# People who cannot spell **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 24, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731 "2005-02-24T17:18:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/81 "2005-02-25T16:00:01Z")
I use a spell check extension for Internet Explorer called [ieSpell](http://www.iespell.com/). Just right click on the text box before you submit, select ‘Check Spelling’ and all the words are spell checked. Easy and free. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/82 "2005-02-25T16:12:12Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Dear, it’s _they’re_. You know, “they are” from England or Austria, or maybe Australia & Canada. Don’t go looking for those jets you just heard, dear! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/83 "2005-02-25T16:15:53Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Don’t go looking for those jets you just heard, dear! 😉 What does this mean? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![MissGypsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@MissGypsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissGypsy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/84 "2005-02-25T16:29:29Z")
I could of… I would of… I should of… This drives me batty, although I suppose it’s more of a grammar issue than a spelling problem. It’s rediculous. Damn, that was painful to even type that. I have about a hundred e-mails from my SO that start out, “Hi, sweatheart…” He’s an atrocious speller, but that one is just plain funny. ---
**Author:** ![thewombat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc8723/32.png) [@thewombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thewombat)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/85 "2005-02-25T16:39:11Z")
Anaamika, I think he was referring to those jets whooshing past you. Unless you’re whooshing me, and I just got double whooshed. ---
**Author:** ![Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoodoo_Ulove)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/86 "2005-02-25T17:21:58Z")
I saw “apocraphyl” on SDMB a few days ago. Another should-be word. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/87 "2005-02-25T17:29:32Z")
> [@thewombat](#): > > Anaamika, I think he was referring to those jets whooshing past you. > > Unless you’re whooshing me, and I just got double whooshed. No, **wombat** , I was whooshed. And I totally didn’t get Polycarp’s either, so I guess that makes two. _slinks away_ ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/88 "2005-02-25T18:04:49Z")
I hate it when people can’t spell. I hate big signs over Mom and Pop type stores, that they obviously paid big money for, that are misspelled! There is a sign down the street - HEDLINERS. I have to avert my eyes! The one word I _always_ have to look up is “misspelled.” I’m taking my pet peeve out into the world, though. I am becoming a language tutor for adults. Fighting Ignorance! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/89 "2005-02-25T18:23:59Z")
> [@Long Time First Time](#): > > \ ii) a person who finds it physically painful to read words like gaurd or genuine. Guess it’s true that opposites attract. Um, “genuine” appears to be spelled correctly. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/90 "2005-02-25T18:34:12Z")
Fishing tackle store in town : “Nod’s for Rod’s” It makes me cringe every time I look at that apostrophe in ‘rod’s’ My former boss adhered to the rule ‘if it ends with an ‘s’ then add an apostrophe’. Reading his e-mails was a painful experience. I know that’s technically not about spelling as such, but within the realms of an appropriate hijack. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/91 "2005-02-25T21:47:54Z")
I just saw another one that made me cringe, and it pops up more and more often in here. If people do something for one reason alone, they have done it **solely** for that reason. Not _soley_. Jeezus! ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/92 "2005-02-25T21:49:27Z")
Some words don’t look right when spelled correctly, and ‘soley’ is one of them IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/93 "2005-02-25T21:56:13Z")
Noone should spell ‘no one’ as one word. _Noone!_ ---
**Author:** ![davmilasav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@davmilasav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davmilasav)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/94 "2005-02-25T22:00:51Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > Noone should spell ‘no one’ as one word. _Noone!_ I loved his work with Herman’s Hermits! :::runs away::: ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/95 "2005-02-26T03:07:39Z")
OK, this is getting out of hand. Right now there is a thread titled not, “From which end do you peel a banana?”, but **Which end to you peel an bannana from?"** We’re here to fight ignorance. Can we use weapons? ---
**Author:** ![CalvinHobbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@CalvinHobbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalvinHobbes)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/96 "2005-02-26T03:30:27Z")
How about words that just never seem to look right? Label or lable? I know it’s label, but they both look wrong! And I always have to think twice about Cincinnati, guess it’s a good thing I don’t live there. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/97 "2005-02-26T16:12:34Z")
I used to be a good speller and I always used to check my spelling if I wasn’t sure about the word. I still do this if I am typing anything important, however, when posting online it’s just a bother. I try to preview but sometimes I just type and post too fast, or I preview and I still manage to miss my errors until after I post. I try to be forgiving and tolerant of others mistakes. Where they bug me the most is in thread titles. If a post has lots of spelling errors I can just ignore it but when it’s there in the title it’s just sitting there mocking you with its wrongness. I wish the mods would make it policy to fix those. (I am a mod on another board and I usually try not to get to anal about misspellings but I had recently had to correct the spelling on a thread about “superbowel commercials”). I have a tendency to get my homonyms mixed up (usually there/their/they’re) when I type too fast and I also seem to switch know/now a lot. I have no idea why, they don’t sound alike or mean the same thing. I also have problems with it’s/its. I know what the difference is, I just forget it when I’m typing. I am also a fan of numerous commas and run on sentences. I really hate the “i before e, e before i” words, they seem to be a popular misspell for others, too. Nobody’s perfect and anyone who thinks they are are just an example of Gaudere’s Law waiting to happen. Still that bowl/bowel thing is really annoying, definitely not interchangeable words. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/98 "2005-02-26T16:23:35Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > No, **wombat** , I was whooshed. And I totally didn’t get Polycarp’s either, so I guess that makes two. > > _slinks away_ Hey, you’re from Albany; you can claim too-extensive exposure to NYS bureaucracy in your defense! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![SusanStoHelit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@SusanStoHelit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SusanStoHelit)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/99 "2005-02-28T04:22:44Z")
> [@jabiru](#): > > Hypocracy. How can anyone even _think_ that’s correct? I’ve seen the ‘y’ in place of nearly every vowel in that word. Hipocrysy, hipocricy, hypycrysy (okay not that one. Yet). My other personal bugaboo on this board is “Here! Here!” It is used (I assume) to signify agreement with a previous poster, but it makes no sense unless you are playing hide-and-seek. IIRC, the correct phrase is “Hear, hear!” As in, “hear what this person is saying.” Then again, I use the shotgun method of punctuation, so I probably shouldn’t be casting stones. ---
**Author:** ![lunarnoodle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@lunarnoodle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lunarnoodle)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731/100 "2005-02-28T05:00:47Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > **Fire Engine**. you might want to read that link you posted on “alright” really carefully. “Non-standard” means that it is not widely accepted as an established spelling. The accepted spelling is _all right_. I see this misspelled more and more frequently in movie and television captions and predict that what is now considered a misspelling will become an established spelling by mid-Century. Widely accepted or not, I wouldn’t consider the casual “alright” a misspelling as it is in every dictionary that I bothered to look in after I read this thread. Merriam-Webster actually has a more [descriptive etymology for the word](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=alright&x=13&y=17). It may not win any points in a formal paper, but it certainly isn’t a misspelling. On that note, I can’t spell to save my life. I wouldn’t blame it on word processors though. Whenever I am writing whatever I am writing, I have the M-W dictionary page open in case I get stuck. If I don’t know it or can’t remember, I just look it up. I do spell phonetically though, and sometimes I just…miss. When I don’t, I can always rely on typos to fuck up the rest, which I usually never catch even on rereading. I rawk that way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-cannot-spell/291731.md?page=6)