04 July 2008

Loathesome misspellings

  • Pour vs. pore. You pore over a page, not "pour" over it, unless you're done reading it and don't mind its getting wet.

  • Definately. Nope, it's "definitely" spelled with "finite" in the middle. (See humor columnist Gene Weingarten's theories on why we can't spell in "This Spells Trubble.")

  • Y'all, not ya'll. "Y'all" is a contraction of "you" and "all." "Ya'll" is never correct (unless you have a pet or relative named "Ya" and want to say that "Ya will go to the doctor tomorrow...").

  • Random apostrophes. Apostrophes signify missing letters in contractions ("it" + "is" = "it's"), and they indicate possessives ("Tim's turn"). Don't fling apostophes around if you don't know where they go, as in these egregious examples: outta' and its'.
P.S. How many of you caught the misspelling of "loathesome" in the title (other than my daughter)? : )

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Don't forget "spose" and "sposably" instead of "suppose" and "supposedly."

I also HATE HATE HATE it when people use "I" or "myself" when they mean me (for instance, "Go to the store with Jim and myself").

Thanks for the blog. I definately love it.

Melinda

Gretchen said...

Ooooh, good ones, Melinda! I've also seen, heard, and cringed at "supposively."

Thanks for reading! --gem

Saqib Ali said...

and my all time favorite, "let's flush out the details".

Flush????

flesh out the details

Gretchen said...

Good one, Saqib! I always laugh to myself at that one, especially since it contradicts what the person means. If you flush out something, you're getting rid of details, in a sense, not adding them. : )

Keep 'em coming! --gem