vkaryl - 12:56 am on Jan 26, 2005 (gmt 0)

I've come to believe it's more a problem of literally not understanding the complexities of English. I see this much less in non-native speakers than in people who should have had those 12 years of free schooling here in the States.

This sort of thing is also noticeable with various other homonyms: too, to (but not two - people seem to get number words just fine....); peace, piece; their, there, they're - and its corollary theirs and there's; as Macro pointed out, here, hear; and maybe the worst of a bad lot, its (POSSESSIVE, folks!), and it's (contraction of it is).

I really think that since people TALK so much, they simply don't learn the spelling/meaning differences, which don't seem to appear in conversation. So when they enter "speech" by keyboard they just don't realize it's wrong....

Nope - I don't teach English. I write. And I try VERY hard not to preach at people on most fora I visit. But this thread was just too good an opportunity to pass up....