Spelling

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I know i cannot spell and it is becoming embarrassing
So any tips to make my atrocius spelling better
I do not want to win bees, just not to look like a moron.

anthony, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Er... it's 'atrocious', btw.

Anyway, just read more and more. As much as possible. That's how I learned to spell, and that's how I continue to improve my vocabulary. It's more enjoyable than slavishly studying spelling guides.

Paul Strange, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

i read alot. At least 3 books a week. Its not helping . It has become somewhat of an obsession.

anthony, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

That is weird. The other thing to do is get a little pocket dictionary and carry it with you. Use it whenever you come across a word you're not sure of. Bear in mind you won't be able to spell everything like a pro straightaway. Might help though...

Paul Strange, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

As an appalling speller I find that proof reading is a must. This is why so many mistakes creep out on a board like this - do you proof read a pithy off the the cuff comment? A moments reflections says yes - a pithy remark is so much better if it is not a pissy remark.

Also, and this might sound a bit condescending, don't use words that you don't know how to spell. Find out how to spell it, then use it. Of course if you continue to write in your lower case ee cummings style poetical form then we will all assume that the mistakes are for effect...

Pete, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Slow and boring habits you must teach yourself.
A. Look things up in a dictionary (everything: I'm sorry, yes)
B. Test yourself on things you already did look up.
The information is there in yr head, or you would not be able to read at all. But it is not yet wired in properly to the correct bit of your body memory. My yoga teacher just told me that I would not be able to drop my head properly (ie relaxed, not tense) until I had done it abt 1,000 times: his actual words. Slow and boring, until it eventually downloads to unconscious muscle-memory (the muscle of the eye is probably a metaphor here: point is, it shouldn't need to be front-of-brain memory, but it has to PASS THROUGH THAT to get bedded down well...)

mark s, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

great tips
Now was the ee cummings thing a back handed compliment.
David is up and suggests Word Pad.
i think that will help.
and do me a favor correct my spelling

anthony, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Pete does not do back handed compliments, only insults.

And he is not a crap speller, he is just a crap typist. And he does not proof read his books as I read one and it was rammed with typos but I was too polite to point it out.

Emma, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

'backhanded'

scott, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Yep, backhanded compliment. Now you can pop it on that thread.

I liked ee cummings a lot at an impressionable age is always a good excuse for poor punctuation. I am a spider and therefore cannot press shift and the letter at the same time is a rubbish excuse.

Of course this reminds me of those lessons at school where they introduce you to free verse. Then you write a poem. Then you lose marks for not making it rhyme. Bastards.

Pete, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Erm... I've always been a very very bad speller. However, I have been improving, and this is why... Get yerself (intentional mis-spelling) a copy of MS Word. Turn off the spell-checker that automatically replaces every word, and replace it with the one that merely underlines misspelled words in red. Start typing everything in it. Whenever anything appears with a red underline, right click on it, and it will tell you how it supposed to be spelled. Do this enough times and you will start to correct yourself automatically after a time.

OK, it doesn't help in forums like this where it's hard to cut and paste out of Word, but it's helped me immensely in my professional life.

masonic boom, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

We all make mistakes from time to time (usually in sentences where we're talking about other people's mistakes). But I think the shortest answer to bad typing (which may not be quite the same thing as bad spelling) is: CARE.

the pinefox, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Oh, Aaron Spelling: so dud he's classic.

AP, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Anthony, I would like to award you an entire hive of bees for your spelling. You totally should not worry about it, nobody cares about that shit in the modern world anyway.

duane, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I disagree. But perhaps I don't live in 'the modern world'.

the pinefox, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

And Tori Spelling, she's all about dud (tho' does have sense of own ridiculousness = not fully dud).

AP, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Name me a single thing, pray, that A.Spelling has been involved (inc.obv.T.Spelling) which = not classic??

mark s, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Tori Spelling. QED.

