1. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    Words that should be spelled differently

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by Tenderiser, Jul 12, 2017.

    ...to save us having to use spellcheck.

    Mine:

    Publicly should be publically.

    Fuchsia should be fuschia.

    Likable should be likeable.

    Bureau should just not exist because I have to type B and then a random order of vowels and hope I was close enough for spellcheck to have a go.

    And if the could be teh...
    ThatdBeGreat.jpg
     
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  2. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I'm okay with bureau, but in order to spell bureaucracy I have to tell myself, every single time, "just spell bureau and add the extra letters!"

    And I honestly didn't know fuchsia WAS spelled that way - I would have said your misspelling was right.

    Speaking of... I feel like misspelling has one s too many, but every other way looks insane.

    I know I have my own pet words that trip me up, but... I don't keep LISTS of these things like some people, so I'll have to come back in a bit...
     
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  3. Earp

    Earp Contributor Contributor

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    I didn't know until yesterday that 'cantaloupe' had a 'u' in it, so that should go.

    Wednesday should be Wensday and February should be Febyouary.

    We should probably just give up and make 'probably' 'prolly', and, for some reason I always pronounce 'apron' with an extra 'n', so let's make it 'anpron'.

    I've also fallen into the habit of pronouncing 'finally' the same as 'finely', so let's just make them the same word.
     
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  4. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    All the -ough and -augh words need a serious update.

    And eighth... come on, now. That's just taking the piss. :wtf:
     
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  5. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I can't think of an -augh word other than laugh. Are there others?
     
  6. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    Epitaugh and Daugh Vader, duh.

    Also baugh, as in soaking tub.
     
  7. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    Ooh, draught, instead of draft! (thanks for the help, even if it was accidental!) Yeah, "draught" is a bit odd...

    And Worchestershire - nothing wrong with the way it's spelled, I guess, maybe just a problem with the way it's pronounced. One or the other.

    Epitome. Trouble for generations of young readers.

    Pretty much anything that's pronounced way differently than it's spelled - time to go.
     
  8. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    There are a few. Most are obscure, but some are common: caught, fraught, distraught, naughty, haughty, daughter, slaughter.
     
  9. JLT

    JLT Contributor Contributor

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    For "fuchsia," blame Mr. Fuchs, the blighter who named the thing.

    And who can resist adding: "Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word?"
     
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  10. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I wasn't putting the augh in the middle, I was trying to use it at the end. I have seen the error of my ways.
     
  11. xanadu

    xanadu Contributor Contributor

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    Judgment.

    Seriously. There cannot possibly be a valid justification for the lack of an 'e' between the 'g' and the 'm'.
     
  12. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    Good one! This caught me out recently.
     
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  13. Dracon

    Dracon Contributor Contributor

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    Maneouvre? Manouevre? Manoeuvre. One I can never seem to remember. Or maybe I should go with the American maneuver to avoid being embarrassed by inevitably being auto-corrected.
     
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  14. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    Also can the UK and the rest of the world agree on the use of licence/license and defence/defense? I know the correct way to use them here but whenever I use them to an international audience I worry that I look illiterate.
     
  15. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Loch Mess messed me up for weeks when I kept seeing you spell "defence." I questioned everything I knew about spelling, which admittedly is not much.
     
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  16. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    We should start some sort of petition/peticion.
     
  17. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Why is your avatar all angry/sad face now @Tenderiser? Did the fish turn on him?
     
  18. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    He's deep and meaningful, like me.
     
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  19. GuardianWynn

    GuardianWynn Contributor Contributor

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    I'd vote for color to be spelled colour!

    Also donut for doughnut

    and airplane for aeroplane!
     
  20. morning_lightning

    morning_lightning Member

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    lethal - i don't know why, but i always try to put an extra a in there (leathal). also, and this isn't really a spelling, but it makes me crazy when people say fur instead of for
     
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  21. izzybot

    izzybot (unspecified) Contributor

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    Colonel ... camouflage ... rendezvous ... Actually, maybe I just have a problem with French?
     
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  22. newjerseyrunner

    newjerseyrunner Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    Either refrigerator or fridge should be fixed. I'm so irrationally angry that one has a d and the other doesn't.

    And forty should be fourty.

    If bologna was a face, it'd punch it.

    Honestly, I've gotten to the point where I just know that there are some words that's i know I'll usually spell wrong and I've just accepted it and let the spellchecker do its thing. I imagine that's a heretical thought for some people here, but since writing is only a hobby for me, I don't really care. Besides, I work with people all over the world. Comments in source code or internal API documentation is perfectly acceptable to have misspelling. I've gotten to the point where I can even usually tell where a coder is from by which words they misspell and how and I'm kind of fascinated by that.
     
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  23. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    I'm with you. I'm positively useless when it comes to spelling. I have zero visual acuity when it comes to words. Been that way since I was a kid. My dad too.
     
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  24. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Since you brought it up, I want to point out the white elephant in the room: Why do we only care about accent marks on French loan words? We don't bother with them for ANY OTHER LANGUAGE. It pisses me off. If you can't figure out how to properly say please resume writing your resume, your problem isn't spelling, it's syntax. I don't have any trouble distinguishing between I need to read this book and I already read it. I don't need any special little doodads to tell me how to pronounce the two occurrences of read. Syntax already tells me.

    French, you're on notice. Your little V.I.P. card that gets you special treatment is about to expire and is not renewable.
     
  25. Mumble Bee

    Mumble Bee Keep writing. Contributor

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    That was the bargain we made. The French showed up at the last minute to help us defeat the British so we could found America, and we kept the squiggles in their words.

    Honestly, I think they got the better end of that deal.
     

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