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Misspellings which make you mad.

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15:09 / 26.03.03

I suppose that OK/okay/okeh, as a colloquialism, is pretty much up for grabs as far as evolution and dialectic twistery goes, so maybe I shouldn't care so much. Got to learn to let go...

Another bugbear: replacing "have" with "of", as in: "I was told I of to go home." That even creeps into reporters' copy. What do they teach them at school these days?

15:10 / 26.03.03

I always have to look up propaganda/propoganda. Where the hell does that word come from? And does anyone else use google as a spell-checker?

15:15 / 26.03.03

I am starting to think that because of common usage "you're" is going to be dropped entirely in favor of "your." I hardly even see "you're" anymore. Where were these people in 5th grade???

I'm glad I'm not alone on the misplaced apostrophe thing...restaurants are big offenders. I'm forever thinking, "Who's 'Kid,' and what's an 'Eat Free'?" If you know what I mean.

I like some British spellings but licence and foetus drive me crazy. I just think litre and centre are funny. I say "sent-ree."

I used to work at a place where they used quotation marks superflously to say the least. A sign in the kitchen could easily read like this, and I'm not exaggerating:
"Please" Do "Not" "Eat 'Other' Peoples' Food"!!!!
It is "very" inconsiderate
""Treat others the way "'you' would like" to be treated!""
I'm serious about the double quotation marks. Gave me chills consistently.

I like appropriately placed fragmented sentences, however.

I love this thread.

15:17 / 26.03.03

Qalyn: "propaganda" shares its root with "propagate" and initially referred to "a division of the Roman Curia that has authority in the matter of preaching the gospel, of establishing the Church in non-Christian countries, and of administering Church missions in territories where there is no properly organized hierarchy." Now called the Office for the Propagation of the Faith, it still exists today.

Dictionary.com is my bitch.

15:36 / 26.03.03

"I was told I of to go home."
Bugger me, have you actually seen that? I can understand someone saying "I should of gone home", because "of" sounds like the "uhv" sound at the end of "should've", but "of to go home"?! Such wonders....

Qalyn:

"Yeah, but that adjective folds right up out of the way. You were right the first time"

You're right! Thank you.

H.I.R:
"I have heard apostrophe misuse termed Grocer's Apostrophe (or possibly Grocers' Apostrope). As in "Apple's 50p a lb.""

It's a sneaky way of bumping the weight up, isn't it? Every apostrophe adds a penny to the cost of your apples. They're not stupid, them grocers.

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:46 / 26.03.03

Jack is entirely correct, but seems to have omitted to mention that propaganda, as an official term of the Church of Rome, is in fact a Latin word.

Propaganda is the neuter plural gerund form of "propago", Lat, meaning to propagate, extend or prolong (originally of plants, to reproduce and grow by budding). "Propagate" is taken from the supine form of the same verb. Among other things, the gerund in Latin is used to express things that must or should be done. Thus "Amanda" - she who must be loved, "Quod erat demonstrandum" - which was the thing that needed to be demonstrated, and "agenda" - another neuter plural - the things that need to be done.

Thus, propanganda means, literally, "the things that should be put forth and encouraged to grow".

15:51 / 26.03.03

I didn't neglect to mention it: it was left as an exercise for the clever student.

Full marks, young Haus. Have a gold star. The rest of you—stay behind and clap the erasers.

ONLY NICE THINGS

16:00 / 26.03.03

Ah, but I didn't say you neglected. I said you omitted. Quite a different thing.

My god - this thread is like a beautiful pedan tree growing in the garden. I'm so happy happy...

18:24 / 26.03.03

"Donut" instead of "doughnut" drives me crazy. I worked at a Canadian Tim Hortons, yet our menu board spelled "doughnut" in the American spelling. I couldn't help but glare it at with loathing in my spare time.
Although it's not a misspelling to do it otherwise, I always prefer it when words like colour, favour, neighbourhood, humour and such have the "u" in them.

18:58 / 26.03.03

American spelling only annoys me when Word keeps changing my default language back to 'English (U.S.)'.... which it seems to do several times a week for some reason.

19:48 / 26.03.03

Shouldn't that be "dough-nought?" 'Cuz it's not a nut, it's a nought.

19:51 / 26.03.03

I've often wondered about that myself: if that's a doughnut, then where's the doughbolt?

19:53 / 26.03.03

Oh, that kind of nut. Well, maybe.

21:01 / 26.03.03

I think it wasn't a "nought" but a "knot" originally.

I'd have to look it up. I'm pretty sure the Dutch were involved.

This "partially true" history blames the Dutch, but says (agreeing with other sources) that it was indeed a "nut" - either the fried cakes were small and brown (like nuts) or else some nineteenth century baker put actual nuts in the center of her fried cakes because they kept being left underdone.

Eventually, the doughnut's inventor, young Hanson Gregory, hit on the idea of taking the centers out altogether. No center, no underdone-ness.

I'm still sticking with the "knot" theory, though.

21:02 / 26.03.03

Greasy sinkers: a thorough history.

22:17 / 26.03.03

Your and you're. I've never come across anyone spelling america like amerikkka, but if i did, it would piss me off. Several words annoy me, not coz people spell them wrong, but because i cant spell them right. Accomodation (had 2 write it in fees application today and didnt know how), appropriate, different, sentences (always do scentences), etc.

But worst of all, for many many years, i got hundreds of christmas cards saying:
"deer Lorin"
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

23:16 / 26.03.03

Haus. Dude. Yes. Like I pointed out in the first paragraph, there are spellings that have no effect on me. This thread is not about them.

