Bumper sticker

Baconbutty

Yes. This is exacerbated by the schools not enforcing correct spelling, punctuation and a basic level of grammar. I think it's down to the "older" generation to enforce standards. Whenever a CV is received with poor spelling and grammar it should be returned to the applicant, with a letter stating that their level of English did not match the requirements for the job. Children these days seem to think that it doesn't matter if they can't spell. It does. I've given up circling grammatical errors and typos on letters sent out by my children's school (Secondary Education!). What hope is there when a school can't even send out its own documents without error. Argh!!!!!!!!

My new favourite phrase - "misdirected leisure activity"

scottgp

Your really bothered by that, hm? :)

Dalek Dave

Baconbutty wrote:

I've given up circling grammatical errors and typos on letters sent out by my children's school (Secondary Education!).

I am not the only one then! I have sent back letters asking for them to be corrected before I acknowledge them, and had letters from the Headmaster asking me not to intimidate his secretary! I asked him to educate his secretary. What a jolly time we had exchanging correspondance, especially when I corrected his grammatical errors :-D

------------------------------------ "May I introduce Blon Fel-Fotch Pasermeer-Day Slitheen from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorious, known by her friends as Margaret" The Doctor

John Carson

Christian Graus wrote:

I saw a bumper sticker the other day. It said 'my kids are not naughty. There just misunderstood.' Is the English language so hard, that no-one in the process of printing this sticker spotted the error ? I see your for 'you're' in bumper stickers all the time, too. Are people just dense ?

It surprises me how common the your/you're error is. I know one guy on a photography forum who is very smart and has some sort of engineering training but he gets it wrong every time (so it is not just a typo). Spelling education has failed somewhere.

John Carson

Mike Gaskey

scottgp wrote:

Your You're really bothered by that, hm?

Fixed it for you.

Mike - typical white guy. The USA does have universal healthcare, but you have to pay for it. D'oh. Thomas Mann - "Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil." The NYT - my leftist brochure. Calling an illegal alien an “undocumented immigrant” is like calling a drug dealer an “unlicensed pharmacist”. God doesn't believe in atheists, therefore they don't exist.

Rhuros

The issue nowadays goes deeper when you have children submitting essays in in SMS speak, as it were....

J4amieC

Baconbutty wrote:

I've given up circling grammatical errors and typos on letters sent out by my children's school

Oh I have a better one than that. My sister showed me a notebook of her daughter (7yo) where her teacher writes down words for her to learn how to spell. My niece, being pretty advanced in spelling gets some pretty tough words (some that even I stumble over). But there was one absolute killer written by her teacher: "zooology" look closely. :wtf: find me a single english language word with three consecutive same letters.

Dalek Dave

Brrr - Legal in Scrabble, so I count it! Invernessshire Governessship Oh, and Frillless!

------------------------------------ "May I introduce Blon Fel-Fotch Pasermeer-Day Slitheen from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorious, known by her friends as Margaret" The Doctor

modified on Friday, February 27, 2009 7:35 AM

scottgp

I guess it wasn't obvious enough that I was kidding, or is you're humor as dry as mine? :cool:

soap brain

Princessship Duchessship My cousin is 8, and he had to spell arteriosclerosis. And he can. And he talks about it all the time. Kinda weird choice, I thought, but I don't think he knows what it actually means. The misspelling of 'zoology' is understandable because it is usually mispronounced as well. It's not 'zoo-ology', it's 'zo-ology'.

Dan Neely

1.799 * 10^12 furlongs per fortnight 'tis a good idea and doth be the law. It took me forever to find a version of this that wasn't wrong.

Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall

J4amieC

I keep telling my niece that if shes so good at spelling she needs to spell for me Floccinocinihilipilification or Antidisestablishmentarianism. And yes, I did just have to google the spelling of those 2 words.

J4amieC · modified on Friday, February 27, 2009 7:35 AM

Ok, Brrr asside. Find me one that is not actually spelt with a hyphen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverness-shire[^] "The usual rules of English spelling outlaw triple letters. Hyphens are inserted into words such as bee-eater, bell-like, chaff-flower, cretaceo-oolitic, cross-section, egg-glass, joss-stick, off-flavour, hostess-ship, puff-fish, toll-lodge, and zoo-organic." from: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090123200258AAIS62W[^]

soap brain

J4amieC wrote:

Floccinocinihilipilification

Are you sure that's how to spell it? The spelling I found was 'Floccinaucinihilipilification'. :confused: My cousin said to me today that he wanted to learn Japanese because he "already knows every English word". I thought it was pretty cute.

Mike Gaskey

scottgp wrote:

or is you're humor as dry as mine?

:cool:

Mike - typical white guy. The USA does have universal healthcare, but you have to pay for it. D'oh. Thomas Mann - "Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil." The NYT - my leftist brochure. Calling an illegal alien an “undocumented immigrant” is like calling a drug dealer an “unlicensed pharmacist”. God doesn't believe in atheists, therefore they don't exist.

Brady Kelly

:confused: I'm sure it was Christians point that if the sticker says "Your too close" then they are, so maybe I'm missing your point?

hairy_hats

Brady Kelly wrote:

"Your too close"

Grammar fail. It's "You're", short for "you are". He was complaining that he'd seen "you're" on a bumper sticker, well I was pointing out that if the sticker said "You're too close" then "you're" is correct in that context.

hairy_hats

Oops just re-read what both of you wrote, sorry for that! :-O

Lost User

Baconbutty wrote:

This is exacerbated by the schools not enforcing correct spelling, punctuation and a basic level of grammar.

Enforcement might bruise their poor little egos. Think of the children!!! ;-)

Dalek Dave

I'm sorry, but are you really using Wiki as a source? Frillless is in the OED! And you should know better than to apply generic rules to the English Language. Most, I agree, will be represented in a hyphenated format, but such terms as Priestessship and Governessship are ruled legal by their use in past times. Indeed, the OED does extensive checks on whether a word has been used in print before it allows it, and governesssip and others like it are common in 17th and 18th century works, therefore are included in the OED, regardless of their common usage today. Ironically, Frillless is a kind of Pufffish! :)

------------------------------------ "May I introduce Blon Fel-Fotch Pasermeer-Day Slitheen from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorious, known by her friends as Margaret" The Doctor