Lightening: The act of making something lighter
Lightning: That great electrical ZOT! that comes from the sky
They’re different words. Really, they are. I see many people who are otherwise decent spellers use lightening when they mean lightning. Why does this bug me so? I don’t know, but it does. Maybe it’s because I really like lightning storms.
Yes, I’m being a pedant.
Good rant.
But to be honest, it’s probably one of those cases where they’re just relying too heavily on spellcheckers.
Actually, the misspelling I see (and make) the most often is lightning/lighting. I once spent forty minutes stuck on a puzzle in one of the old Zork text-games because I kept leaving out that first “n” when trying to answer a riddle.
Is this really grammar and not just bad choice in words or spelling?
I like lightening storms too. I ususally do it with flood lights.
Heh. Tell me about it.
Signed,
lightingtool
Heck, I once wasted a bunch of time playing the old adventure game Crypt of Medea because although I knew how to assemble a bomb, light it and run away, I kept forgetting to put the bomb down first.
I think part of the problem may be that in certain dialects of English (like mine) these two words are pronounced identically, so if one is typing in a great hurry one may put down the wrong word.