Spelling 101

[Hitchhiker]

Commonly confused words:

principle: (n.)1) A basic truth, law, or assumption: the principles of democracy. 2) A rule or standard, especially of good behavior: a man of principle.
principal: (adj.) First, highest, or foremost in importance, rank, worth, or degree; chief.

horde: (n.) A large group or crowd; a nomadic tribe or group.
hoard: 1) (n.) A hidden fund or supply stored for future use; a cache. 2) (v.)To keep hidden or private.

Commonly misspelled words:

grammar
license
separate
adrenaline
relevant
consistent
persistent

[Huey]

what's the correct spelling of the plural of moose?
the plural of hippopotamus?

thank you for your assistance.

[jeep]

The principal is your pal... or so one of my elementary teachers would have had me believe...

Who was talking about the pin they had that said "Grammer police" and whenever someone commented that "grammar" was misspelled, they had another pin that said "You want the spelling police..." pinned inside their jacket.

(Note: It is now legit to use "their" as the gender-neutral singular pronoun.)

Also: licence is a legitimate alternate spelling...

And you didn't mention "its" and "it's", which I misuse all the time because of my stupid typing skills...


-- below this is grammar stuff, not spelling stuff... sorry, lost track of the topic--
And, of course, who/whom is annoying at this point.

What about who/which/that? People have erroneously corrected others when they used "that" in an acceptable fashion. (Of course, they also corrected the mis-use of "that", too.

-JEEP

[This message has been edited by jeep (edited 12-30-2002 02:42 PM).]

[Hitchhiker]

Spelling word of the day: atheist
(not "athiest," which I guess would be even more athier)

British vs. American:
licence / license
honour / honor
kerb / curb
tyre / tire
rationalise / rationalize
pyjamas / pajamas
gaol / jail
leapt / leaped
Mr / Mr.

Commonly confused words:

wreak: (v.) To bring about; cause: wreak havoc.
reek: (v.) To give off a strong unpleasant odor.

it's: Contraction of "it is". It's going to eat me! (Or sometimes "it has," as in It's got wings and horns!)
its: Possessive; "belonging to it." Its horns are really long and its teeth are enormous!

Originally posted by Huey:

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what's the correct spelling of the plural of moose?
the plural of hippopotamus?

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The plural of moose is moose.
There are two plurals generally accepted for hippopotamus: hippopotamuses and hippopotami. Or you could just save yourself the trouble and say hippos.

Originally posted by jeep:

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(Note: It is now legit to use "their" as the gender-neutral singular pronoun.)

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Only in certain circles.

Originally posted by jeep:

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Also: licence is a legitimate alternate spelling...

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Correct. Some non-legitimate spellings I've seen on the GL include "lisence," "liscence" and "liesense."

For discussion of who/whom and who/which/that, see the Grammar 101 thread which will surely be started by our one and only Moose, or perhaps by many moose. Or hippopotami.

[Hitchhiker]

Today's word: weird.

Like feisty and several others, it breaks the "rule" of

"I before E, except after C, or when sounded as A (as in neighbor and weigh)."

A handy mnemonic for some of the "rulebreakers," courtesy of ZutAlors!:
Neither seized weird leisure, either at that height.

[Hitchhiker]

Today's word: millennium (two l's, two n's)

Other words with doubled letters:
hitchhiker
tomorrow
recommend
roommate
vacuum


What word contains three pairs of doubled letters, consecutively?

[mathgrant]

Doorroommeeting has 5 sets of double letters.

[jeep]

parallel has a pair of Ls...

Bookkeeper is one. There is at least one other. (It's pretty trivial to figure the other one out...)

-JEEP

[Dragon Phoenix]

Bookkeepers?

[jeep]

That's the one I was thinking of...

-JEEP

[Dragon Phoenix]

Doh! I thought it would be just a little less trivial...
Like rookkeeper - a chess player who does not like to sacrifice or exchange his rooks...

[Agamemnon]

Sorry to be picky, but just a minor point...

quote:

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British vs. American:
licence / license
honour / honor
kerb / curb
tyre / tire
rationalise / rationalize
pyjamas / pajamas
gaol / jail
leapt / leaped
Mr / Mr.

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Tyre/Tire, are both used in Blighty.
Pyjamas is very very rarely used here (Pajamas more common)
Gaol has not been used since Queen Victoria was on the throne.

[VinnyQ]

*raise hand*

I have a question.

British vs. Americans

?/Beer
?/Bathroom
Limey/?
Bloody/?
Queen/?

[Hitchhiker]

Aga, you want to take some of these? (Please?)

ale/beer
loo/bathroom
Limey/?
Bloody/? (I don't think there is an American equivalent)
Queen/Queen (there are other equivalents too, if you mean like a drag queen)

And a few more...

lorry/truck
lift/elevator
spanner/wrench
torch/flashlight
jumper/sweater
windcheater/windbreaker
bonnet(of a car)/hood(of a car)
ladder(in a stocking)/run(in a stocking)
perambulator or pram/baby carriage
flat/apartment

"Mad" means crazy (UK) or angry (US)
"Pissed" means drunk (UK) or really angry (US)

I own a British copy of Echo Burning, which is set in Texas with all American characters, and it uses "tyre." Rather disconcerting.

"England and America are two countries separated by the same language." --George Bernard Shaw

[VinnyQ]

Testing:

I think have drank too much ALE, I need to go to the LOOOOOO!

How's that?

[jeep]

Beer has come to mean beverage made by fermenting malt (sugar from grains)... There are two broad categories:

Ale: is brewed with a "rapid fermentation" ot "top fermentation"- generally at warmer temperatures (70 degrees or so)
Lager: is brewed with a "slow fermentation" or "bottom fermentation"- generally at lower temps (50 degrees- which is what... 10 degrees C?)

