back so far

in time to those wonderful musicals on Broadway and later made into movies.

[WinkyDink]

135. Speak for your own school, thank you kindly.

[patrice]

41. The problem is that grammar is about the logic of the language, not a perfect logic, but

the operating principles of our native tongue nonetheless.

It's not being taught, so few people are picking up the logic of communication and, hence, almost NO ONE can write anymore, especially in Business.

[SB37]

32. Not so much a misspelling as a misspeaking -

but, supposebly or supposively get me every time. I have some very intelligent friends that "supposebly" me at least a couple of times a week....

[Auggie]

35. My pet peeve is not a misspelling,

but rather the use of "Photoshop" as a verb, as in, "looks like it was Photoshopped."

The correct terminology is "retouched", "digitally retouched", "digitally enhanced," "altered", etc. Photoshop is a noun and brand name of a software program, not a verb.

[leftofcool]

38. Yes, but even those of us in the digital art work use it as a verb.

[Auggie]

96. Not me

[Phentex]

70. it's gone the way of xerox as a verb...

meaning to copy something. Xerox used to fight it but I think they gave up.

[Auggie]

97. Doesn't make it right

Before Photoshop the terminology was "retouched." Even now my clients ask me if I can "fix in it Photoshop," not "Photoshop it."

[Webster Green]

77. It is a verb now. If it isn't listed as one in the dictionary, it will be soon.

Same as google.

[SteppingRazor]

84. Maybe it counts as a verb now. I'll have to google it. n/t

[hunter]

85. My altered photos are "gimped."

http://www.gimp.org

[Regret My New Name]

126. Mine are ms-painted

:P

[MindPilot]

36. "literally" as a general modifier.

I've heard people who should know better like professional writers say things like "the books were selling like hot cakes; literally flying off the shelves."

[patrice]

39. Oh now, I would love to have seen that!!

:hi:

[Sparkly]

49. I know!!

I wonder if they've confused "literally" with "virtually" or something??

[Chef Eric]

57. I heard a local sportswriter say that the Philadelphia Flyers "literally walked on water."

And he wasn't talking about skating in some metaphorical sense.

[fatbuckel]

40. I don`t like the misplaced apostrophe......we can blame the schools

Recently, a friend attended a graduation commencement ceremony and noted that the program stated that the ceremony began at" 10:30am in the morning". Well he half-humorously mentioned this to a teacher standing nearby and she replied "Well, these are high-school kids we`re dealing with." So he asked if it was common practice to release students into the world that didn`t know that "am" means morning/before noon. We need testing for teachers.

[seabeyond]

44. i hate chose and choose. i still have a hard time figuring which to put in

even with research

chose is past tense. choose is present, correct?

[Sparkly]

46. All the ones listed here, plus "I could care less" and "try and do something"

"I could care less" means there's a further degree of not caring, so I care somewhat. "I couldn't care less" means there is no lower level of caring -- I absolutely don't care.

"Try and" do something instead of "try TO" do something makes me nuts.

"The reason is because" -- The reason is (that)... or That is because... I'm not even sure whether this one is grammatically incorrect, it just strikes me as awkward and bugs me.

[Romulox]

68. "could care less" is what is known as "idiomatic speech".

There is no confusion as to the issue you mention among the people who use the phrase, so the explanation that "could care less means that it is possible to care less!" recited, ad infinitum, to an audience who already understands the point full well, becomes the most troubling part of the phrase (at least for me.) :hi:

[Tracer]

48. Not a mis-spelling, but this drives me nuts anyway...

When people are referring to an event that took place previously -- whether yesterday or 5 years ago -- they use the present tense!

"I'm looking out the window and I see the tornado coming."

Is it so damn hard to say "I looked out the window and saw the tornado coming". ????

[Cresent City Kid]

60. I hear one at work that makes me wonder

I'm from New Orleans which has its own unique terms like "making groceries" for grocery shopping, which I attribute to translations from French. Here in San Antonio, the people I work with use the term "right now" for the recent past, e.g. "that's the job I just did right now."

I try to spell things correctly, but I often overlook typos. I even mispelled "Crescent" in my own screen name which was pointed out to me during an argument.

[Chef Eric]

51. "Should of" instead of "should have." nt

[gateley]

53. Congradulations.

[HillWilliam]

54. Irregardless

makes my teeth itch.

[dixiegrrrrl]

56. "reign in " instead of "rein in".

Very common to find that even in news stories.
Along with "there house was on fire" instead of "their".

[Romulox]

71. There is a small exception for "blood", though...

:silly:

[gtar100]

67. Login and Log In - A noun is not a verb

Login is the noun. "To log in" is the action.

If I write: "I am going to login now", then when I do it, I could say, "I am logining in".

Correct: My login is a user ID and password. I log in with my user ID and password.

