Why cant Americans spell you're?

Question

I have noticed that Americans say "your" instead of "you're" or you are, do you not get taught how to pronounce words at school?
Having grown up in an amercan style society at least we were taught correct spelling and pronounciation.

Answer 1

we know
but when we dont have to
we dont

Answer 2

Your full of crap. I'm an American, and I know the difference. I'm sure there are plenty of people in you're country that don't use the proper spelling for words. This is the Internet, not an English assignment.

I'll tell you one thing, though. I can't understand for the life of me, how you can come on here and judge Americans for misspelling "you're" while making several grammatical mistakes in your very question! How dare you judge Americans for being grammatically incorrect when it's quite obvious you have little knowledge of proper grammar your damn self.

Either you're on the Internet and you don't care to write correctly, or you haven't learned to write correctly. Most PEOPLE just don't care to be grammatically correct on the Internet. They want to get their point across and leave it at that.

Answer 3

Most people spell things incorrectly because they know what they mean and they know that almost everyone else is intelligent enough to know that they mean. We were taught how to spell, but you don't really know if that person did it because they didn't know how to do it of if it was a typo or whatever the situation was. 'your' and 'you're' are pronounced the same. That is why it is a commonly misspelled word. Furthermore, you're supposed to capitalize 'American', and add an apostrophe to 'cant'. Also, it's unfair for you to fix this to all of nearly one billion Americans.

Answer 4

That's the one you'RE complaining about? That's an innocent pronunciation/spelling mix up. I don't know how you are taught to pronounce it in school, neither is wrong. There are a lot worse spelling problems among some Americans. Some of us can spel, tho. lol

Answer 5

Ok! Ok! I'm English and I consider my gramma to be near-perfect - it's a bugbear of mine! However, a South African friend of mine tells me that the English are the laziest speakers in the world. She has lived in America and while she feels that there are some over sights in the American language, they at least have dictionary words and phrases she recognises. She thinks that although the English may have the correct spelling and gramma to write with, our accents and influences make us near impossible to understand! (Unless you come from a good school in the Home Counties!)
I don't like the way some Americans speak (all the rappers etc) but that's because I'm ignorant to it. I don't understand it. Would they understand my Bristolian "Vicky Pollard" Yeah but No but Yeah accent?!! It works both ways. Good discussion question!

Answer 6

I know the difference in meaning and usage of the two. What is the difference in pronunciation? I don't have the symbols on my keyboard but the dictionary shows your and you're are pronounced the same. Your statement "do you not get taught how to pronounce words at school?" is totally irrelevant and does not apply here.
Pronunciation: your = you're.

Answer 7

by way of fact people, infants especially, are lazy and in all probability petrified of the English language. the right thank you to spell and build a sentence that contains perfect grammer is possibly very, very frightening to the common childrens of immediately who could somewhat bypass formalities and pleasantries and circulate outstanding right into a truncated "language" that looks to bear no remsemblance to the English language or any language for that count. The progression of textual content textile messaging and chat rooms has made it pointless for individuals to place any theory into what they variety onto the reveal. think of writing out what you variety right into a communicate room or question dialogue board, how ridiculous could it seem on only slightly paper? The English language and writing I worry are in threat of changing into extinct. (**to no longer say that i'm any greater effective than each and every guy or woman else at construction a sentance**there are in all probability some grammer errors in this answer)

Answer 8

I have noticed that you can't spell can't.

Also, your second sentence is a run-on sentence. You should have started a new sentence with the word do, or used a semi-colon.
You left out the letter i in the word american.
I hope your pronunciation is correct because you spelled pronunciation wrong. It is not spelled with the letter o, and you don't pronoun the letter o when you pronoun the word pronunciation.

If you were taught correct spelling, why don't you spell correctly?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation

Answer 9

Dave - you're right that alot of people on here use lousy grammar. However, to make it an indictment of all Americans is just silly. If you have read most of the posts by people from India who use English as their first language you would realize we aren't so bad as an example. The Brits, Aussies, Canadians and others have their quirks too. Spelling mistakes isn't just an American issue.

Good Luck!!!

Answer 10

My father was a newspaper editor - one of the best in the USA. THIS American can spell. Leave me out of your silly statement. A lot of Americans do not spell well but to imply that ALL Americans can't spell is RIDICULOUS. Also, a lot of PEOPLE can't spell. I've noticed that people who speak English as a second language frequently can't spell (English) very well, and a lot of the people that are on here are quite young and still learning how to spell.

Answer 11

As a retired teacher, I think that this is taught but not repeated over and over again. It is just introduced. Not enough time is spent on grammar. Also people repeat what they hear at home. Schools also have too many demands on them now and other subjects are left behind in place of those that are tested on proficiency tests. I see a lot of words misspelled in stores.