Wednesday 18 April 2012

Titter Ye Not!! Oh, Go On Then.....

I know not everyone is such a fiend for spelling and grammar as I am - Mr Charming, the English undergrad always tells me 'spelling doesn't matter Mum, people know what I mean' when I automatically edit anything from the most casual of notes to his coursework essays. I can't help myself - when I was at school in 70s and 80s Dublin, spelling really mattered. For me, kids nowadays rely on spellcheck too much which is not good, plus it can miss the context of things. I think if you read a lot, and I do, you automatically pick up good spelling and grammar. Having said that, Red never reads anything more taxing than 'LOOKS' magazine but is very literate whilst Mr Charming reads a lot yet isn't brilliant with his punctuation...he's more your 'stream of consciousness' kind of writer. Yeah, right. Big Man reads very rarely and correspondingly is not good at all at spelling - I've never let him live down the bluey he sent me from the Falklands that ended 'Sweat dreams, darling xxxx'. Oh dear. Still, he was in charge of a £300million nuclear submarine's reactor room so his inability to spell didn't do him too much harm.

Anyhow, the thing that I've seen a few times recently on other blogs, and it makes me titter each time I see it is bloggers spelling 'definitely' as 'defiantly'. Not gonna say who (and can't remember anyway!) but when it says something like...'we really enjoyed our kale last year and we'll defiantly plant it again this time' I imagine a blogger purposefully approaching her allotment, brandishing seeds in one hand, a trowel in the other and with a determined look on her face, telling the startled, codgery old bystanders 'I'm gonna plant this kale, so don't try to stop me!'

I'm easily amused.


PS. Just in case you're starting to hate me for being a total and utter spelling snob you'll be happy to know that I still cringe with mortification when I remember the time I was trying to impress a guy I fancied and was airily dismissing something or other as 'banal'. To rhyme with anal.........

8 comments:

  1. I'm not very hot on the finer points of spelling and grammar, but my dad is. Mum is dyslexic, and dad teases her something rotten. One shopping list read: Banas, Tomtos, Cartoon Milk, Donmatoes... Dad asked "what the hell is Donmatoes?"
    Mum replied - I was thinking about tomatoes, I remembered how to spell it, but at the same time, I was trying to copy the Domestos label without my glasses!

    I love the defiantly and kale image. The head of finance at Rob's work always asks him for the cereal numbers on the computers. That conjures up some funny thoughts about byte sized Weetabix.

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  2. That last bit made me laugh, as did the thought of a determined gardener. The one that gets me is when people are talking and they say 'pacific' instead of 'specific'!
    Lisa x

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  3. My spelling is pretty good and I think my grammar is alright but then I love English and I read a lot so it should be. No excuses for me. But my spoken pronounciation can be quite off and it has given my hubby many moments of howled laughter.

    I've also said banal to rhyme with anal (and to be honest, that is still how I say it in my head, and have to self-correct every time) and most recently, just a few days ago, I pronounced rampage as 'rampij', and rampaging as 'rampijing', instead of ram-page. I cannot tell you how funny the Man found this and how he still laughs and laughs and laughs when he thinks of it.

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  4. My dear mam - bless her! is dyslexic, but also has some blocks with the spoken word. Her more "popular" malapropisms are:
    park time = part time
    hambag = handbag
    gallontea = guarantee (My brother and I used to tease her terribly about this one always asking her if she had got her free gallon of tea whenever she bought something)

    Despite both my father and my brother being called Norman, it was a word she was never able to spell, always spelling it Nroman.

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  5. I'm a stickler for that kind of thing too, I won't go on about the mistakes I read on Facebook but it has a lot to answer for.

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  6. I am too. I recently offended staff a Waitrose by pointing out a note that "there is no notes in this till". Really I expected better.

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  7. Lol, I read extensively, but I'm more a stream of conciousness (I think I've spelt that wrong... Ironically) type of writer too. When I was doing my MA I drove hubby to distraction with my poor grammar, so as I improved I decided to start my blog to keep me in practice. I wasn't taught grammar at school and I really feel at a disadvantage because of that. X

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