My Webster's does not indicate any alternative to pronouncing the "h" in "historical" (where the "h" is in an unstressed syllable), but for the word "vehicle" it allows both pronunciations (in fact putting the alternative where the "h" is silent first)...likewise for "vehemence" (where the "h" is in an unstressed syllable).
Strange I never saw this thread before...
I’ve given up trying to point out when people use horrid spelling and grammar, it usually only gets me flamed as being a grammar nazi...even if I’m just trying to tell them for future reference, and point that fact out...
But if you think about it a little, you post your opinions on here, trying to impress everyone (everybody??? both will work) with your vast intelligence and all encompassing knowledge of the subject, and you’re too damn dumb to use the spelling checker built into the post editor...and too damn dumb to know how to spell it right to begin with. And you want me to be impressed by your vast intelligence.
I pay a lot more attention to people who take the time and effort to proofread their posts and eliminate all or most of their spelling and grammar errors, either they made very few to begin with or they at least know how to use the editor and take time to do so. In general I can often tell if it’s a simple typo or a gross lack of knowledge. I wonder how many of you actually know what proofread means.
I keep my spell checker in my head. Usually that red squiggly line only catches the typos, which is really handy, I type pretty fast, at least 45 words per minute, but if you include the time it takes to correct all the typos, it’s probably more like 7 words per minute...I’m not very accurate...
It boils down to this. You didn’t pay attention in school. Most of the errors I see are things I knew in 5th grade, with a few exceptions.
But if you want to show off how smart you are, don’t post something with spelling and grammar mistakes all over it, I’ll see you as an uneducated fool and probably ignore it.
Call me a grammar nazi, I don’t really care. I tried pointing these things out a long time ago, in an effort to simply educate people and gave it up, they don’t want to learn...they don’t want to put a little effort into it, make sure what they type is correct, look it up and find out how to spell it to begin with.
And this is also one of my biggest issues with modern education handing out diplomas to illiterates. The high school graduates of today will be running this country in 20 years, less in some cases at least locally, and they are complete dummies...It scares me to think what this world will look like when the current group of illiterates is running things. How can you run a country if you can’t even use decent spelling and grammar? You think people like Ted Cruz got through law school without knowing how to spell?
And yes I know it’s not totally correct to end a sentence with several periods. I can’t remember the rule, but that’s my one common fault I use a lot, and don’t bother to correct.
The one thing I’ve never figured out is related to plurals. Two cars is not two car’s, I know that. But how about things like CPU? (Central Processing Unit, used in computers) Two CPUs or two CPU’s? I’ve never been really sure...I think without the apostrophe would be correct but not positive. The apostrophe is used to indicate letters are missing, so CPU’s may be correct, I’m not sure.
I don’t know if I could list all the gross errors I see all the time. Many have already been pointed out in this thread.
then/than
your/you’re
to/too/two
plurals
lose/loose/loser/looser
there/their/they’re
effect/affect
were/we’re
border/boarder
choose/chose
woman/women - women is plural.
of instead of have - should have known is correct, not should of known.
whose/who’s
There are plenty others but most would require an explanation. Bear or bare, for example. I have no idea how many times I’ve seen people post something about their 2nd amendment right to bare arms...
And I hate internet shorthand. 4 is a number, not the word for. B4 instead of before. It’s just plain lazy. The only place I can almost accept it is on twitter where 140 characters is your limit. Otherwise just spell the damn word, internet shorthand is actually more difficult to read. Or should I say decipher?
If you want to impress me, learn how to spell and use decent grammar. Otherwise I’m much more likely to figure you’re an uneducated idiot and ignore you.