Chasing better spelling...

[turboplanner]

Don't mention Americans, with all due respect. First they change the spelling to suit themselves (centre to center, litre to liter, theatre to theater, gaol to jail, etc.), hold televised spelling competitions like sporting events, then mispronounce words (aluminium - alyou-miny-um as aloom-inum).

The English started colonising North America in 1585 (Lost Colony) and as the landing colonists eventually started to survive and prosper, using the English of the 1500's they were more or less cut off from Europe for a two or three hundred years, and missed Britain's expansion of its relationship with European countries.

 

So they have the purer form of English and it was Britain who picked up the "our" vs US "or" probably from the French, and it was fashionable for the educated to show off by using French in conversation, such as "faux pas", and Latin

 

The same with US words like enterprize, based on the old English, which developed into enterprise in Britain.

 

The US pronunciation and drawl is also more pure than the current British.

 

Bill Bryson wrote a great book about this called "Made in America" where he gives hundreds of examples of US words which date back to 14th and 15th Century England.

 

Today of course it's fashionable for a few on this forum to show off by incorrectly using US spelling.

 

 

[turboplanner]

So feel free to judge us " lazy ignorant " spellers with bad grammer (note: grammer comes up highlighted spelt wrong- google search proves otherwise ?) but were - I mean we're trying .

I find whenever I want to write a news story on a planning issue it takes at least 800 to 1200 words.

 

Newspapers will grudgingly print about 200 words on a story if it is controversial enough.

 

However, to be sure of getting a story in, I need to prune it down to less than 80 words, and getting from 1200 to 80, but still retaining any sense might take about 5 hours.

 

When we post on a forum we have a similar very small number of words to work with, and just minutes to post, so you should not take a sweeping statement to heart.

 

There are lazy spellers, but I wouldn't put you in that category, and in fact I've been getting interested in how people who missed the critical years, could possibly get right up to the top standards of English quickly, and I mentioned this in a recent post, suggesting they go down to the local school, find out what spelling books are used for ages 10 to 12, and study those books. I would do spelling first, ten grammar and constructions later.

 

The beauty of English is that it has so many words, enabling you to communicate with precise meaning.

 

If you want to write, you'd be a good candidate to drop in to Tailem Bend primary school, and discuss this idea with one of the teachers. My thinking is, as an adult we would now have the skills to self teach and could proceed through the books and homework very fast.

 

There are a couple of things going for you with this concept:

 

• South Australian Schools teach the highest standard of English in the Country
   
   
  
• South Australia Country Schools seem to be the best of the State system
   
   
  

 

 

 

 

[SDQDI]

Flyerme you have a Nieuport who cares how your grammar is.

 

We have an alphabet dinosaur at home it's supposed to be an educational toy and it is mostly good you press b it says b for ball etc but with x it says "x is for exit" now this seems to be a bit of a thing as wifey borrowed an alphabet book from the library and it's examples of x were 1,box 2,fox and 3, exit. So what happened to the xylophone? All of the other examples have the letter as their first and I think it would be confusing to littlies trying to find a letter that they are trying to learn.

 

 

[Bandit12]

There are lazy spellers, but I wouldn't put you in that category, and in fact I've been getting interested in how people who missed the critical years, could possibly get right up to the top standards of English quickly, and I mentioned this in a recent post, suggesting they go down to the local school, find out what spelling books are used for ages 10 to 12, and study those books. I would do spelling first, ten grammar and constructions later.

I'd go even further to suggest that a visit to an Educational Psychologist is probably the best place to work on figuring out where the underlying difficulties lie. Self-taught is great if you have the time, but if you want to bring it in to focus quickly, a proper assessment is warranted.

 

But then again, if it isn't causing you any grief, and you can still do the things you want to in life, I say just get on with living and don't worry about it. I have rarely had any difficulty understanding your posts Flyerme.

 

 

[coljones]

Flyerme you have a Nieuport who cares how your grammar is.We have an alphabet dinosaur at home it's supposed to be an educational toy and it is mostly good you press b it says b for ball etc but with x it says "x is for exit" now this seems to be a bit of a thing as wifey borrowed an alphabet book from the library and it's examples of x were 1,box 2,fox and 3, exit. So what happened to the xylophone? All of the other examples have the letter as their first and I think it would be confusing to littlies trying to find a letter that they are trying to learn.

Xylophone doesn't have an "x" sound in any part - another example of either bad English spelling or bad English pronounciation. Or is that pronunciation?

[red750]

English is a difficult language to learn, what with so many words with multiple uses/meanings.

 

Take mine for example. Noun: He fell down the mine. Verb: we are going to mine for opals. They are going to mine the shipping channels. Possessive pronoun: That coat is mine.

 

Or coach. Verb: He will coach the team next year. Noun: They boarded the coach to go to the game.

 

There are many more.

 

 

[pmccarthy]

Fill in the five missing letters in this word:

 

und-----und

 

 

[derekliston]

Can"t help feeling that you are fighting a losing battle when many modern teachers themselves can't spell. I had an argument many years ago with a headmaster who sent home an invitation to a school barbecue which he had spelled? spelt? barbeque. I contended that if he wished to spell it thus, although incorrectly, it would have to be barbequeue!

