Ever since I could write I’ve been a pretty good speller. Lately though, I’ve noticed that when I write, I’ve been skipping letters. Longhand, printing, typing, it doesn’t matter which. I always catch it and correct it, but it’s bothering me.
I’ve done it twice since starting to type this thread. Now I’ve just skipped the ‘r’ in the word thread!
Am I just getting old? I’m 46, and I think I’ve hit perimenopause, and that’s supposed to cause “fuzzy thinking” but no one seems to be very specific about just what is included in “fuzzy thinking”.
It doesn’t hurt or anything, and I hate to be a hypochondriac. But this is just weird. Do other people have their writing skills change because of age?
I do this all the time when writing, both print and longhand. I think it’s because I’m thinking more quickly than I can write and my hand goes “wait! Wait! I’m trying to catch up!” and winds up skipping an unimportant letter like A or E.
When the word you’re trying to spell is, say, “amoral,” this becomes more of an issue.
I do this when writing semicursive, but not printing. I seldom write fully cursive, because I’m left-handed, so it always looks like the phone cord after the cat gets through with it. But I’ve left letters out doing this, too.
I sometimes leave a letter out when typing. And I’m glad people do this, actually. It’s great fun stumbling upon passages like “he wore a gay suit” or “she was peeing through the window.”
I don’t skip letters, but I’ll sometimes (especially when typing) get a letter or two of the next word I want to type mixed in. Like, the word will get an extra T in the middle if the next word is going to be ‘the’. I usually catch it as it’s happening.
I do, when writing cursive. I blame it on a project I was on in the early 90s, where I was doing brief interviews with a bunch of different people, and trying to write down everything they said. My handwriting - never good, mind you - took a real nosedive from which it’s never recovered.
When typing, I’m likely to type a completely different word - e.g. ‘though’ instead of ‘their’. Usually I catch this, fortunately.
My signature has evolved from a relatively recognizable ‘Mama Zappa’ to ‘Mama Za~~~..’
All the fr aking time. But only when I print, and I almost always leave a space, catch it and go back and correct it. This means I might print out a long word like mendacity in the (temporal) order medanityc, even though the end product reads correctly.
If it helps any, I’m now 48 and I do it less often than while in grad school. That might be because I print less, or it might be because my thought processes have slowed down.
This has happened to me a lot lately–not just typos creeping in, but when I start to type or write something, I’ll do the second letter of the word, or the second word, first. I’m hoping it’s just peri-menopause, but I have an appointment with a neurologist next week (not just for this; there are other odd symptoms).
Good luck with your neurologist Miss Mapp. I think yours is the closest to my situation in that this is a rather recent development in my writing. I also considered a doctor, but since I had some neurologic tests about three years ago that came out fine, I’m hesitant to go through all that again. Last time it was tingling in the extremities and now this.
Or “public”. When typed, the one obvious dropped-letter version doesn’t trigger spellcheck. Which could be embarrassing when, say, writing a report to be delivered to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
I’ve been typing in completely different words than I meant to again. The last couple weeks have been a bitch, so I’ve cut way back on this place. I’m having trouble catching them too.
I’d love to go to the city park.
I’d leave to go to the shitty park
I will mix the letters of two words together and still have two words.
The friends of doom clubs are not for sissies.
Tef hriends of doom clubs aen rot for sissies.
I think my sentence structure is a bit weird anyway. but this is how my brain composes sentences now. I want to type sentences like this.
Soon must we go to the store for groceries. :smack:
HD, I’m sorry to hear that it’s not going well for you.
Two Many Cats, I noticed the very same thing this past winter. I turned 49 this February. I had no idea that perimenopause could be the culprit! Perhaps that’s what’s happening to me. It is kind of scary - I’ll be writing along, and it seems like my hand is not doing what my brain is telling it to do.
I skip letters at least 5 times in my cursive notes for a 50 minute long lecture class, but usually it’s because I’m already thinking of the next words. I’m not-quite 21, and I’ve been skipping letters since at least sophomore year of high school.
Just like you, Too Many Cats, I’ve always been a great speller and an eagle-eye for typos. I’m a designer and often write my own copy. When typing, it doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem, possibly because I can type more quickly than I can write by hand?
This issue has just been bothering me so much as of late because I’m only 26! I used to get compliments on my handwriting and now it’s a combination of print and cursive…and I CONSTANTLY skip letters in words, notice it and then go back and immediately correct myself. I’ll also forget how to spell words when I used to be a spelling ace; I’ll transpose letters as well. Slight dyslexia maybe? I became a bit hopeful when I Googled it and found your post and yet it just informed me that at least other people are experiencing the same thing. :smack:
I’m going to ask my doctor at some point but I hope someone else finds a logical explanation for this! I’m fearing he’ll say it’s a medication side-effect but why would it start showing up after two years of taking the same medication?!
I too find this annoying.
I will type “you” instead of “your” or “there” instead of “their” and often I look at what I have screwed up and am amazed at the stupidity and/or typos.
I know my brain is doing it correctly, but somehow my typing hands seem to have a mind of their own.
Cruelly, when I was pissed off at my boss and quit a job back in the 90’s, I rigged his computer to spell whole bunches of common words incorrectly. I am sure it drove him nuts, as he was quite anal about spelling and grammar. Wonder how long it took for him to figure it out.
