# When TV gets it very wrong: spelling **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 18, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675 "2013-12-18T20:47:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/21 "2013-12-20T16:20:24Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > The whole level of writing on TV just sucks nowadays. I hear things like “Many people have given up the hope to lose weight” all the time, and it just … grates … on … my … nerves.\* On a recent H2 documentary, there was one moment when it sounded like the Japanese pounded the crap of the Americans in WWII, instead of the other way around, because of the way the passage was worded. Et cetera, et cetera. People actually get paid for churning out this dreck? :mad: > > Anybody out there needs a good copy writer, I’m available whenever, wherever. > > \*It should be “The hope _of losing_ weight.” They’re on ‘television’. Their whole field is a barbarous non-word. > [@Baker](#): > > It’s not just spelling, it’s pronunciation too! > > I remember a promo for a PBS Masterpiece Theater show “I, Claudius” in which the announcer pronounced the name “Caligula” as Kal-i-GOO-la. And don’t get me started on SEE-zur. Who the fuck was SEE-zur? Nobody in Classical Rome went by that name, certainly not Gaius Julius Caesar. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/22 "2013-12-20T17:23:49Z")
And lets not forget about that day when [Zooey Deschanel bombed the Boston Marathon](http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news-700/Photo-of-the-Day-Major-Zooey-Deschanel-Caption-Fail-on-Boston-Bomber.jpg?1366609862). ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/23 "2013-12-20T17:46:20Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I grew up in Plattsburgh, NY. You’d be surprised how many locals spell it Plattsburg. In Pittsburgh it’s even more complicated. The [city has been spelled both ways.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_Pittsburgh) ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/24 "2013-12-20T18:20:58Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > And lets not forget about that day when [Zooey Deschanel bombed the Boston Marathon](http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news-700/Photo-of-the-Day-Major-Zooey-Deschanel-Caption-Fail-on-Boston-Bomber.jpg?1366609862). Why are the beautiful ones always crazy? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/25 "2013-12-21T17:28:25Z")
I will never forget a character on 21 Jump St saying 'I grew up in mun-ARCH-ee, New Jersey." If you grew up there, or even called the borough hall, you’d know it’s pronounced MOON-auk-ee. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/26 "2013-12-22T01:03:43Z")
Jeopardy! had a misspelled clue. _Jeopardy!_ [Check it out](http://www.flickr.com/photos/jillklausen/11487775006/). ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/27 "2013-12-22T01:18:36Z")
News articles on the Web are often riddled with spelling errors. Yes, I know, they are written fast and furious to be timely, but I fail to see why that precludes the use of an instant spell-checker like the one I am painlessly using now. At least half of the errors I see could have been avoided that way (the rest would take a more sophisticated checker, able to determine the difference between homophones, for example). ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/28 "2013-12-22T16:13:05Z")
Spelling doesn’t bother me nearly as much as factual errors. The Dec. issue of Scientific American included an essay by someone who wrote (a propos the biome) that some people carried E. coli without getting sick. This is so so wrong. Everyone carries E. coli (I read somewhere that 25% of your feces is made up of E. coli) and, aside from a rare urinary tract infection when it gets in the wrong place, it never causes illness. What does are the special virulent strains of E. coli we have bred by indiscriminately feeding antibiotics to cows and pigs. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/29 "2013-12-22T18:36:24Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > And don’t get me started on SEE-zur. Who the fuck was SEE-zur? Nobody in Classical Rome went by that name, certainly not Gaius Julius Caesar. It’s \*not \*pronounced SEE-zur? 😕 Wow, OK well that’s something new I just learned. How is it pronounced then? Kay-zur? I don’t think I have \*ever \*heard it pronounced differently. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/30 "2013-12-22T19:26:34Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > It’s \*not \*pronounced SEE-zur? 😕 Wow, OK well that’s something new I just learned. How is it pronounced then? Kay-zur? I don’t think I have \*ever \*heard it pronounced differently. I think he means you can’t just say Caesar and have it mean one person. There was more than one. ?? ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/31 "2013-12-22T19:53:59Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Spelling doesn’t bother me nearly as much as factual errors. The Dec. issue of Scientific American included an essay by someone who wrote (a propos the biome) that some people carried E. coli without getting sick. This is so so wrong. Everyone carries E. coli (I read somewhere that 25% of your feces is made up of E. coli) and, aside from a rare urinary tract infection when it gets in the wrong place, it never causes illness. What does are the special virulent strains of E. coli we have bred by indiscriminately feeding antibiotics to cows and pigs. To be picky, granting that everyone carries E. coli, isn’t it true that some don’t get sick? For that matter, doesn’t setting aside situations where this bacterium is “in the wrong place” make a trivial assertion? Don’t all bacterial diseases involve the bacteria being someplace we think they shouldn’t be? ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/32 "2013-12-22T21:47:51Z")
