Ability to Spell

[Boerseun]

My dog, never seen this threat!

 

The only way to improve your spelling is to read, and to read lots. And not sitting on your butt in front of the computer, but good ol' fashioned books.

[lemit]

My dog, never seen this threat!

 

The only way to improve your spelling is to read, and to read lots. And not sitting on your butt in front of the computer, but good ol' fashioned books.

 

Uh . . . sitting on your butt with a good ol' fashioned book, I suppose. Or are you an active reader?

 

If you prefer to sit on your butt in front of the computer, for God's sake, don't use sites like this one. Use professionally written and edited sites. Even they make enough mistakes.

 

Also, it seems that the people who worry about their spelling do all right. It's the ones who don't know and don't know they don't know--and don't care anyway--who are dangerous (in spelling as in all other aspects of life).

 

(p.s. "Ol'" is colloquial and is acceptable.)

[LaurieAG]

Hi Bluesman,

 

Speaking of Spellcheckers

 

In 1986 the son of one of the engineers I worked with (the son was about 5 years younger than me, about your age now) who was going to start uni asked for wordprocessing software. I gave him the freeware wordprocessor (pcwrite if anybody remembers) that we used then and he complained that it didn't have a spellchecker.

[paigetheoracle]

Thanks to spell check, I caught my phonetic spelling mistakes. I didn't think I had that much of a problem because I always checked what I had written and of course there is the difference between American and ENGLISH, English. Of course the message is more important than the spelling and grammar but if it gets too out of line, it can be difficult to make sense of anyway.

 

Another point is that it is all arbitrary (I always thought the word was arbitary before spell check!). You don't have to spell anything any particular way, as long as it is legible and makes sense to somebody else's feeble brain (and I don't care if spell check tells me it is 'elses' or doesn't have that word in its vocabulary at all because it is ENGLISH, English and not American English - come the intellectual* revolution, we'll take America back and teach you heathens to spell correctly!).

 

* Yes, I did spell it interlect, once upon a time!

[Michaelangelica]

Why to Yanks want to stick Zds in everything?

 

organization-- instead of--organisation

realize-- instead of--realise

recognize-- instead of--recognise)

surmize-- instead of--surmise

advertize-- instead of--advertise

enterprize-- instead of--enterprise

merchandize-- instead of--merchandise

criticize-- instead of--criticise

The -ise form is standard in leading publications such as The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Economist. The Oxford spelling (which can be indicated by the registered IANA language tag en-GB-oed), and thus -ize, is used in many British-based academic publications, such as Nature, the Biochemical Journal and The Times Literary Supplement. In Australia and New Zealand -ise spellings strongly prevail; the Australian Macquarie Dictionary, among other sources, gives the -ise spelling first.

The -ise form is preferred in Australian English at a ratio of about 3:1 according to the Macquarie Dictionary.

-wiki

Dosn't it put your teeth on edge with the voiced 'Z' rather that the unvoiced 'S'

If we overlook the various words that the Americans deliberately choose to misspell, the majority of words that take a ‘z’, or an ‘s’ that is pronounced like a ‘z’, seem to fall very clearly into those that must take an ‘s’ (like compromise, where the derivation is –misser), those that must take a ‘z’, (like prize), and the rest, about which controversy apparently rages.

advertise, advise, apprise, arise, chastise, circumcise, incise, excise, comprise, compromise, demise, despise, devise, disguise, exercise, franchise, improvise, merchandise, revise, supervise, surmise, surprise, and televise. Finally, the verb prise (meaning to force or lever) is spelled prize in the US[58] and prise everywhere else,[59] including Canada,[60] although in North American English it is commonly replaced by pry, a back-formation from or alteration of prise.[61]

 

Does it matter?

Well, yes!

1. 'Z' sounds hard and awful 'S' sounds softer and nicer!

2 If you force an Yank-made, computer program to spell properly it often crashes!

[modest]

Why to Yanks want to stick Zds in everything?

 

organization-- instead of--organisation

realize-- instead of--realise

recognize-- instead of--recognise)

surmize-- instead of--surmise

advertize-- instead of--advertise

enterprize-- instead of--enterprise

merchandize-- instead of--merchandise

criticize-- instead of--criticise

-wiki

Dosn't it put your teeth on edge with the voiced 'Z' rather that the unvoiced 'S'

 

 

 

Does it matter?

Well, yes!

1. 'Z' sounds hard and awful 'S' sounds softer and nicer!

2 If you force an Yank-made, computer program to spell properly it often crashes!

 

Uz Yankz muzt be such interezting people to inzpire such obsezzions ;)

 

The suffix -ize, although commonly misconstrued as an Americanism, has always been a part of the English language. It was formerly used by The Times and other publications and is and always has been used by both Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Oxford English Dictionary. The use of -ise in place of -ize in the United Kingdom, and later elsewhere, came about in the 19th century under French influence; at the same time, through the efforts of Noah Webster and others, the -ize became standard in American English for words where both endings were previously accepted. The steady shift in the opposite direction for Commonwealth countries even after the 19th century may have been to distinguish themselves from American English.

-ize - Wiktionary

 

YouTube- Eddie Izzard - Being Bilingual http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IzDbNFDdP4

 

~modest :D

[TheBigDog]

Why to Yanks want to stick Zds in everything?

 

organization-- instead of--organisation

realize-- instead of--realise

recognize-- instead of--recognise)

surmize-- instead of--surmise

advertize-- instead of--advertise

enterprize-- instead of--enterprise

merchandize-- instead of--merchandise

criticize-- instead of--criticise

-wiki

Dosn't it put your teeth on edge with the voiced 'Z' rather that the unvoiced 'S'

 

 

 

Does it matter?

Well, yes!

