I was just wondering. I have written many letters, articles, memos, reports etc.etc. but still have problems spelling certain words. It seems as if I am dyslexic on those words and those words only.

Do any other forumers get this and what words does it affect?

Negligible. Everytime. I always try and cram in far too many g's and l's. Incidentally, I've also noticed the more you look at a word, the sooner it will start to look miss spelt, even if it is entirely correct :suspect:

Originally posted by TracieJC
Negligible. Everytime. I always try and cram in far too many g's and l's. Incidentally, I've also noticed the more you look at a word, the sooner it will start to look miss spelt, even if it is entirely correct :suspect:

Yes, I think there is a name for this (but I can't remember it). Just the other day I couldn't remember how to spell child (I was preparing for my daughters birthday) because I had written it so many times it just looked wrong.

There aren't many words I can't spell if I just sit and think about it for a second. I have occassionally been known to miss out half the Ns in announcement (anoucement)

Just to jump back in, if I may.

Can anybody remeber the little sayings they have to spell words correctly.

Parallel only has one r because ALL the trouble is in the middle.

The difference between principle and principal is the latter is a person because he is a PAL of mine.

Yes I know the latter is a grammar aide memoir

I never had any of those sayings to help me - but those are thankfully words I've never had a problem with.

My bigegst problem word is manoeuvre. But I recently taught myself the right spelling by pronouncing it one syllable at a time in French phonetics.

Man-o-euvre

Weird how I had so much trouble with that, when I can perfectly spell onomatopoeia. :)

Quite a few words.

Many people on the forum have marvelled at my rendition of the word 'the' which often comes out as 'teh'. :)

But when at school it was necessary. Only way I remember it is the old 'one collar and two studs'. (One 'c' and two 's's)

But I'm surprisingly bad at spelling considering I have a large vocabulary.

Joe

Originally posted by JoePritchard
Quite a few words.

Many people on the forum have marvelled at my rendition of the word 'the' which often comes out as 'teh'. :)

But when at school it was necessary. Only way I remember it is the old 'one collar and two studs'. (One 'c' and two 's's)

But I'm surprisingly bad at spelling considering I have a large vocabulary.

Joe

Thanks for the (one collar two studs) tip! That one is my nightmare..................as well as many others.

asthma - or is it athsma??? have to type this a fair few times a day at work and it gets me every time. :rolleyes:

"Their", I can never remember which way round the "i" and "e" go…

…and I always thought it was “i” before “e” except after “c”.

It’s one of the exceptions, but I can still never get it right (without a spell checker).

How :loopy: is that?

:confused:

Definate- As in, definately? Or is it definitely?

I thought definitely was like, defined.. definition.. :?

There is A RAT in separate!
However, look at any word for long enough and it starts to look mad and wrong. I spent ages trying to write 'what' the other day.

Originally posted by Sheffette
There is A RAT in separate!
However, look at any word for long enough and it starts to look mad and wrong. I spent ages trying to write 'what' the other day.

Thought it was seperate?

Psyche is well 'ard. The hardest word to spell of all is onomatopoeia.

Apparently I cant spell, necessarily is not easy and I can never work out if its effect or affect or dependent or dependant!

i do not have many problems writing words, just the odd occasion when the more i look at a word the more it looks wrong.. my problem is saying some words, i cant sat temporarily
i really struggle with it.. there are some other words i find hard but its not till i use them i realise this!

I recently got taught a handy little memory jogger for spelling the word necessary (which i always had major problem with) which is to imagine necessary as a shirt because it has two sleeves (S) and one collar (C).

Originally posted by savbaby
i do not have many problems writing words, just the odd occasion when the more i look at a word the more it looks wrong..

I get this too! If I stare for a while at a word, it becomes meaningless - just a mess of lines, squiggles and dots.

I've never really had any problems with spelling, except for the word 'accommodation' - or 'accomodation', or whatever it is. I just have a blind spot for this word :help:

I used to be very sad and prided myself greatly on my spelling - so much so, I got really upset in one spelling test at school when I only got 9/10. The word they 'claimed' I spelt wrongly was 'pigeon'. I spelt it as 'pidgeon', as in the actor Walter Pidgeon, or pidgeon English. They wouldn't let me away with it, and I felt hard-done-by for ages! :D

Hopefully I've lightened up a bit since then! (but I still think it was a very harsh decision..... :suspect: )

StarSparkle :)

Originally posted by GazB
Thought it was seperate?

