BS: words that are hard to spell

Subject: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 22 Mar 23 - 12:32 AM

Recently I was watching YouTube and I clicked on a video that tested spelling ability. It was too easy, and I could spell every word. For example, I had no trouble with 'brought.'

Mudcatters are pretty literate. Just for fun, let's make a list of words WE find hard to spell. Here are my nominees:

phenomenon
parallelepiped
resuscitate

Do you have any to add?

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Mar 23 - 12:44 AM

I would but I can't spell them

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 Mar 23 - 12:47 AM

my main problem is typing 3 fingered & getting a surprise when I see what I've created.

teh is one of my most used words

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 22 Mar 23 - 01:55 PM

Dave, give it a shot.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Mar 23 - 02:03 PM

I have no sutch problums.



(Come on - someone had to do it!)

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: meself
Date: 22 Mar 23 - 02:56 PM

I do occassionnally misspell something or other, I admit - but this is just too embarassing a topic for me to take part in - no exagerration!

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Mar 23 - 04:54 PM

Yeah, I can acomodate that veiwpoint alright. Like me, you probly don't care to see English deteriating.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Mar 23 - 05:34 PM

Words that are almost the same in English and French, like independence/indépendance.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Mar 23 - 05:46 PM

I am still on a PC desktop, so I have had installed for 10+ years,
TinySpell

It sits up top and turns yellow & beeps if I enter a word it doesn't know. I paid for the version that allows adding YOUR words..(I often type 'thru' instead of through.)

I am a decent speller, but a bad typist and often reverse letters.
I have recently added "Dragon Naturally Speaking" to allow speaking into a mic and typing into a program with voice only. (I didn't turn it on this time, and had 8-10 corrections to get this far.)

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Mar 23 - 06:16 PM

I don't know any hard to smell words.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Mar 23 - 06:36 PM

Boloxks.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 24 Mar 23 - 01:40 PM

Dislexia

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Mar 23 - 02:00 PM

I never mispell words.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 24 Mar 23 - 04:59 PM

Yesterday Spellcheck objected to "smoulder." It was happy with smolder.

It also objects to naive every time. There's nothing wrong with naive, is there? It's a word I often use when discussing Trump supporters.

Thanks for your examples, everybody.

Italians seem determined to spell things wrong: broccoli, zuchini.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Mr Red
Date: 24 Mar 23 - 05:48 PM

What I have found as the years pass is typing two-handed, my one hand can beat the other and transpose letters. Made worse with newer laptops getting thinner and the keys getting an unfamiliar lower profile.

But we all have bogey words. I realised I was an OK speller when my sister kept spelling certain words wrong. And she was always to be looked up to.

weird is a weird word. is it ie or ei? phonetically there are no clues, and I can't think of a mnemonic (or spell that without spellcheck on)
And to make it worse I just made a web page "Keep Stroud Weird" - whimsical images.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Mar 23 - 06:15 PM

I before e, except after c, and when the sound is ee.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Joe_F
Date: 24 Mar 23 - 06:17 PM

Perhaps the word most commonly misspelled *in print* is "barbecue". Evidently it is incredible that there is no Q in it. It ought to be "barbequeue", of course.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Mar 23 - 07:28 PM

God yes, there's a bloke on the harmonica forum who's been calling himself "Barbeque Bob" for decades (sorry if you're reading this, Bob - you know I love you, baby!)

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Mar 23 - 07:39 PM

Barbecue or barbeque are both considered correct. Also BBQ.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 24 Mar 23 - 08:54 PM

Hmmm, not by everyone, SRS, especially on this side of the pond.
What is more annoying is when there are words that are spelled differently according to the context, and people use the wrong spelling:
There, their and they’re
Here and hear
Compliment and complement
To, two and too
And also when spellcheck wants you to use American spelling when you’re not American!
accommodation v accomodation
recognise v recognize
colour v color
favourite v favorite
And I could go on, but it might be unnecessary….another hard one!

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Mar 23 - 09:10 PM

-ise vs -ize is a bit of a nightmare...

What's accepted and what grates is troublesome. "BBQ" is universally fine. Any spelling other than "barbecue" for the full-blown word is just ignorant. Odd, but that's English for you.   A dictionary worth its salt will never tell you what's right or wrong. Dictionaries are there to reflect usage, no more.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Stanron
Date: 24 Mar 23 - 09:41 PM

I thought that spell checkers had an 'add' function so that you could include your preferred spelling.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Ebbie
Date: 25 Mar 23 - 02:57 AM

Steve Shaw 24 Mar 23 - 06:15 PM

I before e, except after c, and when the sound is ee.

