*taps on mike* This thing on?

[tree_talking]

*clears throat*

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE SPELLING KIND:

You pore over books.

You pour syrup on pancakes.

Do not get these two confused. It could result in Unfortunate Circumstances of the Sticky book kind.

A "Whig" is a member of a colonial political party. They opposed autocratic rule. Daniel Webster was a "Whig".

A "wig" is a hairpiece.

Do not get those two confused. I often imagine that you are wearing a colonial gentleman on your head. While this may be funny, it does not make sense.

Comments

[vegablack62.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your advice. I confuse the pore and pour myself. Isn't that sad? This was fun to read.

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I like to point out these things in hopes that it will steer someone right!

Or else just to vent. :)

[jennlee2.livejournal.com]

Bravo!

And my own pet peeve:

You lose weight.

Your dog runs loose off leash.

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

Hee, yes. I made an entry about lose/loose as well as grisly/grizzly a few posts back. Some other people had other great peeves as well.

[billfl.livejournal.com]

You're making fun of me because I often have Millard Fillmore on my head, aren't you? *sniff*

P.S.: Mine (other than loose/lose) is whne someone writes "Should OF", instead of "Should HAVE".

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

Oh, that is *so* annoying. It really doesn't take that much to write the correct word.

[libbi.livejournal.com]

Hee, I read a blog written by someone who kept going on and on about her marvellous, exclusive education and all round spiffiness. She kept using long words and phrases and getting it just slightly wrong, e.g. 'wholly Trifecta' Bless. *titters*

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

*snerk* I consider myself quite intelligent, despite not having a lofty education. I just look up the words before I use them if I'm not 100% sure.

[h311ybean]

I know this is a PSA, but can I still give you an "Amen!!!"?

I'm also bothered by the whole flair/flare mixup, which occurs even in books published by reputable outfits in the United States.

Note to authors and editors: You do things with flair, while you wear things that flare!

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

Ugh, YES. It's especially heinous when it's in published works.

Just...aigh!

[lalenapeike.livejournal.com]

Nice announcement.

One of my favorites that I just keep seeing:

The phrase "for all intensive purposes" written instead of "for all intents and purposes"

It always cracks me up!

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

*snerk*

And it drives me nuts when I see the plural ''s' in advertising and stuff at work.

This is not difficult to remember!

[lalenapeike.livejournal.com]

Or like this sign across the street from my house:

Computer's for Sale!

Although this sentence amused me: "Now I know you don't want to listen, but please bare with me"

Umm...I'd really rather not.

But still the one that will forever make me crazy is the people who don't know the difference between "you're" and "your"

[frontdoorangel.livejournal.com]

Ha! Don't forget- congratulations. Some people seem to honestly believe there's a D in there. Oh, ever since I started playing world of warcraft, I'm just appalled on a daily basis by the general chat that goes on at the bottom of the screen. I know some of the kids are young but, the spelling is just god awful.

I don't consider myself much of a grammar/spelling freak, but, a little effort goes a long way with these kinds of things. Most of these kids aren't even trying...and for God's sake when did "nite" become acceptable? I see that all the time.

[ysidro]

I write "congradulations" but only to RATMMers. The right people will get it. The right people and Stephen Ratliff.

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

:D! LOL

Misspellings are ok amongst friends. *nods*

[silica-sandra.livejournal.com]

It's really funny that you posted this. I'm not sure how much you've been keeping up with me, but I'm a pre-service English teacher right now earning my Masters degree and yesterday in my Teaching Grammar and Usage class we went over homophones and homonyms and how they can be confusing for students. We got to put on comedy skits about them to help point out the differences - it was fun times. We also talked about it in light of teaching English Language Learners, who can really struggle with it...and can see from the outside all the more clearly how absolutely silly it is that we have totally different words that sound the same, and in some cases are spelled the same.

English is very, very funny!

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

It *so* is.

My husband is planning to go for his Masters to teach English in jr.high/h.s. He's got pre-grad work to do though.

I love the idea to teach the homonyms using skits! They would be very funny skits. ;)

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I think I once saw a most excellent text-only animated icon which ran down quite a lot of these pet peeves of spelling and grammar.

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

:) I like the one that says something to the effect of "English lurks in dark alleys, mugging other languages for words."

And yeah, I have that one...somewhere in my archives. heh.

[bookworm1225.livejournal.com]

Here's another one to add to your list: rein/reign.

Lately, I'm seeing many people talking about things like "'reigning' in their enthusiasm." *tsks*

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

Oh, ugh, I forgot about that one. Heh, it seems every time I post one of these, people come up with MORE. :)