Spelling & Usage Mistakes That Amuse You

[Baburra]

I used to be much more of a "grammar nazi" (pardon the term), but with the advent of the internet and seeing so many mistakes being made, I've learned to just let it be and I've actually even found some amusement from it all.

For example, I was browsing online a few years back and came across the phrase "Get some branes you moran!" which I found hilarious because it's ironic. I'm not too sure if it was intentional, but if it was I'd commend the inventor of it for such creativity.

Other ones I always found amusing was the common spelling mistake of "grammer" in place of the correctly spelled version "grammar" and "better then" instead of "better than".

Of course, some mistakes still do irk me a little like "could/would of" for "could/would have", but I'm just glad that some of the other ones are at least amusing.

Anyone got any other examples you are amused by?

[thekernel]

Sometimes I get a chuckle when people use "defiantly" in place of "definitely". Like, it boggles my brain that people write the word without realizing how little sense it makes. When people misspell things, it's usually because they are writing out the phonetics. But for some reason, "definitely" gets butchered in the exact opposite way.

Same with "psychic" and "physics". It's amazing that people know to put the silent "p" to start the word but still get the phonetics in total disarray.

[charahome]

Oh yes. There are plenty of spelling mistakes on the internet.

"Rather then", instead of "rather than"

"effect" instead of "Affect" and vice-versa

The constant confusion among There and Their. This one i can't understand why some would use out of context.

[SarahRTW]

I am so used to mistakes on the 'net that I sometimes see the proper word and momentarily think it's incorrect!  I'm not a grammar Nazi, but it bothers me when people (Intelligent people who speak English as a first language) can't be bothered to use the proper word. 

Grammarly, a paid spell and grammar service (much better than the standard Word one) posted a sign that said:

"I'd rather cuddle then have sex"  and commented "People with good grammar will get it."  That was a clever one

I can't think of anything that spelling or grammar changed a post meaning that I saw, but absolutely, it can!

[linguaholic]

That's a good one Sarah :=) :grin:

[Nyandroid]

I've been in situations where I would type, "Just give me a sex" instead of "Just give me a sec".  Honestly the only way for me to avoid doing that is typing out "second" and not abbreviating it.

Awww, I can see that happening, as the letter X is obviously just next to the letter C on most keyboards hehe:)

[Emmanuel]

"All intensive purposes" is one that always makes me laugh. Also, when people needlessly use the word "literally". Everybody makes mistakes, myself included, but some of them are quite amusing.

[Rosa]

I'm not quite sure that people everywhere speaks this way but it does happen quite often here, even with  intelligent people. They'll use two words that have the same meaning together. For example, reverse back. They'll also say things like, sit down, even though if you are going to sit you must go down and not up and stand on your feet, although no one is expected to stand on their heads.

[Hispoiema]

How about when people say things like "I'm serious and I'm not kidding". Or "I'm not even kidding". Why throw "even" in there?

A friend made an awful mistake on one of those Christmas letters that people send out when she that her daughter's continence was changing. Of course, I'm sure she meant countenance. 

[dorannmwin]

Our local school districts facebook page is a continual page of humor during the winter when kids are begging for school to be called off. They miss almost every grammar rule when they are making their posts.

If that says anything about how well the kids are being taught, they definitely don't need days off during the winter and they don't need the summer off either. An example "Please cancel skool tomorrow."

[lizbeth19hph]

As a writer by profession, I usually edit my own work and the essays, sentences of my students. At times people commit mistakes in the proper use of the verb tenses and contractions as well as the possessive forms. Example: "Your" and "You're", "It's" and "It is". These are some common grammatical errors I encounter. :grin:

[MrHurricane89]

I just can't get over that people always mix up "lose" and "loose", and when I try to explain it to them, they insist that "loose" means that they lost something, and don't even seem to know about the word with one O letter in it.

Also the other one is when they confuse "attain" and "obtain", and they say they obtained a diploma or some degree in 2007 or so.. what, did you buy a fake diploma or did you attain it by studying?

[Trellum]

When people whose mother language use ''then'' instead of ''than''.  How can they mix those two so easily?  How can smart people whose mother language is English make a mistake like this one?  It's not hard at all!  It always amuses me when people make a mistake like that.  It might sound wrong, but I start seeing the person who makes that kind of mistake differently; I start to think they are not as smart as I once thought!

[Elly]

Ambiguous construction.

"She approached the black bearded gypsy" -- Wait, was the gypsy black or was he of a non-black race but had dark hair and therefore a black beard?