I log in with my login.

[geardaddy]

82. Technical writer?

I totally get that. I'm a technical writer.

[gtar100]

117. :) Network security, access management

It's very rare to find anyone who catches this. :toast:

[Romulox]

69. "You are bias".

:wtf:

[Phentex]

73. Per say...

SAY WHAT?

[lumberjack_jeff]

74. Those all bother me alot. n/t

[Robb]

75. People who misspell "Democrats" as "fascists."

[Demeter]

80. Now you're just being a purist, there

:rofl:

[pipi_k]

79. Combination pet peeve and source of much amusement...

Not a spelling error, but misused quotation marks.

As in,

"Chicken" breasts: 1.49/lb

Restrooms for "customers" only


"Closed" on Christmas and New Years



and so on...

:7

[geardaddy]

90. You'll love this one then.

:D

http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/

[redqueen]

100. The only mistake I "like" ... I do "enjoy" unnecessary quotes.

Always amusing. I like to imagine someone saying the words while doing "air quotes".

[Richardo]

81. 'Breathe' for 'breath'

+ every other one mentioned on this thread.

[Bunny]

108. You know, I always get confused by 'smooth' and 'smoothe'.

If I want to say 'smooth' skin, I often write 'smoothe' skin, then I have to sit there and look at it for a minute before I realize that it's wrong. Maybe I'm getting 'smoothe' mixed up with
'soothe'? :shrug:

But at least I can tell the difference between 'lose' and 'loose'! :D :hi: Richardo! :loveya:

[Richardo]

111. I'm loosing my breathe.

:hi: Bunny! :loveya: :pals:

[Peace Patriot]

86. Your post contains one of my pet peeves (its, it's).

"Not that its the end of the world, but it bugs me."

Should be: "Not that it's the end of the world, but it bugs me"

You've got to parse every use of its/it's and ask yourself, does it mean "it is" (it's) or does the "s" stand for something belonging to "it" (its; e.g., "the bicycle lost its wheel" )? In your sentence, clearly you mean "it is" ("Not that it is the end of the world"). So you need the apostrophe ("it's").

And it's interesting that I got your meaning quite clearly without the apostrophe and its signal that the word "is" is intended but has been left out in the shorthand version of "it is."

The main rule for writing that should be taught is: IS IT CLEAR? If its/it's introduces ambiguity that you do not intend, learn the rule. The rules are merely a way of writing (and speaking) that helps create universality (everybody knows what you mean). A common set of rules is useful. Breaking the rules should be the result of choice, not ignorance. Anyway, that's how I taught English. Feel free to create the language for yourself--Shakspear did (and he spelled his own name six different ways). It is your right as a human being operated by a brain that gives you the evolutionary advantage of complex language and is inherently creative in that respect. But do understand the purpose of language: to COMMUNICATE **CLEARLY** that it's not just ANY hungry animal that you saw coming down the jungle path toward the village, with its mouth salivating and its eyes bright, but a hungry TIGER with its mouth salivating and its eyes bright and its ribs sticking out, and it is two clicks away and grab your children and RUN. 'IT's headed HERE with its sharp teeth!'

'It's headed here, you say? WHAT is headed here?' 'Its...! Its...! It's...!' 'What? What?' 'Tiger! Tiger!' 'Ah, I see. RUN!'

---------------------

A note on effect/affect. Think of "effect" as active and "affect" as passive. "We need to effect change." "We are affected by change." "Effect" is something you DO (or something that someone or something DOES, in active mode). "Affect" is something that happens. "Effect": shit you or others do. "Affect": shit happens.

Examples: I have not been affected by my school principal's changes to the graduation requirements, which will become effective after I graduate. The principal wanted to raise educational standards at my school but I don't believe that the changes will be effective in doing so. To effect change you need consent. The affected students should have been consulted. The principal has effectively killed the students' motivation to do better. His actions will effect an attitude of passivity, sullenness and depression among the affected students. Many will simply not graduate, with long term effects on the lives of the affected student population.

(That last one--"long term effects"--can be mystifying, but think of it as the long term impacts of the principal's active ambition, ego and greed for federal grants reaching far into the future to make full grown adults feel dumb, many years later. The affected students will feel the effects of the principal's misguided policy forever.)

(Funny thing, I spelled "principal" wrong (as "principle") throughout that example, and just changed it now, before posting. "Principle"--something we all believe in, or not. "Principal"--the guy who is going to make students fail and feel dumb in later life, no pal to them, no prince either. Tag: princiPAL. Neither prince nor pal to his students.)

[dorkulon]

87. "Worst" instead of "worse": As in "The situation is getting worst."

Mainly, people need to bone up on apostrophes, re: possession, not pluralization.

[wizstars]

88. 10 words you need to stop misspelling

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

[Skidmore]

89. I really don't like these types of threads.

I'll tell you why. I had some health problems a few years ago and as a result I have some soft neurological problems and one of them is that I make spelling errors that I never used to make. Sometimes I'm able to catch them and other times they slip by and I see them later when it is too late to correct. I also know that some people have other problems with learning and memory, so I hesitate to levy this type of criticism. There are too many things about people on an anonymous chat forum that you do not know to be so "liberal" with assuming that everyone has the level of education or the grammatic or spelling acuity you have.

[blueworld]

91. Excellent points; for myself, it's currently fat fingering keys, but I know what you mean.

Anyway, I like to laugh at different spellings, punctuations, phonetic accents etc. but I'm really a crabby old geezer at pronunciations. Like nu-q-ler, or for-MID-able (if you're not British).

I particularly blow a gasket when it is a TV journalist with a college degree. I need more meditation & St. John's Wort, I think:)



edited: no kidding, I swear, my dumb spelling again. Good grief.

[Titanothere]

99. I hear that, but I think a lot of people just type things out super fast and don't bother to proof

I'm definitely guilty of that and have been trying to improve my grammar in general.

There's such a short turnaround in message boards that people don't want to take the extra time to make sure they've written something well, you have get it out right now to be part of the conversation ;)

The bigger issue I have is seeing and almost constant string of errors in published (online of course) articles; it's pretty pathetic really. I get the feeling papers are hiring summer interns to do all of their writing and proofing these days.

[cherokeeprogressive]

92. Vice-a Versa. Spoken though, because I never see it written tha way.

Every time I hear someone say it like that I want to slap them in their mouth...

[redqueen]

101. Do you mean with two syllables for 'vice'?

That's actually correct.

[cherokeeprogressive]

104. Okay... now I feel like the biggest ass ever. Will you slap me in my mouth?

How have I survived 49 years without ever being told that?

Jeebus but I feel dumb now.

Thanks for setting me straight though.

[redqueen]

105. ah no... all readers make mistakes like that.

No reason to feel dumb... I learned in this thread that there is no such word as 'seperate'... for decades I've thought that there were separate spellings for the verb and noun.

That's why I like these threads.

[Romulox]

106. Also, Latin is a "dead" language. Pronunciation is more or less ad hoc!

Ask 3 or 4 lawyers to pronounce "bona fide", for example. You'll find the pronunciation changes even with the same speaker, depending on the context.

For example, I know more than one person who would say:

"Bone-uh fAId purchaser for value" ("bona fide purchaser for value"), but refer to a person's "Bone-uh fEEd-AYs" ("bona fides" or credentials.)

:shrug:

[lpbk2713]

93. For all intensive porpoises and ect ...

... I think this entire post pretty well covers the ground.


:rofl:

[redqueen]

94. 'case and point'

Seriously. I saw this typed by someone who allegedly writes for a living.

I would have said 'should of' and its variants but someone else got there first.

[Obamanaut]

95. Affect/effect, "I seen...", alot nt

[cliffordu]

98. 'speling'

[TexasObserver]

107. Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!

[Obamanaut]

110. Not a spelling issue, but 'close proximity' - is there a 'far proximity'? nt

[Donnachaidh]

112. it takes 2 seconds to spellcheck - why not use it?

DU has a spellcheck. People should use the darned thing.

[Regret My New Name]

127. Spellcheck won't help with many of the errors mentioned

"your" is still spelled correct, even if it should be "you're".

[hugo_from_TN]

113. Here, Here!

[Crabby Appleton]

114. To instead of too, phase for faze nt

[Senator]

115. "The The Impotence of Proofreading," by TAYLOR MALI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OonDPGwAyfQ

For those (like me) who've not come across this (until Stephen Fry's recent tweet).

--

[Hannah Bell]

120. lightning is one i miss sometimes. my pet peeve is "She'll be back momentarily".

it's a lost cause, but i hate it.

[Matariki]

122. loose & lose - really bugs me.

kinda dumb to be bugged by that misuse, but there ya' go...

[area51]

124. "noone" instead of "no one"

That one gets me; there is no such word, to my knowledge. :shrug:

[pinboy3niner]

125. Nope. When you drop the 'r' on the end, it's not a word.

:evilgrin:

[WinkyDink]

136. Bwah!

[Vinca]

128. Misspellings don't both me nearly as much as mispronunciations.

Joey Scar's inability to say "Democrat" drives me nuts. It is not "Dimocrat!"

[pinboy3niner]

132. "February"

Rachel Maddow is the only one I've heard pronounce it correctly in a long time.

As for Joe, I can't believe it's not intentional.

[treestar]

129. "Payed" for "paid"

Not that it isn't logical; in many cases the English language isn't.

[WinkyDink]

137. Not spelling---sorry!---BUT: 90% of the time "shined" should be "shone"!