More and more of my students seem to think that sets can be "seperated". The Web strikes again. Bring on the claims that spelling is arbitrary anyway, that languages evolve, and that misspelling a word is OK if everyone does it. Then consider that this is not a word but a technical term in this case, and misspelling it means that you're no longer talking about the same thing. Goodbye, clarity of expression. Hello, "I'll spell it however I like; the reader can sort it out!"
Posted by bzbarsky at February 1, 2004 3:44 PMThere's nothing that ticks me off more than see people misspell even the most basic words, and English is my 3rd language!
Take for instance the "than" vs "then". ARGH!
Posted by: Ariel on February 1, 2004 6:27 PMthere, their and they're
your and you're
misuse of apostrophe,
the list goes on ...
Posted by: Chris Neale on February 2, 2004 3:19 AMOne difference is that all those have been problems for decades. The "seperate" thing only started being really common within the last year or two, as far as I can tell....
Posted by: Boris on February 2, 2004 10:52 AMThe situation is worse in French, it's really hard to find someone that correctly spells it. This language is rather funny in that respect.
Since Boris is learning French, here is an example...
The sound "wa:" can be written:
le r[oi], le m[ois], le dr[oit], la n[oix], l'[oie], le d[oigt], le fr[oid], le p[oids], le r[oua]ge, la p[oê]le.
Resp. the king, the month, the right, the walnut, the goose, the finger, the cold, the weight, the wheel(?), and the stove.
Enjoy, Boris :)
Posted by: pch on February 2, 2004 4:03 PMI forgot: je cr[oîs], il cr[oît] (I grow, he grows)
and there may be other I didn't think about :).
I thought everyone was taught that "separate" is "A Rat" of a word, and that pretty much resolved any confusion.
Posted by: asarwate on February 2, 2004 4:38 PMNote that the majority of those French words just use "oi". The trailing consonant is consistently silent unless the following word starts with a vowel, so differences in the ending consonants don't count. ;)
Boris, it's not as pernicious as misspelling "principle" as "principal"; at least you know they've chosen the right word, even if it is misspelled.
Posted by: fantasai on February 2, 2004 8:42 PMThe one that REALLY bugs me is people typing "should of" instead of "should have" just because of the way "should've" sounds. And do you know who I blame? Terry Pratchett. I've seen that crap in his books more than once.
Posted by: Jackie on February 3, 2004 4:37 AMfor TP, is that prose, or dialogue ?
Posted by: Chris Neale on February 4, 2004 3:30 AMsome characters of Pratchett's books, also use 'et' where you might use ate - but this is a colloquialism, and part of their speech
is TP guilty of using 'should of' in his descriptions ?
Posted by: Chris Neale on February 5, 2004 6:54 AM