# The Importance of Spelling and Grammar #2



## lildonkey8 (Dec 12, 2010)

I always like checking to see if it was a typo or purpose


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## equiniphile (Aug 16, 2009)

I can't stand text talk and intentional mispellings on a forum. To me, that means that someone didn't feel like taking the time to write out a response for me.


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## GeminiJumper (Jun 12, 2008)

I agree, spelling is important. One or two typos are okay but if you are constantly misspelling or worst of all, text talk, during a sentence it is very annoying and really shows your age and leaves the wrong impression. You don't have to be a walking, talking, dictionary and put out all these big words but taking the time to type correctly and reviewing what you wrote is very important.

All caps for an entire post is extremely aggravating and makes you look like you're shouting whatever you're writing.


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## Northern (Mar 26, 2010)

I've been viciously bashed for asking people to brush up on the spelling & grammar. I post quite informally on forums myself, because it's supposed to be more of a discussion than an essay format, yet people do take too much liberty.

One thing: The dots that you used, Velvet, in the sentence, "However..." are not properly used to denote anything other than omitted words in a quote. People commonly use them (can't think of their proper term at the moment) to denote pregnant pauses or suggestions to the reader(s) to put on the thinking cap(s): "Depends upon what she meant..." e.g..

Barbara Cartland, the famous romance novelist, had her heroines every thought & sentence filled with the "..."'s, & made a fortune doing so; c'est la vie!


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## riccil0ve (Mar 28, 2009)

Thanks for re-posting this, Velvet. There have been a lot of hard-to-comprehend posts lately. 

Northern, the "..." are called ellipses, and she did not use them incorrectly. As you said, it's a pregnant pause in this case, meaning a longer pause than a comma, but not a stop for a new sentence as a period. Just because it has two [or more?] meanings doesn't mean one is incorrect. :wink:


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## Spastic_Dove (Oct 4, 2007)

An ellipses is three dots("..."). ".." or "......................." is technically incorrect. Though it does have the same meaning. 

That sort of stuff, in general I do not mind. Unless it is smoething like: 

"So my horse is acting weird.........................I don't know what to do..I don't have a vet...............................help?"

It's more the ability to effectively communicate using basic spelling and grammar. Punctuation, lack of run on sentences, and things like that are the big ones in my experience. 

No one wants you to diagram each of your sentences, but Its Really Annoying Two Read Something Like This To....."


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## Hidalgo13 (Dec 24, 2010)

I don't quite get how people can make so many spelling mistakes on the Internet. When writing something very quickly to someone on paper, yes you might slip a mistake here or there, but on the computer IT GET'S UNDERLINED BY A FLASHY RED SQUIGGLY LINE!! All you have to do is right click and you have the proper word at your reach.


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## equiniphile (Aug 16, 2009)

^My computer actually doesn't do that on websites; only on MSW.


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## Hidalgo13 (Dec 24, 2010)

> My computer actually doesn't do that on websites; only on MSW.
> Read more: http://www.horseforum.com/general-o...nce-spelling-grammar-2-a-86662/#ixzz1MTJhA7al
> ​


Really? Hmm, never knew that. Everyone one I know, their computer does it everywhere.


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## corinowalk (Apr 26, 2010)

Internet Explorer makes you download a spell check program. It is included in Firefox. 

I have no problem with the occasional spelling or grammar mistake. We are all human and we all make mistakes. I just can't stand the lack of care about it. It is kind of like the over use of cuss words. While I am not offended by cuss words, when you use them in every sentence that comes out of your mouth, all you accomplish is making yourself sound uneducated and classless.


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## Northern (Mar 26, 2010)

ELLIPSES, that's right! 

Those ellipses were ESPECIALLY wrong for Ms. Cartland's heroines, because they were all VIRGINS till the last page: Pregnant pauses QUITE unthinkable!


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## riccil0ve (Mar 28, 2009)

Spastic_Dove said:


> An ellipses is three dots("..."). ".." or "......................." is technically incorrect. Though it does have the same meaning.


I did not catch that. I thought Northern was talking about using them in the wrong spot. Using ellipses have always meant to me a suggestion, as Northern said, or as a long, dramatic pause like a politician will give during a speech. Or when simply emphasizing the word pre-ellipses.

Cori is right. To err [error?] is human. But why on earth would you want to come off as "uneducated and classless?" I know I've posted links to "The Proper Use of..." sites before. And to continue after it's been brought to your attention is grating.


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## Spyder (Jul 27, 2008)

Northern said:


> ELLIPSES, that's right!
> 
> Those ellipses were ESPECIALLY wrong for Ms. Cartland's heroines, because they were all VIRGINS till the last page: Pregnant pauses QUITE unthinkable!



Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Nitpick


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## MacabreMikolaj (May 9, 2009)

I think it's difficult for anyone who takes pride in language to comprehend someone who doesn't. I've often wished I could spend one day in the shoes of someone who didn't care because I doubt I'll ever understand how anyone could care that little about how stupid they make themselves sound. Mistakes are one thing, we all make them routinely, and I know my grammar and probably punctuation are often lacking in how proper they could be. But hacking out mistakes like you're inventing a language is just surreal to me.

Even before the days of Firefox, any word I found questionable I would load into my trusty "dictionary.com" before posting! I made a lot more errors back then, when I would believe I'd spelled a word correctly, but in this day and age it's just inexcusable! 

I don't understand how these people expect to hold down any sort of professional job when they're incapable of writing or typing higher than a grade 2 level. :?


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

There are an amazing number of words that I see mispelled here, over and over. 
"heard" for herd
"aloud" for allowed
through for threw
reign for rein
main for mane
Unanimous for anonymous

want to add some?


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## usandpets (Jan 1, 2011)

Hidalgo13 said:


> Really? Hmm, never knew that. Everyone one I know, their computer does it everywhere.


 Our desktop doesn't do that but our laptop does. However, I don't use the laptop much.


MacabreMikolaj said:


> ...Even before the days of Firefox, any word I found questionable I would load into my trusty "dictionary.com" before posting! I made a lot more errors back then, when I would believe I'd spelled a word correctly, but in this day and age it's just inexcusable!...


 I keep a dictionary next to my computer, just in case I need to look a word up. It bugs the heck out of me to spell incorrectly. Funny thing is that I hated English classes in school.


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## usandpets (Jan 1, 2011)

tinyliny said:


> There are an amazing number of words that I see mispelled here, over and over.
> "heard" for herd
> "aloud" for allowed
> through for threw
> ...


 there for their or they're


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## Zeke (Jun 27, 2010)

I *hate* when posters say "rodden" or "rided"! Do you actually speak that way? Those are not words and for being around horse people so often you have to know that! I'm sure there are more but that's all I've got as of now.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Spyder (Jul 27, 2008)

Zeke said:


> I *hate* when posters say "rodden" or "rided"! Do you actually speak that way? Those are not words and for being around horse people so often you have to know that! I'm sure there are more but that's all I've got as of now.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_



You haven't seen Judge Judy very much then.

Yes some people actually talk like this.:shock:


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## Zeke (Jun 27, 2010)

Spyder said:


> You haven't seen Judge Judy very much then.
> 
> Yes some people actually talk like this.:shock:


Guilty as charged! That's scary to think about!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## KatieQ (Apr 4, 2011)

Zeke said:


> Guilty as charged! That's scary to think about!
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## mbender (Jul 22, 2009)

tinyliny said:


> There are an amazing number of words that I see mispelled here, over and over.
> "heard" for herd
> "aloud" for allowed
> through for threw
> ...


Your for you're in some instances. I know I have seen more. Will add as I see them. 

Now, I just read a thread where someone did not use punctuation at all. Run ons. Skipped the thread. Also, one thing that bugs me is, writing a thread/post where there are no capitals.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## PintoTess (Aug 18, 2010)

It annoys me as well. But why bring a thread up that has already been blocked?


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

Thanks for posting this again, Velvet.

I certainly do not expect people to have an English major's grasp on writing to post on a horse BB. I am an expert at butchering the English language myself. If it was not for spell check I would spend way too much time looking words up in the dictionary and frequently my fingers type what they want not I think I am telling them to type.

It just gets so frustrating when you can not understand what the person is trying to say because of their lack of basic language usage skills.

I also find the lack of paragraphs/hard returns annoying. It is so hard to read one huge blob of text.




corinowalk said:


> Internet Explorer makes you download a spell check program. It is included in Firefox.
> 
> I have no problem with the occasional spelling or grammar mistake. We are all human and we all make mistakes. I just can't stand the lack of care about it. It is kind of like the over use of cuss words. While I am not offended by cuss words, when you use them in every sentence that comes out of your mouth, all you accomplish is making yourself sound uneducated and classless.


What Cori said.



Zeke said:


> I *hate* when posters say "rodden" or "rided"! Do you actually speak that way? Those are not words and for being around horse people so often you have to know that! I'm sure there are more but that's all I've got as of now.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_





Spyder said:


> You haven't seen Judge Judy very much then.
> 
> Yes some people actually talk like this.:shock:


That was exactly what came to my mind as I read Zeke's post. Zeke must not watch Judge Judy, of course people speak like that.