************************
Nah. Consider height, weight, foreign....

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Mar 23 - 03:30 AM

And concierge!

Cue doesn't have a q in either. And queue can also be spelled que or just q.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 25 Mar 23 - 04:28 AM

”It also objects to naive every time. There's nothing wrong with naive, is there?”

Maybe your Spellchecker wants the diaeresis - naïve?

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Mar 23 - 06:36 AM

I know, Ebbie. I was parroting what we had to chant at school 60 years ago. It's one of those "rules" that has so many exceptions that it's next to useless, a bit like being told to never split infinitives...

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Mar 23 - 06:38 AM

And it's fine to start a sentence with a conjunction. But that's not what my teachers used to say.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Mrrzy
Date: 25 Mar 23 - 07:28 AM

Tattie, those are different words, not the same word spelled differently.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 25 Mar 23 - 07:58 AM

I before E except after C except when your foreign neighbour Keith received eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters…. Weird eh??

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Mar 23 - 09:17 AM

:-)

We were told some daft things at school, weren't we?

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Stanron
Date: 25 Mar 23 - 10:13 AM

Are you homophonicphobic?

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Mar 23 - 10:15 AM

Well, we both went to RC schools, Steve, so maybe even dafter than most :-D

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Mar 23 - 10:28 AM

Proper nmaes are most varient.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 25 Mar 23 - 12:07 PM

I eventually found "desiccant" is right, but it still looks wrong to me. My naïve keyboard lacks an i-umlaut, so I have to usually settle for being naiive, and to MICROS~1 with spelchek.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Mar 23 - 12:55 PM

If you're typing proper names or place names it's respectful to keep the word exactly as the source dictates, but I'm in favour of dropping a lot of accents on borrowed foreign words. "Cliche" is now an English word when used in English, so why not ditch the accent? Same with cafe. I'm a volunteer at Bude Memory Café, and they use the accent all the time, so I follow suit. Penguin Cafe Orchestra don't use the accent, so me neither if I mention them. In our recent banter about déjà vu, I kept the accents on, partly because it looks a bit awkward without and partly because the spell-checker puts them in. Makes me look clever, too. ;-) We need the accents on résumé in order to avoid confusion, but I'm not sure about smorgasbord or francais or facade...

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 25 Mar 23 - 01:51 PM

We need the accents on résumé in order to avoid confusion, but I'm not sure about smorgasbord or francais or facade...

I agree about résumé, smorgasbord and facade but francais without the ç just looks wrong to me.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Mar 23 - 01:54 PM

dehiscent, desiccant, decimate, one of these words is not like the others...

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Bill D
Date: 25 Mar 23 - 02:42 PM

Stanron.. as I posted above, my spell checker does allow adding a preferred spelling.. and some have databases to download that give a choice of languages and/or dialects.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Rapparee
Date: 26 Mar 23 - 09:58 PM

I use a sellcheater. I meant I use the spellcheater on my PC. Your know, the think everyone say’s makeshift mistaked. It works fabulous thinks..

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 12:21 AM

That's a good one, Georgiansilver.

I've decided not to bother about umlauts in German words. An umlaut simply indicates a variation in the vowel, and heavens, if we all started trying to replicate every variation in vowels, we'd never get done.

"Maybe your Spellchecker wants the diaeresis". You mean maybe my spellchecker wants the Pepto-bismol.

Seriously, I never heard the word diaeresis before. It's "a mark (¨) placed over a vowel to indicate that it is sounded in a separate syllable, as in naïve, Brontë." I've seen naive written that way, but I think we stopped doing that years ago because the character isn't on the QWERTY keyboard.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 02:38 AM

I live near Haworth and visit there at least weekly. I can assure you that none of the Bronte signs, shops, place names or souvenirs contain the diaeresis!

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Mr Red
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 05:17 AM

I before e, except after c, and when the sound is ee.

except when it isn't.

language moves-
estate agents, yoof, marketing men, pop singers - all morph words to sound cool, or hot or wicked or (?), call it fashion and be accurate, and that is only in English English.

And without an exhaustive survey I would still bet there are plenty of foreign words we have appropriated that don't follow over-used rule-based clichés.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Mr Red
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 05:24 AM

I thought that spell checkers had an 'add' function so that you could include your preferred spelling.

they often do, I use FireFox English English and the ise's of this demesne still get undelined, and life is too short to do anything but ignore that one.

