The internet is an information superhighway. Ideas can be shared and propagated to the world with the click of a button. Or, a few buttons, actually, because of this keyboard thing. But what if that idea is a bad one? Or rather, what if that idea is a really good one, but the idiot who came up with it used some variation of "there/their/they're" incorrectly. ("Hey guys! Their giving free slurpees at 7-11 this Thursday!!!") Well, now you've got millions of the idiot's friends of friends of friends forwarding this great idea, bad grammar and all. Then all these millions of friends start coming up with their own great ideas, with little regard to how they're using "you're/your."
If you own an email account, you've also probably been forwarded some kind of outrageous tidbit which may or may not be true. The original genius who revealed this newsworthy masterpiece probably described the event as ridiculous. Except he spelled it "rediculous." All the people who receive that email react in indignant outrage, quickly searching for the forward button to let all their friends and family know just how messed up the world is. Before you know it, millions of people have seen this email. They're also gathering around the water cooler talking about how "rediculous" it is.
We are a spoiled and lazy generation. Spoiled because most internet browsers and word processors immediately alert us to misspelled words. Lazy because we apparently don't care enough to right click on that word with the dotted red line under it to see what's wrong.
It's getting so bad that every time I see a correct usage of "you're," I actually do a double-take, instinctively thinking something must be wrong. Then I realize, "Oh, no that's right." I just see it wrong so often that I get confused when people do it right. Another culprit of this embarrassing development is internet and text messaging shortcuts (e.g. "ur"). "Ur" of course can mean one of three things: your, you're, and you are. Once people start using "ur" for everything, they must forget the correct usages of the above terms, and just go with the easiest one ("your").
Even rediculous bloggers who rant about stupid stuff like this are not immune. On rare occasion, I'm ashamed to admit, I've caught myself slipping up and using some simple contraption incorrectly. If purists like myself aren't even safe from this epidemic, then who is? What does our future hold? Will our newspapers someday read like the warning label of a Chinese firecracker?
Here are the most frequently misspelled words that I encounter. In all honesty I think the incorrect spellings/usages may one day oust the correct words from their rightful place.
- Rediculous (Correct: "This blog is ridiculous.")
- They're/Their/There (I'm not even going to try. If people can't figure this out, our education system is in worse shape than we can possibly imagine.)
- You're/Your/You are (see above)
- Its/It's (Correct: "It's late; you should go." Also: "The blogger reared its ugly head.")
- Then/Than (Correct: "Then she said, 'You're way more ridiculous than my ex.")
- Lose/Loose
- to/too/two (Maybe not so much that last one, but I wouldn't be surprised.)
13 comments:
passed/past gets on my nerves -- but you've got the other ones (one's!) covered quite nicely.
Oh you just touched on something I really should have mentioned...the unnecessary apostrophes! Bah...can't stand em!
could of/would of/should of
less/fewer
imply/infer
couldn't care less/could care less
conscious/conscience
I could go on . . . I get all twitchy when I see stuff like this.
Crap..I feel like maybe I made an error in one of my facebook posts?
bored/board
Korekt speling iz four luzers.
One of my personal favorites: Using "may" when one means could/can/might.
:-]
definately, seperate, and I'm in total twitchy agreement with Annette with the could/would/shoul "of". That, to me, is the shame of all shames...the carelessness of all carelessnesses! and if you had dipped into lol or brb, I might could of blown a gasket!
I just remembered another one:
our/are
Sigh.
"alot" vs. "a lot"
completely inexcusable.
Maybe people are in a hurry.. at least they take a minute to update their fiends and communicate. In a world that calls for OUR increasingly limited time, I forgive stupid little spelling mistakes and so should you! Unless you haven't figured out already that YOU are a good writer and it's easy for you to pay attention to small details. Other people may think differently than you. Do not hold it against them, it is egotistical. FB is not law review and it takes some people longer than you to write SO WELL.
Yeah, I forgive stupid little spelling mistakes, too. I myself make errors every now and then, as I said above.
It's when people make such mistakes so persistently as to demonstrate a willful ignorance to a few basic rules of the english language that I take objection. People aren't in a hurry--they're just lazy. They don't save any time by typing "their" in place of "there." "Your" in place of "you're." If they're in too much of a hurry to think, then I call that just another form of laziness.
I'm also not averse to correcting people when I determine that they really don't know the difference, and that it could embarrass them in other situations. One of my facebook friends, who is also in law school, consistently made the "your/you're" error. I put up with it for quite a while, but finally I had to correct her. I didn't want her embarrassing herself in some law school paper. (Also, it was bothering me.) It's like telling someone they have a booger hanging out of their nose, something stuck in their teeth, or a speck of mayonnaise on their cheek.
On the other hand, if I'm chatting with a friend and they only make some mistake occasionally, and do it right other times, then I won't say anything. Even if they are persistent, I won't say anything if I think that they couldn't care less about it. (I do have one friend who is very particular about her verbiage, so if she makes some persistent mistake, I'll let her know.)
My 4th grade teacher gave me a dictionary (in 4th grade) for reading so many books. Ironically, I wrote her a thank you note and concluded with "Sinceraly (or however you spell it) Janel." She returned the note to me and told me to look up the word. I learned an important lesson that day.
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