Confusing pairs of words...

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.