One of the problems of adding words to your spell check lexicon (sic) is the words we KNOW are right, it ain't necessarily so and worse - anyone else using your PC is now lumbered unless they KNOW!

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 05:26 AM

I think that was addressed Date: 25 Mar 23 - 06:36 AM Mr R.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 06:36 AM

One problem with spelcheks that permit additional dictionary entries is that users can put "irregardless" in them without due care and attention.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 07:20 AM

Irregardless is a word whether you like it or not.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 10:08 AM

So is the somewhat less jarring Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, but I had to grep the net for the correct spelling .... only to find a slightly different speling with a reference from 1931. Fun Facts Dept: the last hand-compiler of a particular dictionary was interviewed on the Today Programme, and admitted he'd put the above word in "just for fun".

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 10:53 AM

We see what you did there...

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 11:00 AM

Irregardless is a word whether you like it or not.

As is "albeit"

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 11:15 AM

Never said it wasn't a word, Doug. Just one of those horrors I never want to hear, along with prior to, at the end of the day and going forward. I've recently added "double down" to my list. And daft sentences with Full. Stops. Between. All. The. Words.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: G-Force
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 11:24 AM

Contractual. So many people put an r after the a. (I used to work in contracts, so it's a particular bugbear of mine.)

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 11:26 AM

I do find that some worms are hard to smell

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 12:45 PM

The place with the longest name in the uk (Wales) is not easy to spell or pronounce. .......Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 01:50 PM

There's a place in Orkney called Twatt. Clearly, someone found it a word that was hard to spell.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 02:42 PM

Dave, thanks for the info about Haworth.

Here's another class of spelling problem that I have: words with -gue at the end versus -que. But it's a finger problem more than a sound problem. I mean that my fingers wand to type -gue because it's easier to reach. Then my ears tell me that "picturesque" (for example) needs the q.
==========
As for weight and beige, the complete rule says
I before e except after c
or as sounded like a as in "Neighbor" and "weigh."

Then you've got to remember that "weird" is weird.

Various sources claim that "feisty" is descended from "fart," but I don't believe that.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 02:55 PM

I just found another hard-to-spell word: minutiae. And I just learned a new slang term: inside baseball. Something inside baseball is something detailed and minute, of interest only to experts.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 08:42 PM

Interesting thing about "feisty" is that it was used in the song Kilkelly which told the tale of letters exchanged between members of a family separated by the Atlantic Ocean between the years 1860 and 1892. Yet the word was not recorded as having been in use until at least 1896...

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Mr Red
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 02:26 AM

eventually (contractually)

In UK means it will happen
In Europe means depending on events

But we can agree on the spelling.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 06:13 AM

Was 'feisty' used in the actual letters or just the song?

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 10:12 AM

In the last verse:

"He was a strong and a feisty old man,
Considering his life was so hard.
And it's funny the way he kept talking about you,
He called for you in the end.
Oh, why don't you think about coming to visit,
We'd all love to see you again."

...which implies that it was said in a letter. Plenty of room for poetic licence, of course!

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 11:47 AM

...which implies that it was said in a letter.

Not really, just that the songwriter didn't spot the anachronism. Even Shakespeare managed to have striking clocks in Julius Caesar's Rome even thougn they weren't invented until the 14th century.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 12:22 PM

The letters have been published online here
https://www.mayo-ireland.ie/en/towns-villages/kilkelly/history/kilkelly-ireland-song-feb-1893.html

I'm sorry that I can't seem to operate the link maker from my phone.

The final letter does not use the word 'feisty' although it may have been used by another writer.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 12:40 PM

Ye gods, Doug. I did mention poetic licence!

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 12:59 PM

Poetic licence would suggest that the writer had knowingly stretched the point. More likely is that the point was missed altogether.

Erm, ... what has all this got do do with spelling?

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 03:16 PM

It has to do with having to stop and think how to spell "license." Something I have to do rather often.

"Feisty" was used upthread. I'm not at my most awake right now, but I can't think of another word in which ei is pronounced as long i, unless it's clearly German, as in beerstein. Maybe it's just me.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 04:39 PM

I can't think of another word in which ei is pronounced as long i

Height
Sleight
Eiderdown
Kaleidoscope
Seismology
Rottweiler (from German)
Apartheid (from Dutch)
Eisteddfod (Welsh, but significant in the world of folk music)

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 04:46 PM

Keir Starmer is weird but carries no weight with me.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Mr Red
Date: 30 Mar 23 - 03:46 PM

 fancy sign on the back of a car - see image car owned by John Kerry, not the US politician (JHK reg plate)

 If you can read this your to close

 a bad spell of whether? Though he is a successful shop owner - cookers/ovens/hobs etc - bought my 'fridge from him 23 years ago, still going strong.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 30 Mar 23 - 05:37 PM

"Fridge": interesting. There's a 'd' in there that isn't in "refrigerator..."

