please empty your brain below
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Excellent..... and how many deliberate mistakes should we have found?
NiC | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 8:31 a.m. | #
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Watch out - the linguistic academic world has been at war recently over just such matters. i.e. should grammars and dictionaries be descriptive or prescriptive. The latest books I have read show that blood has been drawn on several occasions.
MikeMK | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 9:14 a.m. | #
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flare = flair
principal = principle
affect = effect
manor = manner
pedal = peddle
reign = rain
too = to
Who's = whose
loose = lose
wave = waive
diffuse = defuse
drawer = draw
phased = fazed
complements = compliments
your = you're
grate = great
Regards, GrocerJack the Pedant
Grocerjack | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 10:05 a.m. | #
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*ignores spelling* My vocabulary isn't huge, it's something I am aware of and trying to increase. The thesaurus on Word is great for me.
Elsie Without Portfolio | 09.07.04 - 10:06 a.m. | #
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BTW, I'm study AI at the moment and "appropriateness" and "intentionality", that is the meaning of words and symbols are some of the reasons you or I will never see proper AI in our life. It ain't gonna happen with digital computers.
Sorry about the pedant bit, but a 70's education means that bad spelling on my part was usually accompanied by a belt from the teacher, mostly using a real belt :-(
Grocerjack | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 10:08 a.m. | #
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Aaaah
Pour = Pore
Grocerjack | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 10:09 a.m. | #
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Just found a load more but maybe someone else should have a go. Too traumatised by the memory of that belt.......
Grocerjack | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 10:11 a.m. | #
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It made me physically ill to read that. Of course, I'm one of those people who derived immense enjoyment from reading "Eats, Shoots and Leaves", so it's not a complete surprise. 
Chz | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 10:12 a.m. | #
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Grate minds think a like?
Chears.
J
Jakartass | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 10:27 a.m. | #
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Just as I was reading through these comments Someone in the office asked how to spell correspondance - "How many r's and s's are there?"
Quality. 
Dave | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 10:27 a.m. | #
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I'll be traumatised all day now.
Blue Witch | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 10:38 a.m. | #
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There's an "Its" that should be an "It's" and a "They're" that should be a "Their", too ad two yore Liszt, Grocerjack.
Le Bob | 09.07.04 - 10:43 a.m. | #
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I could never be a currant editor, since I don't like currants. having said that, I don't suppose I could be a current editor either, since I'm not a very good swimmer.
torturette | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 10:46 a.m. | #
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Congratulations, DG, on creating a post that's made my head hurt.
I was going to correct it after the first "they're" (hadn't noticed "currant" *sigh*) and then figured out what you were doing.
The first contextual spell-checker will be a god-send, I'm sure. (particularly if it's added in to Blogger. *grin*)
Lyle | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 10:58 a.m. | #
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Very good posting!
Jag | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 11:13 a.m. | #
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A rough diamond of a post, this one. Nothing quite like a comedy misspelling. I was hoping there would of been a comedy misuse of of though.
BF | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 12:42 p.m. | #
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This is a fantastic demonstration of why grammar and spelling fascism is just elitist snobbery. The purpose of language is to communicate (and obfuscate occasionally - collateral damage, civilian contractors, insurgents). Even littered with deliberate errors, that passage still managed to communicate both overtly and subtextually - so what's the problem? Language is in a state of continuous evolution - imagining it can be fixed, or its evolution can be resisted, is just another silly Canute act. Bravo DG.
dem | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 12:59 p.m. | #
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*gasps*
i didn't write that last comment. i am NOT dem.
but, hurrah! these were my comments exactly over at BW recently.
*flutters eyelashes at dem*
dave | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 2:41 p.m. | #
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What we need is some completely new words. Like clumbersome, which is my boss's current word of choice.
Karen | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 2:45 p.m. | #
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There a loads of reasons why spelling and grammar matter, otherwise we end up in an Alice in Wonderland situation where anything can mean anything. I do agree that you can't hold back the tide of changing meanings/spelling/pronunciation, but I think the benefits of a prescriptive grammar outweigh its pedantry - standard English is something for everyone to aim for, not just a group of elitist writers.
MikeMK | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 3:12 p.m. | #
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On a lighter note, our old boss announced that he was getting a lodger when he retired, apparently his wife's knowledge and approval. After a very odd conversation, it emerged that he was actually getting a loggia. So spelling and pronuciation do sometimes aid sense.
MikeMK | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 3:31 p.m. | #
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I don't disagree that grammar and correct spelling can aid sense, or that the absence of them can hinder meaning. I just believe that where our pedantry is for something other than those reasons, it's little more than snobbery which often results in making the erroneous author feel inferior and/or alienated. Sew if eye mac know sens, tel me a bout it - but otherwise, isn't our pedantry better used to expose and challenge obfuscating media/power and their slippery euphemisms than to criticise people for being dyslexic or less well educated? Not that I ever do owt about it like.
Thanks Dave - what mascara is that?
dem | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 4:48 p.m. | #
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What used to annoy me in America was the blatant insure/ensure - I think they are just too damn lazy to bother with the difference!
annipink | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 6:09 p.m. | #
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I've always liked this and have seen various versions. Just try putting in and checking out the following poem - my computer says there are
no mistakes...
Eye have a spell in chequer,
It came with my pea sea.
It plainly high lights for my revue,
Miss takes I can not sea.
I've run this poem threw it,
I'm sure your plea's too no.
Its letter perfect in it's weigh,
My chequer tolled me sew.
pop artist | 09.07.04 - 6:13 p.m. | #
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Grrrrrrammar. 
drD | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 6:33 p.m. | #
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discrete = discreet
ahh, pendantic joy
roof | 09.07.04 - 7:05 p.m. | #
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From p. 234 of `Inglish Littracher 1890-1900' bi T. K. Nupton, publishd bi th Stait, 1992:
`Fr egzarmpl, a riter ov th time, naimd Max Beerbohm, hoo woz stil alive in th twentieth senchri, rote a stauri in wich e pautraid an immajnari karrakter kauld "Enoch Soames"--a thurd-rait poit hoo beleevz imself a grate jeneus an maix a bargin with th Devvl in auder ter no wot posterriti thinx ov im! It iz a sumwot labud sattire but not without vallu az showing hou seriusli the yung men ov th aiteen-ninetiz took themselvz. Nou that the littreri profeshn haz bin auganized az a departmnt of publik servis, our riters hav found their levvl an hav lernt ter doo their duti without thort ov th morro. "Th laibrer iz werthi ov hiz hire," an that iz aul. Thank hevvn we hav no Enoch Soameses amung us to-dai!'
Quink | Homepage | 09.07.04 - 8:03 p.m. | #
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My brane hurts
Debster | 10.07.04 - 12:26 a.m. | #
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I don't understand loose/lose at all. They don't even sound alike! A cluster of my students also substitute "been" for "being", which for some reason makes my head hurt in particular.
harvestbird | Homepage | 10.07.04 - 1:58 a.m. | #
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Superfluous apostrophes drive me berserk. That's an instant shooting offence.
Matt | Homepage | 10.07.04 - 5:01 a.m. | #
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Recently, I have seen far too many people write seemless instead of seamless. An interesting case where two words sound the same, are spelt with only one differing letter, but mean almost complete opposites.
James O | 13.07.04 - 2:41 p.m. | #
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Wtf is "seemless"? Nice post, DG. Plus some really twatty comments.
Peter | Homepage | 15.07.04 - 3:00 p.m. | #
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decides not to add another comment, just in case
diamond geezer | Homepage | 15.07.04 - 7:43 p.m. | #
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