Sorry GazB, but according to the mighty OED (and my old history teacher) its separate. Hence the handy erm, whatsit.

Originally posted by GazB
Thought it was seperate?

Nope. Separate is definitely spelled 'separate'.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=definitely
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=separate

An amusingly common misspelling of definitely is 'definatly', which is then accidentally typed as 'defiantly', which is something else altogether:

"I defiantly sent you that email"
"Why? I wasn't trying to stop you!"

:hihi:

Originally posted by Swan_Vesta
I recently got taught a handy little memory jogger for spelling the word necessary (which i always had major problem with) which is to imagine necessary as a shirt because it has two sleeves (S) and one collar (C).

But then people may spell it nessecary :hihi:

I know 2 rhymes to spell because:

Billy Eats Cakes And Uses Seven Eggs

or

Big Elephants Arn't Ugly Their beautIFUL

Originally posted by GazB
But then people may spell it nessecary :hihi:

Getting letters backwards and having to correct is a problem I suffer. I often write or type 'excer', then realise what I've done (again), erase that and continue with 'exercise'.

I need to exorcise* my exercise demons ;)

* that one took three attempts - I know HOW to spell it, but the practicalities are beyond me!

Loose and lose always fox me as both have the same sound in the middle.

a lot of times i can write stuff perfectly well but because i just type so fast and don't think about it my letters get muddled up and things come out wrong.

i sit next to a guy at work who has a masters in english and is therefore the fountain of all spelling knowledge. :clap:

Thanks for the collar-and-studs mnemonic, Joe: necessary is one of the ones that I always struggle with although I usually struggle by, remembering that the first "s" sound couldn't come from a double "c", so the double-letter must be the "s"es further on.

I get very confused over some other double-single words, but I forget what they are at the moment.

But the ones that really throw me seem to be ones with slightly counter-intuitive foreign derivations. Yesterday I had to write "connoisseur" and that stumped me (fortunately, with words like that, I just type an approximation of the spelling into Google and it tells me "did you mean:....", much quicker than firing up Word and using its spell-checker). "Bureau" is another one that sometimes stumps me. But the king of all nasty spellings has to be "diarrhea" (yes, fortunately it's not a word I type a lot, but there have been times when I've needed it), I can barely even think of an approximation to feed into Google when I have to spell that.

Like Joe, I also suffer from finger slip-ups and my emails often contain "teh"s. I sometimes even sign myself off "Dna" - I dunno, it must be something genetic. :)

Originally posted by StarSparkle
I used to be very sad and prided myself greatly on my spelling - so much so, I got really upset in one spelling test at school when I only got 9/10. The word they 'claimed' I spelt wrongly was 'pigeon'. I spelt it as 'pidgeon', as in the actor Walter Pidgeon, or pidgeon English. They wouldn't let me away with it, and I felt hard-done-by for ages! :D
I had a similar problem when I was 12 when I wrote a story for my English homework. I was very into Dungeons and Dragons at the time, and my story was about the "Gray Elves". I thought the "a" in "gray" looked kind of wrong (all the D&D books were American), but I reasoned that as it was a proper name, the correct thing would be to carry the spelling through. My English teacher obviously didn't take the same view, as she went through the entire essay correcting each of the many "Gray"s and ended with some remark about how I had to learn to spell "grey". I felt very hard done-by.

Do the words flammable and inflammable have the same meaning (and are they spelt correctly?)

:help: i would tell you the word i cant spell but the thing is, i cant spell it to ask if its right anyway:help:

Originally posted by GazB
But then people may spell it nessecary :hihi:

Drat. I'd not thought of that option. Is there a word for these memory jogger type things?

Originally posted by BoppinBruce
Do the words flammable and inflammable have the same meaning (and are they spelt correctly?)
I believe they mean the same thing - which is ridiculous. I only use the word 'flammable' because when an adjective starts with 'in-' it usually means 'not'...

Originally posted by Swan_Vesta
Is there a word for these memory jogger type things?
Mnemonics.

Or "memory jogger type things" :) (oh, sorry, that's four words)

Originally posted by RichD
I believe they mean the same thing - which is ridiculous. I only use the word 'flammable' because when an adjective starts with 'in-' it usually means 'not'...

On a similar theme, the opposite of contaminate is decontaminate so is the opposite of delicious, licious? As in "I hate this cake its licious!" :D

I say that all the time - what's so funny?

(As if!!) :D

Tehy Tlel me taht if you wirte an atrilce and olny use the frist and lsat lteter of ecah wrod it can be udensrtood. If so waht do you mkae of tihs psintog.

I can only spell definitely and remember correctly if I concentrate really hard.

Usually, definately or defiantley.
and
Rember. Dont know why:confused:

Mekas preceft snese to me Bpopnig Bcure!

Spelling isn't my bogeyman, it's typing! If I get carried away my fingers move slower than my brain and it goes all wonky.

:( My average typing speed is around 65wpm though.

I'd definately have to run with...diarrhoea...pulls me up short every time. :hihi:

Seriously, I've never been able to spell it correctly. Fortunately I don't use it that often and it can easily be shortened :o :D

Had to look it up to post it on here!:(

Just looked up definitely too !!! :blush:

Diar..., Diorhe..., Dierea..., oh sod it, 'Spurts'!!

PROFESSIONAL - You only get one F*** for two 'S'hillings from a pro'.

SEPARATE - sePARaTe (PART)

I always get confused as to whether its 1 or 2 m's in amount lol... :loopy:

I'm usually quite good at spelling but I can never remember which word is correct magasine or magazine. Both of them look wrong. It's odd really as I used to work at a newsagents for several years. :confused:

When I did my weekly orders it was easier to write mags :thumbsup:

haemorrhage. Do I get a prize if I get it right?

I used to work for BT's 195 (blind & disabled) directory enquiries service. I hadn't worked there for long before I was asked for the number of the Dyslexia Association, you can imagine how I felt having to ask "how do you spell Dyslexia", luckily it was the mother of the card holder and she saw the funny side of my problem, she couldn't spell it either.

Originally posted by BoppinBruce
Do the words flammable and inflammable have the same meaning (and are they spelt correctly?)

yes they have the same meaning

I gather inflammable was created as an intensified version think enflammable (the in- prefix is misleading).

I gather the current advice is that we should all ditch inflammable as rather dangerously ambiguous to the uninitiated.

for me desiccate is a tricky one. but I know it's a tricky one so I remember it consciously.

I sometimes struggle with conscience, viscous and vicous, and of course floccinaucinihilipilification.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a
wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be
in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed
it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I
awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.

Originally posted by savbaby
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a
wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be
in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed
it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I
awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.

I blveiee taht too....I raed taht as qiuck as a flahs!!

:clap:

that was so easy to read but must have been so difficult to write

I received an e-mail a while back (wishes I wasn't so keen on 'housekeeping' my in-box otherwise I could cut and paste) which said it is easy to read words that are mis-spelt and I think some of the earlier posts prove that (I could read them all easily) and it's something to do with the brain being able to see 'the word' rather than the individual letters?

Anyway, back to the topic. I used to be fantastic at spelling/English at school but since then (I was a while since I left) my spelling has gradually deteriorated, I use 'spell-check' a lot of the time and I guess that makes the brain lazy - a bit like the 'use it or lose it' syndrome I guess???!!!

I think good spelling and grammer is very important and should be a priority in schooling. But maybe i'm being a bit old fashioned?

Originally posted by spiffymonkey

There aren't many words I can't spell if I just sit and think about it for a second. I have occassionally been known to miss out half the Ns in announcement (anoucement)

Have you also occasionally been known to add an extra 's' in words spiffymonkey?

I used to work with a colleague, JC, who admitted she had a blind spot when it came to spelling.

One day at the office, JC was struggling to write a report, and kept asking for my assistance with the spelling. The conversation went like this........

JC "How do you spell 'psychiatrist'?"
Me "D.o.c.t.o.r."
JC "Oh yes, that will do, thanks"

JC "How do you spell 'psychotic''?"
Me "M.a.d."
JR "That will do - wish I could think of shorter words like you."

JC "How do you spell diarrhoea?"
Me "S.......
JC (quickly interrupting) "Thank you.... but I'll just put 'unwell' instead!"


:hihi: :heyhey:

Originally posted by savbaby
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a
wrod are
I tihnk tihs Cmabrigde Uinervtisy rscheearch is an ubran lgened (http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/cambridge.asp), athlgouh it cretainly is a lot esaier to read tahn yuo'd tihnk.

(Dman, wehn I wnet to put in the url tag jsut now, I tpyed it "rul")

There is another pair of words like "inflammable" and "flammable", it always annoys me when people use the "in" version, but I can't for the life of me remember what they are.