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Mar 23 - 07:39 PM

Indictment. Indicted. Indict.

I bet Trump has figured out how to spell the words that sound like "enditement."

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 10:03 AM

> It has to do with having to stop and think how to spell "license."
> Something I have to do rather often.

Something us right-pondians have to do twice: for some reason, the English mutated the noun to "licence", while retaining "license" for the verb. Mebbe it's to do with us never having got over 1066, but developing an inferiority complex over French spelling.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 10:25 AM

Help! --- I think I've sprained the 'Cat, but I don't know how. Is there a MudElf in the house?

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 10:30 AM

Panic over: the extra gubbins at top-of-page wandered away of its own accord. Curious, and of course can't be reproduced.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 11:15 AM

Anything in Gaelic, Irish, Basque, Manx, Cornish, Breton, Welsh….

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 01:49 PM

Well, thank you, MaJoCo! So that's why I've been insecure about license -license all this time.

Steve, that' a good observation about fridge versus refrigerator. I think there are two reasons.

1. We deal with words in groups. We already have bridge, ridge, and smidge, so why not fridge?

2. If we use only the letters in refrigerator, we get "frige." That looks like a word with a long I. No good.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 01:51 PM

Fulfil. Fulfill. Fullfil. Fullfill. Focusing. Focussing. Focused. Focussed. Repellent. Repellant.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 05:02 PM

Fridge (hm) .... When I was in primary school, I learnt that Frigidaire objected under trademark laws to their name being verbed; they then mounted a publicity campaign to get everybody saying "fridge" instead, and that it's a contraction of "refrigerator", not of "frigidaire". The campaign seems to have been successful over this side of the puddle.

Meanwhile, Hoover lost an exactly similar (slightly later?) lawsuit over *their* trademarked name being verbed. Irony Dept: Hoover is still (ahem) going strong .... but I've only ever seen a Frigidaire fridge once in my lifetime.

.... Meanwhile, back at the subthread, methinks the D migrated into "fridge" before the rest of the word got chopped off, and has lodged itself so firmly there that I've have to double-check "refrigerator" every time I've typed it in full in writing this.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 06:53 PM

"Fridge": interesting. There's a 'd' in there that isn't in "refrigerator..."

A rather dated example, but "perambulator" lost an 'e' when it was shortened to "pram".

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 07:25 PM

A veggie burger is suitable for vegetarians.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 01 Apr 23 - 07:03 AM

floccinaucinihilipilification    is not an easy word to spell correctly. I often make smelling mistakes.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Apr 23 - 07:27 AM

What I like about "antidisestablishmentarianistically" is its sheer simplicity, positively almost phonetic.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 03 Apr 23 - 11:05 PM

Those are good, real-life examples, Steve. Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: BobL
Date: 04 Apr 23 - 03:27 AM

For years I spelled "anemone" as "anenome", and sometimes pronounced it that way too. Horticultural jokes referring to fronds and anemones didn't improve matters.
I should be OK though if I can remember it contains the anonym "Nemo".

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Apr 23 - 04:26 AM

I sometimes wonder about the faintly poetic car park sign, "Have you paid and displayed?" I once saw "Have you payed and displayed?" I"m now waiting for "paid and displaid"!

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 05 Apr 23 - 10:22 PM

No, Steve, old son. To displaid someone is to take away his Scottish woolen cloak.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 08 Apr 23 - 10:04 AM

I was looking at a video about Donald Trump's arraignment, and the judge told him that any more dumb and dangerous stunts from him, (I paraphrase) and the trial would be conducted in his "absense." The transcript was on the screen, that's how I saw it.

I looked at "absense" and thought, "That looks fuuny." But actually, the spoken word can be taken two ways.

absence = not being present
absense = not having sense, similar to abnormal.

I like it.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Apr 23 - 12:11 PM

A word that's being used more and more in a way that galls me is "multiple." It's used to replace much more elegant expressions such as "a lot of", "many", "several", etc. it might not be wrong but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 Apr 23 - 05:19 AM

interesting, nobody (except me) spelled 'fridge with an apostrophe.