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## MHFoundation Quarters (Feb 23, 2011)

This is a great thread! I'm certain that I am guilty of some missed punctuation, text abbreviations out of bad habit and run on sentences once in awhile. I try to police myself though! That being said, I can't stand spelling errors! I'm bad enough that I take red pen to everything I read. I've even sent an e-mail to my favorite author to point out 19 spelling errors. There should not be 19 spelling errors in a book that topped the Times best seller list. 

The other thing that really bugs me is Typing Out Every Word With A Capital Letter. I find it very hard to read. Not to mention it is really annoying! 

Love that list tinyliny! So something like this... "My horse through a shoe when I rided him on a trail. He wouldn't listen when I pulled on the reigns and just ran back to the heard." 
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## usandpets (Jan 1, 2011)

Another word that I've seen used is dose for does.

My wife and I used to be on another site before I found this one. The spelling and punctuation on there was horrifying. To me, it seemed like a bunch of spoiled rotten, younger girls that liked to complain about everything. In a lot of the posts, there were no capital letters, no punctuation and a lot of missed spelled, common words. Anytime you'd mention it to them, they would say something like "I dont care" or "I dont hav ta." Most people leave there after a short time. I wonder why?


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## sarahver (Apr 9, 2010)

Agreed, thanks for reposting Velvets. if I click on a thread and find a slab of text that has more than three grammatical and/or spelling errors in the first two sentences, I get out of there quick smart.

I do not come here to play English interpreter for people who have presumably had the opportunity to complete grade school. I will occasionally suggest the use of spell check which is available on THIS website in the reply box. All that has to be done is hit the 'ABC' button and bingo bango you can rest assured that your message will get across in the manner you intend it to.

What happened to being able to recognize a misspelt word, even if you may not know how to spell it without checking? Seeing misspelt words makes me immediately want to change it or at least look up how to spell it if I am unsure. It seems as though many people either don't recognize it is misspelt or don't care, I am not sure which is worse.

Capitilization ugh. It is the difference between "I helped my Uncle Jack off a horse" and "I helped my uncle jack off a horse."


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## whiskeynoo (Mar 17, 2010)

Laughed so hard at that uncle jack sentence! Which leads me to this: 

" Lets eat grandma "
" Lets eat, grandma" 

Just saying punctuation can save lives. Although saying that, even though english is the only language i understand i'm terrible at it, i was always in the lower english classes at school. Now that i have left the only time i really write is notes in sketchbooks or on the internet and text. Which not many people pay much attention to spelling, punctuation and grammar. 
Texting people is what really bothers me as i just cannot grasp "text language" i tend to text full words including punctuation (to the best o my ability).


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## MHFoundation Quarters (Feb 23, 2011)

sarahver said:


> Capitilization ugh. It is the difference between "I helped my Uncle Jack off a horse" and "I helped my uncle jack off a horse."


:rofl: This reminded me of one I saw about punctuation on facebook. 

"Let's eat Grandma!" instead of "Let's eat, Grandma!"


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## MHFoundation Quarters (Feb 23, 2011)

Wow Whiskey, we had the same thought.....


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

sarahver said:


> What happened to being able to recognize a misspelt word, even if you may not know how to spell it without checking? Seeing misspelt words makes me immediately want to change it or at least look up how to spell it if I am unsure. It seems as though many people either don't recognize it is misspelt or don't care, I am not sure which is worse.


Not sticking up for poor spelling and grammar but spelling and grammar is an area of learning that not all of us are good at. 
Some people are good with numbers and science. Some people are good at arts. Some people are good at language.
Yes, we all learn basic language stuff in elementary school. You (general you) also learned fractions there, lots of people do not understand fractions to this day.

I do not get frustrated when someone says, "I did good at my horse show" when we all know it should be, "I did well at my horse show" (adjective vs adverb stuff so I am told).


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## sarahver (Apr 9, 2010)

Alwaysbehind said:


> I do not get frustrated when someone says, "I did good at my horse show" when we all know it should be, "I did well at my horse show" (adjective vs adverb stuff so I am told).


There is not a misspelt word in your sentence. Good is correctly spelled. I was wondering why people do not recognize a _misspelling,_ or care that it is there. I did not mention grammar in that thought.

The tipe of situashion I am torking about is more lyk this one. 

Yes, that baffles me.


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

Way back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was taught to spell I was taught to sound words out.
The English language has more exceptions than it has words that fit the rules, I swear.

If it was not for FF auto spell check you would get some really weird spellings from me. I sound things out. Sometimes I have to re-write whole sentences because my sounding out does not come up with anything close enough that spell check can help me.

In other words, people do not see poor spelling because they do not know it is spelled wrong.

Your example is extreme enough that there is a problem there. I am just saying that some people do not do well with the language.


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## usandpets (Jan 1, 2011)

sarahver said:


> The tipe of situashion I am torking about is more lyk this one.