 

 

[turboplanner]

underground?

 

 

[coljones]

Can"t help feeling that you are fighting a losing battle when many modern teachers themselves can't spell. I had an argument many years ago with a headmaster who sent home an invitation to a school barbecue which he had spelled? spelt? barbeque. I contended that if he wished to spell it thus, although incorrectly, it would have to be barbequeue!

How do you spell "Fanshaw" or "Chumly"?

 

 

[red750]

"Fanshaw" is spelt Fanshawe, although the family surname of the Featherstonhaugh baronets is pronounced Fanshaw, according to wikipedia. The name pronounced Chumly is usually spelt Cholmley.

 

 

[derekliston]

underground?

Ok, I'll bite! What? or as Pauline would say "please explain"

 

 

[derekliston]

underground?

Ok, I'll bite! What? or as Pauline would say "please explain"

 

 

[coljones]

"Fanshaw" is spelt Fanshawe, although the family surname of the Featherstonhaugh baronets is pronounced Fanshaw, according to wikipedia. The name pronounced Chumly is usually spelt Cholmley.

well spotted Red.

 

• Cholmondeley – /ˈtʃʌmli/ = Chumley or Chumly
   
   
  

 

 

Isn't English spelling a bitch!! And who is the arbiter of correct spelling?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_names_in_English_with_counterintuitive_pronunciations

 

Grammar, on the the other hand, really matters because that is how we transmit ideas and understanding. Bad Grammar is soul destroying!!!!

 

 

[SDQDI]

well spotted Red.

• Cholmondeley – /ˈtʃʌmli/ = Chumley or Chumly
   
   
  

 

 

Isn't English spelling a bitch!! And who is the arbiter of correct spelling?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_names_in_English_with_counterintuitive_pronunciations

 

Grammar, on the the other hand, really matters because that is how we transmit ideas and understanding. Bad Grammar is soul destroying!!!!

Is four exclamation marks really good grammar???? (Of course I am not a hypocrite.)

 

 

[turboplanner]

Ok, I'll bite! What? or as Pauline would say "please explain"

I was answering the question before your post Derek.

 

 

[derekliston]

I was answering the question before your post Derek.

In text talk (which I detest) Oic!

 

 

[turboplanner]

What on earth are you talking about?

 

 

[Guest Redair]

Gentlemen and Ladies of the forum, firstly I would like to point out that English as a language, is not all that difficult... I mean there are children of 3 or 4 in the UK who are quite fluent in it!

 

Secondly, my all time top hate, sorry one of my all time top hates, OK, just one of thousands of top hates is when people say or write that they have gotten the latest gadget. It is GOT, I have GOT the latest gadget. Sadly, and I fear this started somewhere in the world where the are more than 49 states, by possibly some who have a crimson tinge to the epidermis surrounding the cervical vertebra area of their bodies, where they mistakenly believe that gotten is its own word and not the ending of "Forgotten" (this being the past tense of "Forgot" although technically it could be said that "Forgot" is in fact already the past tense of "Forget".... whatever, I don't remember:rofl:).

 

As far as pour spelling and punk-chew-asian go on the forums, a concern might be, that anyone looking in from outside, may well view us as unedjewkated and use it against us as yet another aregewment that we are not fit to ride bicycles, let alone fly aeroplanes, (not airplanes). If we are propheshunal in everything we do it can only help improve hour standing in the community.

 

That's all folks, I have to go now, as I appear to have gotten something stuck in my cheek... ah, it's my tongue.

 

Redair.

 

 

[Powerin]

I'm coming in late to this thread....but I honestly don't mind misspellings. When you're zooming through reading flat out your brain easily can deal with even badly misspelt words. No, it's the correctly spelt words used incorrectly that make it hard to read something.

 

As mentioned before, it's the homonymns that are the problem. Nothing brings my reading to a screaming halt, and then put into reverse to re-read a couple times, than a misused there/their/they're etc. Correct punctuation is also nice and the visual cue of a capital at the beginning of a sentence is very helpful too for an easy flow of reading. Spellcheck won't help you with any of these unfortunately.

 

 

[pmccarthy]

underground?

Yes, that was what I was looking for. Flowed from the previous post about "mine".

 

 

[pmccarthy]

I like the word ghoti, which is pronounced fish. GH as in rough, O as in women, TI as in position.

 

 

[red750]

Another I've encountered, to add to the list in post #1:

 

Bought: past tense of buy.

 

Brought: past tense of bring.

 

Using both in a sentence: I bought this camera when it was on sale, and I brought it here today to get some photos.

 

Remember the "r".

 

 

[Russ]

Live......here

 

Live.......wire

 

Payed....paid

 

 

[red750]

Pedal Noun: foot activated level Verb: As in 'to pedal your bike'.

 

Peddle Selling goods by moving door to door (peddling encyclopaedia) or person to person (peddling drugs).