Little Spelling Bastards

[Smiley]

Here's a trick my mother taught me for "separate": There's A RAT in "separate.

What gets me is adding the suffix "-able" to words that end in "e" like knowledge. What's the U.S. rule on when to remove the "e" and when to leave it in?

 

[JD]

I also dying dieing. It's taken me about 3 years, and 3 different people on here pointing it out to me for me to get it. Actually, that's just the most common of my many spelling mistakes.

 

[LightningStorm]

Smiley said:
What gets me is adding the suffix "-able" to words that end in "e" like knowledge. What's the U.S. rule on when to remove the "e" and when to leave it in?

English and "rules" do not go together.

Good ole' "I before E, except after C" (and all the other instances where i doesn't come before e. I also once found a site that showed that there are instances of every character (except q) in the English alphabet that has an instance of it being silent in a word.

Another I thought of is license. That one for some reason doesn't even look right when it's spelled correctly, to me.

 

[Christopher]

LightningStorm said:
Good ole' "I before E, except after C" (and all the other instances where i doesn't come before e.

The problem is, that's just one line of a longer mnemonic. It's meant to refer to a specific type of situation, like a specific way it's pronounced or something like that -- I forget what. But it was never meant to be a universal rule; it just gets misinterpreted that way, and unfortunately mis-taught that way.

I also once found a site that showed that there are instances of every character (except q) in the English alphabet that has an instance of it being silent in a word.

Really? I tried that a while back, even posted a thread about it on a BBS to get some help, and I couldn't find any words with silent Q or V. So I'm wondering what their silent V word was.

 

[Stevil2001]

Christopher said:

LightningStorm said:
Good ole' "I before E, except after C" (and all the other instances where i doesn't come before e.

The problem is, that's just one line of a longer mnemonic. It's meant to refer to a specific type of situation, like a specific way it's pronounced or something like that -- I forget what. But it was never meant to be a universal rule; it just gets misinterpreted that way, and unfortunately mis-taught that way.

"I" before "E",
Except after "C",
Or when sounded like "A"
As in "neighbor" or "weigh".

 

[Christopher]

^^But even that isn't all-encompassing: height, protein, eidetic, either, Vivian Leigh. Not to mention words that do have "ie" after "c": science, ancient, efficient, policies, society, glacier.

I think even that longer rhyme was only meant to apply to a specific narrow category of words, like those derived from a certain language. I can't remember what that category was meant to be, and Wikipedia doesn't help.

 

[captcalhoun]

you also forgot 'weird is weird'

separate also gets me and so does the one Mollman mentioned that is about bureaucrats that i'm not even attempting...

 

[Lonemagpie]

Not spelling, cos by hand this problem doesn't happen, but typing, I'm damned if I can stop "doctor" coming out as "dcotor"

Which is a bit of a pain when most of one's writing career has been spent writing about a character called The Doctor...

 

[JWolf]

Firefox has a built in spell checker. So no need to make typos on the forum unless they are on purpose or you are trying to spell something the spell checker doesn't know and you also don't know.

 

[Trent Roman]

Cthulhu.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[TGTheodore]

Trent Roman said:
Cthulhu.

Gesundheit!

--Ted

 

[TGTheodore]

Steve Mollmann said:
"I" before "E",
Except after "C",
Or when sounded like "A"
As in "neighbor" or "weigh".

Christopher said:

^^But even that isn't all-encompassing: height, protein, eidetic, either, Vivian Leigh. Not to mention words that do have "ie" after "c": science, ancient, efficient, policies, society, glacier.

This "rule" was given to YOUNG students, long before we'd ever be using the exceptions noted above. It's an excellent introductory rule before the student is old enough to realize that English is a most inconsistent and poorly constructed language.

So, I propose the following addendum to the poem which should cover a lot more ground. Note, some words are underlined to help you grasp the proper meter. It's a lyricist's thing ...


"I" before "E",
Except after "C",
Or when sounded like "A"
As in "neighbor" or "weigh".

But before you adhere to complete, blind compliance
There are more exceptions like “protein” and “science”.
Excluding your “height” from this mnemonic poem,
Means you’re quite “efficient” and you really know ‘em.

“Ancient” old “prophecies” and “policies” state
That "society's" also exempt from the slate.
So remember this poem “eidetically”,
And you’ll be much smarter than Vivien “Leigh”.

Alternate ending on the DVD: And you'll be as cool as a "glacier" can be.


--Ted

 

[Turtletrekker]

I can't believe that no one has said "definite" until now.

 

[EnsignRicky]

I've never neaded a spell checker. I'm an exellent speller. :thumbsup:

 

[Turtletrekker]

Huk't awn fonix wurk't 4 mee.

 

[KRAD]

I spell every word perfectly.

(Stop snickering, Mack!!!!!)

 

[Turtletrekker]

^You spell every word "perfectly"? Even words like "the" and "it"? Sounds confusing.

 

[Redshirts_Widow]

I still get annoyingly frustrated by the whole stationary/stationery thing; Am I saying that my car is not moving or that it happens to be a biro?

<sigh>

 

[Christopher]

Turtletrekker said:
I can't believe that no one has said "definite" until now.

Whereas I, when I began websurfing, was quite surprised to find that "definate" was such a common misspelling. It had never before occurred to me that that word would give anyone difficulty. I mean, surely we all know it's "definition" rather than "defination."

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

For me, for some reason, my brain continues to want to put in additional "n" in identity.