"The wooden raft crew" -- Wait, the crew on the raft was wooden?

"He says that he's a rogue werewolf hunter." -- What's a rogue werewolf? Oh, you mean he hunts werewolves and he's a rogue about it.

I could easily figure out most of these from context, but for some reason I always think about it the other way.

[skywatcher]

I always amuse myself whenever I get a spelling mental block, especially with some words.

"Occasion," really gets me a lot of times, and I always laugh whenever I get the spelling wrong - and then worry when I really seem to not get it right.

[Linguetronix]

He would of gotten it.

Instead of

He would have gotten it.

Also, when people misspell misspelled!

[Baburra]

I always amuse myself whenever I get a spelling mental block, especially with some words.

"Occasion," really gets me a lot of times, and I always laugh whenever I get the spelling wrong - and then worry when I really seem to not get it right.

I spell this word wrong all the time as well. The funny part is that no matter how many times I get corrected, I just can't seem to remember which version is the right one and I always end up having to rely on spell check.

[hansenlaw]

I've always found people who use 'your' instead of 'you're' amusing. I mean it's such an elementary term that everyone should know, I'm surprised when grown adults in mainly English countries who have grown up here make silly mistakes like that. And it happens very often.

[LauraM]

I must admit that many spelling, grammar and language usage mistakes annoy me more than they amuse me.  But that said, there are a couple that are inadvertently entertaining to me.

For example, we often hear people say "very unique."  I get a chuckle out of that because "unique" is an absolute.  Something is unique or it is not unique; there are not degrees or levels of uniqueness! Yet I see that expression "very unique" fairly often. 

I also find it amusing when I see "misspelled" spelled incorrectly.  I sometimes see it spelled as "mispelled." 

[Oogles]

I've seen a few of these during the course of my internet surfing career. Things like "Becouse," You're and Your or incorrect usage of tenses i.e. "I'm break your cup." But the one that had me spilling my guts out while laughing was a post from a FaceBook site that read "That akward moment when..." and that misspelling was repeated around 6 or 8 times. 

[Baburra]

I must admit that many spelling, grammar and language usage mistakes annoy me more than they amuse me.  But that said, there are a couple that are inadvertently entertaining to me.

For example, we often hear people say "very unique."  I get a chuckle out of that because "unique" is an absolute.  Something is unique or it is not unique; there are not degrees or levels of uniqueness! Yet I see that expression "very unique" fairly often. 

I also find it amusing when I see "misspelled" spelled incorrectly.  I sometimes see it spelled as "mispelled."

Me too, although, I try to just get amused by them as much as possible because getting annoyed won't do much good anyway. Very good point on the part about absolutes, though, since it's a very subtle mistake, but I have come across these types of comments before as well albeit less frequently.

[Lasonax]

As far as english goes, I must say that how often people cannot make a differance between then and than, amuses me.

I used to be one of those that didn't even know that there was a word called "than", but after being politely told how things worked, I changed my ways.

It's not very complicated at all, and it's pretty weird that I was never quite taught this in school. I mean, how hard would it be for an english teacher to spend 2 minutes on telling the kids that it's supposed to be THAN and not THEN in certain situations? Shouldn't be all that hard.

[miguel_jieb]

There's a widely used phrase that amuses me. I just noticed it when someone brought it up in class. Have you heard the phrase, "Like for example..."? It's redundant to say like and example at the same time. The correct phrase should be, "take for example", "for example", and "like".  Am I right? :grin:

[Litnax]

There's a widely used phrase that amuses me. I just noticed it when someone brought it up in class. Have you heard the phrase, "Like for example..."? It's redundant to say like and example at the same time. The correct phrase should be, "take for example", "for example", and "like".  Am I right? :grin:

Argh, it annoys me when people add 'like' unnecessarily when they speak: "like, you know...", "like, when we..." , "like, yeah". Reminds me of Paris Hilton and... I can't remember the other one.

[Baburra]

There's a widely used phrase that amuses me. I just noticed it when someone brought it up in class. Have you heard the phrase, "Like for example..."? It's redundant to say like and example at the same time. The correct phrase should be, "take for example", "for example", and "like".  Am I right? :grin:

I think of "like" as a sort of mannerism so I can maybe let that go, but if it sounds like it's being used on purpose in thinking that it's grammatically correct, it's probably noticeable. I also have heard of "take for example" and admittedly, I've never really given it much thought because it still somehow sounds correct if that makes any sense. Good catch!