More Misspelled and Misused Words On The Internet

[lawman]

Walla instead of voila

[not2easy]

Does that go with "in tact" for intact? Or "intensive purposes"?

[buckworks]

Populous vs populace

[diddlydazz]

"its" and "it's" has to be up there with the most common

[not2easy]

There, they're, their all over the place :)
And if you were effected, what exactly was the affect?

[lucy24]

And if you were effected, what exactly was the affect?

Since "effect" and "affect" can each be either a noun or a verb (with different meanings all ways), this sentence is grammatically possible ... though admittedly not likely.

Personally I threw in the towel when I found Aelfric using "ax". Consistently. It's also ubiquitous in early middle english-- to the extent that EETS publications don't even bother to footnote it as a variant form-- but, I mean, really. Had to go consult the OED to assure myself that "ax" was not, in fact, the original form.

But be careful, not2easy. Sooner or later you too will find your fingers treacherously inserting apo'strophe's, or typing "their" for "there" even when you have never in your life known one nanosecond's doubt about which form to use.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I should of known that someone would post this. ;)

[not2easy]

Oh, I have done it myself, I are not a grammar police. These aren't in the same class as "walla" anyway...

[brotherhood of LAN]

Two many IMO.

[Old_Honky]

The one that I see most often is people using "your" instead of "You're" to mean "you are"

[Jonesy]

The comic at: [theoatmeal.com...]
covers most of the above ... and several more.

Jonesy

[lawman]

The comic; ha, what a looser.

[Samizdata]

what a looser

Are you inferring that he should tow the line?

...

[lucy24]

You mean the way teamboats used to?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Definately.

[incrediBILL]

All the people that call scrapers scrappers drives me wild.

Walla instead of voila

Even worse, people use VIOLA! which is a cello and is a valid word so they don't know they messed up as the spell checker is happier than hell with VIOLA!

Perhaps we could solve that problem by adding VIOLA! with the exclamation mark as an erroneous word as very few people, except maybe those in the symphony, could get that excited over a cello so it's safe to say that combo is incorrect.

A marketing guy for a company I used to work for printed 15K single page product sheets, expensive slick ones too, without asking anyone to proof read and there it was in REALLY BIG TYPE on the side of the page "VIOLA! THERE IT IS!"

I fell of my chair when I found out there was 15K of them.

The CEO mandated a proof reading team review all printed materials after that little debacle LOL


My problem is my fingers are on autopilot and words that end in "ing" are automatic. Funny thing there's a word that catches me all the time which is a real word, WITHING. I'm always messing up by having muscle memory add that G when to WITHIN as anything ending in IN must be ING by default. The really funny thing was I typed 'withing' about trying to type 'within' just to tell this little typo tail and did it yet again relating that I did it before. I am so broken.

[lucy24]

people use VIOLA! which is a cello

Violists and cellists the world over are now converging on your house to beat you about the head with their respective instruments. (The cello is the one that will knock you unconscious. The viola you may be able to avoid.)

words that end in "ing" are automatic

Music journalists probably find themselves typing "violing" several hundred times a day. (My fingers do this too. It is right and proper for them to do so, since that's the essence of touch typing.)

"walla" is funny. I'm told that in Louisiana you can say "buccos" (meaning "lots") because it has simply entered the English language.

[Samizdata]

Definately

Well, in principal at least.

...

[ken_b]

Maybe not a spelling error, but numbers stated like the example below make me wonder what's missing, a decimal point or a comma or both.

100000

Or do I just not understand numbers?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

No, you prolly understand numbers as well as most people but your right about this. It has the same affect on me.

(I hope no one happens on this - attributed to me out of context.) :)

[Kendo]

Ah, so you recommend one cologne for all?

For support to US based clients I use US spelling. But for the rest of the world I use proper spelling :-)

[lucy24]

a decimal point or a comma or both

... causing endless confusion to the non-English-speaking contingent, for whom the decimal separator is likely to be a comma, leaving the dot to act as a thousands separator.

Would you like it to be
100,000
or
1,00,000
?

[engine]

There's a big difference between a typo and a misunderstanding. I can accept typos easily as i'm an expert at it. When people misunderstand the spelling, no spell checker in the world will help.

[incrediBILL]

There's a big difference between a typo and a misunderstanding.

Absotively and posilutely!

Violists and cellists the world over are now converging on your house to beat you about the head with their respective instruments. (The cello is the one that will knock you unconscious. The viola you may be able to avoid.)

Having played in a symphony a few years I think I know the difference, esp. since I had to play sheet music written for a cello and transpose from F to B flat because they didn't have a lot of music written for a bass clarinet which surprised me in a symphony.

However, for the purpose of the point I was making, most people don't know what a viola is in the first place and using "CELLO! THERE IT IS!" to explain why "VIOLA! THERE IT IS!" was a typo made it clear with an instrument they most likely knew and was close enough for government work.

If that offends the violinists, they can take their stringed instruments and go pluck themselves :)


Going a little off topic but I was good enough I was offered a full music scholarship but temperamental nutjob maestros and musicians is one reason I dropped that career path and the poor pay for being a skilled professional was the other reason. The computer keyboard is where I decided to make the most profitable music ;)

My best bud in school took one of those scholarships and was still going to school at 40 to complete his doctorate and now has tenure teaching music at some university in Iowa making guaranteed low wages and pension for life.

Funny thing since this is a spelling thread, my best bud in school and myself tied as the 2 best spellers in school, all grades, and never lost to any challengers. :)

BOOYAH!

[lawman]

"and myself" - hmmmm.

[incrediBILL]

I said I could spell, didn't say anything about good grammar! ;)

[aakk9999]

"quite" and "quiet" is another favourite.

When I first came to UK, I spelled "below" with double l ("bellow"). I did not know that this means shouting until someone quietly pointed out that "If you are interested, put your name bellow" is probably not the best way to say it.

[lucy24]

How long did it take to be able to write "referer" without flinching? ;)

[tangor]

Not long. Computer nerds can't spell. As long as we know the porpoise it makes no difference.

[buckworks]

You'll be sent to the punitentiary for that, Tangor.