1. 'Z' sounds hard and awful 'S' sounds softer and nicer!

2 If you force an Yank-made, computer program to spell properly it often crashes!

I think it is because of how we pronounce the letter when reciting the alphabet. Who would want to spell anything with zed? Zed is dead, baby. Zed is dead.

 

Zee on the other hand is a cool letter to say, and makes you sound smart when you use it in a word. It is the most futuristic letter of the alphabet, and current trends will make it the most popular letter in all words by the year 2050.

 

Bill

[Turtle]

...

If you prefer to sit on your butt in front of the computer, for God's sake, don't use sites like this one. Use professionally written and edited sites. Even they make enough mistakes. ...

 

:D way to support & promote us, and per se yourself, leemy. :Guns:

 

speaking of zeds, today no one is exempt from my barbs. :eek:

 

My dog, never seen this threat!

 

The only way to improve your spelling is to read, and to read lots. And not sitting on your butt in front of the computer, but good ol' fashioned books.

 

reading is reading. moreover, one's spelling does not improve simply by reading as misspellings one doesn't know will go by un-treated. no; one ought to read always with a dictionary, electronic, print, braille, clay tablet or what-have-you, within easy & immediate grasp. when one then encounters an unfamiliar word or uncertain spelling, one stops & looks it up. then one returns to the reading, backs up a bit, & re-reads the passage with the new definition/spelling fresh in mind. one then finds over time that ever fewer stops & hops for checkage present themselves for more common words, and the stops & hops instead serve to build vocabulary. one may also find the eyes drifting in the dictionary while there to words not in the text & so find themselves in the happy position of just reading a dictionary. ;) well, it works well for this one at any rate. here's the online dictionary i habituate, but chose choose your own poison. :read >> Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary

[Boerseun]

reading is reading. moreover, one's spelling does not improve simply by reading as misspellings one doesn't know will go by un-treated.

That is why I recommend reading books rather than crap on the interwebs. Books go through rigorous editing and very rarely do errors slip through. Websites, on the other hand, process content way too fast to give a rip about proper spelling. Read books! Many books!

...the online dictionary i habituate, but chose your own poison.

That'll be "choose", not?

[paigetheoracle]

That is why I recommend reading books rather than crap on the interwebs. Books go through rigorous editing and very rarely do errors slip through. Websites, on the other hand, process content way too fast to give a rip about proper spelling. Read books! Many books!

 

That'll be "choose", not?

 

British newspapers cannot be relied on - I've seen some that don't make sense in their headlines, let alone the columns underneath (I think sense not make they)

 

Spelling isn't that important, compared with understanding - for instance, if you correct someone's spelling it shows you know what they meant. If you're confused, then you can't even do that.

[paigetheoracle]

Mike,

 

I agree with your point but you must remember spelling is arbitrary as the letters represent the sounds of spoken language (visual symbols). It is only memory that connects them, through mental association, not reality. Phonetically 'Z' is closest to the sound of 'ise' endings, not 'S'.

[Donk]

The BBC was once the arbiter of the English language, but these days even they get it wrong. I was watching the news last week. They were using slides of calendar pages to illustrate a news item. I winced at "Novemember", and moaned aloud at "Febuary". Aaargh!

[paigetheoracle]

In the words of Paul Simon 'Everything put together, falls apart' and that is what we are witnessing happening in society. Do not be alarmed because as I've discovered this is a natural aging process that we all go through, be it as individuals, societies or worlds and besides there is nothing you can really do about it - I've tried: King Canute's law at work here (Could say more but the individual aging process applies to me too and this is not just physical faculties but mental ones as well: Feeling that you are having no effect upon the world is depressing and leads to the latter in my experience).

[Turtle]

That is why I recommend reading books rather than crap on the interwebs. Books go through rigorous editing and very rarely do errors slip through. Websites, on the other hand, process content way too fast to give a rip about proper spelling. Read books! Many books!

 

That'll be "choose", not?

 

i chose to misspell sometheing to see if anyone called me on it? :) i have maid the appropriate annotation to the original. :D

 

but, but...there are books on the web, oui/no‽ journal articles, oui/no‽ newspapers‽ just 'cause it's paper, it's qualified? just 'cause spelling is good & reviewed, content is quality? (mad magazine: what, me worry?)

 

here at hypog i usually only point out misspellings if it's part of a pattern or if the difference is important to meaning. for instance, using elicit - to draw out, when illicit - unlawful is meant perhaps. i've given up trying to correct whether & weather however. :) if i can elcit an illicit laugh out of speeling air corecktion, or an intensional missplelling, i go for that two a bit. :)

 

that novemeber donk mentions may be a common keying error? i'm constantly catching myself typeing "rememeber" rather than "remember". :doh: might even be a few of thoose still out there in my posts that slipped through. oh the shame of it all!!! :cry:

 

without procrastination, get a dictionary & use it, or in the vulgar vernacular, stop whining, suck it up, and just do it.

 

Urban Dictionary, February 1: Street Creep

[lemit]

Why do Yanks want to stick Z's in everything?

 

Uh, Scrabble?

[Turtle]

now to when zed was not last in the alphabet & other posing (pozing? ) alphabeticalesque-ish inquiry. :) :phones:

 

...Traditionally, in English-speaking schools when reciting the alphabet, any letter that could also be used as a word in itself ("A," "I," and, at one point, "O") was preceded by the Latin expression "per se" (Latin for "by itself"). Also, it was common practice to add at the end of the alphabet the "&" sign, pronounced "and". Thus, the recitation of the alphabet would end in: "X, Y, Z and per se and." This last phrase was routinely slurred to "ampersand" and the term crept into common English usage by around 1837. ...[2]

Ampersand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia