Are you ever surprised at what you don't know?

Becky Writes · Aug 6, 2006

When you're writing and you double check your grammar and word usage, are you ever surprised that you have been doing something wrong for years?

I don't know if it's my poor education or just the region I'm from, but I would have bet that the past tense of drag was drug. I grabbed his hand and drug him to the bed. But it's not! It's dragged! That just doesn't sound right to my brain.

:Shrug:

ChaosTitan · Aug 6, 2006

That happens to me all the time. Part of it is dialect, I think, because I speak improperly sometimes, but will type it correctly in a manuscript.

Lately I have found myself correcting people on the proper past tense of sneak.

Ordinary_Guy · Aug 6, 2006

I consider myself a reasonably good speller... but there are still some words that I have a mental block remembering correctly (even though my spell checker flogs the suckers every time). A short-circuit deep, deep within the language machinery...

Becky Writes · Aug 6, 2006

I'm guessing it's not snuck.

TrickyFiction · Aug 6, 2006

My shame is that I have been mixing up the words ought and aught, and I just got caught.

Can't Catch A Break · Aug 6, 2006

Yes.

At first, I was doing too much "telling" and not "showing" enough.

Also "affect" and "effect".

Jamesaritchie · Aug 6, 2006

spelling

Ordinary_Guy said:
I consider myself a reasonably good speller... but there are still some words that I have a mental block remembering correctly (even though my spell checker flogs the suckers every time). A short-circuit deep, deep within the language machinery...

I'm usually a very good speller, but I simply can't spell "parallel," "restaurant," or "rendezvous" without looking them up. Mental blocks on all three.

DeborahM · Aug 6, 2006

Everyday life one doesn't pay as much attention as when you sit down and write and have to get it right! Yes, it surprises me, sometimes as well as there are times where I come up with a word and find I can't find it.

Then, it's not only grammer. Sometimes when I get cranked writing, I seem to lose punctation rules for commas. Never ceases!

Therefore, should I submit it to Websters to consider it for a new word and give them the meaning? But no, I don't, I just pick up the thesaurus and try to find the one I should have been looking for.

Boy, did I go further then you asked? :Hammer:

That happens when I sit down at the computer!

Ordinary_Guy · Aug 6, 2006

Jamesaritchie said:
I'm usually a very good speller, but I simply can't spell "parallel," "restaurant," or "rendezvous" without looking them up. Mental blocks on all three.

Parallel was one of mine. "Reconnaissance" is another (and I use the damned thing, too – I have absolutely no excuse to misspell it... but I still do).

Edit: Personnel is another one...

ChaosTitan · Aug 6, 2006

For the longest time I always misspelled "separate." Even now I have to think hard to remember the second vowel is an 'a'.

"Terrific" is another word that I add another 'f' to every time I spell it. Of course, that could be because I keep thinking of Charlotte's Web. "Tee, double-ee, double-are, double-eye, double-eff, double-eye, double-see-see-see."

brianm · Aug 6, 2006

I'm so glad to see that I'm not alone when it comes to parallel. My WIP touches on the Korean War and I felt so stupid having to stop typing to sound it out... and then I'd still get it wrong. Finally, I just said the hell with it and let spell check correct it for me.

I also spell "looking" wrong when I type fast. It always comes out "lokoing." Another one is "the"... it usually comes out "teh."

DeborahM · Aug 6, 2006

brianm said:
Another one is "the"... it usually comes out "teh."

That's my speciality!

And when I'm really cranking, I use loose instead of lose :whip:

KAM · Aug 6, 2006

Parallel gets me every time too. Also calendar, for some reason.

blacbird · Aug 6, 2006

I'm a very good speller, always have been since grade school, but even so, for the longest time, I spelled "refrigerator" as "refridgerator", until a critiquer clued me in.

caw.

Scrawler · Aug 6, 2006

I don't know why I have such a problem with was and were. I wish I was better. I wish I were better. If I was a rich man... If I were a rich man. I was rich but, I wished I were wealthier? Was wealthier? It makes me feel so dumb.
And I always have to look up the spelling of embarrassment.

Shadow_Ferret · Aug 6, 2006

I've always had trouble with dimension. Hey! Got it right that time. And seperate? separate? And of course, I've always have a post-it note around explaining the difference between its and it's. That is something I've always had a mental block about.

TSByrne · Aug 6, 2006

“Basically” always trips me up, and just the other day I discovered that I’ve been spelling “judgment” incorrectly (or at least using a spelling that is no longer considered formally valid) for years.

reph · Aug 7, 2006

Scrawler said:
I don't know why I have such a problem with was and were. I wish I was better. I wish I were better. If I was a rich man... If I were a rich man. I was rich but, I wished I were wealthier? Was wealthier?

Take a look at the Grammar forum. We did the subjunctive today.

three seven · Aug 7, 2006

There are two words I can never get right: licence/license and practice/practise. In England they have different meanings. Having just looked them up, I can tell you the 'c' signifies a noun and the 's' a verb (basically), but if you ask me again in an hour I won't have a clue. Therefore, whilst I'm usually fiercely derisive of the American penchant for random letter removal, in each of the above cases I'd have to say you've got a point.

three seven · Aug 7, 2006

reph said:
Take a look at the Grammar forum. We did the subjunctive today.

Oh, and I don't know what the subjunctive is, either. But if I'm honest, I don't really care.

expatbrat · Aug 7, 2006

I have that restaurant brain block too – the first a never makes it in my version of the word. And only recently I learnt that blond is for men and blonde is for women.

Been and being trick me up all the time as do were and we’re.

Yacht is a word I can never even get close enough for spell check to guess. I have to write boat and then “control F7” to find it.

JimmyB27 · Aug 7, 2006

Ordinary_Guy said:
Parallel was one of mine. "Reconnaissance" is another (and I use the damned thing, too – I have absolutely no excuse to misspell it... but I still do).

Edit: Personnel is another one...

Recon

Novelist in Paradise · Aug 7, 2006

I consider myself a reasonable speller, but all my life, I ain't ever had no rythym. That word's my knock-kneed bete noire.

("Knock knock"
"Who's there?"
"Just my knees")
((quick, get me another drink))

seun · Aug 7, 2006

I can never spell cigeratte. And I'm not sure if I got that right :Shrug:

When I write, I rarely think about grammar. I just know what's right but when people ask me the correct term or tense, I really have to think about it.

howiehok · Aug 7, 2006

I can never spell cigeratte. And I'm not sure if I got that right

You didn't!

I struggle with separate too. And the difference between stationary and stationery will never be clear in my mind, however many times I am told.

Also spelt curiosity wrong for 10 years! Was sure there was a "u" after the "o".

I struggle with the word rejection too....

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