# Why can't people spell? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 13, 2001, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327 "2001-05-13T17:27:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/1 "2001-05-13T17:27:41Z")
Like [this user](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php?action=getinfo&username=pheonix), for example? Is there any way that we can demand the admins change a board user’s screen name involuntarily? ---
**Author:** ![cheezit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@cheezit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheezit)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/2 "2001-05-13T17:53:56Z")
:rolleyes: Maybe, just maybe, he spelled it that way **on purpose**. Ya think? Spose that’s possible? ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/3 "2001-05-13T17:55:32Z")
You haven’t read any of his posts, have you, cheezit. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/4 "2001-05-13T18:08:21Z")
Hey, this is a free hemisphere, and as such, we are all free to make any kind of an ass of ourselves as we see fit. ---
**Author:** ![cheezit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@cheezit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheezit)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/5 "2001-05-13T18:13:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ruadh \* > \*\*You haven’t read any of his posts, have you, cheezit. \*\* Why, yes I have. I didn’t see too many mis-spelled words, other than his name. I did notice that it seems that he has it in for SPOOFE though. I wonder what that is all about. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/6 "2001-05-13T18:36:40Z")
I count three spelling errors in his sig alone. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/7 "2001-05-13T18:43:36Z")
Read the whole thread, cheezit, and interpret it in context. What do YOU see there? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/8 "2001-05-13T20:07:59Z")
I actually brought up the misspelling in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=70831). As for the more general problem of people not being able to spell, I don’t know. It’s always been easy for me. Those who have trouble spelling are as baffled by my ability to do so as I am by their inability. OTOH, I’m not very skilled at performing mathematical functions in my head, which some people can do with ease. So it all evens out. Most people are good at _something_ sort of specialized. Who knows? Maybe **pheonix** has some lesions on the Broca’s region of his brain or something. Or perhaps he’s just retarded. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/9 "2001-05-13T20:12:05Z")
> [@](#): > > I didn’t see too many mis-spelled words, other than his name. I did notice that it seems that he has it in for SPOOFE though. I wonder what that is all about. It’s 'cuz I’m a sexy, sexy man. And I think he’s envious of my webpage, too. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/10 "2001-05-13T20:18:19Z")
Well…the good thing about pheonix’s bad spelling - if Phoenix isn’t already in use (which would explain the misspelling, actually), it’s left open for a GOOD poster to use… ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/11 "2001-05-13T22:00:22Z")
Isn’t pheonix banned yet? He sounds distinctly sock puppetish to me. ---
**Author:** ![waxteeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@waxteeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waxteeth)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/12 "2001-05-13T22:01:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by woodstockbirdybird \* > \*\*Those who have trouble spelling are as baffled by my ability to do so as I am by their inability. \*\* Hi my name is waxteeth and I can’t spell. I’d like to thank woodstockbirdybid for having an open mind towards “us” the lousy spellers of the world. KellyM - I don’t know why I can’t spell. I can say that I never worry about it. In School I worried about it but now my computer has a spell checker, and I have a portable spell checker the size of a credit card. I haven’t had any problems communicating my thoughts in written form. I’ve always read a lot but something about retaining and spelling words never clicked for me. I see a few threads a week get started over spelling, punctuation, or grammar. For the most part they crack me up. As woodstockbirdybird eluded to I am baffled as to how someone can get worked up about there/their or how to make a contraction of will & not. I don’t think I’ll start an ask the non-speller/bad grammar guy thread, but I will say not everyone that can’t spell is as stupid as some of you grammar aficionados think we are. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/13 "2001-05-13T22:40:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by waxteeth \* > \*\*I don’t think I’ll start an ask the non-speller/bad grammar guy thread, but I will say not everyone that can’t spell is as stupid as some of you grammar aficionados think we are. > \*\* **waxteeth** , I think the problem is that bad spelling/bad grammar is the speech impediment of the Internet. You have a real problem which you’ve tried to fix and can’t. But the first impression that one gets of people who are capable of misspelling seven words in a six-word sentence is, to put it succintly, “stupid”. And even the knowledge that some small percentage of those bad spellers/writers (discounting posters for whom it’s known that English is a second language) has a legitimate problem (dyslexia, learning disorder, digital motor control problem, whatever) doesn’t keep a lot of us (me included) from having that first gut reaction of “who’s using their daddy’s AOL account?” Again, discounting the minority with legitimate problems, why is it that native English speakers so often **write** English worse than those who’ve learned it as a second or even third language? Americans especially use English like a blunt weapon. The soul of language is wordplay and variation, but if you misuse a language you don’t understand you’re not engaging in wordplay but in ignorance. jayjay ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/14 "2001-05-13T22:55:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SPOOFE \* > It’s 'cuz I’m a sexy, sexy man. And I think he’s envious of my webpage, too. 