 Maybe they type like that because they have an accent. :wink:


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## Spyder (Jul 27, 2008)

sarahver said:


> What happened to being able to recognize a misspelt word, even if you may not know how to spell it without checking?


This is an area that I find so difficult to understand about people that consistently misspell certain words.

I can understand doing it once or twice but when you spell aloud over and over and everyone else ( including what you read in books etc) say allowed doesn't something get through your head saying..." I think I have been misspelling it" and the next time you spell it correctly.

When you don't and continue to misspell then you simply show your complete lack of respect to everyone else. Those people, I tend to think of as a looser in that they care nothing about others, for while it is a small point it does to the basic outlook at the world in general of that person.


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## sarahver (Apr 9, 2010)

Alwaysbehind said:


> In other words, people do not see poor spelling because they do not know it is spelled wrong.


Apologies, I am on the wrong thread. I thought this was the thread recognizing the importance of correct spelling and grammar.

If, perchance, I am still on the thread I thought I was on, then I think I addressed your issue when I mentioned that I didn't know if people misspelled words because *they didn't know*, or didn't care. Either way I see no reason to not know the difference between the less obvious examples such as their, there and they're, also taught in grade school.

No idea why you are bothering to take me to task over this.

Spyder, we posted at the same time, I wonder the same thing!


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

Um, not taking you to task. Thought we were discussing it. Silly me for not realizing it was more than that.


I am simply trying to point out that people who are good at English forget that others might not have the same grasp they do. 

I agree that basic spelling and grammar are necessary in life and if you type a totally incoherent sentence you can not expect to get answers to your question.


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## sarahver (Apr 9, 2010)

Oh good.


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

I giggle at the fact that spell check thinks misspelt is spelled incorrectly.


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## sarahver (Apr 9, 2010)

That is pretty funny. Fortunately for me the Oxford dictionary confirms that mispelled and misspelt are two variations of the same thing.

definition of misspell from Oxford Dictionaries Online

Misspelt is listed as being rarely used outside British English, which is why I use it I suppose. I still struggle Americanizing my spelling. Tire instead of tyre etc.

Luckily you only need to remember ONE variation of the English language. I need to know TWO to ensure that everyone is happy - British English _and_ American English.


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## MN Tigerstripes (Feb 20, 2009)

One of the commonly misspelt words noted in this thread makes me giggle. :lol:

Aloud. For the last couple of weeks I've been having a major brain fart (for lack of a better term) and kept spelling allowed as aloud. I kept looking at it thinking, "I KNOW that isn't right, what the heck?" Finally clicked. Der. *head desk* 

As for the whole "sounding out" thing, for YEARS I have spelt "surprised" as "suprised." Never knew it was wrong, it looked correct to me. Imagine my surprise lol when I discovered that I was spelling it incorrectly. I was spelling like I speak and most of the people I know say "suprised" not "surprised."


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## Dusty1228 (Dec 2, 2010)

I am so glad this thread is here. I didn't want to be the big old meanie that said anything, but I was just thinking about this the other day. So, now, I must add my two cents. 

You know what I like?? PUNCTUATION! I just read a post that was a paragraph long without ANY punctuation at all. Ok, really, I didn't read the whole thing, I was giving myself an asthma attack, ha ha. But, yes, really irks me. 

Personally, I think proper grammar and spelling are two of the most important basic skills you can have in the real world. I always tell my daughter, even if you don't know what you are talking about, you can speak about it in a way that sounds like you do. 

My major downfall?
Definitely. I have always spelled it like that. Whenever I am unsure of a spelling, I try to pick a word apart and take it down to the root word, which I always assumed was 'finite' and I knew how to spell THAT, the rest was easy. However, two years ago I had a Rumor2 Sprint phone and on predictive text it would correct it to : Definately. I spelled it that way for about a month, until I looked it up to be sure. Nope, it's definitely Definitely. Sprint can track where I'm at but they can't spell.


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

MN Tigerstripes said:


> O
> As for the whole "sounding out" thing, for YEARS I have spelt "surprised" as "suprised." Never knew it was wrong, it looked correct to me. Imagine my surprise lol when I discovered that I was spelling it incorrectly. I was spelling like I speak and most of the people I know say "suprised" not "surprised."


I am right there with you on that one.

If it was not for the red squiggles I probably would not be spelling it correctly now.

The one I am always amused about is the word tomorrow. I know several very smart people who still spell tomorrow incorrectly.
One M, two Rs, all Os is how I remember how to spell tomorrow.


