conFORmation

As long as I can understand I'm not too worried, the only thing that has me frothing at the mouth is 'amature' especially when I saw it recently being used to advertise a show society dedicated to 'amatures' :o

Forums are my downtime and I will let it all hang out with missing commas and apostrophes the lot

I can produce a mean report, email whatever at work where I am being paid to be adult and sensible and will show off my education in a strongly worded letter of complaint to the electric company if I have to but when I am chilling out at home with a glass of wine you will have to take me as you find me
 
I can easily overlook the odd spelling mistake or grammatical hiccup. But the point about language evolving is that it should be an evolution to create a better word or phrase to better express meaning. That's absolutely not the same thing as sentences riddled with incorrect spellings or very poor grammar. Which can be a large proportion of contributions both online and in print. Statistically, most of those people do NOT have dyslexia, they have either not been taught how to spell or use grammar correctly, or they don't care about the audience trying to read what they have written.

There is no cause to take offence if someone tries to help one avoid a mistake in future, if no one points it out, the poster won't know it's wrong and what the right word or phrase is, and then when they apply for jobs etc when they WILL be judged on how well they can communicate both verbally and written, they will be disadvantaged because no one dared to point out to them where they were making errors as they went along earlier on. To me that is doing the person a very poor turn.
 
ribbons said:
It's a slippery downward slope when the general opinion is that it doesn't matter and is not important.
Most bad spelling is not dyslexia at all, just an excuse.

Inaccurate spelling can and does change the meaning of a word completely, as example in OP. Although I agree the use of spell check sometimes is the problem. My phone often thinks it knows better than me what I'm trying to say.

Worse than that for me though is the use of a completely different word.
For example.

She should OF left it alone.
Instead of
She should HAVE left it alone.

How on earth does someone get to adult or even teens without that being corrected.

When I was at school, my mother would comment that the standard of education was getting poorer. She would not believe the end result of state education today.
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There were plenty of people say would of instead of would have when I was in primary school and I'm nearly 49 :) So the kids of today have picked it up from their parents. I regularly hear people of all ages say that they are going to borrow something to someone, meaning they are going to lend it, or that someone learned them something instead of taught them it. I agree though that in a lot of cases, misspelling is just laziness. My teacher used to say "you know where the dictionary is" Actually, she taught me that reading dictionaries is REALLY interesting. You go to look up a word then get sidetracked and learn all sorts of fascinating things. She was a stickler for neat, correct handwriting and attention to detail. I can remember being taught the difference between practice and practise when I was only 8. I wonder how many people know what it correct and when these days?
 
twiggy2 said:
the vets at work all spell it spey but do admit it may be a regional thing but that it has come over from USA as spay
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I think it's only a regional thing at your vet clinic lol! Spay is not an Americanism. It comes from the Latin word spathe and as long as I've been alive, it's always been spay :smile3: Spey is a river.
ester said:
Another in the spay camp ;) I vote you work with vets who cannot spell ;)
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Seconded! Lol!
 
justabob said:
Lolo said:
Wingles instead of windgalls makes me giggle a silly amount. And when we went to see an old pony, he was advertised as being "skewballed"... Bit concerned for his health initially![/QUOTE
Was that the skewballed pony that had cushions as well as wingles?
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It drives me mad that on a horse forum, people don't either know how to spell the subject specific vocabulary that they use, or can't be bothered to check it. Although I do realise that computer spell-checkers will let through any version of a word, so long as the correct spelling of one version is used, and that often Americanisation is considered correct, over the proper English word.
Laminitis crops up on this forum so often that surely every-one should know it doesn't end in 'us'.

And yes, 'spay' is correct, with the past tense being 'spayed'. Spey is a river is Scotland. It's always best to check your facts before correcting others, I find.
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undergroundoli said:
I'm dyslexic and I KNOW I get that word wrong so I asked my computer and it said it was ok. I must have accidentily added it to the dictionary. Glad HHO spotted that as I'm out on my imaginargy horse with my imaginary pack of job hounds sailing over hedges job hunting at the moment.

