# When your spelling lets you down. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 1, 2008, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835 "2008-02-01T08:27:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2008, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/1 "2008-02-01T08:27:12Z")
I have always considered myself (and indeed have a reputation amongst those who know me) as a bit of a wordsmith. My writing and spelling skills have been called upon on many occasions to (for example) help edit essays and to assist in crossword impasses. I’m _never_ wrong, of course, and those who I assist are suitably grateful for my input. Until yesterday. I was doing the crossword at work, and got to a hurdle _myself._ The clue was ‘HATRED’ and the answer was a six letter word…with the second letter ‘N’ and the last two ‘TY’. I asked some of my coworkers and they jumped in with ENMITY…but I corrected them gently, saying, “It’s not fucken ENmity, it’s EMnity you mouthbreathers. Try another word.” 😃 So I got home and googled [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) just to be absolutely certain I was correct in my put-down of them, and whaddya know!! I was dead wrong, and they were right. I have tendered my humblest apologies to my coworkers and have thanked them for alleviating my ignorance, but they just blew raspberries at me. 😃 Anyway, what I want to know is: how many of you have gone years and years making a spelling or grammatical mistake without realising it, or without someone else picking it up? ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2008, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/2 "2008-02-01T09:43:39Z")
I too try to spell correctly and use words as intended. As I’m a teacher, my implication is clear (and my pupils can infer what they like from that!) Why I even know that a contradictory oxymoron is a tautology. 🙂 Yet I too thought it was ‘emnity’… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2008, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/3 "2008-02-01T10:00:06Z")
[QUOTE=glee] Yet I too thought it was ‘emnity’… :eek: [/QUOTE] Thankyou **glee**. When one of _your_ Doper and academic status fucks up like me, I feel less embarrassed by the mistake. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2008, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/4 "2008-02-01T10:17:06Z")
[QUOTE=kambuckta] Thankyou **glee**. When one of _your_ Doper and academic status fucks up like me, I feel less embarrassed by the mistake. 😉 [/QUOTE] You’re most kind. :o However I should reveal that I checked your spelling of ‘embarrassed’ , unworthily hoping for a mistake ☹ , so I could make a further post pointing that out. I believe the word for this is schadnefreude (defined as malicious **glee** 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2008, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/5 "2008-02-01T12:17:56Z")
[QUOTE=glee] I believe the word for this is schadnefreude (defined as malicious **glee** 🙂 ) [/QUOTE] Was that a whoosh? (schad **en** freude) Either way, it’s a funny joke! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/6 "2008-02-02T00:11:47Z")
I used to think that “it’s” meant “it is” and that “its” was the possessive, but then I got on this forum and learned that I am apparently about the only one here that thinks so. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/7 "2008-02-02T00:19:12Z")
Apparently, when I’m typing I can’t conjugate verbs properly. For example, a couple weeks ago I posted this to another forum: > [@](#): > > Well, the parser generator is self-hosting, so I guess that’s a pretty good indication that **it’s work**. Cool. It’s not like I’m illiterate and don’t know that it’s supposed to be “it’s working”, but I just keep adding or removing random suffixes from verbs all the freaking time. ---
**Author:** ![Omegaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/8 "2008-02-02T00:24:37Z")
I’m glad you started this thread. I need to download a spellchecker. That will solve some of the problem. The dumbass sentance structure, it won’t help a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/9 "2008-02-02T00:39:34Z")
[QUOTE=Omegaman] I’m glad you started this thread. I need to download a spellchecker. That will solve some of the problem. The dumbass sentance structure, it won’t help a bit. [/QUOTE] Firefox has a spellchecker built in. It doesn’t recognize the word “spellchecker”, though. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/10 "2008-02-02T04:37:47Z")
[QUOTE=Bites When Provoked] Was that a whoosh? (schad **en** freude) Either way, it’s a funny joke! 😃 [/QUOTE] Typing error. :o (I was concentrating on making the pun on my username…) [QUOTE=Ignatz] I used to think that “it’s” meant “it is” and that “its” was the possessive, but then I got on this forum and learned that I am apparently about the only one here that thinks so. [/quote] What is your evidence for that? 😕 ‘It’s’ is an accepted shortening of ‘it is’. Because this abbreviation exists, people get confused with possessive. ‘His’, ‘hers’ and ‘its’ don’t have apostrophes. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/11 "2008-02-02T05:08:00Z")
For the first twenty years of my adult life, I thought that “hoi polloi” meant the elite. It sure sounds like it does. Good thing that I rarely had the opportunity to use it in conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/12 "2008-02-02T07:07:27Z")
How about when you start misspelling your name… on a form at work? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/13 "2008-02-02T07:25:41Z")
[QUOTE=Kythereia] How about when you start misspelling your name… on a form at work? :smack: [/QUOTE] For some reason I’ve been mis-writing stuff lately, stuff that I hand write. I just don’t write much anymore. And when I’m signing checks or signing a note I have been making a horrible mess out of my name lately. My name ends in a “dt” and the other day I wrote “tt” and crossed them both! ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/14 "2008-02-02T07:52:40Z")
[QUOTE=Lamar Mundane] For the first twenty years of my adult life, I thought that “hoi polloi” meant the elite. It sure sounds like it does. Good thing that I rarely had the opportunity to use it in conversation. [/QUOTE] (raises hand, timorously) Me too. Yes, it does. Ditto. I will refrain from jokes about it turning out to mean something more – mundane. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/15 "2008-02-02T15:04:45Z")
[QUOTE=glee] What is your evidence for that? 😕 ‘It’s’ is an accepted shortening of ‘it is’. Because this abbreviation exists, people get confused with possessive. ‘His’, ‘hers’ and ‘its’ don’t have apostrophes. [/QUOTE] ummm. . . whoooosh? ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/16 "2008-02-02T15:21:42Z")
Watch for misspellings of “weird” in any number of threads here by some of our smartest Dopers. Some of them do it regularly. It’s all very wierd. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/17 "2008-02-02T15:25:48Z")
Call me crazy, but I’ve noticed a distinct falling off of my spelling abilities ever since I hit 40. I find myself looking up the simplest of words, repeatedly. It’s most likely early senility. Gah. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/18 "2008-02-02T16:53:24Z")
The “enmity” example in the OP has never been a problem – considering the spelling of “enemy”. The two just get linked. I know enough never to state I’m 100% right about a spelling example, unless it’s a common monosyllablic word or I’m within inches of a dictionary. Typos, on the other hand, can be a right bother. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/19 "2008-02-02T17:12:48Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] Call me crazy, but I’ve noticed a distinct falling off of my spelling abilities ever since I hit 40. I find myself looking up the simplest of words, repeatedly. It’s most likely early senility. Gah. [/QUOTE] But all of your posts that I’ve read are crystal clear and well constructed. Stop with the worrying, already. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-spelling-lets-you-down/435835/20 "2008-02-02T17:17:25Z")
I’ve been an ace speller all my life. Never bee-level, because I never studied the kind of super-obscure curveball words that turn up on the bees. But I was good enough to talk my 6th grade teacher into trusting me that _imperfect_ wasn’t actually spelled _i **n** perfect_. Still, we’re all inperfect. 🙂 The one that gets me most often is _idiosyncrasy_, which I always thought should end in _-cracy_. All these -cracy words (demo, aristo, etc.) and only the one -crasy? -Crazy.