1. Lewdog

    Lewdog Come ova here and give me kisses! Supporter Contributor

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    Spelling Have Certain Words Disappeared?

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by Lewdog, Apr 25, 2014.

    I've noticed lately that spell check has been telling me certain words are spelled wrong. Just today spell check told me 'everytime' isn't a word. So what's the deal? There are other words as well but I can't think of them right now.
     
  2. Smoke Z

    Smoke Z Active Member

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    Hmm, I was trying to find another word for "sofar" but I think that is mash-slang and never was a real word.

    There are words that have pretty much disappeared, like "balded." We get new words as well. I think "selfie" was just nominated as word of the year or something.
     
  3. GingerCoffee

    GingerCoffee Web Surfer Girl Contributor

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    Every time is two words not one. So far is two words.
     
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  4. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Yup, two words. The one I always want to glue together is each other. It just seams natural to me that it should be eachother, though clearly my opinion is well in the minority. :p
     
  5. Lewdog

    Lewdog Come ova here and give me kisses! Supporter Contributor

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    I was taught in school that 'everytime' was one word. Now after doing some searches people say that in a place that 'everytime' would be used as an adverb I should use whenever, BUT that so many people do use 'everytime' that it will soon be listed as a word.

    Another word I was taught that was correct was 'noone.' Now it isn't one. :(
     
  6. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    The disappearance of terms like balded is actually part of a much larger shift away from using past participles in English as noun stand-ins. It was once a much more common syntactic tool and now is relegated to a much narrower use and certain pat phrases like the accused my now sit.
     
  7. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Nope. Neither. And even if every time is hedging out whenever as regards commonality of usage, it would still be two words.
     
  8. Lewdog

    Lewdog Come ova here and give me kisses! Supporter Contributor

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    Shouldn't it be, "the accused may sit now?"
     
  9. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I think either is fine. Your syntax sounds a little less formal, a little more homey.
     
  10. Lewdog

    Lewdog Come ova here and give me kisses! Supporter Contributor

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  11. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    where did you go to school?... neither of those are correct, never have been, as far as i know... and was in school from the early '40s to the mid-'50s, had kids in CA/AZ/NV/CT/NY schools, from '64 to '94...
     
    Last edited: Apr 25, 2014
  12. Lewdog

    Lewdog Come ova here and give me kisses! Supporter Contributor

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    The U.S. :)
     
  13. GingerCoffee

    GingerCoffee Web Surfer Girl Contributor

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    I think what she's trying to say is you may be mis-remembering. ;)
     
  14. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Or perhaps you had a teacher who didn't stay a teacher much longer after you passed on to the next grade. ;)
     
  15. Lewdog

    Lewdog Come ova here and give me kisses! Supporter Contributor

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    Or I could take it as a jab that I got a poor education and I'm not very intelligent. I guess it can go either way.
     
  16. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I had a rather lackluster and disjointed education as a child due to an itinerant life as a GI brat. It has no bearing on the intelligence I bring to bear. ;)
     
  17. Lewdog

    Lewdog Come ova here and give me kisses! Supporter Contributor

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  18. GingerCoffee

    GingerCoffee Web Surfer Girl Contributor

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    False memories are very common and not a sign at all of lack of intelligence or senility. And, like @Wreybies said, the education system is full of not so great teachers.
     
  19. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    I'm wondering if the correct word your teacher meant was everyday which is spelled as a single word when it's used as an adjective, meaning something common. On the other hand, if you went to school every day, you wouldn't say, "I went to school everyday."
    Everytime ...pretty sure that's wrong. Not sure how that would be used. It would never be an adjective, would it? I can only think of it being used to mean every time, meaning something that always happens. Can't see how that could be truncated. Would you also truncate each time? Eachtime?

    Noone? No, that's just wrong, I'm sure of it. It's awkward-looking, for a start. Looks like somebody's misspelled lunchtime! (Was she a fan of Herman's Hermits' lead singer?) Nobody, yes. Noone? Erm.... It's certainly not in the Webster's dictionary.

    Strange that you were taught these things. I believe you. Some teachers are just wrong.

    I had a teacher a few years back, teaching me a refresher course in how to write business letters. She insisted that all nouns had to be capitalised! I mean, you take a Pen and sign the Letter to Mr Squiggles and Co... She insisted this was because a noun was the 'name' of something, and that meant it had to be capitalised. She refused to accept the existence of proper nouns (saying all nouns were proper to use!) and refused to give me credit on the letter modules because I refused to bow to that nonsense. She said, very kindly, that it was probably because I'd been educated in American schools, and that 'we do things differently over here.' I said, well you would do it this way if you were German, but NOT in the UK. We agreed to disagree, but she wouldn't budge. Neither would I, I'm happy to report.

    Hey, I got a job anyway!
     
    Last edited: Apr 26, 2014
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  20. MLM

    MLM Banned for trolling

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    There is a lot of confusion about compound words. Back in the dark days before spell checks, the English language was fast and loose with what was a compound word and what isn't. Since there's no supreme arbiter on these matters, we were all taught random combinations of "compound words" and "not compound words" and the people who set up the spell checks were taught their own random combinations.
     
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  21. Lewdog

    Lewdog Come ova here and give me kisses! Supporter Contributor

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    Nevermind is another one that spell check says isn't a word.
     
  22. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    This also answers to yet another linguistic shift in English. As a Germanic language, English has/had an affinity for the creation of compound words, just as her sister, German, does today with insouciance and gusto. But English took a intramuscular injection of latinization on more than one occasion and from more than one front that watered this tendency down to a great extent. The latinate languages look askance at compound word formations since they answer to the same paradigm that creates stacked noun phrases, which the latinate languages also eschew.
     
  23. GingerCoffee

    GingerCoffee Web Surfer Girl Contributor

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    If spell check says it's incorrect, chances are it's two words. Never mind is another one that is two words. Thank you is one of the most frequently made compound when it is two words. But like @jannert noted, sometimes it refers to a specific adjective, like sending out thankyou notes. Then spell check is wrong.
     
  24. Lewdog

    Lewdog Come ova here and give me kisses! Supporter Contributor

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    I've never thought of thank you as two words, but I have always thought of 'nevermind' as one word.
     
  25. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Yeah, that's two words. I could see it being made into a single word if you were creating colloquial vernacular dialogue and having someone say, "He's always like that. Don't pay him no nevermind."

    In that sense the command form verb clause is being transformed into a noun. But other than that, two words.
     

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