Also yesterday I could think of lots of other words with "opposite" prefixes with no apparent un-prefixed versions, but I've forgotten them all today :(.

Originally posted by redrobbo
Have you also occasionally been known to add an extra 's' in words spiffymonkey?

Well spotted ;)

When we have the forumers, who needs the enigma coding and Esparanto.


Can anyone talk Esparanto by the way?

Send us a few words if you can plz.

I'm betting there's about to be a few posts in Esperanto regarding hall porters, frogs and bidets....

Or is it just me who's a Red Dwarf fanatic? :)

Just remembered another one - renaissance.

Originally posted by DanSumption
I tihnk tihs Cmabrigde Uinervtisy rscheearch is an ubran lgened (http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/cambridge.asp), athlgouh it cretainly is a lot esaier to read tahn yuo'd tihnk.

(Dman, wehn I wnet to put in the url tag jsut now, I tpyed it "rul")

There is another pair of words like "inflammable" and "flammable", it always annoys me when people use the "in" version, but I can't for the life of me remember what they are.

Also yesterday I could think of lots of other words with "opposite" prefixes with no apparent un-prefixed versions, but I've forgotten them all today :(.

The research on letter position in words does exist -
http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/personal/matt.davis/Cmabrigde/rawlinson.html
Not cambridge Uni, but Nottingham. and it's a 'thesis' from 1976.

Originally posted by DanSumption
Just remembered another one - renaissance.
And, continuing with the historical theme, mediaeval (hmm, Google not much help with that one - both mediaeval and medieval come out correct - anyone know whether this is an English/American thing or just two equally valid spellings?

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
Not cambridge Uni, but Nottingham. and it's a 'thesis' from 1976.
In other words, the Cambridge Uni research is an urban legend :)

Speaking of flammable/inflammable, there is one other word-pair which I often wonder about: oriented vs. orientated. Is there a difference? I cringe whenever I hear people say "orientated" (actually, I usually cringe twice because it tends to be used in naff business-speak contexts like "sales-orientated"), why the extra "at"? It just sounds clumsy, but perhaps that's just me being fussy (again).

Just wanted to add to the "necessary" bit.

A friend (who shall remain nameless) told me to think of a naked vicar - naked all but for his collar (one "C") and socks (2 "S's"). This works for me everytime and gives me a bit of pleasure in an otherwise boring day.

Originally posted by DanSumption
In other words, the Cambridge Uni research is an urban legend :)

Well the thesis held that you could jumble the internal letters of most words (Where possible) and still retain enough of the word shape to infer meaning. WHich is what the text of the urban legend states.

The confusion with location probably has more to do with the the retelling of the story and a desire for it to become more 'prestigious/authoritative' (substitute regional city Uni with Oxbridge uni).

In essence, and if this Rawlinson fella is to be believed, then it's myth that the research came from cambridge, and that a team of researchers was involved. But the assertions of the legend and the actual research are identical.

People like Douglas Hofstadter have gone even further looking at word shapes and typography and inventing symmetrical fonts (ones that read backwards the same way they do forwards).

It's interesting to note how far you can deform the shape and content of words through typography and spelling, and still retain, if not increase, the information enocded within.

With regard to orientating, and orienting, as far as my own ideolect goes:

I would see paper as a wood-oriented business,but I would orientate myself in the forest (using a map which would need to be correctly oriented).


There's one word I never spell incorrectley.....

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
I would see paper as a wood-oriented business,but I would orientate myself in the forest (using a map which would need to be correctly oriented).
Yes, I once did something similar, I was orienteering in an oriental forest.

I'm still not 100% clear whether there's a real difference in meaning between oriented and orientated. You mean, if I understand you correctly, that orientated means pointing towards whereas oriented means centred around? Anyway, I'm pretty certain that the latter is frequently misused.

Oh, and thank you for reminding me... Gödel Escher Bach has been sitting in my bedroom awaiting a re-read for far too long now, I really ought to go up there and bury myself in it now...

Originally posted by BoppinBruce
Just to jump back in, if I may.

Can anybody remeber the little sayings they have to spell words correctly.

Parallel only has one r because ALL the trouble is in the middle.

The difference between principle and principal is the latter is a person because he is a PAL of mine.

Yes I know the latter is a grammar aide memoir do you mean mnemonics? Another hard word to spell!

