Why is their so much bad speling on this site ?

[mfewell]

Why do some people not chek speling befour presing submit ?

[bexbex78]

Because they're not all anal perhaps! Only joking, maybe we're all in a hurry to post our questions...

[David H]

It's not just this site, it's the whole English speaking world. Just look at a bunch of average A level essays and you'll see every word with more than a few letters misspelt sooner or later. Some people just can't recognise a word that's spelt wrongly, it's just like being musical or artistic.

Add that to the fact many people with computers haven't mastered a keyboard yet and you'd be surprised there aren't even more mistakes.

[woofgang]

I do my best but at night when I am in bed, the fairies come and transpose the keys

[silly moo]

Because we have all got used to 'spell check' and there isn't one on this site.
Apologies for the grammatical error of starting a sentance with a preposition.

[Gevs1966]

David H it is nothing like being musical or artistic at all. The problem comes from laziness and poor education. People are too lazy to type out the entire word. They use abbreviation or text speak etc or they didn't learn it at school. If it was drummed into ALL pupils from a very early age how important spelling and grammar actually are then more people would be able to write a comprehensive sentence in later life.

This is an issue that has been in the news recently where the government has said that examination boards should not penalise students for using txt speak or having poor spelling, punctuation and grammar. I find that disgusting!

[jno]

Ah, spell checkers, the cure for all ills...

Ode to the Spell Checker:
Eye have a spelling chequer,
It came with my pea sea.
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss Steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
and weight four it two say
Weather Eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid,
It nose bee fore two long,
And Eye can put the error rite -
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no,
Its letter perfect awl the weigh.
My spell chequer tolled me sew.

(I didn't write that, just copied it.)

Silly moo, the 'rule' is not to end a sentence with a preposition, and a dumb rule it is too - as Churchill said, 'This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.' (He was giving that as an example of the tortured sentence you produce by not saying 'the sort of English I will not put up with'.) Anyway, 'because' isn't a preposition and it's perfectly sensible to answer a question beginning 'why...?' with a response beginning 'because...'

 

[londondave]

Has anyone NOT noticed mfewells deliberate spelling mistakes on this thread?

Anyway, my excuse is that I am a one finger typer and I have bad finger coordination due to a condition called nf1. The other excuse is that AB does not let yiu edit posts once you click on submit.

[silly moo]

jno - I may well be wrong calling the word 'because' a preposition: but as I was taught 40 years ago never to start a sentance with 'because' my apology still stands.

I understand that the rules of acceptable grammar are always changing.

[woofgang]

I have a friend who works talking to people in their own home. In converstion with a lady who had difficulty with a form, she suggested that the lady might consider having reading glasses. She then typed up the report and let spell check have its wicked way, with the result that, when her boss got the report, it said that she had suggested that the lady should have reading classes :-(

[mfewell]

Thank you everyone, I did wonder if my question would be taken seriously...

The one that really gets me going is 'recieve'

Like others, I am saddened and alarmed by the fall in basic literacy standards, and the ease with which people can commit howlers on the net just highlights the problem.