Thread: 10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling

Originally Posted by Auron

Effect/affect. I saw it popping up on my term paper that I wrote this morning, but I had no clue that the word "affect" even existed. I was looking at it dumbfounded like "what's this doing here....I'll keep it the other way". Believe is a word I always spell wrong....I always spell it "belive". But through the years of being in chat (and more recently college) my spelling has been improving.

Even Micky softs spell checkers want to put the wrong word in on that one. Or should I say grammar checkers.

A lot of people tend to misspell "colour". It's too bad.

Maybe everyone misspelling it is from Australia or perhaps England.

Nein.

I've mastered all those spellings (big grammar nazi), although I used to spell "definantly" instead of "definitely". I also had a problem with "seperate" vs "separate" (I remind myself that 'ara' is harder to say thus more separate than 'era').

These days I can get a little stuck on words that normally end in e but then you have to add 'able' at the end, like "likable"... I want to spell it "likeable", because you don't lik something, you like it. If I ever use a word I don't read very often and I'm not sure how to spell it, I just Google it immediately in another tab.

Originally Posted by Photolysis

Nein.

Sorry, I knew that would get me in trouble. I can never keep track of what I'm supposed to call that country. And my boss is British. I think he says England, though.

Originally Posted by Perlinfalcon

Sorry, I knew that would get me in trouble. I can never keep track of what I'm supposed to call that country. And my boss is British. I think he says England, though.

Not that, just I've never encountered anyone who gets wander confused with wonder, and I live in the UK (and I consider myself English, not British incidentally).

LOVE the link

I always say wahn-der-ring (wandering) or won-der-ring (wondering). I always got them messed up until Chorus in Middle School when one of my friends had to sing a song (?) "I wonder as I wander out under the sky..."
One word I consistently have trouble with is "guarantee". (I even want to SAY Gair-oon-tee)

I always have to remind myself of the whole "i before e except after c" bit.

Words I say/write that drive people crazy are: "I used to...." and "y'all". "Used to" just makes sense. "I formerly did this and that." or "In the past I..." is just too drawn out. And though I now live in WV, "you-ins" never really took lol.
And it took my ex-hubby years to get me to stop saying "worsh" instead of "wash"

One word I say, which I feel is incorrect or exaggerated is "proceed". I know it's proper, so ??? Maybe people around me tend to say "pru (as in "up")- seed".

Originally Posted by DeeryTheDeer

I used to spell "definantly" instead of "definitely".

Now you mention it, I do remember doing that in grade school.

Originally Posted by DeeryTheDeer

I also had a problem with "seperate" vs "separate" (I remind myself that 'ara' is harder to say thus more separate than 'era').

Uh yeah, this one still gets me. I think the problem comes from a serious misconception that they are two different words with two different pronunciations. As in..."don't make me seperate you two" and "many separate parts". I "seperate" things into "separate" pieces. (btw I always want to spell that "pronounciation"...I mean...as with "likable", you pronounce something, you don't pronunce it)

I always want to spell that "pronounciation"

Same. Oh the joys of the English language.

Originally Posted by Perlinfalcon

Wait. Where do people pronounce wandering like wOndering? I and everyone I know and everyone I have ever heard pronounces it like "wahndering". If there is somewhere it is pronounced like "wOndering" then I guess I could understand the misspelling better. I've just never ever heard it said that way.

Edit: Oh wait, you're in Australia. Guess that might explain it. Maybe everyone misspelling it is from Australia or perhaps England.

Hm, maybe it is just an Australian thing. But I've never heard anyone say "I'm just going to go for a wahnder over there" or "I wOnder what this is for".
It's always "I'm just going to go for a wOnder over there" or "I wuhnder what this is for".

I'd probably sound like an idiot if I went to Britain lol

Separate gets me a lot, too (see what I did there?). You see a lot of weird malapropisms on the internet that do bug me sometimes, not so much because they're 'incorrect' as because they seem to demonstrate a fundamental short circuit in the person's way of thinking. People use "weary" for "wary" quite often: two words that do share some phonemes, but shouldn't be smashed together in your overall psycho-linguistic construct of reality (not to wander into Phil's turf).

One I see tons of professional journalists and bloggers use is "should of," "could of," or "would of." "He should of given the money back"--HOW DOES THAT MAKE SENSE IN YOUR BRAIN? It's phonetically correct, but what we're saying when we make those sounds is "should've," as in "should have." You'll know you're using it correctly if the resultant string of words is not gibberish

Originally Posted by tommo

Spelling phonetically is where America is heading, guaranteed. The problem is that people pronounce words differently either because of idiosyncrasies or accents.

The real problem with 'spelling it like it sounds' is not just that words sound different depending on who is speaking, but that information is lost. There's a lot more embedded in language than just the basic sense you're trying to convey. Particularly in a palimpsest like contemporary American English, the history of the world, the foundations of reality, and the current state of the collective unconscious are there to be read in our business memoranda, if you have but eyes to see. Strip it all out of the language (if that were possible), and you've lobotomized society.

Moreover, you've made language a lot less fun to play with

"the collective unconscious" I believe that more than the so call "the collective conscious". However, in order for language to function, there has to be a convention of names. One cannot conventionalize individual intentions, or emotions. For example. A = A. It does not matter if I say it sober, drunk, or in a fit of rage.

An example of this principle is given in Gen 1 and Gen 3. It is called appearance. Those linguist who supposedly examine the meaning of words are dumber than a box of rocks.

I disagree.

...with everyone.

...About everything.

cool story bro.

I know all of them, and always notice when people make mistakes. The 'good'/'well' one has been bugging me recently. My dad will say "Did you do good on your test?" People sound like cavemen to me when they say that. I almost never correct people because I don't want to make them feel bad. The ony person I know won't get hurt is my boyfriend, so we're always correcting each other.

Another is confusing 'they're' and 'their'. Some people on this forum do that.

Affect/effect is difficult. I go by the general rule that affect is a verb and effect is a noun, but there are exceptions which I haven't taken the time to memorize.

I have one I want to ask people about.
My boyfriend has been correcting me a lot lately when I say "I'm done ----", like "I'm done my homework". He says that's wrong and it's supposed to be "I'm done with my homework." He thinks "I'm finished my homework" sounds just as wrong. It doesn't sound wrong to me, but he keeps insisting it is. Is he right?

lol yes he is right.
"I am done my homework" makes no sense.
Neither does "I am finished my homework".

With these things you just have to de-abbreviate the word "I'm".

You could say "I have finished my homework"
or "I've finished my homework"
but not "I am finished my homework".

Otherwise you're basically saying you are "finished my homework".

Similar to saying "I am" "walking a dog" "I'm not a human" "I am A" "walking a dog".

I used completely incorrect grammar there because it's hard to portray what I'm saying in text.
It's like you are saying you are an act of doing something.

Originally Posted by Dianeva

I have one I want to ask people about.
My boyfriend has been correcting me a lot lately when I say "I'm done ----", like "I'm done my homework". He says that's wrong and it's supposed to be "I'm done with my homework." He thinks "I'm finished my homework" sounds just as wrong. It doesn't sound wrong to me, but he keeps insisting it is. Is he right?

Yeah, I've never come across that one before--grammatically incorrect and just plain weird. Where do you think you picked it up?

Yeah, "I am done my homework" is just plain wrong. Should be "I have done" or "I am done with".

He thinks "I'm finished my homework" sounds just as wrong. It doesn't sound wrong to me, but he keeps insisting it is. Is he right?

Your boyfriend is correct.

Substitute "completed" in as a synonym for finished and compare:

I have completed my homework <-- My homework is in a state of completion / My homework is completed
I am completed my homework <-- Erm, a grammatically incorrect version of "I am my completed homework".

You might say the latter in other languages (I seem to remember cases like this when literally translating French and/or German but can't remember clearly), but you'd never say it in English. And it sounds really weird.

(Who doesn't love abusing sentence fragments in a grammar thread?)

Bravo! Synonym substitution is often an easy way to spot errors. We often seem to understand one word in the same class, but by using synonyms we start seeing the common element.

This is actually one of the methods Plato used in his dialogs to demonstrate some ideas. To see the same idea in the many examples. Similie in multis.

I used substitution before to see if there was an error, substituting "done" with "finished" and "finished" sounds right too, but you're right, with "completed" it sounds wrong.

I don't like that it's wrong, because now it's just a rule I'll have to memorize, even though it sounds right to me. All other grammatically incorrect phrases sound wrong to me. If I think about the actual sentence structure, I guess it doesn't make sense, but it seems like one of those phrases that's used anyway, like the phrase "going to" (as in, "I am going to go to the store"). If you think about that, it doesn't make sense, but it's valid. There are plenty of others.

I must have gotten it from my parents. When I asked, both of them agreed with me that it sounds right. My mom said it's "more proper" to say "done with" but just "done" sounds right too. Thanks everyone, I've been wondering about it for months.

Originally Posted by Dianeva

I used substitution before to see if there was an error, substituting "done" with "finished" and "finished" sounds right too, but you're right, with "completed" it sounds wrong.

I don't like that it's wrong, because now it's just a rule I'll have to memorize, even though it sounds right to me. All other grammatically incorrect phrases sound wrong to me. If I think about the actual sentence structure, I guess it doesn't make sense, but it seems like one of those phrases that's used anyway, like the phrase "going to" (as in, "I am going to go to the store"). If you think about that, it doesn't make sense, but it's valid. There are plenty of others.

I must have gotten it from my parents. When I asked, both of them agreed with me that it sounds right. My mom said it's "more proper" to say "done with" but just "done" sounds right too. Thanks everyone, I've been wondering about it for months.

Actually, Grammar needs to actually be written. Right now a collection of conflicting rules is not really about grammar--it is about trying to survive grammar.

The only person I know of that recognized this openly was Webster in his grammar, however, he put it towards the end of his work.

Originally Posted by Dianeva

I used substitution before to see if there was an error, substituting "done" with "finished" and "finished" sounds right too, but you're right, with "completed" it sounds wrong.

I don't like that it's wrong, because now it's just a rule I'll have to memorize, even though it sounds right to me. All other grammatically incorrect phrases sound wrong to me. If I think about the actual sentence structure, I guess it doesn't make sense, but it seems like one of those phrases that's used anyway, like the phrase "going to" (as in, "I am going to go to the store"). If you think about that, it doesn't make sense, but it's valid. There are plenty of others.

I must have gotten it from my parents. When I asked, both of them agreed with me that it sounds right. My mom said it's "more proper" to say "done with" but just "done" sounds right too. Thanks everyone, I've been wondering about it for months.

"More proper" is incorrect as well. I mean no offense by this, but don't take language related advice from your parents.

You don't need to remember these things at all. Not really anyway. If you know the basics well, you can just extrapolate to anything.
I'm = I am. Which could end like:
I am eating.
I am a person.
I am at the fountain.
I am sad.

All present tense.

"Done" is past tense. Which is why it sounds weird coming after "I am".