I'm fairly good at spelling, I seem to have mental blocks about small words e.g. I always spell floor - 'flour' Logically it makes sense, floor should be four with an 'l' after the 'f' in my mind.

Having read through all the posts on this thread it's left me analysing (or is it analyzing ?? :huh: ?? ) everything I've written to make sure i've spelt ( or is it spelled ?? :huh: ?? ) things correctly!!

gsoh, taht was scuh hrad wrok !! :)

Originally posted by DanSumption
Yes, I once did something similar, I was orienteering in an oriental forest.

I'm still not 100% clear whether there's a real difference in meaning between oriented and orientated. You mean, if I understand you correctly, that orientated means pointing towards whereas oriented means centred around? Anyway, I'm pretty certain that the latter is frequently misused.

I think it has more to do with convention, derived from a requirement to distinguish between possible 'around' and 'towards' senses of the verb orient. I suspect, in my black heart, that it is actually a case of resuffixed noun to make a verb, a bit like burglarizing which is now carried out by burglarizers. One awaits the inevitable burglarizered

Originally posted by DanSumption

Oh, and thank you for reminding me... Gödel Escher Bach has been sitting in my bedroom awaiting a re-read for far too long now, I really ought to go up there and bury myself in it now...

I use the word 'genius' far too readily. It should really be reserved for him, personally. Sorry Mr Feynman; but what do you care what other people think?

Originally posted by tulip
do you mean mnemonics? Another hard word to spell!

I'm fairly good at spelling, I seem to have mental blocks about small words e.g. I always spell floor - 'flour' Logically it makes sense, floor should be four with an 'l' after the 'f' in my mind.

stalagmites go up from the ground

stalactites come down from the ceiling.

I got stuck in an exam once for at least 25 minutes, trying to work out how to spell 'said'.

The more I looked at it the more meaningless it became, a common occurence.

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
I use the word 'genius' far too readily. It should really be reserved for him, personally. Sorry Mr Feynman; but what do you care what other people think?
Oh yus, the bongo-playing safe-cracking radio-fixing genius with the bloodhound sense of smell, another one which definitely deserves a re-read. GEB first though, as it's 15 years since I last read it and I've learned a lot in the meantime.

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
stalagmites go up from the ground

stalactites come down from the ceiling.

I got stuck in an exam once for at least 25 minutes, trying to work out how to spell 'said'.

The more I looked at it the more meaningless it became, a common occurence. My geography teacher used to say "tites come down, mites go up!" he thought he was VERY funny ... sad!

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain - To remember the colours of the rainbow spectrum. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Not a spelling but a mnemonic all the same. I have a friend who can't say domino, she says 'donimo' I can't find a way for her to over-come the problem, I've tried say 'DOM, now say INO, now put it together' and she says DONIMO! she has trouble with other words that contain 'n's & 'm's any suggestions?

Someone said on this thread earlier about opposite words. I found out the other day that someone can be "gruntled", the opposite to disgruntled! I suppose it makes sense really but it's not a word you'd get much use out of...

if you can spell disylexsic theres nowt wrong wiv u. :suspect:

This is more a pronunciation thing than a spelling thing, but my ex-boss loved to use the word "specific" in every other sentence. Trouble is he actually said "pacific". It made me cringe every time!

I was determined to have him saying it properly before I moved on, but never succeeded. I even tried to make it easier for him by telling him just to say "s" before he said it, ie "s-pacific". He just couldn't do it. I had to give up in the end.

My other bug bear is "nuclear" which loads of people pronounce "nu-killer". I can understand the logic, but it really grates !

I have difficulty spelling "occasionally" (1 or 2 's' ?) and "separately" (sepa or sepe?). Always get it wrong - that goodness for MS Word.

i dont' ave a prblem with any speling nor gramar, never put the apostrophy in the rong playce. espcially when it coms to the posesif pronoun 'it's' but ocasinly strugle with where the full stop should come also dont' use capital leters and find it hard to breeth becos i cnt take a breth and now that countodwn is finish i wont be able to do my sums niether

Common misspellings are:-

Occasionally - definitely - separately - accommodation & necessary.

If I am in doubt regarding any spelling on this forum, I simply use another word.

When it comes to grammar, I am amazed how often the possessive pronoun "its" is wrongly spelt "it's" when in reference to an object, although this is a quirk of our language, every other object taking an apostrophe and an S to show possession. ie: the box's lid, the man's suit, Ousetunes's ramblings.