Can you control yourself when you see things spelled wrong?

You cant, huh?

Oh, the irony.

It only bothers me to the extent that I shake my head… assuming the meaning is clear, at least. Some misspellings lead to complete misunderstanding, too. Those are different.

Yeas it duz!

No seriously, even in college-level classes people are morons and functionally illiterate. The best way to learn is to read. Most kids don’t read because of the television.

It’s dangerous. I tend to overreact to all kinds of orthographic and grammatical errors, and then I will see one in one of my own posts, after it’s too late to edit it.

Yes, it does. And get this – I’m 13. I don’t get after my friends about it, mainly because I want to keep them my friends. It’s no big deal, really, but try not to pick it up because I don’t want people to think I’m illiterate or anything like that. I can type fast, so me typing whole words takes about the same amount of time as writing in txtspk.

@chocolate reigns Keep it up. I’m proud of you. Good spelling will get up farther. You wont seem like an idiot.

@dpworkin you’re so right. The problem is also compounded when posting from an iPhone. I always make a great point but then realize half the words are spelled wrong and nothing is punctuated.

No it doesn’t drive me crazy.
If I can understand the writer, then I try to ignore the mistake.

Not really, as long as I understand what they’re saying.

If I like the person, I actually sometimes think that it’s cute and /or entertaining.

I’m such a snob about grammar and spelling, and text speak! But I also think @dpworkin makes a great point – I tut-tut at other people and yet am myself hopelessly dyslexic and riddled with typos. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, as I hope they would me.

I don’t think education is necessarily to blame for our misspelled youth, we just live in a computer age.

@Brian1946

“Not really, as long as I understand what they’re saying.”

Whoops- now that I’ve read the question accurately, I realize I should have said that when someone misspells a word, it usually doesn’t bother me as long as I understand what they’re saying.

There are different possible reason for errors in grammar and spelling. Simple typos being the most common, also when correcting if you delete or move a block of text you can change context and introduce grammatical errors if you are not careful. This is an international forum, so a lot of people involved are not native English speakers. Excluding all of these, people who misspell common words are irritating – but hardly worth complaining about unless they are pretending to skills with English or writing.

A third issue is the sometime spectacular errors that can be introduced by voice dictation software (something that I use quite often). If you are hurried you can hit send and then realise that there wasn’t just a spelling error, but the the entire meaning has changed. Software like Voice Perfect tries to interpret whole sentences as well correct spelling and grammar and it can make some wild and often amusing excursions from the intended meaning.

Plus you can be absolutely certain that if you raise a spelling or grammatical issue with a person, you will instantly post one of your own. Red face is guaranteed.

If I couldn’t control myself, I’d be in a mental hospital by now.

When I first started participating in forums online it was pretty incredible. What startled me most was that these were adults.

I had gotten quite used to all manner of spelling and grammar errors while teaching. But they were 3rd and 4th graders.

I found it pretty appalling that adults were writing at (or below) a Third grade level. My brighter students could write better than some of the adults I encountered online.

But I soon realized that if I were going to spend time trying to correct even the most egregious lapses, I wouldn’t have time for anything else :)

So, most of the time I just refrain. But, occasionally…..

And I can so identify with whoever mentioned the iPhone. That’s what I normally use and it drives me crazy.

It thinks it knows better than I what I want to say. The predictive algorithm which it uses to override my choices needs some drastic work. Aaarrrgh.

My father spells phonetically, I love that about him…In his latter years he has discovered he is dyslexic, it has never stopped him being a confirmed bookworm.

I love Firefox. It flags all my typos and most of my spelling errors in the edit box as I type them, allowing me to fix them on the spot, without even having to proof each word.

I am a member of the spelling Nazi. I particularly detest my students using American spelling in their assignments. They always get big red circles around esophagus, anemia, etc, as well as the non-medical words like favor, harbor etc. They are told, “In Australia, you use Australian spelling.”

I think too many people are too dependent on spell check. It doesn’t pick up typos that are real, but inappropriate words. I once received a job application letter addressed to “Dead Harold”, rather than “Dear Harold”. I also was checking a job application for one of my students addressed to the “Scared Heart Hospice”, rather than “Sacred Heart”...............

@CyanoticWasp Ditto the Firefox, but it also tries to correct my British English spelling into American, which I find annoying. I often wonder if some American users think my spelling is off!

I correct my bf while we chat online…..I have corrected people on here.

Is that PC? I want to educate…..i think we as folk should try to learn something new every day.

Sometimes. Other times I can’t help myself.

The odd word here and there doesn’t bother me because a: I have far more important things to worry about and b: we’re all human and all get things wrong every so often. Since being with my boyfriend who is dyslexic, I also take into consideration that some find spelling and grammar easier than others. However, I do get bored of seeing deliberate wrong spelling. Text speak and obvious laziness irritates me.

@jeanmay but it also tries to correct my British English spelling into American,
Why don’t you change Firefox’ default spelling to English? Firefox allows you to add dictionaries. They are a free download.