I'm not certain that the Brits use the same terminology, but most Yanks neither know, nor care, about the difference.

Hmm... maybe I should start Beer 101... or Brewing 101...

Oh, what about cigarette/fag?

-JEEP

[TANSTAAFL]

so what are porters and stouts?

[Hitchhiker]

there: opposite of "here"
their: belonging to them
they're: they are

to: opposite of "from"
two: number following "one"
too: 1) also, additionally: me too 2) a qualifier: too much, too little, too late

[extropalopakettle]

So a mushroom walks into a bar and orders a drink. The bartender goes, "Sorry we don't serve mushrooms here." And the mushroom goes, "Why not? I'm a fungi!"

He should have said "I'm a fungus!"

Or, if there were more than one of them, he could have said "We're fungi!"

[Hitchhiker]

More words commonly misspelled by (some) GL'ers:

representative
reference
opinion (one "p")
definitely
buoyancy
psycho (except for phsyco_flame, aka macros)
inherent

Commonly confused word pair of the day:

accept: (v.) 1) to receive; he accepted a glass of water. 2) To admit to a group, organization, or place. 3) To regard as true; believe in. 4)To answer affirmatively.

except: (v.) 1) To leave out; exclude: An admission fee is charged, but children are excepted. 2) To object: Counsel excepted to the court's ruling.

[mathgrant]

coincidence

Hy misspelt it in this thread.

[CrystyB]

if you're picking on Hy, why did you left out his "benneifit" in that same topic?

[ChienFou]

My latest set of orders from msaroc in Diplomacy allege that the country he represents is Dermany. That sounds like a serious skin disease of the lower limb joint to me. Perhaps we should scour the boards for cramso psoitgns and ascribe meanings to the more bizarre of them. On reflection it's almost worth a thread in its own right .

pace scarmo

[Beartalon]

effect and affect have similar confusion as expect and accept.

*wonders if Macros is reading this thread*

[This message has been edited by Beartalon (edited 01-09-2003 06:35 PM).]

[Hitchhiker]

Today: the many spellings of /shun/.

fashion
session (mission, fusion, erosion, division)
election (action, mention, inspection)
Martian (gentian)
magician (electrician, Grecian)
Asian (Hessian, Russian)

amscro sightings:

vendicive (Designer Mafia - vindictive?)
someitnhg (Designer Mafia - something)

and a masroc wannabe:

Originally posted by Sniklac16:

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Just ask him yourself he was walking down the hallway with swazicas all over his arms

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Borodog's definition of "swazica":

Originally posted by Borodog:

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I think that's what they call harmonicas in Swaziland.

---

[mathgrant]

Surprised you didn't get this one!

I was surfing the Kids WB website, and I saw something about Pokemon stationery paper. As opposed to stationary paper, which is paper with a paperweight.

------------------
GL DPWestley: I had my backspace key removed and a beverage dispenser pur in it's place. See? I can't go back and fix "put."
GLmathgrant: I once was banned from a M:TG tourney for bringing over 50 banned cards! They were Ace of Clubs, Ace of Diamonds, Ace of Hearts, Ace of Spades, 2 of Clubs. . .

[Hitchhiker]

*gives a gold star to mathgrant*

Other words seen misspelled by GL'ers:

fjord
reckless
nonexistent
amateur
nickel (not "nickle")

[Dragon Phoenix]

And Pheonix...

[Samirra]

Hello..
Does anyone know the meaning of "tattarrattat"?
I think it was first used by James Joyce,I'm not sure.

[This message has been edited by Samirra (edited 01-17-2003 05:55 PM).]

[Samirra]

Oh..and here's another three pairs of doubles, sweettooth.

[Hitchhiker]

Samirra gets a gold star for sweettooth.

"Tattarrattat," is, I believe, James Joyce's deliberate inversion of "rat-a-tat-tat" -- the sound made by rain falling on a tin roof.

GL commonly misspelled word of the day is:

criticism (not critisism, even in Blighty)

[jeep]

SWEETTOOTH? Isn't it "SWEET TOOTH"? I know it's not legal as one word in Scrabble...

-JEEP

[Hitchhiker]

"Sweet tooth" is correct, but I will accept "SWEETTOOTH" as an alternate for "BOOKKEEPER" because I did not specify that the words be present in any particular reference work.

jeep gets a silver star and a green one because I feel like some variety in my colors (colours, in Britain).




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[Beartalon]

And Canada (but no-one really knows what rules apply from which country- US or UK)

[luminous]

Crap dangit! Didn't you know? It's Canadia...

[Hitchhiker]

Adapted from a test I recently took at a job interview. Without using any reference work, identify the three correctly spelled words below:

accomodate
independant
publically
mischievious
iridescent
liason
supercede
agressive
procede
Cincinatti
innoculate
stupify
dessicated
medieval
seige
subtlely
compatability

[Lucky Wizard]

Medieval and iridescent are correctly spelled.

The other correct word is either "accomodate" or "dessicate". Not sure which.

[jesternl]

Hmm I see more then three correct ones... (Hey, I'm not a native speaker
iridescent, innoculate, medieval and stupify
Dictionary.com also lists both dessicate AND desicate

[Lucky Wizard]

Hmmm... upon checking dictionary.com, stupify appears to be the other correct word -- though I'd only seen it as "stupefy".

jesternl: I checked dictionary.com, and while "innoculate", "dessicate", and "desicate" all appear in it, each only appears in one of the dictionary.com databases -- the WordNet dictionary. The correct spellings each appear in more databases.

[jesternl]

I concede...consede..ehhrr konsede ..eehhhrrrr I give in. (give up?)