Why do American's have such a hard time spelling?

Question

After posting my question, I realized that I made a grammatical error with "American's". What is going on with our educational system???

I'm not throwing stones, I'm simply asking a question, why so bitter people?

Answer 1

Why do most of the people on this site have a hard time stringing together a sentence? I've been wondering this for a long time. Most people don't know what spell check is, and most people don't read. Reading is proven to increase spelling and grammar, but no one likes to read, they would rather watch TV and play video games.

People on this board irritate me because they post questions and you can't even understand what they say.

Answer 2

The English language does not strictly follow rules. For example: i before e EXCEPT after c.

"colonel" we pronounce it "kernel" Why? There isn't even an r in the word! I asked my linguistics prof in college why and it completely stumped him. He spent the rest of the quarter researching and never did get the answer.

The majority of people learn to read phonetically. Therefore, they usually try to spell phonetically. The problem is, it doesn't work. Much of our spelling just needs to be memorized. If you aren't good at memorizing or don't take the time, you aren't likely to spell well.

About ten years ago, there was a big movement to "get students writing" and one of the recommendations was that teachers quit worrying about the spelling in a first or rough draft. It was believed that correct spelling would develop in it's own time. That evolved into students just not worrying about spelling at all.

My own son has said to me more than once: Did you know what I meant? Then it doesn't matter!

The problem on this site is that sometimes people write so quickly and don't take the time to do even the slightest proofreading and add that to poor spellers then it is sometimes impossible to understand.

It has nothing to do with Americans.

Answer 3

The English language has a lot of silent letters, unusual tense changes/plurals, and words that have been adapted from other languages (which therefore makes the spelling of these words not follow traditional spelling rules learned in elementary school).

There are also words that might look misspelled, but are actually correct depending on an individual's country of origin: color (American English) versus colour (British English); labor (American English) versus labour (British English).

Add to that the problem of an elementary education system already overburdened by lack of teachers, lack of funding, and lack of good curriculum. Kids today aren't getting much of an emphasis on spelling beyond the basics. Those kids grow into adults who are either unaware of their errors or don't bother to correct themselves.

Technology also comes into play because students rely heavily on computer programs like Spell check, which are known to mix up words regardless of context (their, there, they're; it's, its; etc).

I noticed that your query also addresses a similar problem English-language users have: incorrect punctuation. (For the record, it's "Americans" with no possessive apostrophe.) All the above reasons tie into punctuation issues, but add sheer laziness and a much more arbitrary interpretation of guidelines to make punctuation a more dangerous path to navigate.

Answer 4

Why do AMERICANS have such a hard time spelling? You might want to include "grammar" in your question! J/K ; )

I really don't know why this is. Inadequate education? Sheer laziness? Americans don't care anymore?

What I do know is that it can be really annoying trying to read a post that's full of all kinds of errors AND random capitalization of letters. What's up with that?

Answer 5

The reason why American"s have a hard time spelling is because we have poor school's, poor education, poor education leaders, tooooooooooo many parents out there speaking baby talk to there children that's why there's so many kids in speech classes because there parents want to shorten there vocabulary. And yet the American Parents want to blame the teachers because there not doing there job on educating there children because they still have trouble reading, understanding common sense, can't spell, can't comprehend, need to read everything slowly. Parents get upset because there kids need special help because they can't keep up that is there own fault if you spoke to your kids in a proper adult speaking terms and not in baby terms and tones your kid wouldn't have such a hard time in life.

Answer 6

Americans would be the correct spelling for this sentence. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Answer 7

I think it is really connected to how we teach now, what emphasis we put on proper grammar and effort in school, and the lack of reading. I am trying with my kids, and hope to produce at least four Americans who can spell properly and write well, but it is bad.

Answer 8

You tell me. If you are referring to a particular group of people, there is no need for an apostrophe. So it should be Americans, because if you put American's, it implies possession.

Answer 9

Have you paid any attention to the state of our schools? They try to teach how to spell by not correcting spelling.

Brilliant, don't you think? Or should I say " brilyunt"?

Answer 10

Same reason people have a problem with plural and possessive.

It is not American's it is Americans.