How hard is it to spell? Really? ESPECIALLY native speakers.?

Question

No wonder the US is losing jobs overseas, they write the English language better than we do! Is it laziness or pure stupidity? And who will be the first to misspell a word in their answer?

Answer 1

So whats new?

Answer 2

I am not a native English speaker, but I am an America-born citizen. I remember learning to use words in sentences was really hard for me. I have been taking French since 5th grade. I think that French is way easier than English because English is not a phonetic language. Spelling and formal grammar can be very hard in general especially when typing on a keyboard. You might hit the wrong key by accident and press send without checking your work, or maybe, you are multi-tasking and incorrectly spell a word.

I think that American English Internet Shorthand (instant messenge language) should be accepted by today's society, because we all use abbreviations such as etc and USA. Etc is spelled et cetera. USA means United States of America. Why can't we use ttyl for talk to you later? It is not laziness or stupidity. It saves time. I know I need time to do all the work I have. I carry 2 bookbags of homework from school everyday, and I do all of it every night! I am not lazy. I do work with charity too. I am not stupid. Also, using instant message language saves money on text messaging. Some companies make you pay for each character in the message.

Answer 3

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France.
Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes,
we find that quicksand can work slowly,
boxing rings are square
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth?
Or, one goose, 2 geese? So one moose, 2 meese?
One index, 2 indices?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.

If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?


In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?

Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,

while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
in which your house can burn up as it burns down,
in which you fill in a form by filling it out
and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers,
and it reflects the creativity of the human race
(which, of course, isn't a race at all).

That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible,
but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

Answer 4

I've noticed non-native speakers spell words on average more correctly than native speakers (but make more grammatical errors), and I suspect it has something to do with the process of learning languages.

Native speakers learn the language primarily as a spoken language. Only later in school you have to learn writing and spelling words. Some have more motivation to learn than others.

Non-native speakers on the other hand usually learn the language based on the written language. They learn how to write the words, then how to pronounce them. That's why they also write the words correctly because the spoken language isn't interfering with the process.

For example, if you want to write "I want to lose weight", non-natives write it right since they've learned that "to get rid of something" = lose. Native speakers have two words that have the same pronunciation: lose and loose. If they haven't read many books or they've been sleeping in school, they don't know which word to use, or they might not even know that they are two separate words.

Answer 5

I think it is a combination of a lot of things. I mean, if it is not something that is important, like answering questions on yahoo answers, people are more likely to just type and go. But if you were typing a term paper for school, we tend to pay closer attention to what we write.

Then there are those, like me, who are just bad spellers. Which goes back to how I was taught to read. Since I was taught to read by word recognition and not phonics, I have always had a hard time sounding out words that I have never seen before. And since I was never taught phonics, Spelling is a problem as well. But taking that into consideration, I tend to not use words that I am not sure how to spell so I won't look stupid when writing. (Unless I have a dictionary to look it up.)

Then there are those that just don't give a F**k. Which I personally feel, is very sad.

Whichever the reason, it is funny that people who were not born speaking English speak it better then those who were.

Answer 6

I too find it rather odd that many Americans have difficulties with the English language. Perhaps we could place the blame on the public school system for their seemingly apprehensive method in educating young Americans. Or we could blame the government for their implementation of the “No Child Left Behind Policy” which prohibits teachers from educating children to the best of their abilities.

Or we could just be honest with ourselves. With the countless dialects in the United States that are different for each region, it’s very difficult to stick to the “English Language” that you seem to know and love. I’m not saying that this is an excuse by any means but please don’t think that just because the misspellings you happen to come across on Yahoo Answers are reflective of every United States Citizen because, as you can clearly see, they are not.

Have you really never misspelled a word in your entire life? I would find that very hard to believe. You have yourself a wonderful day.

Answer 7

Actually native speakers often struggle with the language more than non-native speakers. Like for an example the Mexicans that I know can't spell Spanish and they are very fluent, but I can spell it better than them. Me being white and only had two years of Spanish.

Answer 8

In English, it can be pretty easy to make mistakes. The writing system used doesn't fit our language well. Runes did a better job in the old days than this Romanization ever did. We're using a system designed for Latin and other Romance languages to write a Germanic language, and that's where our problems come in.


In my language, Cherokee, you can't misspell words. It's a syllabic system :) Can't do that with English though, because everything ends in consonants instead of vowels.

Answer 9

im a native from China, but basically i see it like this

with modern technology, its not hard 2 spell, i mean who misses the spell check? but its just that with AIM and other instant messaging we've been using shortcuts and not really focusing on spelling...i think we're just 2 lazy 2 attempt spelling every little word rite but also cuz we dont care as much

spelling doesnt have anything 2 do w/ how stupid or smart u r
its proven that its just a skill sum ppl can do and sum ppl cant
so u could b the smartest person in the world and still wouldnt b able 2 win a elementary spelling bee

Answer 10

I put it firmly at the teachers, and school system doorstep. For years we learned how to spell, the basics of good grammar. And we were taught penmanship. But if you have noticed, excellence is rather looked down on. Do not make the child that lags behind feel bad. Oh my Oh my. So the smart ones are the losers. Which really means the whole country is.

Answer 11

I don't think it's so much that spelling in and of it's self is the difficulty here. However, I do believe that we as Americans do not put enough emphasis on communication, whether written or spoken. We give ourselves over to slang and "pop culture" and our language suffers because of this. How can we expect to compete with nations that put communication and interpersonal relations above making profits if we cannot see that changes need to be made and take it upon ourselves individually to change them?