😃 He digs the Bill Sikes look:) I told you it could be sexy. ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2001, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/15 "2001-05-14T00:13:02Z")
I don’t have a problem with the occasional misspelled word or two in a post. I am disturbed by the person who misspells his or her own screen name. Somehow, that seems **wrong** to me… ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2001, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/16 "2001-05-14T00:26:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by waxteeth \* > **I’d like to thank woodstockbirdybid for having an open mind towards “us” the lousy spellers of the world.** Yeah, I’m pretty tolerant of you people. After all,some of my best friends are bad spellers. > [@](#): > > \*\*As woodstockbirdybird eluded to I am baffled as to how someone can get worked up about there/their or how to make a contraction of will & not. > \*\* I believe you meant “alluded to”. MWAHAHAHA! ---
**Author:** ![Lexicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ac8455/32.png) [@Lexicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lexicon)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2001, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/17 "2001-05-14T00:53:24Z")
I have no idea why people can’t spell, but, Mother of Shit does it ever make them look like idiots. For the love of creatures great and small, try some Hukt On Foniks or some shit because damn, when you can’t spell your speel correctly and you can’t form coherent sentences (let alone cogent paragraphs) your audience will typically react with “Oh, you’re a moron.” Ditto all that about grammar. Think of the scene in Fight Club where the narrator is talking to the guy in the dry-cleaners: “I’m not asposed to speak any such information to you nor would I even had I any such information at this juncture be able.” _nods_ “You’re a moron.” “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” The shitty thing is that English grammar is such a fickle dame, and a damn ugly one to boot. Sometimes you can type a sentence that is completely grammatically correct and in which every word is spelled correctly and it will look like hotdog in a tin-can that got run over by a road grader: Ugly. Not just ugly, but Ooogly. Do you remeber “Hey! There are the two kids off in which whose trailor they were whacking,”? Yeah, and you thought it was just on the board. In any case, I think that spelling and grammar are not all that important as long as the reader doesn’t have to strain their brain to translate your droolings into something understandable like some toothless gypsy reading a Port-O-San full of tea-leaves. So you misspelled a word or twelve. Did I know what you meant? Then let it slide. So your subjunctive clause was missing a main modifier. Did you get your point across? Cool, I say. Did your post look like you pissed into your surge-protector and banged your head on the keyboard in an involuntary spasm\*? Houston, we have a problem. \*props to whoever wrote that originally. It’s awesome, thank you for letting me borrow it. ---
**Author:** ![Protesilaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Protesilaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Protesilaus)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2001, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/18 "2001-05-14T04:49:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tengu \* > **Well…the good thing about pheonix’s bad spelling - if Phoenix isn’t already in use (which would explain the misspelling, actually), it’s left open for a GOOD poster to use…** Someone already has [Phoenix](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php?action=getinfo&username=Phoenix). > [@](#): > > Total Posts: 11 > Last Post: 04-14-2000 04:19 AM ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2001, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/19 "2001-05-14T06:55:15Z")
Some of us just cannot spell. It’s genetic or something… ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2001, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327/20 "2001-05-14T09:13:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jayjay \* > **waxteeth** , I think the problem is that [stupidity/incompentence] is the [curse] of [bums]. You have a real problem which you’ve tried to fix and can’t. But the first impression that one gets of people who are capable of [not working] seven [weeks] in a [two-month period] is, to put it succintly, “stupid”. And even the knowledge that some small percentage of those [idiots] has a legitimate problem (dyslexia, learning disorder, digital motor control problem, whatever) doesn’t keep a lot of us (me included) from having that first gut reaction of “[who’s on the G-Man’s welfare account]?” [sub][Clearly, I have taken a few liberties with this quote.][/sub] Consider, if you will, misspellings to be a testament to your clearly superior intellect. Or, if you will, look upon misspellings as a way for you to practice “figuring words out” from the “context” of a sentence, much like you would had the word not been misspelled but instead was a word whose meaning you did not know(and I’m sure it is acceptable for you to not know words). Or, perhaps, you should stop trying to categorize and classify people by whatever limited perspective you have of them and get back to some decent discussions on ideas instead of those who present the ideas, as difficult as that is (some say even harder than learning to spell, but I haven’t formed my opinion on that yet). > [@](#): > > …[W]hy is it that native English speakers so often **write** English worse than those who’ve learned it as a second or even third language? I know what you mean about the English language, and I would agree so long as you struck the word “Enlish” from that sentence. I received better grades in Spanish than someone from Puerto Rico. What does English have to do with spelling? Is there some subtle trap in it? Can Germans do it too? > [@](#): > > Americans especially use English like a blunt weapon. What are you, French? 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-people-spell/65327.md?page=2)