CongraTulations/ CongraDulations

[Karen]

It's the laziness, not honest mistakes, to which we object!

[Cataholic]

There are many spelling errors that seem more common than the correct spelling! I will use conGRADulations for someone's GRADuation, but congratulations for all else.

While I am not entirely positive, I **think** this is the wrong usage. I don't think there is a word- congraDulations, even if you are using it to congraTulate someone graDuating from school. Just my .02.

[Karen]

While I am not entirely positive, I **think** this is the wrong usage. I don't think there is a word- congraDulations, even if you are using it to congraTulate someone graDuating from school. Just my .02.

It is not correct, I spell it with a D for graDuation just for fun and the emphasis. Never said it was correct, just what I do for fun.

[Blue_Frog]

I'm a technical writer, and part of my job is to take hardware manuals originally written in Korean or Chinese (which have been converted into English, likely through the Japanese first), and do rewrites for the North American audience - i'm very familiar with bad grammar, spelling and just overall strange uses of words (such as "Alien Substances" instead of "Foreign Materials" as in "Don't put foreign materials into the device"). A lot of the time my job does make me smile though


One of my pet-peeves has always been:
It's vs. Its'
Two vs Too vs To
Then vs Than
(etc.)
*shrug* ... just one of those things I guess



But, for anyone who hasn't seen this around in email before, the human mind is pretty strange. Read the following - it looks like gibberish at first - but all of a sudden you can read it.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Cheers!
_A_

[MajesticCollies]

lol I just saw that email the other day about how the human brain only needs to recognize a few letters in a word to actually recognize it. Sooo.....Just to let you all know, I misspell words all the time in typos and hardly ever go back to correct them. Hope all of you can be lienient on me.

[catnapper]

I freely admit I'm an awful typer. I try to catch my mistakes (not always very good at doing so though )

Anyway, my biggest pet peeve that I've seen many people - both young and old do - is using "of" instead of "have"

For instance: I should have gone to the park

Someone would say: I should of gone to the park.

I know they are thinking what they hear. We constantly murder english in our speach. What we are saying is "should've" which is a contraction of "should have".

"Of" is a preposition. "Have" is a verb. Don't mix them up!

Tomorrow is a big one I see. Someone wrote "tomarra" the other day about a dozen times in a handful of posts and I wants to scream. One mispelling is understandable (and if I'm typing even expected ) but spelling the same word wrong the same way time after time?

[mrspunkysmom]

As an educator, I have a plethora of comments and opinions that would most likely start a war about the state of the educational system in the USA.

I will say this: Most people don't understand why it's important to be that particular about spelling and grammar. (These same people also are dependent upon the calculator.) I have argued this until I'm cyanotic, and I have wasted my breath. It is a losing battle.

People can learn the rules regardless of their opinion, but we have set our standards too low. It is embarrassing to me to know that non-native English speakers have a better command of the English language than our high school graduates.

America suffers from a huge independent and individualist streak that appears fabulous and enviable from a distance, but proves problematic for certain areas of concern, such as a unified, national educational system. When the US government gets serious about the education of our young, you will see the difference.

War? I haven't even begun to speak about the American educational system.

Anne
PS. who probably fomented a war anyway
PSS It is scary that as a math teacher I have a better command of the language than most of the teachers in the school, with the exception of the English teachers, that is.

[Logan]

What a neat thread!!!! I grew up in a house with an English teacher as mom.......she still corrects her children and grandchildren on "lie and lay" and many, many other things!!! I can remember her returning a letter to me, when I was in college (long before email) and correcting my spelling on "seperate". I used an "a", rather than an "e" and she let me know about it!

Logan

[sirrahbed]

I used to have very good spelling and grammar, but that skill seems to be fading

A couple misspellings that always give me a chuckle are.....

grammer for grammar

alter for altar

That last is one that is pretty funny when used by someone in a religious discussion

[kitten645]

when some finds an animal WONDERING around rather than WANDERING!! That makes me crazy..LOL

[Ginger's Mom]

I freely admit I'm an awful typer. I try to catch my mistakes (not always very good at doing so though )

Anyway, my biggest pet peeve that I've seen many people - both young and old do - is using "of" instead of "have"

For instance: I should have gone to the park

Someone would say: I should of gone to the park.

I know they are thinking what they hear. We constantly murder english in our speach. What we are saying is "should've" which is a contraction of "should have".

"Of" is a preposition. "Have" is a verb. Don't mix them up!

I kept telling myself that I wasn't going to say anything more in this thread, but Kim brings up a good point. A lot of spelling mistakes (my own included) are because we do not pronounce our words correctly. Another example would be, "First off;" the actual expression is "first of all" indicating that you are going to give at least two reasons why you feel/believe a certain way. But somehow it has all become run together and may people now just say, and type, "first off." Another example, I have a problem with words that begin with "pre" and "per" (is it "performance" or "preformance", is it "prescription" or "perscription"). I can usually figure it out, but it really takes a lot of concentration on my part as to how to correctly pronounce the word. Another thing I find a little confusing (okay, irritating) is that everyone seems to use the word "anyways", I had always thought the word was "anyway," no "s"; however, now the common usage seems to be with the "s" added on. Is that correct?
Logan, I had to smile when you mentioned "separate," I have to spellcheck that word all of the time; that is how I know the "a" is right.
And kitten645, how do you know the poor lost animal wasn't really "wondering" (where he was-lol).

[dionne]

on my graduation day, a good friend sent me a card that said "congraduations on your gradualations" hahaha...that was priceless!

[sandragonfly]

right, but how could be correct if didn't know? unless you were told you mispelt! what you, blue frog typed always is one of my favorites - it's in scrapbook collection.

this could be really annoyed because .. not only people don't know how to type correct, they type too fast! carefreely. such like ; instead of ' and i instead of o too - biy, yiu, kodding or pozza!!

playing with words is great! these I see most pet talk common incorrections .. please do remember these!

definitely .. (no 'a' or more than two 'a's in it at all!)
then (chronically) or than (more).
here, not hear. (place)
hear, not here. (sense)
we[here]i[/here]rd, not wierd or werid.
yesterday
truly - no 'e' in.
no loosing or no comming.
gor[crossout]a/e/o[/crossout]geous .. oh how I wish pet talk could remove errors automatically before it is posted.. ask santa claws for autospelling system?

[RedHedd]

Oh geez I would stumble onto this thread - my favorite kind of peeve thread!

I'm with Gina on the peeve to "comming" instead of "coming" also I keep seeing "hudge" for huge, the to, too, two dilemma, of instead of have, loose for lose, there, their and they're (that one makes me CRINGE). I can't figure out how people get "no" for "know" .... Reminds me of that old thread, I think it was in general - Spelling DOES count.

I have a spellcheck plug-in for Internet Explorer that's free and will use it before I post this

[Twisterdog]

Almost every single error listed here drives me crazy. Bad spelling and grammar is one of my big pet peeves, especially when it is in a public announcement or forum. I always wonder, "Of all the dozens on employees at this business, NONE of them knew how to spell?"

I recently saw a sign on the sign board outside our local junior high school that said, "School is in. Drive safe." Drive SAFE? On a sign at a SCHOOL? How about "safely"? The death of the adverb in the English language is a truly sad thing to me.

Another thing that irritates me is the misuse of quotation marks. On a menu in a cafe we ate at recently: "Try our "great" apple pie!" Now, I'm sure they were trying for emphasis, "Try our GREAT apple pie!" or "Try our great apple pie." But, of course, by enclosing it in quotation marks, what they were really saying was, "Try our not-so-great apple pie."

I could go on forever. I'll stop now.