Anyone else worried by all the misspellings?

Question

I'm not trying to be a snob or anything, but I'm really worried by how many people misspell the simplest of words on these boards. It's one thing to be in a hurry and miss a letter here or there, but in the last five minutes I've seen the word "white" spelled "wight" and the word "gross" spelled "grouse". And I'm not just talking about kids, either. Are people getting dumb? Don't the schools teach this stuff anymore? Doesn't anyone value intelligence anymore? I'm only 30 and I'm seeing a trend...thoughts, please?

Answer 1

I am of the opinion that there has been a severe decline in intellectual standards in America. I began to notice strange things during the last year of school which lead me to this conclusion.

One example would be the little sad-sacks in school emulating the rappers on MTV and suddenly sounding just like them- like they needed to get hooked on phonics or something.
Our standards have obviously lowered in schools because I know damned well the way the little tards started speaking would never have been tolerated during junior high.

Another example would be the way sports have become ever more popular and it has become socially acceptable to mock the intellectual with terms such as "geek" and "nerd".

All I know is that the entire ******* country should be ashamed of itself.

Answer 2

Hello fellow perfect speller! I've learned to let things go. They used to have spelling bees and make us rewrite a word several times when we misspelled it back when I was in school. Perhaps schools aren't as strict now...

Most people just get by. If they're hooked on phonics, they'll spell words the way they sound, not as they are actually spelled. The English language is pretty complex. For every rule, there's an exception to the rule. White sounds like light so why not spell it wight? Close enough, right? I think the world is in too much of a hurry to worry about things like spelling. It's not like they can send you to jail for it! They get away with it. No one corrects them...I even met someone who said that his school experimented with a program of "creative spelling" where they could spell words however they liked...maybe a lot of kids went to his school!

Just be proud that you still have a respect for the language and understand that unfortunately most people really don't care!

Answer 3

Well I'm starting to get use to it by now. My own concluding is maybe it has something to do with mobile phones kids use these days. I.e.u instead of you. The way some people put questions on this is so funny. They even put the coma, and even put the appositives in the wrong places when asking questions.
I agree with your point there about schools not teaching the basics anymore. What shock me is the amount of college students who can even spell simple words. How the hell do they get into college in the first place?

Answer 4

Sometimes I let it get to me, and sometimes I try to overlook it. When I see my son type "definately" when he means "definitely", that bothers me, since I was my school's Spelling Bee Champion back in the early 1960's. But then I think, well, he's just hurrying and he hit the wrong button. THEN, I see the same misspelling later on, and again, and again. AND THEN, I see someone else here misspell the same word, the same way. THEN I WORRY!! I try to use the word very soon in an IM with him,or in an e-mail, and then he misspells it again. And then I realize, MY SON'S 22 YEARS OLD AND IN THE U.S. ARMY!!!! AND HE STILLLLLLLLLLLL CAN'T SPELL, DEFINITEEEEEELLLLLYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to kick his butt, but, being a soldier in the U.S. Army, that wouldn't be smart for me to do. He's a whole lot younger, and a whole lot tougher, and he LOVES to wrestle with his dad. OUCH!! And his sister, my daughter, age 20 (dang near 21) also misspells. I blame their mother who divorced me and ran off with the kids back when they were babies, and returned to her unschooled culture where reading and writing were secondary to computer playing and watching tv. God help 'em. Maybe one day they'll catch on to the importance of spelling correctly. And then, one day, maybe I'll see how spelling correctly isn't as important as my compulsive personality may stress. I hope it "all comes out in the wash", as "they" say. God Bless you.

Answer 5

Spelling mistakes are so common these days that I wonder if schools actually teach it. Spell checker only goes so far, if you meant to use the word two and used too instead, then spell checker will not pick this up as both words are spelled correctly.

Answer 6

I tend to agree that people do not take the spelling of words seriously enough. It's like they feel they have to write in slang. It's not that people are getting dumb, as you say, it's just that they don't care. I think they feel as long as you can read and understand, what they are saying, that is all that counts. I worked in a school for 11 years helping with reading and spelling. We worked hard to get them to learn the stuff but then when they get away from us and start that slang crap it goes up in smoke. Trust me, most of them know what they are doing and they just plain don't care.

Answer 7

This is what happens when student self-esteem is more important than actual knowledge. I blame this on both teachers and parents. They want little Johnny and Jane to feel good about themselves, rather than to accomplish something.

I know I'm a 'creative' speller, but at least I use the Check Spelling function.

Answer 8

There are a lot of people who rush to get their message typed, but I do think that there are many people who genuinely don't know how to spell or construct a proper question. It's kinda scary to think that some of these people may have jobs that put them in positions of authority or extreme responsibility!

Answer 9

I know, the miss spellings are horrible, i don't understand it, the box we type our responses and questions have a spell check feature and people still miss spell things and/or refuse to use it, even though it takes 1 second

Answer 10

It blows me away!!! Sometimes I wonder if yahoo/answers isn't all just kids anymore because of all the misspellings. Couldn't they take the time to use spell check either? Guess not.

Thanks for your question, as I couldn't agree with you more.