AAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!

[rabidsamfan]

I just got thrown out of a perfectly tense fic.

The other night I was reading a wonderful epfic that kept throwing me out too.

Why? Because people don't check the spelling past the spellcheck.

Homonyms homonyms wherefore art thou making me crazy?


It's "make do" my friends, not "make due". As in "make this do the job of that."

And "Ought" is about obligation or necessity. "Aught" is the word that means "something" -- compare it with "Naught" if you don't believe me.


I mix words up sometimes myself if I'm typing fast, but lately I'm seeing these two particular errors more often than I'm seeing the correct terms.

And it throws me out of the fic EVERY SINGLE TIME!

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!


E.T.A. Link for those who feel they would like some guidance: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html

Found over at blackbird song's journal and cited by annwyn.

Comments

[shirebound]

Careful, you're starting to loose it!

(Boy, do I know what you mean.)

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

*snerk* I'll let something loose, anyway!

[clever-hobbit.livejournal.com]

The one that really annoys me is "bear" and "bare," as in "I can't bare it!" or "Bare with me." Don't people see what they're saying with that? XD

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I dunno. "Bare with me" has some possibilities... But only if it's Sam!

*kicks Marisoo Bunny behind closet door again and looks innocent*

[cara-chapel.livejournal.com]

AMEN!

*fists of rage*

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

*snerk*

The worst part is feeling the soap box splinters just when I was nicely distracted by a half-way decent storyline.

[mariole.livejournal.com]

That's a good one (bad one).

Another is unbelievably bad dialog. I love dialog, prefer fics that use lots of it. But if it's silly dialog... well, I'll be moving along now!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Actually, one of mine is "dialog" instead of "dialogue"

At least I've read so many books that were published in England I'm immune to most of the British spellings...

[lilybaggins.livejournal.com]

It's not alright, not alright at all. ;D

Okay, so alright instead of "all right" is a personal peeve.

[mariole.livejournal.com]

*shudders, like a nail dragged across a blackboard*

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I occasionally use "alright" in dialogue, but only for obnoxious characters!

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

I have just now posted something on homonyms, and I hadn't even come across this until now!

Hear, hear! Very strong agreement on all counts.

Catherine

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Oh, crumbs, now I'm trying to think of which book has "hear, hear," "where, where", "there, there".... in short succession from very very tired characters...

[b-briarwood.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I feel as if they are trying to taunt me when they neglect to confirm which words they are actually using. Such as using taunt, when they mean taut, and vice versa. That's one I've been running into quite a bit lately. You know the saying "a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing"?

Yes, this happens to be a pet peeve of mine also.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

It's "A little learning is a dangerous thing" (http://www.bartleby.com/100/230.99.html).

Yeah, "taunt" and "taut" make for some silly imagery when they're mixed up!

[b-briarwood.livejournal.com]

*sheepish*

See? I've proven my own point!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

*grin* If it weren't for Dorothy Sayers, I wouldn't know that one either.

[elycia.livejournal.com]

My personal peeve: "breath" for "breathe." Though the possessive "its" with an apostrophe makes me bonkers too.

My sympathies for your spoiled reading experience. :-)

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I'm terrible with "its" and "it's", unless I'm fully awake. But I breathe rather well!

[lily-the-hobbit.livejournal.com]

I know how you feel!

My latest accomplishment... seen and scene. *sighs*

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

And then there's sight and site! Yargggh!

[ansostuff.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean, except I don't see all those errors in English myself so I tend to just be annoyed by the blatantly wrong ones like spelling names on places and people wrong and not using the spelling check in Word. And it's probably why I don't use so many fancy words in my writing, I don't know how to use them properly. :( But I do know the difference between ought and aught. :P

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's seldom the fancy words that get fouled up, it's the common ones. *sigh*

[unhobbityhobbit.livejournal.com]

Oldies but still annoying:

There, their and they're. There's a reason there are three of them! "There over their with they're dog" doesn't make any sense, so why should "it's there choice"? Mind you, with these people it could easily be "its there choice". Honestly, people, it's the first thing English teachers pounce on!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Go English teachers, Go!

I blame it all on a lack of spelling bees...

[(Anonymous)]

My biggest peeve is the use of "of" rather than "have" in things like "he could have gone" or "she should have known". It's an auxiliary verb, people, not a preposition!

~Ardellis
http://witchingwell.com

[(Anonymous)]

Well, OK, an addendum: that's my second biggest peeve. The biggest one is when people use Tolkien's languages when they don't know what they're doing. The Sindarin word "tuilinn" is the Elves' name for the bird we call a swallow; it is most decidedly not what you do with your throat when you drink something.

~Ardellis

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

*giggle* I'll remember to have you take a peek if I ever get brave enough to try to use Sindarin!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I make that mistake sometimes if I'm typing fast, because when I say "should've" it really does sound like "should of" instead of "should have". Ah, well, most often I catch it, but not always!

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

*snickers in agreement*

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Of course, having posted this, I shall do something foolish myself in short order. But whining is still fun!

[bodkin-ra.livejournal.com]

To name but two in addition to the above: hoard/horde, discreet/discrete

And the inability to capitalise correctly.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. Hoard and horde.... How could I forget that one! *bangs head on table*

[rosiegardener.livejournal.com]

lol, even I know these homonyms :-) but as someone who speaks English as a second language I always have to be extra careful beyond spellcheck :-)

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

And we are grateful, we are!

[dreamflower]

I agree, those sorts of things bother me as well, especially when I do suspect the author really does not have the word right--affect and effect, for example, fair and fare, are some of the most common. And we must have been reading the same fic, because I recently came across that "aught"/"ought" thing and it *kept* being repeated throughout the fic.

A real pet peeve of mine is using "of" to do the job of " 've": "I could of done that" instead of "I could've done that". Or leaving "of" *out* when is should be there: "It was a couple days ago" instead of "It was a couple of days ago."

However--I do have to mention that occasionally the wrong word can be blamed on the evil!Spellchecker. I've had mine change the word I *wanted* into the word I didn't. I spent five minutes one day trying to keep mine from turning "tourney" into "journey". It has actually turned "aught" into "ought" before, though I was able to catch it in time. And every time I think I have finally won the battle to keep the extra "l" in "traveller" or the extra "g" in "waggon" or the "e" in "grey"--it goes and "corrects" them for me after all. Turning it off, however, gets me in worse hot water. My spelling skills are not that bad, but my typing is something else again.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I've taken to adding the words I don't want the spellchecker to choke on to the "dictionary". In one version of Word I actually stumbled into a place where I could tell it which rules to ignore, but I've upgraded since then and don't know where they keep it any more.