So if someone from a certain Washington town was an employment agent for people who provide specific goods and services, would he be a Walla Walla wallah wallah?
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen “definitely” spelled:
- definately
and (I am not making this up)
- defiantly
“Aargh”, sez I.
Major Major Major Major
I swear to Og if I ever meet someone who actually SAYS “For all intensive purposes”, I will slap them.
Ortopsy.
Around here I always spell it Viola! on purpose. Like the instrument. I don’t want to mess with accented characters that may or may not appear correctly on other people’s screens.
So by butchering it all the way to Viola, it’s pretty clear it’s a joke, not illiteracy. At least I *hope *that’s the impression it gives.
I don’t. This one bothers me more. “Lose” and “loose” are pretty basic words. How can you be older than 10 and not know how to spell them? It’s atrocious (looked up spelling to be sure).
Or maybe the person doesn’t realize that the word (which I have only ever heard as “walla”, no V) doesn’t realize that v-o-i-l-a is pronounced the same as the word they hear when a friend does magic tricks. I have that sort of problem all the time- I hear words, and I read words, and I have no idea that the spoken word is the same as the written word, because it’s spelled funny. Expecially if it’s French. I frigging HATE French.
And, yes, I used to think that the word that starts with V was said “vee oh la” (I’m slightly dyslexic as well), and that “wa-LAH” was something entirely different.
Guilty. That is one of the words that I can never get right without spell-check, along with sacrifice, and many others. But sacrafice and definately are the bane of my English skills. Though at least I’ve got experience down now.
“Newport News”
I’m pretty sure that’s the fault of spellcheckers. People spell it “definatly” and the spellchecker “corrects” it to the wrong word.
Weird how people want to insert an “a” in “definitely”, but not in “infinitely”. If you have trouble spelling “definite”, just think of infinity, perhaps?
‘Cemetary’ always irks me for some reason.
“OklahomaOklahomaOklahoma!!”
Hm. I hadn’t thought of that. Would a SP also correct “definately” to “defiantly”?
.
Don’t worry, Chefguy, we won’t go anywhere without you!
I have to admit that one of my pet peeves on message boards is when someone spells the word “voilà” in such a way that indicates he or she has no idea what the word is.
I think it’s a little different than misspelling “definitely”, etc., because at least you can see the writer knows what the word is.
I suppose the problem is that it’s one of those words you simply hear spoken far more often than you see it in print.
A few years ago our local police department did a public service announcement about broken taillight lenses. The officer doing the voiceover said, “Buy some red cellophane, tape it over the broken lens, and wahlah! You’re legal.”
Meh. The possibility exists that they do know how to spell the word but find it funny to spell it ‘wrong’. Frankly, as long as the spelling doesn’t show up in formal settings such as school papers or business reports I find it hard to care. And anyway, there are lots of words that english has borrowed from another language and then anglicized to fit traditional english spelling patterns. Big whoop.
I know just how to fix everything!
Walla peanut butter sandwiches!
Oh no…
I think that’s the reason.
Reminds me of one time I was talking with my son’s then-wife. We were talking about a friend of my son’s. I asked her what the guy’s name was. She said “Dotson. Like the dog”.
I thought "what dog?? " :dubious:
It took me a minute to realize she meant dachshund.
Do dotsons suffer from hip displeasure?
