Friday, February 11, 2011

Friday Funday!!!

Today's topic? Words and the spelling of them. There are certain words I avoid using when blogging, mostly because my spell checker is a fickle bitch and only works when it feels like it. And, as we all know, there are a few grammar/spelling police around the place, so..... My word that I avoid most is: definitely I can never ever spell it properly, and YES I did go to dictionary.com and look it up before writing it here. Today question - ok, well, two questions - What word(s) can you absolutely definitely not spell correctly every freaking time you use it? OR What word(s) are you convinced you've spelled incorrectly every time you use it, but it's actually correct and it just looks funny to you? Extra points for profanity - you know how I roll. Have at it, frenz.

22 comments:

Lauren said...

Lavender. I always, always spell it "lavendar" and up pop the squiggly red lines of doom.

Also, "sorcerer." I want it to be "sorceror."

Pretty sad, since I went to the National Spelling Bee when I was in eighth grade...

Jennifer said...

Japanese... and I did it yesterday, even though I know better. I know it's Japan-ese, but I usually say it phonetically which makes me type "Japenese" if I'm not thinking.

And, I always assume I've picked the wrong homophone when I type "through", even though I don't... I still have to sit for a bit and make sure. :)

Mendacious D said...

"Knowledge" always looks weird to me. It explains quite a lot, actually.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Accomodate.

And Componenet.

see?

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Oddly enough, I never seem to have any problems spelling profanity.

Vonnie said...

LOL, Z, Neither do I.

Vonnie said...

I can't stop thinking about a Lavender Sorcerer.....

Kathleen said...

BTW, WSJ reported that dictionary.com is the number one site that puts spyware on your computer. I recommend just looking at the site through google.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

My spelling is pretty damn solid, but my spellcheck yesterday indicated that predaceous and predacious (both correct) were misspelled.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Spellcheck got married to WordPress and spawned Autocorrect.

SILIX said...

Mine is definitely, too!!

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Mine is definitely, too!!

This sentence made the grammar pedant in me get twitchy.

which is kind of tickly.

Vonnie said...

I always want to throw an "a" in there. Definately.
Which would totally change the pronunciation.
It's a weird one!

Jennifer said...

I have trouble spelling one of my passwords... It's a word, broken up around a word, with a number thrown in. There is no spellcheck for passwords...

fish said...

spellcheck keeps changing my teh.

Mendacious D said...

There is no spellcheck for passwords...

Thank God for that, or the paperclip thingy in Microsoft Office would be even more irritating.

blue girl said...

I can't spell anything. I have to look almost everything up if I give myself one second to think about it before I type it. And of course, I constantly go to dictionary.com which means my laptop's probably loaded with spyware.

*Si*

blue girl said...

Also, too.

I will never know the right affect/effect to use. Ever. It just ain't gonna happen.

Brando said...

Occasional. I always want to add a second s.

The second category is "jizzrag." I always think it may be wrong, but then I look it up and that is indeed how you spell Republican.

mikey said...

Grey. Um, I mean gray. I don't actually know which one's correct. I have an emotional attachment to "Grey" but I don't have any idea what the secretive "Powers that be" think about that color, so beloved by me and Adam Duritz.

As to the other question, it's my proper name. Michael. See, that's just fucking wrong. I'm uncertain if it's the "A" or the "E", but one of those little bastards just doesn't belong in there. Probably the "A".

Actually, to be honest, I'm fearless about spelling and grammar. I come from a background of not just fiction, but rather experimental fiction, and frankly, it's not just experimenting with tense, person and point of view. Sometimes you do something egregious because that carries power, and communicating requires power, sometimes, to make its message heard.

Many, many years ago when we were first talking about writing on computers (hint - Jerry Pournelle was in the conversation) one of the exercises that we developed was to turn off the monitor and write for an hour - the idea being that spellchecker would take care of the typos and you wouldn't be distracted and held up by the urge to real-time editing. I still do that to this day - it's a powerful and effective way to get two thousand words down in sixty minutes...

Jennifer said...

I always thought both grey and gray were correct. Grey, however, always made me think of Eeyore. :)

Jennifer said...

Eeyore... that's also one I have to check. I usually type "Eyeore" and did above, but of course, forgot the topic of the post and neglected to comment on it.

Duh.