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## Whisper22 (Jan 2, 2011)

Dusty1228 said:


> I am so glad this thread is here. I didn't want to be the big old meanie that said anything, but I was just thinking about this the other day. So, now, I must add my two cents.
> 
> You know what I like?? PUNCTUATION! I just read a post that was a paragraph long without ANY punctuation at all. Ok, really, I didn't read the whole thing, I was giving myself an asthma attack, ha ha. But, yes, really irks me.
> 
> ...


Haha, I guess I've been spelling "definitely" wrong then. When I saw this I was like "That can't be right, I know I've been spelling it right." Imagine my surprise when I looked it up just to be sure. I also read something that said it is the most misspelled word in english. Go figure.


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## Dusty1228 (Dec 2, 2010)

Alwaysbehind said:


> I am right there with you on that one.
> 
> If it was not for the red squiggles I probably would not be spelling it correctly now.
> 
> ...


Hahaha! I know so many people who spell it wrong and it makes me laugh because the only way I learned was because my step dad would spell it 'Tomarrow.' And my mom was always asking who Tom Arrow was. It stuck in my brain. Note: Until I was 16 I DID think it was Tomarrow, Ugh.


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## Dusty1228 (Dec 2, 2010)

Whisper22 said:


> Haha, I guess I've been spelling "definitely" wrong then. When I saw this I was like "That can't be right, I know I've been spelling it right." Imagine my surprise when I looked it up just to be sure. I also read something that said it is the most misspelled word in english. Go figure.


DEFINITELY a pain in the rump, that word!:wink:


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## Whisper22 (Jan 2, 2011)

A word that I can never seem to wrap my head around is "took". It never looks right. Even though I've pretty much got it down, it still makes me stop and think whenever I use it.


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## VelvetsAB (Aug 11, 2010)

corinowalk said:


> I have no problem with the occasional spelling or grammar mistake. We are all human and we all make mistakes. I just can't stand the lack of care about it. It is kind of like the over use of cuss words. While I am not offended by cuss words, when you use them in every sentence that comes out of your mouth, all you accomplish is making yourself sound uneducated and classless.


_Most definitely this. Swearing to just add words to your sentance, or using it as a verb/noun does not make you cool._



PintoTess said:


> It annoys me as well. But why bring a thread up that has already been blocked?


_Because lately it seems like there has been an influx of poor spelling and grammar amongst posts on this forum. It was brought back up, with more added to the original post, as it seemed like people needed a reminder. If you hadn't noticed though, this thread has not turned into a bashing against me for having a problem with learning disabilities. So far, it is going supremely well, and everyone is getting a good chance to have a proper discussion about it._



sarahver said:


> I do not come here to play English interpreter for people who have presumably had the opportunity to complete grade school. I will occasionally suggest the use of spell check which is available on THIS website in the reply box. All that has to be done is hit the 'ABC' button and bingo bango you can rest assured that your message will get across in the manner you intend it to.


_Very true. Yes, we do have posters from various parts of the world, but it seems like the majority (65-70%) of us are from North America. That being said, we (North Americans) are required to go to school until the age of 16. It should be easy enough to know how to properly spell most words by that age. Unless of course, you do not give two hoots about it._

_Thanks Sarah for pointing out the spell check._



Dusty1228 said:


> Definitely. _<snip>_ Definately.


_This was actually an example of mine in the first thread. To me, when I spelled and sounded it out, it was definately, and I spelled it incorrectly for a while as well. _


_Whiskeynoo---just to pick on you for a moment...the post you made in here, there was a lot of uncapitalized I's._


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Thank you, Velvet, for posting this again as it was needed.

I wanted to address the "people writing like they talk" thing. That made me think of this video for those of you who do not watch Judge Judy. Can anyone translate for me?




 
Anyway, I am like the rest of you. I have certain words that screw me up every time. Basically anything spelled with an 'ei' or 'ie' in the middle is hard for me. I know the rule but I still spell 'their' incorrectly half the time.

Since my feelings have not changed from the last time this thread was around, I am going to be lazy and just copy and paste a portion of one of my other posts in that thread.

Nobody is going to begrudge a person a few spelling or grammar mistakes when it is clear that they are at least making at attempt. No one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes and we all realize that. Spell checker is a lifesaver for me because it saves a significant amount of time that I would have normally spent proofreading. I sometimes type too fast and my fingers get ahead of my brain. In the words of Forrest Gump...... "Sh*t happens".

its hte ppl hoo cant boter 2 evn tak the time 2 reraed wat thay rote to mak sur its unerstnandabal 2 other ppl that bug us capatalising sentenses an te wurd i an useing basic puntuaton go along way n geting yor point acros whn ppl cant at lest use periods than theyr is kno way 2 evn saparate difrent thots

It's posts that are written like that and consist of one huge paragraph that are so frustrating. I am guilty of doing the non-paragraph thing as well. I just forget sometimes and get too involved in what I am typing. However, I do at least use mostly proper language so that even if it is all bunched up, it isn't garbled as well.