While having a typo go to air is pretty embarrassing, I think it pales in comparison to having your typo literally [etched into stone](http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2013/11/25/the-typos-of-the-streets-of-san-francisco/#18315101=0). ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/33 "2013-12-23T04:31:09Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > While having a typo go to air is pretty embarrassing, I think it pales in comparison to having your typo literally [etched into stone](http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2013/11/25/the-typos-of-the-streets-of-san-francisco/#18315101=0). Or [etched onto your body](http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/wrong-spelt-tattoos-when-you-dont-think-before-you-ink). ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/34 "2013-12-23T05:14:35Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > The whole level of writing on TV just sucks nowadays. I hear things like “Many people have given up the hope to lose weight” all the time, and it just … grates … on … my … nerves.\* On a recent H2 documentary, there was one moment when it sounded like the Japanese pounded the crap of the Americans in WWII, instead of the other way around, because of the way the passage was worded. Et cetera, et cetera. People actually get paid for churning out this dreck? :mad: > > Anybody out there needs a good copy writer, I’m available whenever, wherever. > > \*It should be “The hope _of losing_ weight.” . UMM, that’s a perfectly valid way to phrase it. :eyebrow: ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/35 "2013-12-23T13:49:05Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > Or [etched onto your body](http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/wrong-spelt-tattoos-when-you-dont-think-before-you-ink). Link requires registration. If we’re expanding this beyond spelling… I have found much amusement in the Military Channel and History Channel “program descriptions” on my Verizon cable. To be fair, I don’t think the creators of the shows are responsible for these descriptions; maybe it’s Verizon, maybe it’s a contract firm of some kind. But the summaries are often hilariously wrong. Some examples: “The Battle of the Bulge, the deadliest battle of World War II.” “Emperor Julius Caesar defeats Pompeii.” \<– a hilarious twofer! “In the Crusades, Islam collides with Christians living in America.” ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/36 "2013-12-23T16:39:03Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > It’s \*not \*pronounced SEE-zur? 😕 Wow, OK well that’s something new I just learned. How is it pronounced then? Kay-zur? Yes. > [@AuntiePam](#): > > I think he means you can’t just say Caesar and have it mean one person. No. The Germans actually preserved the pronunciation better than English-speakers did, with their Kaisers. To begin with, the Latin ‘C’ is always pronounced like a ‘K’, never like an ‘S’. ---
**Author:** ![Athabasca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Athabasca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athabasca)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/37 "2014-03-02T22:24:38Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > I think he means you can’t just say Caesar and have it mean one person. There was more than one. ?? Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code, doesn’t realize, apparently, that one refers to Leonardo da Vinci as Leonardo, not da Vinci. That never failed to irk me, how ignorant a ‘writer’ he is and so lazy not to verify the name of his subject. But then, the entire book was trash. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/38 "2014-03-04T09:09:08Z")
> [@Athabasca](#): > > Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code, doesn’t realize, apparently, that one refers to Leonardo da Vinci as Leonardo, not da Vinci. > > That never failed to irk me, how ignorant a ‘writer’ he is and so lazy not to verify the name of his subject. The town of Vinci , Tuscany, doesn’t have any other famous people. (except his family ? ) Meanwhile Brown may have had a problem with the name Leonardo because of a character in another book - Leonardo Vetra, is in Dan Brown’s novel Angels and Demons. There’s certainly more Leonardo’s… Fibonacci !.. and DiCaprio . ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/39 "2014-03-04T09:29:04Z")
Many years ago, there was a large amount of debris in the river, and some local politician was complaining about all the “derbies”. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675/40 "2014-03-04T10:47:37Z")
> [@Athabasca](#): > > Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code, doesn’t realize, apparently, that one refers to Leonardo da Vinci as Leonardo, not da Vinci. > > That never failed to irk me, how ignorant a ‘writer’ he is and so lazy not to verify the name of his subject. But then, the entire book was trash. The way I always understood it was that if you’re referring to him as an artist, you’d call him Leonardo, just like with other artists of the time, and referring to him in other contexts, it’s OK to use da Vinci. I could be wrong. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-tv-gets-it-very-wrong-spelling/676675.md?page=3)