@Harold They are told, “In Australia, you use Australian spelling.”

In Australia one uses English spelling. There is no such thing as Australian spelling, not that differs in any way from English – even the Macquarie Dictionary uses British spelling with words unique to Australia added.

@DarkScribe I’ve changed it many times, but my American husband keeps changing it back!

@jeanmay I’ve changed it many times, but my American husband keeps changing it back!

You’ll have to find a way to apply pressure. Got any embarrassing photos of him? BTW, you can have different Firefox settings for different user accounts on the same computer.

What you don’t know can’t hurt you. That’s why spelling errors don’t perturb me—I don’t recognize them as errors.

@ratboy What you don’t know can’t hurt you.

On that basis many people will be impervious to any form of hurt.

It really bugs my wife, we went past a place the other day called “The Happyness Cafe” and she just had to call her mother (who is a Legal Editor) and complain about the state of the nation.

Of course I can control myself.In my opinion,education itself is good ,but sometimes ,it is the way we educate make the things bad.Let’s ask ourselves,have we ever forced our youth to read or write ?When we have to do something we don’t like,we often feel boring and upset.Those can make us careless.It is said that ,if you remember something wrong at the first time ,it will be difficult to correct it .

Absohlootely knot.Shoorely its a minnymum rekwiremont two ekspekt peeple two spel korektley.I meen kum on,stannderds shud bee manetainned.

I used to be too focused on others’ spelling mistakes. Then I got a life. I think it’s rather extreme to feel the need to educate other people in this manner. I appreciate the importance of spelling – in my life – to me – but I don’t expect other people to feel/think the same. Ugh, I hate to think I used to be so hung up on these things. It says more about you than anyone else.
;)

I’m only upset if it’s my own spelling…all the more egregious since I have spell-check readily available.

I weened myself off of correcting other people’s spelling after reading pointed comments concerning people assigning themselves as grammar police.

@DarkScribe – It IS Australian because we use it in Australia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok guys….i will try not to be the spelling police anymore. and let live.

@Harold It IS Australian because we use it in Australia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You claim to be a teacher? That explains one hell of lot about modern education.

If you compose an essay while sitting on the loo, would you need a really shitty dictionary? Australia does NOT have an official version of English that differs from the UK version.

There’s only one misspelling that really pisses me off:

Why is it so hard for people to get breathe/breath right? They’re pronounced differently, damn it!

You don’t know how many times I’ve seen “I couldn’t breath”. Come on. And I mean that too; I see this misspelling all the time. If the “th” occurs at the end of the word, it’s never voiced unless there’s an “e” after it.

@DominicX _Why is it so hard for people to get breathe/breath right? _

I am an editor and I have never seen this.

Really? Consider yourself lucky. I see it all the time…on this site and on others. Maybe people who write things to be published are more conscious of that one, but I do see it quite a bit.

@DarkScribe – I don’t wish to get involved in trading insults with you. I guess you would say that the teaching award I received from my faculty in the last month was ill-conceived as well. I didn’t say it differs from the UK version- I simply said that it is Australian because we use it in Australia. That in no way implies that it is different. If you want to pick on semantics to try and prove you are better or smarter than me, go ahead.

@Harold prove you are better or smarter than me, go ahead.

(Isn’t this a little juvenile?) Are you sure that you teach a class – not sit in the corner of one?

Australia uses British English – there is no “official” Australian language – and any teacher would know that. There is only Australian vernacular used with our “mother” tongue – British English.

@DarkScribe – thanks for your continued insults. Again I won’t descend to your depths. You obviously don’t want to understand what I said, nor admit that you misinterpreted it, so I’ll be leaving this thread. Have a nice life.

@Harold DarkScribe – thanks for your continued insults

Why thank you Harold. It is nice to be appreciated – though I didn’t feel that I was insulting you – I thought that I was simply disagreeing with you.

Again I won’t descend to your depths.

Why not? It is nice and cosy down here, In fact when you look up the bright background makes for increased clarity in observation. (You can spot the BS.)

You obviously don’t want to understand what I said

Hey, you finally said something that we both agree upon – although it is more that I cannot understand, not that I will not understand. Do you understand the difference between “can” and “will”? Would you like to borrow my dictionary?

I’ll put it in a way that even a grade school drop-out can understand (I am not suggesting that you might be a grade school drop-out BTW.)

Can you name a single word from any recognised British dictionary that would be legitimately marked incorrect in any Australian school, be it Primary, High, or Tertiary?

You certainly can between a US and a British dictionary. If you cannot name such a word, then you have to accept that there is no difference between English as used in Australia and British English.

Australia uses British English. Accept it.

May we please hear some Aussie insults?

@dpworkin I’ve been waiting for two whole days now. I’d offer you popcorn, but you’d probably suspect that I had poisoned it.

@dpworkin May we please hear some Aussie insults?

“Yer mother wears Gumboots.!”