One of the reasons why having at least basic communication skills is a necessity here, as well as life, instead of just the classroom is because hardly anybody who may have worthwhile information is going to take the time to try to decipher what was written. I have opened several threads that were written almost the same way as the example I posted and immediately closed back out of them. Did the poster have an actual problem and need help? Maybe, but I am not going to take an extensive amount of my own time and give myself a headache trying to read a post from someone who obviously doesn't have enough respect for themselves or others to at least try to form a coherent thought.


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## TaMMa89 (Apr 12, 2008)

I guess I've already said that in the other thread but repeating never hurts...

As not having English as my 1st language, very text-type language or bad errors can make the text difficult to understand.

And here's a lightening of the day...
Hyperbole and a Half: The Alot is Better Than You at Everything


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## GeminiJumper (Jun 12, 2008)

Dusty1228 said:


> My major downfall? Definitely.


I am the same way! I spell it the wrong way EVERY time and then the little red squiggly line comes up under it and then I change it. I can just never get it right the first time. lol


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## Whisper22 (Jan 2, 2011)

^^ That actually made me laugh, that's really cute. Fortunately " a lot" is not something I have a problem with.


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## Whisper22 (Jan 2, 2011)

I just read this on another thread and I won't say who it was but I just had to share.

exspeshasly for especially


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## GeminiJumper (Jun 12, 2008)

Whisper22 said:


> I just read this on another thread and I won't say who it was but I just had to share.
> 
> exspeshasly for especially


Oh boy...


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## VelvetsAB (Aug 11, 2010)

_Like was said earlier, some people sound words out to spell them. Sometimes that means that words are going to be spelled wrong. _

_I do not think it is necessary for us to bring examples over from other threads. Although it is part of the discussion, it is going in a direction I prefer this thread did not go._


_Yes, this thread was brought back to life because of the influx of poor spelling and grammar as of late, but it was to point out why correct spelling and grammar are important...not just to point out poor spelling and give examples of it._


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## Whisper22 (Jan 2, 2011)

Just thought it was cute, as I'm pretty sure it was a kid who said it. My apologies. 

The point was made in your original post, so I guess no discussion at all was necessary.


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## TaMMa89 (Apr 12, 2008)

VelvetsAB said:


> _Like was said earlier, some people sound words out to spell them. Sometimes that means that words are going to be spelled wrong. _
> 
> _I do not think it is necessary for us to bring examples over from other threads. Although it is part of the discussion, it is going in a direction I prefer this thread did not go._
> 
> ...


If you talk about my 'Alot' example, I apologize. I sure didn't mean to bring it up as a bad example, it was meant purely as a light joke, not pointing out any mistake or error . I don't actually even remember if it was brought up in the other thread, I had a link for that in my Facebook.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

I think there's a whole 'nuther thread about cute things kids say. 
Like my brother , who said, "Caroline, what's a yulla?" I said, "A what?"
" A yulla. Our music teacher taught us a song where it says Glory had a yulla."


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## sarahver (Apr 9, 2010)

TaMMa89 said:


> I guess I've already said that in the other thread but repeating never hurts...
> 
> As not having English as my 1st language, very text-type language or bad errors can make the text difficult to understand.
> 
> ...


Tamma, I have to say that you do an excellent job, whether English is your 1st language or 2nd language, your posts are always clear and very correct. Your spelling and grammar is far and away superior to many other posters that cannot claim English is not their native tongue.

I just wanted to clarify that my comment regarding not wanting to play interpreter was certainly not directed towards anyone for whom English genuinely IS a foreign language :wink:


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## Ray MacDonald (Dec 27, 2009)

What IS a yulla? LOL 

I love that site it is so funny! And Tamma's english is very good!


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Ray, I believe it was supposed to be Glory Hallelujah where he asked about 'Glory had a yulla'. I may be wrong though.


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## Hidalgo13 (Dec 24, 2010)

No that's it. Glory Hallelujah.


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

smrobs said:


> Ray, I believe it was supposed to be Glory Hallelujah where he asked about 'Glory had a yulla'. I may be wrong though.


Glad you posted that. I was trying to figure out what song it was.

I was laughing too hard to think straight. So freaking cute.


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## VelvetsAB (Aug 11, 2010)

_No Tamma, I had a good laugh at the link you gave actually._

_I meant finding mistakes in other threads and then pointing them out here was not necessary._


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## Ray MacDonald (Dec 27, 2009)

Ah! Thanks for clearing that up, cute!


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## faye (Oct 13, 2010)

sarahver said:


> What happened to being able to recognize a misspelt word, even if you may not know how to spell it without checking? Seeing misspelt words makes me immediately want to change it or at least look up how to spell it if I am unsure.


