BS: words that are hard to spell

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...)

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Apr 23 - 11:28 AM

Or Szczecin?

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 - 10:03 AM

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

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: robomatic
Date: 09 Apr 23 - 05:40 PM

I just learned to misspell armeggadon.

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 10:03 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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