*throws JA the customary food and beatles off to talk to spell checker*
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Thank you for making the point that I didn't dare to make - that many dyslexics know and check because they're well aware that accuracy is necessary - and that spell checker is a bloody nuisance and lets people down:( My husband still has a tiny spelling dictionary that he carries round with him because he won't trust the spell checker, the trouble with it is that you really need to check the definitions and his tiny book doesn't have definitions. That is unless I'm somewhere nearby in which case he asks me because I'm one of those irritating people for whom spelling is just natural - however it doesn't save me from typos:(

Good luck with the job hunting - it's a jungle out there:(


FWIW when it comes to doing your applications unless you have someone to check them through it may be worth checking that your dictionary is set to UK English, not US and if you think you've added many words wrong/by accident deleting it and restoring. If I'm teaching my granny to suck eggs I apologise.
 
Bantry said:
Where/were/we're
There/Their/They're
Trail/Trial

And slightly off topic but if I see another post about my ponio, baby ponio or baby horsey I'll puke all over the keyboard. I generally stop reading posts as soon as I come across those words!

<runsandhidesfromirateponioowners>
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LOL at this, actually hate "lol" as well but having teenagers end up saying it myself!
 
Chan said:
Like welshD I can write/type properly, but I won't panic if I make a typo or whatever on a horse forum. On informal websites like this, I just type how I talk.
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Most do. But to actually use the wrong word is not just a typo, it shows ignorance. That's fine, no one's born knowing everything, but you then need to expect others to help correct you.

On the laminitis front, I have a friend who insists on calling it laminities with a clear 'ee' at the end. I've mentioned it a few times as it makes her sounds like a complete novice, a bit like someone talking about their 15.5hh horse.
 
A lot of the "would of", "could of", "should of", is probably a misspelling (or complete misunderstanding) of the contracted "have".

Would've, could've, should've.

I'm quite good at guessing what people mean but some posts I have to read several times, due to misspelling or poor grammar making it seem as if the person means something other than what they intended and the post therefore making no sense. It's annoying, but not the end of the world.
 
Don't you mean a 'perlli' thread?! Yes I have seen it spelt like that !

I agree with all the spelling mistakes that annoy people on here as all of them annoy me too !
I also saw on Facebook an advert for a 'brewed mare and fowl' the other day.. give me strength...
 
As someone else stated writing on here is relaxing time, so forgive me that I do not spell check everything . I am dyslexic am totally aware I cannot spell , although interestingly do have a decent grade in English olevel.

Someone stated that it was lucky that doctors and pharmacists do not have the same cavalier attitude , well this pharmacist does , and how many doctors do you know that can write let alone spell?
Some people on here are very pedantic
 
Quote from Hereshoping

I am afraid that incorrect spelling and grammar are a bugbear of mine, too. Sadly, I do, as someone has suggested, make assumptions about an individual's ability and intelligence based very much on their ability to spell/write a sentence with an appropriate grammatical structure. I have to catch myself and berate myself for doing so. My first reaction when someone writes 'Dispair' is to put a one word post underneath simply stating 'despair'. Likewise, I shudder at the 'would of's and 'could of's.*

But then again, some of the Malapropisms that appear on hear do make me smile. Muddling up 'Averse' - which means disinclined to do something and 'adverse' - which means contrary to something is a common mistake; and of course the conformation/confirmation.
End of quote
.............................................................

Whoops

Here / Hear

Guess we can all slip up. :) :) :)
 
Gamebird said:
This. Spay. Although 'how much is it to have my dog spaded?' is worse. Along with 'I want my dog newted'.

Twiggy2 - I suggest that if you can't compromise you instead grab the academic high ground and refuse to refer to anything except ovariohysterectomy in future - or OHE if you want to shorten it.
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Haha! I was going to suggest this too! I always wrote ' General anaesthetic and oviariohysterectomy' on the consent form ;) Drove me nuts when people wrote 'GA Spay'
 
Anna* said:
Now we are writing so many posts on devices with a auto correct, spellings just get altered, punctuation gets missed (see above!) I try to only get irritated by the things that really matter. Life is far to short!
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Sorry, my pedantic bit is coming out, but that should be 'too' short. But you're right!
 
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