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Spelling & Usage Mistakes That Amuse You


Baburra

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I am always on Twitter, and that social media site is the place for so many special mistakes. Some of the most common spelling mistakes are definitely-defiantly, your-you're, their-there, affect-effect. These amuse me sometimes, but more often than not irritate me.  :laugh:

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  • 4 weeks later...

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I previously worked in a company wherein we were required to talk in English at all times. And to tell you, I've heard thousands of incorrect phrases to the point that I can already create a compilation book out of it.  Haha.  Some of them are: "If in any case that you'll need to call..." "So, can you be able to turn off your phone?" and my favorite is "So here's your confirmation number: Z for Zebra, X for extra.."  Haha!  :laugh:

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"So here's your confirmation number: Z for Zebra, X for extra.."  Haha!  :laugh:

I chuckled at this one!  :laugh: I think I'd probably even make that mistake myself if I were in that type of mood or state, but well at least it's an amusing enough mistake and good for a laugh, and still fairly understandable. Also to be fair I heard that I think I'd be able to discern it much quicker than I would something more proper but a bit more confusing like xylophone.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have noticed that it is so much easier to make grammatical mistakes when someone is upset. The most common one that I have found is using her instead of him and vice versa when referring to the opposite sex. I just correct it in mind as I read the content. Their and there are also commonly mistaken by a number of people.

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  • 1 month later...

I can't forget what my former college classmate said when we were chatting. She said, "I'm not allowed to go out late at night, since my relatives here PAMPERS me." And "Pampers" happens to be the name of a diaper brand. I really can't forget that blunder until now.

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This is a post from a former "grammar nazi." I just think it is mean to correct people and feel that you are superior. I would rather help people learn instead of belittling them and making them feel sad and afraid to learn.

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I have had several encounters with these spelling and usage mistakes, and it is very common for these errors to occur frequently, especially among non-native English speakers.  But in no case I will try to forcibly correct these errors.  Nevertheless, I am sometimes prone to making these usage errors as well.  Sometimes you can't find the words which you would like to express in your sentence.  You know you want to express your idea, but you are having difficulty finding the words.  As a result your ideas can be lost through your word usage.

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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.

There's actually a website dedicated to 'definitely', you should look at it on http://www.d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y.com/

They even have a hall of shame, and man, it's really bad if you see who makes that mistake (CNN, BBC, FOX13, ...)

Though that's on of the most common traps in the English language. I've made that mistake numerous times too before I realized I've been doing it wrong the entire time.

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This is a post from a former "grammar nazi." I just think it is mean to correct people and feel that you are superior. I would rather help people learn instead of belittling them and making them feel sad and afraid to learn.

I agree with you sillylucy! I commend you for having that attitude of wanting to help instead of humiliating others who need to learn your language. I've been working with a lot of English native speakers for five years now and there are really those who belittle other nationalities just because they can't speak your language well. I wonder how they would fare in learning other languages. They should, in fact, think in that respect. Here are some non-native English speakers who are bilinguals, who somehow survive in a foreign land speaking English no matter how difficult it is for them. While these native speakers travel to other lands, speaking their own language with the locals because they can't speak the native tongue at all. And when the natives find it hard to communicate in English, they criticize. How unfair and rude is that?

But I am not generalizing native English speakers because I have met and befriended a lot of them who recognize this skill of most non-English speakers.

What I posted here may be off-topic, but I just want to commend sillylucy. However, I can also be a grammar cop at times, especially with my own kids. I try my best to do it the gentlest way possible because I may be above par in English grammar but hey, I am just average in math!

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  • 11 months later...

My favorite is when native speakers complain that foreigners "don't talk English good".  There are many variations, but this one has remained my favorite.  I like correcting them on the spot, especially because they tend to forget that not all foreigners speak languages that aren't English.  In fact, people from England are foreigners who speak English. 

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There are loads of those that really make me smile sometimes.

Some of these are certainly :

  • lose vs. loose Ex. He never wears a belt. His pants are always loose around the waist, which often means he loses them from time to time.
  • Weird vs. wierd
  • Their/There/They're
  • Your vs. you're - like every time I visit some social website :)
  • The same with a possessive pronoun Its and a shorter version of It is - it's
  • A lot vs. (the non-existent) alot
  • And something I saw on Facebook the other day: Shoplifters will be prostituted. Shcool, Homewerk, and my favorite Huge Me (hug me)

I hope you liked the last few because I just find them so silly. :)

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  • 3 months later...

Some of the common mistakes that amuse me are:

Then and than

There and Their

No, I don't make these mistakes. However, when I see people making these mistakes, I am always amused. However, I never make fun of people because they are making mistakes in second language.

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