Confusing pairs of words...

FishOnABike · 23-06-2016 7:23am

Capital and capitol

Speedwell · 23-06-2016 7:41am

FishOnABike wrote: »

Capital and capitol

I use the two words correctly, and once I looked at them I guessed exactly why they were different, but I realized I never actually consciously noticed the difference before. Weird.

Here's one. When I was a child growing up in America, I used to use the old-fashioned word "baloney" to refer to what I would, as an adult, simply call "bullsh!t". It was also what we always called the mortadella sausage that we commonly put in sandwiches. I thought that the sort-of-flabby, homogeneous, pink slices were called that because they somewhat resembled the tongue, and a too-loose tongue was what made people talk nonsense.

I knew "baloney" in my sandwich was really spelled "Bologna" like the Italian town, but since I also knew the word "mortadella", it didn't immediately occur to me that the real name was "Bologna sausage". And it took even more time for me to realize that the word as used to mean "you're talking nonsense" was really derived from "blarney".

monkeynuz · 23-06-2016 7:50am

Bought/brought
Wonder/wander
Stationary/stationery

mansize · 23-06-2016 7:52am

Excepted/accepted

I don't have an issue but if I use excepted many question it

Speedwell · 23-06-2016 7:58am

mansize wrote: »

Excepted/accepted

I don't have an issue but if I use excepted many question it

They take exception, rather than accepting it. Just so

mansize · 23-06-2016 7:59am

Speedwell wrote: »

They take exception, rather than accepting it. Just so

I like

Speedwell · 23-06-2016 8:03am

my3cents wrote: »

Going back to hue and hew you can also add in Hue and Hugh which all sound the same; I know of at least one person that spells Hugh Hue.

That person wouldn't happen to be Vietnamese? In that language it is a name meaning "intelligence" or "lily/orchid".

my3cents · 23-06-2016 10:00am

Speedwell wrote: »

That person wouldn't happen to be Vietnamese? In that language it is a name meaning "intelligence" or "lily/orchid".

No I just think either they or their parents were being trendy, might even have been a nickname. A neighbor is called Nigel by everyone I know but that isn't his name and never has been but there is some long family story I've never really understood that's supposed to explain it

Even my own given name gets shortened and spelt differently by members of my own family :rolleyes:

If we've not had them already a pair, well in sound anyway, that get confused around here, your and your're.

I've this theory that Google is likely to become the arbiter of spelling in years to come. I have just used the word spelt which Googles spell check doesn't know but the word is spelt or spelled and used correctly, however over time I wonder if spellings not "approved" by Google will fall into disuse? Similarly if the spell check doesn't spot the difference in your and you're (because from a spelling point of view both words are spelt correctly) will your come to be an accepted alternative and you're be dropped from use altogether?

Speedwell · 23-06-2016 10:04am

my3cents wrote: »

I've this theory that Google is likely to become the arbiter of spelling in years to come. I have just used the word spelt which Googles spell check doesn't know but the word is spelt or spelled and used correctly, however over time I wonder if spellings not "approved" by Google will fall into disuse? Similarly if the spell check doesn't spot the difference in your and you're (because from a spelling point of view both words are spelt correctly) will your come to be an accepted alternative and you're be dropped from use altogether?

Spelt is not a word that has fallen out of use; it is (at least) the name of a grain. Google and other spellcheckers are at best minor annoyances to me. I worked as a proofreader back in the day and an engineer manual writer more recently, and I have always found them to cause more problems than they solve. I spend an extraordinary time trying to teach them that this word or that is actually not misspelled.

bonzodog2 · 23-06-2016 10:58am

Yolk/yoke
Casual/causal

my3cents · 23-06-2016 11:12am

Speedwell wrote: »

Spelt is not a word that has fallen out of use; it is (at least) the name of a grain. Google and other spellcheckers are at best minor annoyances to me. I worked as a proofreader back in the day and an engineer manual writer more recently, and I have always found them to cause more problems than they solve. I spend an extraordinary time trying to teach them that this word or that is actually not misspelled.

But what I am thinking is that if people come to rely on for example Googles spelling checker then it will be Google that drives how the world spells.

I have to use a spelling checker because I can't spell, I don't even hear words correctly so with my phonetic spelling I can't get them right. I just have to know what words I spell incorrectly and then check them. Strange autistic thing I can spot something that is wrong or not inline with a convention but can't actually get it right myself?

Speedwell · 23-06-2016 11:24am

my3cents wrote: »

But what I am thinking is that if people come to rely on for example Googles spelling checker then it will be Google that drives how the world spells.

I have to use a spelling checker because I can't spell, I don't even hear words correctly so with my phonetic spelling I can't get them right. I just have to know what words I spell incorrectly and then check them. Strange autistic thing I can spot something that is wrong or not inline with a convention but can't actually get it right myself?

haha, as a fellow Aspie I can't tell you. One of my "weird obsessions" has always been spelling. So much so that instead of getting bent out of shape about other people's spelling, I just mentally correct it and keep going. Also, if generations of schoolteachers, newspapers, novelists, and other standard-bearers have not taught people through exposure to spell properly, I doubt Google is going to have any greater effect.

I should apologise (apologize) for using occasional American spelling in my posts. I'm an American, but I'm trying to train myself to spell over here.