Does anyone else get as irritated by bad spelling as I do?
Don’t get me wrong here, I freely admit to having to use help to check my spelling frequently.
The thing that bugs me though is, if I can do it, why don’t lots of other people?
I know I’m not the only one who sometimes needs help, and indeed there is plenty of help out there (thank you Alexa)
I have been looking at a lot of adverts online recently, where people try to sell things they no longer have a need for, or have made and want to sell on, and have been so frustrated, disappointed, and frankly quite angry about basic, relatively easy words which have been spelt incorrectly.
If people are unsure about how to spell something, why don’t they find out? Especially if you are putting it in the public domain. I’m not talking about a shopping list here.
It just strikes me as being lazy, and to be perfectly honest, If you can’t be bothered, I really don’t want to buy whatever it is you are selling, thank you very much!
I have been known to walk past a greengrocer’s shop to go to the nearest supermarket because the sign in the grocer’s window read ‘Collies 80p’.
And no, they weren’t selling dogs.
Talking of dogs, it was a website selling dogs that I was most recently annoyed by. The number of people who can’t spell ‘miniature’, ‘puppies’ or even the name of the breed they are selling was, in my opinion, shocking.
Someone was selling their shih-tzu, and yes, they did spell it the way they obviously say it, sh## zhu.
Anyway, rant over. I try to be forgiving, but sometimes, just sometimes, I despair of people’s lazy attitude towards English. Well, the spelling of it anyway. Apostrophes and grammar can wait for another day.
And don’t get me started on some cafe menus……………
Val Chapman
Whittlesey Wordsmiths 
‘The thing that bugs me though is, if I can do it, why don’t lots of other people?’ – mostly because they don’t realise they’re spelling it wrong, I would imagine. But, sadly, they probably don’t care either.
My best friend at school always had terrible spelling. she became a teacher.
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Seen by the roadside in Norfolk this week, ‘Bycycles for sale’.
Guess it worked. It got my attention and now it has got a mention here. Perhaps it’s all a ploy to get us spreading the word! wendy fletcher
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On that principle, I used to put up posters in my libraries slightly skewed if I really wanted people to read them.
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They say the English language is one that constantly evolves and changes. A look through old documents throws up instances of varied spellings for the same word on the same page, in important documents at that. The interchangeability of f and s is another example.
Meanings change too, Sir Christopher Wren was told that his design for St Paul’s Cathedral had been chosen because it was “at the same time the most awful and the most artificial.”Far from being disparagement, it was the highest praise. “Awful” correctly meant inspiring awe, and “artificial” designed with art. As late as the beginning of the nineteenth-century weddings were described as “awful ceremonies.” (Quote Investigator.)
Words too fall in and out of use, all of us are familiar with the word disgruntled, few of us with the word gruntled, (Pleased, satisfied, and contented. Oxford English Dictionary). Fascinator (decorative headgear) fell out of use and was removed from OED only to be reincluded when Fascinators became fashionable again.
We all have an idea of what the English language should be, how words are spelt and used, mostly there is a consensus but that varies from person to person.
But bycycles, shakes head and walks away muttering.
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