spelling

Never Rely Solely on Spell Check

Isn’t spell check convenient? If it doesn’t like the word you used, it points it out to you, and in a couple of clicks, it’s all fixed up. But just how much can we trust spell checkers? Speaking from experience, not very much! Sure, it’s handy when you’ve just made a little typo, but it has fatal drawbacks that can see you submitting work with confidence only for it to be ripped apart by your reader or teacher. Here are 10 reasons why careful proofreading is the only solution if you want to submit correct work.

It Won’t Identify Homophones

There are pairs of words that mean different things and are spelled differently, but don’t mean the same thing. Here are a few examples:

There and their: A lot of people struggle with this one!
They’re and there: Brits are particularly prone to confuse these two!
Air and heir: Well, they sound the same, don’t they?
Die and dye: I saw a hair salon in Sweden called “Curl up and Dye,” cute as a play on words, but not as an error.
Effect and affect: Confusing these words is one of the most common errors among English speakers. Get it right!

It Won’t Identify Misspelled Words That Are Real Words

I have a lot of fun collecting these words. They can be hilarious or simply embarrassing. For example:

Pubic and public: Are you ready for pubic humiliation?
From and form: Oops! Your fingers were too hasty there! Spell check thinks its fine, though.
Best and beast: The beast doctor in town… Could it be a veterinarian? Or is it something more sinister?
Retards and regards: I had this one from a friend of mine. It’s probably not the best way to sign off a business letter.
Human resources and inhuman resources: There was meant to be a space in the second example.
Singing and sinning. Of course, you could possibly sing while you sin, but it would be unusual.

Your Grammar Could Be Awful

Although spell check will occasionally pick up grammatical errors, it generally doesn’t, and some of the things it thinks are wrong are actually right. For example, Microsoft Word doesn’t like “your” in the sentence to follow. It suggests “you’re, but it is mistaken:

“You’re incomplete or tangled sentences get the green light from spell check, but later on, they make you cringe with embarrassment. If only you’d done a more careful proofread instead of trusting spell check!”

“You’re,” oh dear! That’s a blooper from spell check right there!

Editing Helps You Learn Your Errors

I so often type “form” instead of “from,” that I know I need to check my work carefully when this word is involved. It’s all too easy for one’s eyes to slide right over that error. After all, the letters are all there, they’re just not in the right place. Now that I know I often tangle my fingers over the word, I know I have to check it carefully.

You Begin to Depend on It

Right clicking for spelling suggestions when you’re stumped as to why the word keeps coming up as being misspelled makes you super-lazy. Always try to correct words without spell check’s help to begin with, and if you still can’t get it right, see what spell check suggests. I keep a list of words I struggle to spell so that I can learn from it. It really has helped me to improve my spelling!

You Won’t Be Able to Write Quickly When You Need To

Pictures this: you’re in a skype interview with someone you hope to impress. You can’t wander off to check your spelling every few seconds as you quickly type. Bam! Bam! Bam! The person on the other end wants a quick response. Make too many spelling errors, and you end up looking like a hopeless incompetent. Impressive? Hardly!

It Doesn’t Know Your Terminology

Terminology lurks in every field, and accepted spellings don’t always agree with spell check. For example, most people these days refer to “startups” but Microsoft’s spell checker has only recently caught on to the term. A few months ago, it suggested “start-ups” as the right spelling. Medical terminology and other scientific jargon often doesn’t feature, and pitfalls lurk behind every terminology-laden sentence.

It Has No Idea What You Really Mean

Writing conveys meaning, but spell check has no notion of meaning. You can say “infection” instead of “affection” and have your writing end up looking kind of scary. Or you can emulate my friend and sign off your covering letter with a cheery “Kind retards.” Only you can know what you actually meant, so don’t trust your software too much.

It Doesn’t Always Spot Words Accidentally Split With a Space

As long as both words are real words on their own, spell check acts dumb. Why? Because it’s rather dumb! Check these words out:

All ways versus always
Some times versus sometimes
In stead versus instead
Never the less instead of nevertheless
Sun day versus Sunday

You’re Smarter Than Spell Check!

No software can ever replace the human mind. I’ve tried grammar checkers, spell checkers, and style checkers, and they are all only tools that can be used wisely in the hands of an informed human being. Just as no machine can write properly for you, spell checkers and grammar checkers will always be less intelligent than your own proofreading.

Common Misspellings: Words That Are Difficult to Spell

We love spelling in the US. We’ve even turned it into a competitive sport, but that doesn’t mean all of us know how to spell. While many of us rely on spellcheck and autocorrect, this can sometimes lead to unintended issues.

Some words are plain tricky, and even our cousins in the UK (which invented many of the tricky-to-spell words) have similar difficulties. Words that are spelled phonetically present the fewest problems. It’s the ones with strange letter combinations, silent letters and double consonants that are among the most difficult, and it’s hardly surprising that they give people headaches.

An Embarrassment in Spelling

“Embarrassment” with its double r and double s was chosen by British survey participants as the word they found most difficult to spell. I agree that it is an awkward one. I actually keep a list of words I often misspell near my computer, and I have to confess to my “embarrassment” that this word is on the list. Why do I keep a list of words I struggle to spell? So that I can learn them, of course. Everyone should have one.

For those interested, below are the rest of the UK top ten hard to spell words consists of:

Fluorescent
Accommodate
Psychiatrist
Occasionally
Necessary
Questionnaire
Mischievous
Rhythm
Minuscule

I’m happy to say only four of these are on my list, but “necessary” was only taken off it a few years ago. As a spelling exercise for our British brethren, I suggest that they write the following sentences one hundred times without spell-check or autocorrect enabled:

“I occasionally see a psychiatrist about my inability to accommodate the rhythm of necessary chores. If my home were a minuscule bit more organized, I wouldn’t blush fluorescent pink with embarrassment when my mischievous brother comes to visit.”

