I’ve made all those mistakes. Sometimes, especially when my brain is in high gear with lots of different thoughts at the same time, I let my fingers do the spelling. I feel like an idiot after hitting the submit button… then have to think… should I or should I not post a correction?
My least favorite is the replacement of “fluor-” with “flour-“. How do you make hydroflouric acid? Well, you begin by hydrating some flour…
My Russian wife once sent me to the store for flavor and as a dutiful husband I went. The store help couldn’t figure it out either. I went home without the flavor to see if I couldn’t figure it out there. She insisted I needed to go back to the store and get some flavor. I puzzled it out for a while and finally figured out she was asking me to get flour.
She was so insistent I get flavor and so cute I just couldn’t get mad.
I have ken’s problem, particularly with “they’re” and “their.” I know perfectly well which is which, but somehow the Broca’s — or is Wernicke’s? — Area gets its wires crossed when typing and thinking and out pops the wrong one. It’s strange.
Also, being a spelling Nazi is one of Carl’s Sure-Fire Warning Signs That You Are Dealing With Someone Only Internet Smart. Your Pham Points get automatically divided by π.
Too many people insist on mis-spelling ‘ridiculous’ as ‘rediculous’.
They should be ‘ridiculed’ untill they learn to seek the root of a word!
I do a couple of these occasionally, if I am typing fast. I don’t really consciously know how to spell. I just look at the copy, and it jumps out at me that something’s not right. I’ve noticed, though, as I get older, that more stuff isn’t looking “right”, even when it is.
Most of these, I would pass off as neutral indicators of the writer’s mental dexterity. However, I have formed a general impression that substitution of “your” for “you’re” is usually a tip-off that you’re dealing with a lower functioning lifeform.
I’ve made all those mistakes. Sometimes, especially when my brain is in high gear with lots of different thoughts at the same time, I let my fingers do the spelling. I feel like an idiot after hitting the submit button… then have to think… should I or should I not post a correction?
My least favorite is the replacement of “fluor-” with “flour-“. How do you make hydroflouric acid? Well, you begin by hydrating some flour…
My Russian wife once sent me to the store for flavor and as a dutiful husband I went. The store help couldn’t figure it out either. I went home without the flavor to see if I couldn’t figure it out there. She insisted I needed to go back to the store and get some flavor. I puzzled it out for a while and finally figured out she was asking me to get flour.
She was so insistent I get flavor and so cute I just couldn’t get mad.
I have ken’s problem, particularly with “they’re” and “their.” I know perfectly well which is which, but somehow the Broca’s — or is Wernicke’s? — Area gets its wires crossed when typing and thinking and out pops the wrong one. It’s strange.
Also, being a spelling Nazi is one of Carl’s Sure-Fire Warning Signs That You Are Dealing With Someone Only Internet Smart. Your Pham Points get automatically divided by π.
Too many people insist on mis-spelling ‘ridiculous’ as ‘rediculous’.
They should be ‘ridiculed’ untill they learn to seek the root of a word!
See also The Elements of F*cking Style.
I do a couple of these occasionally, if I am typing fast. I don’t really consciously know how to spell. I just look at the copy, and it jumps out at me that something’s not right. I’ve noticed, though, as I get older, that more stuff isn’t looking “right”, even when it is.
Most of these, I would pass off as neutral indicators of the writer’s mental dexterity. However, I have formed a general impression that substitution of “your” for “you’re” is usually a tip-off that you’re dealing with a lower functioning lifeform.