Josh, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Was Models Inc. not one of his? Mariel Hemmingway is/was crap actress to hang series on (career coasted on Ernest lineage - pfff - and one good role [& roll] w/ Woody Allen - ptooey!). Good looking, s'pose, in Standard Issue Spelling way; cheekbones three-feet wide. But scripts? Characters? Saddo. A Spelling series w/ (unthinkable!) TOO MANY BITCHES rendering ALL bitches null and void = dud.

AP, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

(To clarify, I mean "bitches" in old skool Alexis slapping Crystal shoulder pads sense, not modern playa hatin' sense. In case that needs stating. Prolly not. But wot would I know... [quick, change subject] Hey, look over there, it's Captain Stubbing! What's he doing? He's sitting in a tree! Masturbating! Oh no! Not in the tree Captain Stubbing! Not in the tree!!!!)

AP, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Does anyone have a good, or even fair, explanation of why 40 is spelt "forty" and not "fourty"? Really makes v. little of that sense-type stuff.

AP, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Yes, a real anomaly there: you'd have thought that a number lying between twoty, threety and fivety...

mark s, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Not so fast, Sinker. Thirty is consistent w/ thirteen, fifty is consistent w/ fifteen, forty is NOT consistent w/ fourteen. So yes, anomaly: why??

AP, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

If it bothers you that much just spell it fourty and launch into a long and tedious explanation when challenged. Isn't this thread about Aaron Spelling, anyway?

Emma, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

But if thirteen is consistent with thirty and fifteen with fifty then isn't 'fourteen' the anomaly (i.e. should be 'forteen')?

scott, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

You mean it's NOT spelled FOURTY? I've been spelling it that way for years, and saying it's the English way when challenged by anyone.

masonic boom, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

fo(u)rteen also out of wack with famous word which americans don't understand: fortnight

and what the FuXoR is "eleven" all about? Or twelve (= twenteen, surely)?

mark s, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

At least we don't have multiplication numbers like what they have in Fance. I mean is the best they could think of that eighty was twenty times four? And that ninety-nine is twenty times four plus nineteen. I ask you...

Pete, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

"Forty" seems contrary to pedant logic expected of word formation. But hmmm, I've been assuming word forty wuz created AFTER word four — not necessarily the case? Maybe forty came first, divisible-by-ten variant then required, = for, but foiled, that's taken, hence u added to make four and avoid confusion w/ extant for? Some Latin knowledge here = urgent and key.

AP, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

In Hebrew the word Forty probably came before the word Four. The word forty is mention 19 times in the Bible wheras Four rocks up just 11.

Pete, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

My head hurts. It'll be the 22's for sure, soon.

masonic boom, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

That's pretty fucked. How can you count to forty if you have no word for four?

Richard Tunnicliffe, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

AH your reducing the abstract of mathematics to the reality of linguistics. The two are plainly different. You can recognise the fiveness of you fingers on one hand and do a correalation between that distinct number and - say - five pints of beer (its that time on a Friday) as being equinumerous. You may then even construct a name for said equinumerosity. And you can do that without ever having a word for the number three.

Pete, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Good point so I will bow to your superior maths brane on this one. It'd still be a bit weird not have a name for this four thing, though, wouldn't it? Especially if there were names for one less, one more and ten times its value.

Richard Tunnicliffe, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

For what it's worth the contraction occured between Anglo Saxon and Middle English:

AS: Feower/Feowertene/Feowertig MS: Four/Fourtene/Forty

Forty is anomalous in that it diverges from the Old English root's mutation [prob not correct linguistic term] in 4 and 14.

But 14 is anomalous in that it holds to its root while 13 and 15 don't.

scott, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

MS should be ME

scott, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I heart ILE

Nick, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Great Scott!! Stil doth not explaine why it happened, but knowing when + likely "just did" as reason = torment diminished. I'm free! Free!!!!!

AP, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I looked its roots up in the big ol' office dictionary, and it blamed Goths. This seems plausible.

mark s, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Wearing capes wasn't enough, they hadda mess w/ the language?

