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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Awl Ewe Knead Two No re: Homophones

I'm a little bit of a word nerd. (I know, you're shocked)

Have you ever been to the grocery store and seen a sign spelled wrong...  you know, like when the "oragnes" are on sale?  If you've ever been to the store after I have done my weekly shopping you might have seen the sign corrected in whatever color marker happened to be in my purse that week.  It drives me that crazy.  You're a business...  use a dictionary.

I was once in a local church building where they had signs asking for people to submit questions anonymously for an upcoming speaker...  3 signs... 3 different ways to misspell the word... I fixed them all.

Spelling is one thing - I can actually laugh at spelling errors and enjoy...  although I don't enjoy them as much as this guy.

I grind my teeth when I come across words used completely wrong.

This can be a little... problematic... when reading blogs.

I had one friend (a real life friend who had a good laugh with me when I pointed it out) who wrote about being "in term oil"...  I read it 4 times before the light came on... Turmoil!  Ah...  now it makes sense.  oh, and perhaps I'd better leave a more sympathetic comment!

I promise - I am getting better about letting it go... but I have recently had to repent to my dentist for the tooth grinding...  I blame it on the following:

"... peeked my interest" (piqued)
"...a click at school" (clique)
"in the passed" (past)
"that greats on my nerves" (grates)

I'm not even going to GO into the your/you're, want/wont (and won't), there/their/they're, it's/its, cavalry/calvary issues that I have...  This homophone list isn't comprehensive...  but yes, they ALL annoy me when used incorrectly.

so, if you're a repeat offender - I still love you...  but I may send you a dental bill :)  I mean, I'd rather end up wearing a mouth guard than stop reading my favorite blogs!!!



The good news - you can over use ellipses, commas, semi-colons, etc... ALL YOU WANT and I won't complain in the least.  I'm a word nerd, but not a grammar guru :)


22 comments:

Kristina P. said...

I always appreciate when someone points out a malapropism to me. I am a pretty good speller/grammatician (?), but we all make mistakes! Except for me, of course.

TisforTonya said...

oh, just realized that I should have mentioned how often I am myself the offender... but I call them typos :)

Missy said...

I suppose you have lost a tooth or two because of me!

Lisa said...

Ewe no, eye doughnt no "Y" ewe git sew wrkd up oh-ver things like that. Your wird.

Cluttered Brain said...

I HAVE NO idea WHAT Lisa is trying to say above me.
obviously "hoked on fonix did Not werk fer her!"

Anyhoo, Words. I'm glad you are NOT a grammar person. Because I love MY :) And my ... probably too much.
Love ya babe!

Krista said...

I hate misspellings. I hate catch phrases even more. Some people wouldn't know what to say without catch phrases.

Barbaloot said...

I struggle with people using than/then incorrectly. Or when they use incorrect tenses. Someone I know has a message that says "I couldn't come to the phone right now..." Drives me crazy.

Gina said...

I think in blogoland, there is a "relaxed" atmosphere, if you will, and grammar becomes more casual. Punctuation is not correct, um, ever, but using the wrong word is just annoying.

I also agree with Barbaloot, when people say phrases that they aren't thinking about, like, "I could care less" Really? You COULD care less, so you mean that you actually do care quite a bit? Do you think you mean "I COULDN'T care less."?

Ugh. Luckily, it's easy to just click the little "x" and make them all go away :)

Megz said...

HAHA. Not too long ago I used the incorrect YOUR in leaving a comment on your blog. I realized it the second I pushed the enter key...and I just said to meself, "Oh well, she'll know what I meant." But sheesh....if I knew it was going to cause such dental agony I would have been sure to delete it!!

TisforTonya said...

no worries Megz... everyone gets one "free pass"... you've been warned though :)

Saimi said...

While we're on the subject, I hate when people advertise using 'cute' spelling. Like, Kids Korner
or Krazy Kats.Whatever, you get the point.

Seriously, how do we expect the children of America to learn how to spell if every time they turn around they are seeing misspelled words.

We're adults here people, be a better example!

Jen T said...

You must be an English major? :)

LC said...

Few! Glad you don't care about the punkshuation thing because I love to use --- ... and !!!'s way two much. Ha Ha! Made your teeth grind!

Cheeseboy said...

I'm with you friend! The term oil sounds lovely though, especially this time of year.

My goal in life is to never irritate you with my writing.

Alexandra said...

Thank God you said it, so I wouldn't have to.

I go crazy with stuff like that.

I have to take a deep breath..but, still, when it's Could of instead of could have...argh!

Suzanne Benner said...

From my Facebook feed yesterday"

"grim and bare it"

... ummm. yikes!

Holly said...

That list is HILARIOUS!! I LOVE it! These things drive me nuts, too. Although I've never corrected them in marker! BAHAHA!! AWESOME!!

I'm usually pretty good when it comes to spelling/grammar. I have caught errors and sometimes I look at it and think, "WHAT was I thinking?" Reality, I probably wasn't, or trying not to. Much of my posts are during zombie hours. HEHE!!

I KNOW there are some things I do that probable drive some people crazy. ALL CAPS is NOT yelling to me, it's emphasis. You know, the lazy way to BOLD. LOL! I also use ... WAY too much... SEE??!! It's because my mind is always ready to run in too many directions. It's kind of my "yadda yadda yadda..." tangent mind thoughts that go on... and on... ;p OH!! There's the other! I do too many sideways faces! ;p tongue out, as in cheeky or yummy. ;D Winky BIG smile. ;) Winky smile... Yeah, you get the idea, I'm WEIRD. (YES!! I spelled it right!) ;p

(((HUGS))) Yeah... There's another overused thing I do. GAH!! AND another!! How could you STAND ME???

Annette Lyon said...

OH, this brings me such JOY!!!

I doubt I'd ever have the guts to actually change a sign, but I've sorely tempted to many times.

And get this: I had a contract line editor once circle the word "pique" and write, "not a word." (????!!!)

She also INSERTED FOUR misspellings. I can only hope they don't use her anymore. (I had steam coming out of my ears, as you can probably guess.)

Connie said...

Amen!
It really bugs me when business signs have misspellings, when people type the word definitely as definately, etc. etc. In my ESL class, the teacher referred to the person who has the tooth-grinding and hyperventilating over misspelled or misused words as a "linguistic chauvinist".
When school started, the bulletin board in the main hall had a sign that read, "Its That Time!"
I took a marker and put an apostrophe in it's. We're an education facility, folks. Get a clue!
Great blog, btw.

Charlotte said...

Those things drive me nuts, too, when they don't make me laugh. Facebook does attract them, too. The sad thing is that must be how the person thinks the saying goes! (Although with the English language's love of nonsensical idioms I suppose the confusion is somewhat natural).

Just today I saw a through/threw & tell/til mess up.

Teachinfourth said...

If you have any photos of said signs, please send them my way…we do something called, "Errors in Advertising" where we look at these mistakes and try to identify them.

My fifth graders love it...

TisforTonya said...

Ack! not that anyone is reading the comment thread at this point - but I just have to wonder... the book I finished last night had a character who "poured" over their paperwork... that strikes me as gross, doesn't that require becoming liquefied?