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[mousme]

Just because I can. ;)

This is a public service announcement:

There is NO "a" in "definitely." The adverb comes from the adjective "definite." Note the lack of "a" at the end of that word too?

Good.

Please, for the love of God, stop spelling it "definatly." That is not a word. It does not exist in the English language. Please stop using it before people come to view it as an acceptable term to use.

I honestly don't understand how native English speakers, who come into regular contact with this word, cannot spell it to save their lives. Exceptions can be made for non-native speakers, but after they've been told a few times how to spell it properly, there's no excuse there anymore either.

That is all. You may now continue with your day.

Comments

[whiskeygirl8.livejournal.com]

You have inspired me.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

If I were a woman I'd be asking you to marry me right now. Thank you. :)

[karine.livejournal.com]

Fuh?

I wrote a longish reply and it got eaten. >:P

I started by saying how some people spell definite as definate, blah blah blayh, and then I was adding words to the list of painfully misspelt things, like the their/there/they're, it's/its, the bad use of the 's everywhere, and words like prolly instead of probably, cloths instead of clothes, and my personal unfavourite right now, breath instead of breathe.

Post this, you computer you.

[ai731.livejournal.com]

It's fascinating how people who 'can spell' are amazed at those who can't, "You've seen these words thousands of times, how can you possibly not know hoe to spell them?" and conversely people who 'can't spell' are bewildrerd that those you can have somehow memorized the almost completely arbitrary spellings of thousands of words in the English language that are not not spelled phonetically. I remember my teachers shaking their heads in wonder at me "You're intelligent, you read voraciously, it's obviously not sheer lazyness - how can it be possible that you can't spell?" I dunno. I just can't.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

And yet, you spell better than most people.

Or, at least, you've learned to use your spell-check properly, which most people don't. :P

I have no issue with misspellings per se. They happen all the time, and I make them too. There are words I repeatedly have to look up, and when I don't I typically misspell them.

It's just specific words that occur all the time which eventually you'd think people would grok after being told repeatedly how to spell them properly.

[sorceror.livejournal.com]

My grade ten teacher had a list of "betes noires"; elementary spelling mistakes for which he would automatically deduct a full point (out of ten, mind you): to/two/too, its/it's, 'should of' instead of 'should have', etc.

Very few of us made those mistakes after the first few essays.

[ai731.livejournal.com]

See, now "to/two/too", "its/it's", and "their/there/they're" I have absolutely no trouble with. Never have had. Because they're not spelling. They're *grammer*. To me anyway. We had a discussion in class the other day - three bilingual anglophones, and 8 bilingual francophones. It took us 5 minutes to agree that it's "dance" in English and "danse" in French. That, in a nutshell, illustrates the bulk of my problem with spelling.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

That I can understand. 75% of the mistakes I make in English are gallicisms, and 75% of the mistakes I make in French are anglicisms. Then 20% are typos, and 5% are just plain ignorance. ;)