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Monday, July 27, 2015

Things That Annoy Me #5

I am a terrible speller. I don't know why. The sounds in my head have trouble transcribing into letters on the page. As a result I rely heavily on spell check and dictionaries. My spelling has actually improved a great deal since I began typing more than writing by hand. There is some part of my brain that activates when I have to press each individual letter key rather than scribble them on paper.

You'd think that I would have great pity and sympathy for those who post and publish misspelled words. You'd be wrong. I figure that I know I don't spell very well so if I can make use of dictionaries and notice the red-squiggle line underneath words, so can everyone else.

That being said, it doesn't bother me terribly when people misspell recieve or talk about there job or use it's when making a possessive. I have a general sense of 'ugh,' but it isn't baffling. There is, however, two words I see frequently misused that completely get under my skin. I do not even comprehend how these words are interchanged:

Quite

Quiet

I see that it is easy as a typo to get the 'e' and the 't' in the wrong spot and unintentionally insert the wrong word. I also see that, since you have spelled a valid word correctly, spell-check will never flag it for you. It is one of those situations where your own self has to proofread and correct the typo.

Here is what I don't understand: How can someone use 'quite' over and over and over when he actually means 'quiet' and how can this same person use 'quiet' over and over and over when he actually means 'quite.' Obviously there is some confusion over these two words, but the slightest application of phonics would alleviate the problem. Just look at what you have typed and read it!

Why this particular misusage causes me so much angst, I cannot tell you, but it does. It does.

Do you have a similar grammatical issue that sends you around the bend?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lose vs. loose. Even educated friends of mine still make this mistake, and it kills me!

Meredith

Anonymous said...

Also, I shudder to think of what mistakes I am making repeatedly and unknowingly that annoy my friends!

M

Jenny said...

Oh I have thought of something I do that might bug people! When formulating a negative, I am much more likely to use 'no' rather than 'not'. For example, "We have no bananas," instead of "We do not have any bananas." The former is really the way I hear it in my head and am much more likely to type, but the latter is more standardized so I try to fix it when I remember.

Mama Sophie said...

Haha so funny. At least you're honest. But spellchecks don't always work, do they?
You have "there job" instead of their ;-) reread this post when you have time :-D