 Some of us actually can't recognise when a word is not spelt correctly. I have a Bachelors degree (with honours) in engineering, yet I am quite severely Dyslexic. For my dissertation the university provided nearly 80hrs of professional proof reading.
Being unable to spell correctly has never held me back, then again, I suppose that is why I chose Engineering.


I do not have the little ABC button that everyone is talking about, nor do I have the red wiggly line on Firefox.
It takes me a very long time to type out replies to threads that if I had to start copying and pasting from MS word I may just stop posting entirely (it has taken me nearly 20mins to type this). 



Even Using MSword I do find the program has some very strange ideas about punctuation, spelling and grammar and I'm not convinced that the word it suggests is always the correct one. 


I do not read posts that are written in txt talk simply because I can’t and I don’t like posts where every other word/letter is capitalised.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Faye, you are a perfect example of someone who's posts may (though often don't) contain spelling mistakes that nobody worries much about. Even if you did often have spelling errors, I don't think it would be that big of a deal to the rest of us simply because you still use proper grammar and your posts would still be easily understood.


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## Carleen (Jun 19, 2009)

Velvets, thank you for re-posting this thread. I hope everyone reads it and realizes that brushing up on their English skills is a good thing!

I can't say I have immaculate posts, but I proof-read them before hitting "Post" which seems to be a big feat as of late (around here, at least).

One thing that has always bothered me, and this isn't really a spelling or grammar issue, but I will bring it up in here as it fits with the general theme. When people say "I could care less", what they really should be saying is "I couldn't care less". Think about the meaning of each sentence: the first one is saying that you do actually care somewhat, as there is a lesser amount that you could be caring. The second sentence is saying that you are at your lowest level of caring.

Excuse my rant. That has always bothered me.

Another thing that always makes me angry, but then I quickly realize that they are not actually wrong is when people say "check" as in, "I paid by check." Here we spell it "cheque". "Check" is used as in "I checked on the dogs" or "I checked that off the list". However, I realize that in other areas of the word it is not spelled that way.

So I guess the point of the above is that we do have to be sensitive to the ways different cultures spell. Obviously I am not condoning blatant misspellings or text talk.

My two rules are to use spell check, and proof read what you type before sending it. Even with text messages!


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## faye (Oct 13, 2010)

Carleen said:


> Another thing that always makes me angry, but then I quickly realize that they are not actually wrong is when people say "check" as in, "I paid by check." Here we spell it "cheque". "Check" is used as in "I checked on the dogs" or "I checked that off the list". However, I realize that in other areas of the word it is not spelled that way.


It is spelt "cheque" here in the UK as well.


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## sarahver (Apr 9, 2010)

VelvetsAB said:


> _Now, I would like to make it very clear (as in crystal clear) that I have no issue with those who have a LEGITIMATE spelling problem, such as dyslexia, as long as they are not using it as a crutch. There are successful people out there who have dyslexia, but have worked hard to overcome it, and work hard at it everyday, so that it does not get the best of them. However....if you pull a "oh woe is me! I can't spell because I have (blank)", then it is an issue._


Since this statement was in the OP I saw no reason to repeat what had already been said. 

But I am happy to. 

I am not referring to anyone who has a legitimate spelling problem. That would be ridiculous, offensive and unnecessary. My understanding of the idea of this thread was not to highlight that _dyslexics_ have problems with spelling, more that correct spelling and grammar in the general population is lacking.



faye said:


> Some of us actually can't recognise when a word is not spelt correctly. I have a Bachelors degree (with honours) in engineering, yet I am quite severely Dyslexic. For my dissertation the university provided nearly 80hrs of professional proof reading.
> Being unable to spell correctly has never held me back, then again, I suppose that is why I chose Engineering.


I have no doubt that you are highly intelligent. In fact your spelling and grammar is very good, I wouldn't have known you were dyslexic if you hadn't have said anything.


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## faye (Oct 13, 2010)

Just because people have not had an official diagnosis of Dyslexia does not mean that they do not have it, Dyslexia is believed to affect up to 20% of the population, with the majority (estimated over 60%) of those never being correctly diagnosed. There is a greater awareness of Dyslexia now but often only at University level which means that those that never make it that far never get the help and support needed.

I personaly will never judge a person by thier spelling, some of the best people I know couldn't spell if thier lives depended on it yet they run multimillion ££ businesses, heck some of them can barely write at all. 



> I have no doubt that you are highly intelligent. In fact your spelling and grammar is very good, I wouldn't have known you were dyslexic if you hadn't have said anything.