Common usage - ditto with 'flu - who bothers with the ' nowadays

Interestingly I pluralize walk through in ceilidh discussions reasoning that walk should follow the courts marshal and brigadiers general rules. In that we do a lot of walking and through doesn't pluralise. But some callers disagree. And they have the mic.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Reinhard
Date: 09 Apr 23 - 05:48 AM

Another word hard to spell. It's courts martial.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Apr 23 - 06:44 AM

Surely fridge and flu should have two apostrophes!

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 09 Apr 23 - 04:30 PM

Steve, I agree with you about "multiple." It's hard to explain, but it's just an ugly word. Science writers seem to use it when they don't know how many of something there is, but they still want to sound impressive.

"The male swallows make multiple flights over the pond, catching insects to take back to the nest." Another way of saying we have no idea how many.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: robomatic
Date: 09 Apr 23 - 05:40 PM

I just learned to misspell armeggadon.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Apr 23 - 05:43 PM

That's a very good example of what I mean, leeneia. It's not exactly incorrect but it's...well...awful!

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Apr 23 - 06:00 PM

Flu with an apostrophe is so unusual that, these days when you see it, it looks like an affectation. As for fridge, you could argue that it isn't derived from "refrigerator." I mean, what's going on with that 'd'?

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: BobL
Date: 10 Apr 23 - 03:21 AM

"Human language is a reflection of humans: illogical, held together with gum and bailing wire. Just don’t try to fix it." - Anu Garg of wordsmith.org

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 10 Apr 23 - 04:47 AM

"a lot of", "many", "several", etc.

Why use any of those words when there is a perfectly good word:- "multiple".

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 10 Apr 23 - 05:10 AM

> I mean, what's going on with that 'd'?

It's stopping "fridge being mispronounced "frig", which would be fridging annoying.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 10 Apr 23 - 11:37 AM

Another word that's hard to spell: hors dourvres, or however you spell that.

It occurs to me that we use this word perfectly comfortably in speech, and we don't think "Oh, a foreign word!" Yet when it comes to writing it, it becomes alien.

Do French people have trouble spelling it?

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: meself
Date: 10 Apr 23 - 12:17 PM

"hors dourvres, or however you spell that" - Never mind spelling it: how do you say it?? That's one (two? three?) of those words, like "genre", which should be banned from the English language as "unpronounceable".

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Apr 23 - 12:26 PM

Or dervs. Wear a beret when you say it and have a string of onions dangling from your handlebars. Alors.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 11 Apr 23 - 08:00 AM

Yeah. Rhymes with 'for nerves.'

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Apr 23 - 10:03 AM

I don't know how to say "ma mère l'oye".

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Lighter
Date: 11 Apr 23 - 10:58 AM

Wot, no "syzygy"?

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Apr 23 - 11:28 AM

Or Szczecin?

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 17 Apr 23 - 10:20 PM

Here's one I had to look up: hemorrhaged.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Apr 23 - 09:34 AM

I before E
Except after C
Unless pronounced A
As in neighbor or weigh
Exceptions: neither (is it) weird (for) foreigners (to) seize (their) leisure.

People only taught that first line or 2 are led astray.

Leisure, on a separate note, is one of the truly rare words in English with a soft j sound. No preceding D sound like in Judge or juniper.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: meself
Date: 18 Apr 23 - 12:22 PM

"Or dervs" - Okay; I suppose that would explain the funny looks I get whenever I ask anyone if they'd like to try the 'horse doovers'.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 18 Apr 23 - 01:03 PM

Leisure, on a separate note, is one of the truly rare words in English with a soft j sound.

Measure; Pleasure; Treasure; Seizure

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 18 Apr 23 - 01:06 PM

Good point, Mrrzy. soft j - leisure, as you say. Also measure, treasure, pleasure, azure. I suppose these all have the same origin, probably French.

I think of them as zh sounds rather than soft j, but same difference.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Apr 23 - 01:19 PM

None of them sound much like a soft j to me.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 19 Apr 23 - 06:27 PM

None of them sound much like a soft j to me.

Definitely a soft j - like the French, first person singular pronoun "je".

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Apr 23 - 06:56 PM

Yebbut you're a bloody northerner, Doug. It's more of a schh than a jshhh.... unless you've gone all posh, of course...

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 19 Apr 23 - 10:30 PM

Came across another tricky one - scalloped or scallopped, as in scalloped potatoes.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 20 Apr 23 - 06:20 AM

It's more of a schh than a jshhh....

schh can be heard in "thresher"

It's jshcc in "leisure".

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Apr 23 - 11:34 AM

Mary had a little lamb
She fed it on Scotch scallops
And every time it tried to walk
It fell down on its






Hands and knees

(toujours la politesse...)