Admittedly, being Brits, they’d best use the British spelling for “organized.” Although most British people tolerate American spelling well, it infuriates some of them, so if you are British, use an s instead of a z.

Words Americans Struggle Spelling

Google gets asked lots of questions, and it also gets asked how to spell words. The top ten words US Internet users asked google about were:

Grey
Cancelled
Definitely
Hors d’oeuvres
Pneumonia
Appreciate
Hanukkah
Restaurant
Ninety
Niece

How did you fare with this list? I’m happy to say I only have difficulty with two of them, and hors d’oeuvres was discussed in a recent blog post, so I think I’ll remember how to spell it now.

Based on Google searches, Idaho residents were either the worst spellers or those who were the most concerned about their spelling. Whichever the reason, they asked Google the most spelling based questions.

Google also had a go at working out which words bothered people living in different states most. Some of the results are quite interesting, although what we’re to do with this knowledge remains a mystery.

For example, if you live in Hawaii, not being sure of how to spell “Pterodactyl” keeps you awake at night. On the other hand, residents of Georgia are most worried about how to spell “Pneumonia.” Those living Sunshine State know so little about bad weather that they aren’t sure how to spell “grey.” Then there are Maine residents. They want to let us know they’re fed-up, or so it would seem. Their most googled spelling question was for “frustrated.”

Can Americans Spell “Embarrassed”?

We’re not too unlike the British in our spelling vices. More than 60% of Americans can’t spell the “e-word”. Other words that confuse us include:

Liaison
Millennium
Friend
Ridiculous

The one thing we can console ourselves with is that everybody has words they’re not confident about spelling. After all, how are we supposed to know the breed of dog that’s pronounced as “Chiwawa” is actually spelled “Chihuahua?” If we were to pronounce that in the way the series of letters suggests, it would be “Chee-who-ah-who-ah”, and that’s exactly how I remember the correct spelling. Somewhere in my head, there’s a little circuit that remembers it in its phonetically pronounced form.

There’s a school of thought saying we should be given leeway to spell things logically. Before the invention of printing and the development of the first dictionaries, there were no real spelling rules. On the other side of the argument, some are pushing for even greater standardization. But since this would mean either the Brits or the Americans would have to give up their form of spelling, it seems unlikely this will ever happen.

As a final consolation, you should know that some of the greatest writers in history were very bad spellers who relied on editors to pick up their errors, so if you struggle to spell certain words, you’re in good company.

(Photo courtesy of elginwx)

How Do You Spell Horderves?

The reason you’re likely here reading this article is you need to know the spelling of “horderves” and not knowing it, you simply sounded it out. While the word may sound like horderves, this is not the correct spelling. The correct spelling of horderves is hors d’oeuvres.

Of course, it’s not always necessary to know how to spell the foods you serve. Nobody is going to know you don’t know how to spell the word correctly when you say “horderves” as you place out appetizers. On the other hand, if you’re writing an article and happen to want to talk about the appetizers you served using the “cuisine” word, it becomes a little more important to know the correct spelling.

Borrowing from the French

If you go into the origins of common words, you’ll discover that borrowing from the French is not that unusual: “cuisine” is basically French for cooking. Hors d’oeuvres is another word we have borrowed from the French. Directly translated, “hors” means “except” and “oeuvres” means “works.” This may not initially seem too helpful, but if you assume that the main course is “the works,” and you interpret “hors” as meaning “outside,” the phrase basically means “outside the main course.”

Now you know something that most English-speaking people never stop to think about. Is it useful? Possibly. You’re now in the position to give any dinner guests you may have over this little gem of information.

What probably won’t make the grade as dinner table conversation is all the common misspellings for the word, but now that you know how it’s spelled, you’ll be able to see them everywhere. Some get the “hors” bit right as well as the “d” and its apostrophe, but then they spoil it by spelling the last bit as “oueveres” for hors d’oueveres. You’ll be amazed at the number of permutations.

Perhaps one day, we’ll adopt the word into the English language by changing the spelling to one that makes more sense to us, in which case, it’ll likely become “horderves” or “orderves.”

Taking It to the Next Level

Aside from the many dishes that can make up starters or hors d’oeuvres, you also get two ways of serving hors d’oeuvres. You can place the dishes on the table and let everyone help themselves, or you can have somebody pass the dish around allowing guests to select what they want to eat. Now you can make the distinction between “table” hors d’oeuvres and “butler-style” or “butlered” hors d’oeuvres.

Not Quite the Same as Hors D’Oeuvres

Now that you know how to use this chic French word to describe starters, you need to be careful that you don’t get muddled up and use it in the wrong place. It will spoil the great impression you’ll make by knowing how to spell the word, how to serve them and what the French words actually mean.

Canapes are not hors d’oeuvres. Instead of being foods you use to start off a meal, they’re savory finger-snacks that are served at cocktail hour.

Antipasto is also not the same as hors d’oeuvres. Although it consists of a range of dishes served before a meal, the style will be Italian, and antipasto is always served at the table. You can still call it a starter, and if you want to use French, you could call it an entree.

A smorgasbord is also not the same as hors d’oeuvres. Like antipasto, it is served before the meal and consists of foods that are related to the Scandinavian culture from which the word has been borrowed.

You can now go forth and charm your dinner guests. You now not only know how to spell “hors d’oeuvres,” but how to serve them, what they are, and what they are not. Your culinary education may not be complete, but you’re off to a good start. At least you’ll never have to eat your words.

(Photo courtesy of Richard Munckton)