Spelling, Grammar and Usage

[Alex Linder]

correct: judgment
incorrect: judgement

do you see the difference? (side note: the latter is correct in Britain)

[Alex Linder]

definitely

any other spelling...WRONG

get the FINITE part? ya see how it all hangs together?

words? letters? sentences? paragarphs?

GET IT RIGHT

[Alex Linder]

separate yourself from the masses by spelling

separately

correctly

[ohgolly]

Have you considered implementing your new policy without going on about it? That in itself can make it look a little tard-corralish, like seeing a kindergarten teacher talking to her pupils - w/o being able to see the children.

[cillian]

http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/misspelled.html

[Alex Linder]

Originally Posted by ohgolly

Have you considered implementing your new policy without going on about it? That in itself can make it look a little tard-corralish, like seeing a kindergarten teacher talking to her pupils - w/o being able to see the children.

how does one induce what the germans calling spelling-shame in the froward? i know of no other way than steady application of verbal rolling pin.

[Alex Linder]

meretricious

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/meretricious

this is one of those vocabulary words worth learning because there are certain instances in which it is perfect and no other word will do.

[ohgolly]

Why not just enforce it by tossing those you consider an embarrassment? Cleaner all the way around.

[MikeTodd]

Originally Posted by Alex Linder

meretricious

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/meretricious

this is one of those vocabulary words worth learning because there are certain instances in which it is perfect and no other word will do.

Oooh, "meretricious mockies"!
I can hardly wait to use that in a sentence!
That's a good one!
Thanks, Alex!

[Alex Linder]

Originally Posted by ohgolly

Why not just enforce it by tossing those you consider an embarrassment? Cleaner all the way around.

i already have done that with the worst; now we're to the ones who are so-so

[Alex Linder]

Originally Posted by MikeTodd

Oooh, "meretricious mockies"!
I can hardly wait to use that in a sentence!
That's a good one!
Thanks, Alex!

vocabulary falls into classes: unusual or uncommon words that can actually be used if you know them; and obscure words that really can't be used, for one of a number of reasons. i see no reason to resuscitate obsolete words, or words for which there is a better modern synonym; or to use words of multiple syllables rather than shorter words that mean the same thing; or foreign words when there's an english expression for the same thing.

my main interest in words is for their analytical or comical value. hence my attraction to amplexus: a scientific word unusable except that it means frogfuck, and so, in the right connection, is priceless. you dont use obscure words to be showy, that's cheap; you use them to be funny, because they fit the rythm, or because there's no short, common equivalent

i follow mencken's approach - one should always be intelligible and clear. that way anything the reader doesn't understand is on him to look up - and when he does, he is rewarded. he learns something. expands his circle. every word used for a reason, that was how mencken did it. not the same as forcing every word to be a weightlifter, the hemingway approach. writing is partly about producing effects, and that may necessitate set-up, which involves fat, lax, layabout words, the weeds from the humor croc springs irwinward to deliver the bite that delights.

[Metal Warrior]

Two common word misuses floating around:

"Loose": the opposite of "tight"; substituted for "lose", the opposite of "win". Maybe some people think "lose" rhymes with "rose".

"Quite": "very" or "completely", often used in place of "quiet", the opposite of "loud". Only in the South could they stretch this into two syllables (and I say that having a soft spot for Southern accents).

[Alex Linder]

Richard's statement below expresses a guilty conscious.

No. One is conscious until knocked unconscious.

One has a guilty conscience.

The medical examiner performed his work conscientiously.

GET THEM RIGHT. DEMORONICIZE YOURSELF STAT, TARDNIK.

[Marse Supial]

Originally Posted by Metal Warrior

Only in the South could they stretch this into two syllables (and I say that having a soft spot for Southern accents).

Hell, that was quite easy to make two syllables out of. Down here, the word "yes" has two syllables too.

Pron. Yay-yes

GREL

[ced smythe]

Originally Posted by Alex Linder

definitely

any other spelling...WRONG

get the FINITE part? ya see how it all hangs together?

words? letters? sentences? paragarphs?

GET IT RIGHT

I only point it out 'cause it's so damn ironic.

[TwistedCross]

Originally Posted by ced smythe

I only point it out 'cause it's so damn ironic.

Watch your step son, before you end up in Tardville for fuckin' with da boss

[The Bobster]

Originally Posted by Alex Linder

separate yourself from the masses by spelling

separately

correctly

And it's "reparations" not "reperations".

[Fred Streed]

I kind of feel sorry for those who only know one way to spell a word.

I stole that from someone, I can't remember whom, perhaps Mark Twain.

Edit: Is that "who" or "whom"? Never could get that one straight.

[ced smythe]

Originally Posted by Fred Streed

I kind of feel sorry for those whom only know one way to spell a word.

I stole that from someone, I can't remember who, perhaps Mark Twain.

Edit: Is that "who" or "whom"? Never could get that one straight.

Whom is the objective form.

A good rule in this case is if in doubt leave it out, that is, the "m".

A decent bookmark for the interested:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/

[Amy]

Spelling "truely atrosious," says academic

Embaressed by yor spelling? Never you mind.

Fed up with his students' complete inability to spell common English correctly, a British academic has suggested it may be time to accept "variant spellings" as legitimate.

Rather than grammarians getting in a huff about "argument" being spelled "arguement" or "opportunity" as "opertunity," why not accept anything that's phonetically (fonetickly anyone?) correct as long as it can be understood?

"Instead of complaining about the state of the education system as we correct the same mistakes year after year, I've got a better idea," Ken Smith, a criminology lecturer at Bucks New University, wrote in the Times Higher Education Supplement.

"University teachers should simply accept as variant spelling those words our students most commonly misspell."

To kickstart his proposal, Smith suggested 10 common misspellings that should immediately be accepted into the pantheon of variants, including "ignor," "occured," "thier," "truely," "speach" and "twelth" (it should be "twelfth").

Then of course there are words like "misspelt" (often spelled "mispelt"), not to mention "varient," a commonly used variant of "variant."

And that doesn't even begin to delve into all the problems English people have with words that use the letters "i" and "e" together, like weird, seize, leisure, foreign and neighbor.

The rhyme "i before e except after c" may be on the lips of every schoolchild in Britain, but that doesn't mean they remember the rule by the time they get to university.

Of course, such proposals have been made in the past. The advent of text messaging turned many students into spelling neanderthals as phrases such as "wot r u doin 2nite?" became socially, if not academically, acceptable.

Despite Smith's suggestion, language mavens are unconvinced. John Simpson, the chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, says rules are rules and they are there for good reason.

"There are enormous advantages in having a coherent system of spelling," he told the Times newspaper.

"It makes it easier to communicate. Maybe during a learning phase there is some scope for error, but I would hope that by the time people get to university they have learnt to spell."

Yet even some of Britain's greatest wordsmiths have acknowledged it's a language with irritating quirkiness.

Playwright George Bernard Shaw was fond of pointing out that the word "ghoti" could just as well be pronounced "fish" if you followed common pronunciation: 'gh' as in "tough," 'o' as in "women" and 'ti' as in "nation."

And he was a playright.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddly...BrandChannel=0