Author Topic: Spelling that makes you cringe (Read 176541 times)

Salvatore · « **Reply #200 on:** 31 January, 2014, 12:35:33 pm »

Quote from: orienteer on 31 January, 2014, 12:01:31 pm

Increasingly seeing breaking when it should be braking. If this continues it'll probably make the OED before long.

Do you live in the 1800s?

Quote from: OED

1838 Public Wks. Great Brit. 52 That every carriage should be provided with a break.
1839 S. C. Brees Railw. Pract. Gloss. 287 Break or Convoy to Railway Carriages. a hand lever worked by the breaksman.
1862 Macm. Mag Oct. 455 This loom is fitted with Sellers' ‘break’ for stopping the loom.
1870 T. H. Huxley Lay Serm. (1874) xi. 246 To act as a sort of break.

hellymedic · « **Reply #201 on:** 31 January, 2014, 01:13:24 pm »

Quote from: orienteer on 31 January, 2014, 12:01:31 pm

Increasingly seeing breaking when it should be braking. If this continues it'll probably make the OED before long.

Wasn't that 'normal' spelling in the 19th Century?

Ooops! Crosspost with the learned (and referenced) Salvatore!

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #202 on:** 31 January, 2014, 02:45:01 pm »

Perhaps that's why a speedbump is called a "speed breaker" in India. I always thought of it as breaking your speed (in the case of one of my friends, it broke her scooter and her toes cos she was singing Cliff Richard songs to herself inside her helmet!!!

) but perhaps it's a relict spelling of "speed braker".

clarion · « **Reply #203 on:** 31 January, 2014, 02:48:12 pm »

Oh. And now I am thinking of the latest Motorhead single, with 'Speed' instead of 'Heart' in the lyrics. It's rapidly heading for earworm status, of the sort frequently prompted by seeing something common on the road (see also 'Something Better Change' approaching red traffic lights.

orienteer · « **Reply #204 on:** 31 January, 2014, 04:50:47 pm »

I live in the 21st century, well after the word brake evolved to unambiguously refer to a device for slowing machinery, and in verb form, to use such a device.

Has anyone heard of disc breaks, or V-breaks?

And if it is permissible to use break for the verb, what is the past tense; broke or breaked?

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #205 on:** 31 January, 2014, 05:46:49 pm »

break, broken, buggered

Canardly · « **Reply #206 on:** 31 January, 2014, 05:58:10 pm »

I found myself using your...... in an email recently instead of you're, strewth...........

hellymedic · « **Reply #207 on:** 31 January, 2014, 10:13:02 pm »

Some of the captions in the photo gallery here: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/uk-weather-ken-clarke-hits-out-at-lynch-mob-critics-after-severe-floods-9098116.html

' A women' and 'hide tide' GGGGGRRRRR!

Maybe those are more bad usage than bad spelling; either way, they grate...

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #208 on:** 31 January, 2014, 11:59:42 pm »

No 11 is the funniest.

clarion · « **Reply #209 on:** 01 February, 2014, 10:21:30 am »

They only call it the Standard. They don't specify whether it's high or low (but I think we know)

Wowbagger · « **Reply #210 on:** 06 February, 2014, 12:13:23 pm »

I was asked yesterday to submit a profile of myself as a chess teacher for the Chess in Schools charity to put on their website. I had a look at a few others to get an idea of what was wanted and found this:-

Quote

Currently [teacher x] has a big influence on the Bristol and West Chess Scene and is a much sort after chess teacher.

I'm afraid I had to gnaw my own arm off after that one.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #211 on:** 06 February, 2014, 12:19:59 pm »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 06 February, 2014, 12:13:23 pm

I was asked yesterday to submit a profile of myself as a chess teacher for the Chess in Schools charity to put on their website. I had a look at a few others to get an idea of what was wanted and found this:-

Quote
Currently [teacher x] has a big influence on the Bristol and West Chess Scene and is a much sort after chess teacher.

I'm afraid I had to gnaw my own arm off after that one.

I know him (very vaguely)! Or should I say I no him?

clarion · « **Reply #212 on:** 06 February, 2014, 12:26:38 pm »

Very vaugely?

Guy · « **Reply #213 on:** 06 February, 2014, 03:18:46 pm »

The back page of last weeks Biggleswade Chronicle has an advert for the garden centre at Willington, on Bedford Raod, no less

And... they sell PARAFIN!

hellymedic · « **Reply #214 on:** 06 February, 2014, 03:21:35 pm »

BBC News website showed an 'ariel' view of the floods yesterday.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #215 on:** 06 February, 2014, 04:59:38 pm »

Well, the weather has been tempestuous.

Ian H · « **Reply #216 on:** 06 February, 2014, 06:22:49 pm »

Quote from: hellymedic on 06 February, 2014, 03:21:35 pm

BBC News website showed an 'ariel' view of the floods yesterday.

Understandable from the BBC, perhaps.

clarion · « **Reply #217 on:** 06 February, 2014, 07:12:28 pm »

Quote from: hellymedic on 06 February, 2014, 03:21:35 pm

BBC News website showed an 'ariel' view of the floods yesterday.

Aye.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ariel/

Marco Stefano · « **Reply #218 on:** 06 February, 2014, 07:23:59 pm »

In an email this week, 'ware and tare', in a context that had nothing to do with crockery or balances.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #219 on:** 07 February, 2014, 09:28:25 am »

I wonder how many of the ones these days where it's wrong but still a correctly spelled word are auto correct errors compounded by poor or zero proof reading rather than the author just getting it wrong.

hellymedic · « **Reply #220 on:** 07 February, 2014, 10:08:12 am »

Quote from: pcolbeck on 07 February, 2014, 09:28:25 am

I wonder how many of the ones these days where it's wrong but still a correctly spelled word are auto correct errors compounded by poor or zero proof reading rather than the author just getting it wrong.

Probably quite 'alot'.

Read a BMJ obituary last night about someone who had a 'distinguished medial career'.
Proofreading FAIL!

pcolbeck · « **Reply #221 on:** 07 February, 2014, 12:23:45 pm »

Auto correct means my documents are no longer full of "teh" instead of "the" (right hand quicker than left I think) but now I find loads of instances of "sue" instead of "use" and the like.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #222 on:** 07 February, 2014, 01:38:46 pm »

Quote from: clarion on 06 February, 2014, 12:26:38 pm

Very vaugely?

I sought of know him.

clarion · « **Reply #223 on:** 07 February, 2014, 02:26:44 pm »

Quote from: Cudzoziemiec on 07 February, 2014, 01:38:46 pm

Quote from: clarion on 06 February, 2014, 12:26:38 pm
Very vaugely?
I sought of know him.

Thats' alright.

T42 · « **Reply #224 on:** 08 February, 2014, 01:35:20 pm »

Trouble is, the brain has its own automatic correction. I'm perfectly capable of reading a piece full of errors and not noticing any of them. Especially when I've written it myself.