This is exactly my point most of my friends are not open about thier Dyslexia, infact the vast majority of them avoid any form of writing in order to avoid drawing attention to it (they phone rather than txt or email etc), and many have far worse problems then I do. So who are you or anyone else to judge who is being lazy and who has a genuine learning difficulty?

I was one of the lucky ones who got the specialised help and only because of mum's constant pushing and the fact that I live not far from Bangor Uni which is the major Dyslexia research centre in the UK. I am acutely aware of those who have not had the opportunities that I have had or whose parents were not in a position to send them to a specialised fee paying boarding school in order to help them develop coping mechanisms.

Inconsistent Phonetic Spelling is an absolute classic symptom of Dyslexia, as is a seemingly short attention span and chronicly bad short term memory (and a whole host of other things).


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## faye (Oct 13, 2010)

This is a direct quote from a friend of mines email when discussing a newspaper article:


> Hang on it only when up 17miles but space dosen't start untill you get to 30miles hight, even if you did get a papper plan that hight it wouldn'd glide down as there would be know atmosher (e.g. no air for airdynamics) the plane would enter an out side spine and with out a pilot to fight it out crash, would it not


 Ignoring the dodgy science in his answer, That is about as good as it will ever get for him (yes he had the same help I have had), but he will never tell anyone he is dyslexic so please tell me how you would tell? would you just judge him thick or lazy and write him off?


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## sarahver (Apr 9, 2010)

Whoops, sorry thought I posted this before. It obviously didn't go through.



sarahver said:


> I am not referring to anyone who has a legitimate spelling problem. That would be ridiculous, offensive and unnecessary. My understanding of the idea of this thread was not to highlight that _dyslexics_ have problems with spelling, more that correct spelling and grammar in the general population is lacking.


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## faye (Oct 13, 2010)

sarahver - yes I read that part, no need to repeat it. what I am getting at is how the hell you would know if someone is dyslexic/has a learning difficulty since the majority of people dont broadcast the fact.

Judging people on thier spelling (and that is what you are all doing), when there is no way on earth you could possibly know if they have a problem or not, is stupid yet everyone seems to be insisting on doing it anyway.


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## sarahver (Apr 9, 2010)

The title of the thread is "The importance of spelling and grammar" not "If you can't spell you are an imbecile" or "if your grammar isn't good then you will be judged harsher than others".

As far as this particular topic goes, spelling and grammar are important. It is easier for some and harder for others. You are a good example, you have dyslexia yet are able to write effectively. So how do YOU feel about others who have no such obstacle to overcome when they butcher the English language simply through pure laziness??? That is what this topic is really about - those that have no legitimate reason to not use correct spelling and grammar and yet they still do.

As far as being able to tell if people are dyslexic or not, well, you can't unless they specifically state that they are. So what to do about that? Assume _everyone_ that misspells words is dyslexic to avoid offending them needlessly? Say that spelling and grammar isn't important because up to 20% of the population may have some form of dyslexia? Only be annoyed at 1 out of every 5 spelling mistakes since up to 20% of the population may have some form of dyslexia?

I am prepared to accept that some people have a legitimate difficulty recognising a word that is spelled incorrectly. I am NOT prepared to accept that it is the majority.


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## usandpets (Jan 1, 2011)

faye said:


> This is a direct quote from a friend of mines email when discussing a newspaper article:
> Ignoring the dodgy science in his answer, That is about as good as it will ever get for him (yes he had the same help I have had), but he will never tell anyone he is dyslexic so please tell me how you would tell? would you just judge him thick or lazy and write him off?


 Thank you Faye for posting that. I hadn't thought of that before. I will not be so quick to judge and try to keep a more open mind. Hopefully, others will too.


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## VelvetsAB (Aug 11, 2010)

VelvetsAB said:


> _Now, I would like to make it very clear (as in crystal clear) that I have no issue with those who have a LEGITIMATE spelling problem, such as dyslexia, as long as they are not using it as a crutch. There are successful people out there who have dyslexia, but have worked hard to overcome it, and work hard at it everyday, so that it does not get the best of them. However....if you pull a "oh woe is me! I can't spell because I have (blank)", then it is an issue._


_This above quote was actually put in because of you Faye, and the fact that you do have dyslexia and struggle with it, but no one would have known without you saying something. I would have chalked any errors in posts up to typing mistakes, not as a spelling mistake anyways. It was also put up as you mentioned in the original thread that your father has dyslexia, but still holds 3 degrees. Now that is someone who has worked hard to overcome what is a struggle and has done well with it._


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## Northern (Mar 26, 2010)

Good grief, Spyder, can you tell the difference between telling a joke & being a nitpicker? It won't do for a virgin to speak in pregnant pauses; get it?


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## Ray MacDonald (Dec 27, 2009)

Apparently not....


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