Sunday 9 December 2007

Can't anybody spell any more?


I know it's confusing when we have metres and meters in Australian English, but I do get annoyed when professionally made signs are misspelled (or misspelt; the Macquarie Dictionary tells me both are correct!)

6 comments:

  1. In Singapore we are 'suppose' to follow the UK spelling. But... everywhere you go, you see the American spelling.


    Haha.. I realise that when I leave comments on non US DP, I spell the UK way. With colors spelt as colours.

    But when I am on US DPs blogs, I realize that I spell colours and colors.

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  2. I blame the spell check on Word. Also for the whole organise/organize problem.

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  3. I had to look twice at the photo to see what you were getting at - as for spell-checkers they are a real mixed blessing.

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  4. I wholeheartedly agree with you. The frequency of spelling errors on signs and in newspapers seems to be on the increase. I too get annoyed.

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  5. I was at a hospital the other day and I chuckled at the misspelling of the signs. Perhaps not so funny after all.

    In case it is of interest, the JustLocal site www.dictionary.JustLocal.com.au can assist in fixing the issue raised by anonymous.

    As for misspelt versus misspelled, isn't it interesting we have two ways to spell many words. To me that was always confusing. I would go for misspelt as the most popular usage in Australia. It is the first listed spelling in the dictionary. As you say, both are considered correct.

    Have a great day.

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  6. I even found someone recently spelling greengrocer as two words.

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