There's a festering can of metaphysics devoted to thinking in words vs. thinking in non-words. Eg. look at your hand and try counting your fingers w/o using "one, two, three" etc. It's v. difficult - possibly impossible - as human brains are conditioned to formulate thought as words.

AP, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Anglo Saxons must have sounded even more tormented than people from Birmingham.

mark s, Friday, 13 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

How about Anglo-Saxon Goths from Birmingham?

the pinefox, Saturday, 14 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

seven years pass...

"tony" or "toney"?

FREE DOM AND ETHAN (special guest stars mark bronson), Monday, 27 April 2009 21:10 (fifteen years ago) link

tony

rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Monday, 27 April 2009 21:14 (fifteen years ago) link

toni

fillibustar superstar! (Abbott), Monday, 27 April 2009 21:14 (fifteen years ago) link

toné

fillibustar superstar! (Abbott), Monday, 27 April 2009 21:14 (fifteen years ago) link

come on, you knew someone had to take it for the team & say it

fillibustar superstar! (Abbott), Monday, 27 April 2009 21:15 (fifteen years ago) link

Webster's 11th lists both, but "tony" is first. For the record, I don't think I've seen "toney" outside of that Ghostface album.

Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Monday, 27 April 2009 21:18 (fifteen years ago) link

thankig u

FREE DOM AND ETHAN (special guest stars mark bronson), Monday, 27 April 2009 21:18 (fifteen years ago) link

six months pass...

I am a fine speller (typos notwithstanding) -- an admirable one, even. So what is it with me and the word "fluorescent"?

kenan, Sunday, 22 November 2009 08:11 (fifteen years ago) link

The "uo" instead of "ou" fucks me up so bad that even if I remember that bit of strangeness, I forget something else, like whether it's "sc" or just "s" or just "c".

kenan, Sunday, 22 November 2009 08:13 (fifteen years ago) link

mnemonic: fluorescent is the scent of ore with the flu?

hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Sunday, 22 November 2009 08:20 (fifteen years ago) link

Nice! I'll use that, thanks.

kenan, Sunday, 22 November 2009 08:30 (fifteen years ago) link

one year passes...

Maintenance. I can't spell it, and often I can't even get it close enough for it to come up in the suggested words in a spell check. I get around this by memorizing the misspelling that will get me close so it does come up in the suggested words. Why don't I just learn to spell it? No idea.

Jeff, Sunday, 21 August 2011 17:34 (thirteen years ago) link

i've finally managed to nail 'bureaucracy'. no more cycling through every combination of 'ureau' until i find the right one!

Merdeyeux, Sunday, 21 August 2011 17:41 (thirteen years ago) link

oh man, maintenance used to drive me crazy too

k3vin k., Sunday, 21 August 2011 17:42 (thirteen years ago) link

you know those words that you look at for too long and it just starts looking completely wrong? maintenance is one of those words

k3vin k., Sunday, 21 August 2011 17:44 (thirteen years ago) link

It took me about ten minutes to figure out how to spell 'anniversary' the other day, till finally I remembered the second e is actually an i.

Inevitable stupid samba mix (chap), Sunday, 21 August 2011 17:47 (thirteen years ago) link

eleven months pass...

to hell with spelling! we'll get drunk on cheap wines!

The Cheerfull Turtle (Latham Green), Thursday, 9 August 2012 19:01 (twelve years ago) link

I spell as I feel - there is no "correct spelling of anything!!"

The Cheerfull Turtle (Latham Green), Thursday, 9 August 2012 19:10 (twelve years ago) link

eleven months pass...

The compound "Showdog" was too boring. Misspelling it as "Shodog" was better, he says, but it looked too short on the page, and lacked personality.

So Mr. Mitschele added a second "g," which, he says, combined with the missing "w," conveys an attitude of not taking things so seriously that you have to spell everything right.”

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324263404578611772689785466-lMyQjAxMTAzMDEwODExNDgyWj.html

just sayin, Sunday, 21 July 2013 08:28 (eleven years ago) link


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