Isn't there also an internet rule that any post in a thread, pointing out spelling mistakes, shall itself contain at least one such mistake. Obviously the first post in a thread doing the same should be positively chock-a-block with errors.

Transpositions due to fast typing don't bother me in informal contexts, in fact most informal writing doesn't bother me. It's professional writing from people who should know better that gets my goat. Especially if it's expressing an opinion I don't agree with!

I hate grammar geeks too. So torn about this thread.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

00:12 / 27.03.03

The apostrophe thing always fucks me off.
A kind of "complete misunderstanding of a popular phrase", and one of my personal favourites, was in one of the papers yesterday- "going over it with a fine tooth-comb".

02:40 / 27.03.03

Dear Lord, Stoat! You've just reminded me of one which makes my blood boil.

"For all intensive purposes"

03:17 / 27.03.03

Urrgh. Most of the things pointed out on this thread make me twitch. (Except for that pedan tree... so pretty when it blooms!)

One of the things that bugs me (and I've seen it in the newspapers) is the phrase "try and" do whatever. I'm not sure how "and" got substituted for "to" but it really irks me.

09:02 / 27.03.03

"For all intensive purposes"

Any idea what the origin of this phrase is? Anyone?

I always thought it sounded like an ad copy-line for industrial-strength condoms.

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:08 / 27.03.03

Well, presumably it's a mishearing of "for all intents and purposes"...

10:10 / 27.03.03

rat>

It's a knackered up version of "to all intents and purposes". Not, as some will tell you, "to all in tents and fur purses."

10:27 / 27.03.03

"going over it with a fine tooth-comb" (Maominstoat)
GAAAAHHH! I Feckin' Hate that shit! (Capitalisation and Irishisation intentshunal) I was once asked what a tooth-comb was, and my withering response ensured that person NEVER asked me anything about anything ever again.
All these stupid errors come from a fundamental misunderstanding of language, and NOT THINKING. They should teach etymology at school, goddammit. (or do I mean entomology God damn it? Cursed butterflys?)

10:34 / 27.03.03

I know Haus has a thing for correptions

The Apple-Picker

19:34 / 27.03.03

I feel so at home here.

19:39 / 27.03.03

I feel so entirely alienated.

Brigade du jour

20:29 / 27.03.03

All misspellings make me mad. It's partly because I'm incredibly anally retentive about spelling (because it's in my nature I think to be anally retentive about some things), and partly because of what I think is the important point that misspelling means lack of communication and lack of communication is the root of not all, but a hell of a lot of evil. I'm not giving examples, I'm just being dogmatic. And I can't be arsed. Just agree or disagree with the lack of communication point, I don't care and it'd be off-topic anyway, nerr!

Sorry, not nasty just weary.

21:06 / 27.03.03

The most annoying thing I've heard lately is the english use of "innit" and the end of every damn sentence.

"I like cakes, innit."
"You're a dick, innit." etc.

For fuck sake, "innit" is short for "isn't it" and can only be used in a question.

"That's big, innit?"

"It's over, innit?"

Bah.

16:12 / 28.03.03

Apostrophe misplacement is the big 'un, innit? I get almost as snarky about the failure to insert commas appropriately, thus changing the meaning of a given phrase: "come on, Bill", for example, differs significantly from "come on Bill".

"I could of been a contender" always grates.

"Peek/peak" is a private bugbear - y'know, as in "hey, have a peak at this".

Bah.

15:30 / 30.03.03

praying mantis said: I like some British spellings but licence and foetus drive me crazy.

AFAIK, licence in British English follows the same rules as practice practise - i.e. to license (verb) but a driving licence (noun), which to me makes perfect sense. Does US English make any differentiation in spelling between the verb and noun, or are they spelled (spelt?) exactly the same?

As for 'foetus', well, it's Latin, so makes sense to me - whenever I see the US Spelling 'fetus' I instinctively want to pronounce it 'fettus' - same with 'paediatrician' and 'pediatrician' - because of the Latin spelling/pronunciation, whenever I see the US spelling of 'pediatrician'/ I want to pronounce it 'peddiatrician'.

You say potato..

16:29 / 30.03.03

Does anyone say potarto?

00:00 / 11.04.03

I went to a sci-fi/comics con over the weekend and almost every guest - Kenny Baker included - was selling "Photo's" for $20.

09:33 / 17.04.03

"You was..." instead of "You were..." Jesus Christ. Makes me want to dig out my sharp objects, or, following the example of Dirty Sanchez, my fucking sandpaper.

09:58 / 17.04.03

"You was..." instead of "You were..."

This is a common Aberdeenism and, if you spend enough time around those teuchters from the NE of Scotland, it rubs off. Although severe spankings appear to have almost entirely cured Ganesh of his confusion about singular and plural forms of the verb, I occasionally hear myself do it now. I wonder what ancestral linguistic trace gave birth to "you was" and "they was"?

I could list many outrages against acceptable spelling and grammar that occur on the Lith all the time but will refrain on the grounds that I undoubtedly shall perpetrate worse the next time I type myself into a fury over a contentious thread. And because Haus and Jack Fear would immediately point out my hypocrisy. That's hypocrisy btw, as in hypocrite. Not hippocracy or "government by horses". That word only worked during the reign of Caligula.

when i first started surfing, all those years ago, i was going through a spell of forgetting all about capitals. didn't last long, thankfully. i do get a bit peeved with the practice of failing to award the first person singular pronoun its customary capital letter now. i am probably being entirely unreasonable. hell no, i'm not, damn it! buggers should be taken out and shot!

And I quite like Sax' friend's coining of "social piranha". Accurately describes several acquaintances in one pithy phrase.

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