‘Then’ and ‘Than’. Two different words. They can’t be used interchangeably.
I am amazed how many people confuse them.
There are threads that are much better then this one. I figured I’d pop in, make some smart remarks, than leave.
Sorry. I should have added “lame” to the thread title.
And BTW, I pit you for confusing then and than 
Your and You’re are the ones that make me nuts and Their and They’re. But since I make so many typos, I usually try to let things like that slide.
Don’t forget “no” and “know”. I saw some threads using “I no”. Geez, and all this from a stupid Dutchie.
The confusion between then and than is a pet peeve of mine as I’ve mentioned here before. Thank you Dog80, it’s good to see someone else is annoyed by this too.
ITS is not the same as IT’S.
The first one is the possessive of “it.” It means “belonging to it.”
The second one means “it is” or “it has”. A contraction of two words! Joined by an apostrophe! Whodathunk.
The one that gets me is “aren’t I?”. I usually respond, “Yes, and I are, too!”
how 'bout this one:
lose and loose
actually, no one ever types lose for loose, but the other way, well… let’s just say it’s gotten to the point where it almost looks normal to me.
My problem is that sometimes my fingers have a mind of their (:: checks :
own. I know the difference between ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ and ‘there’ and ‘their’, but my fingers will just type whatever they seem to want at the time, without any respect for what is supposed to be there (:: checks again ::). And even if I do preview, my mind will read what I meant, rather than what is there, at least it does until AFTER I submit. :rolleyes:
pizzabrat, consider yourself pitted for this phrase: “We all no that there’s nothing funny about drunkedness”
(from: boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=260211)
One thing that I do is type something like “I take your point” but it comes out “I take you point.” I touch type and am pretty darn sure that I hit the ‘r’, but I suspect that for some reason I hit it a little too lightly. Every time I see it I cringe…
Now I burning you dog!
At least they are spelt nearly the same. “ie” and “eg” mean opposite things, are spelt and pronounced with no overlap, and as far as I can see the only things they have in common are (1) having two letters and (2) ok, admittedly, linking two similar things. But this doesn’t mean they’re the same FUCKING word, people! You don’t need to know latin to work it out!
Spelt? I hope you are whooshing me here…
Anyway, I’m with the people who say that their fingers don’t do what they want all of the time. I actually understand all the examples given, but I know I make those mistakes in posts all the same. For all but the most stupid poster I will therefore consider those typos rather than ignorance.
Nah. Spelt = Spelled: ie the inflected form of Spell. More cromulent in the UK than the US apparently…
Spelt. Crops up regularly, this one, just because it is rare in the US. But we invented the language, guys! We can use our spellings as we see fit!
pan
My apologies. I had never come across it before. I stand corrected.
I’m not American, so I should have known better. :o
Spelt
Dealt
Dreamt
Smelt
Learnt
Leant
Burnt
Spilt
Spoilt
Knelt
Dwelt
Irregular verbs done properly. 
I no there is nothing more irritating then seeing a sine that says:
Resume’s Printed Here
I mean, hello!? Resume’s what? Who is Resume? Why was he printed there?
But than I just chalk it up to ignorance.
Seriously, it amazes me how many people/companies will not bother to have their ad copy checked by someone who actually knows something about grammar. I’ve caught grammatical mistakes on ads painted on the sides of cars, on billboards–heck, I even found a mistake on a flyer from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory! :smack: