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Off topic: Words you can never spell
Thread poster: Fiona Grace Peterson
Rad Graban (X)
Rad Graban (X)  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:37
English to Slovak
+ ...
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis Apr 22, 2010

I found the thread very interesting till we started with this.

 
Jack Doughty
Jack Doughty  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:37
Russian to English
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In memoriam
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Apr 22, 2010

Particularly the "cali" bit. Or is it "calli"?

 
Steve Booth
Steve Booth  Identity Verified
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English to Arabic
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floccinaucinihilipilification Apr 22, 2010

This is the one that always does it for me even though i know how to spell it i am always convinced it is wrong

 
Madeleine MacRae Klintebo
Madeleine MacRae Klintebo  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:37
Swedish to English
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With a short name you're lucky Apr 22, 2010

Fiona Peterson wrote:

I'm actually thinking of changing my name to Fioan, because that's what it normally comes out as when I'm in a hurry...




Just imagine where all the various "e" end up when I'm trying to sign an email - Madeeline, Madeliene, Madleeine...

I blame my parents...

[Edited at 2010-04-22 21:37 GMT]


 
Sergei Leshchinsky
Sergei Leshchinsky  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 08:37
Member (2008)
English to Russian
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a side-note... Apr 22, 2010

English speakers are fond of spelling... Even at schools, you have a separate line in the credits -- for spelling... You do spelling bees... We don't have it. (Jack Doughty will confirm. ) We may have strange sounding of some words, not agreeing with the spelling, but not spelling as a separate discipline. We have some words that sound the same being spelled in different ways, but we never make heavy weather of it. It goes without... See more
English speakers are fond of spelling... Even at schools, you have a separate line in the credits -- for spelling... You do spelling bees... We don't have it. (Jack Doughty will confirm. ) We may have strange sounding of some words, not agreeing with the spelling, but not spelling as a separate discipline. We have some words that sound the same being spelled in different ways, but we never make heavy weather of it. It goes without saying...

Lave aside medical and chemical terms... They are endless... Nobody, even doctors, can cope with them... That is why they have such an awful handwriting... To hide spelling mistakes...

But, I will follow this thread. It is interesting.

[Редактировалось 2010-04-22 21:20 GMT]
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Evonymus (Ewa Kazmierczak)
Evonymus (Ewa Kazmierczak)  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 07:37
Member (2010)
English to Polish
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... Apr 22, 2010

Well, actually Wednesday puzzles me all the time. Is it Wensday or what?

 
Sergei Leshchinsky
Sergei Leshchinsky  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 08:37
Member (2008)
English to Russian
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it IS Friday already Apr 22, 2010



 
RieM
RieM  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 02:37
English to Japanese
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subpoena, indictment Apr 22, 2010

Having lived in the US for some 20 years, I've sure learned and re-learned many more English words by ear. I know what they mean and how to use them properly, but I go blank sometimes when trying to spell them out. These are some of them. No, no, I didn't learn them from a real-time experience

 
Fiona Grace Peterson
Fiona Grace Peterson  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 07:37
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
Great suggestions! Apr 22, 2010

To be honest I did not expect such a great response to this thread, thanks so much!

And don't you mean Fryday, Sergei?


 
Brian Young
Brian Young  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 23:37
Danish to English
gud sphelin iznt imphortunt Apr 22, 2010

i doent se wat thu big deel iz. hu sez wee haf tue spehl wirds in sum surten weigh. i thot it wuz a free wurld. as lohng az we kahn unurstand eech uthur.

Now, back to the subject. I tend to use American spelling, and I never thought twice about it. Then last night I was the studying the EU Guide to Style, and there were so many things that I just would not have agreed with. So now I know that, in case I have to do a translation that might end up there.


 
Nesrin
Nesrin  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:37
English to Arabic
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The English and spelling Apr 22, 2010

Sergei Leshchinsky wrote:

English speakers are fond of spelling... Even at schools, you have a separate line in the credits -- for spelling... You do spelling bees... We don't have it.


Sergei -
I agree the English may be somewhat obsessed with spelling, but I wouldn't put it down to fondness - more likely exasperation at the state of spelling, not only among kids but adults as well. It is obvious that something is done wrong in the way kids are taught to spell here. Having learned most of my English in German schools, where spelling rules were drilled into us most effectively, I'm surprised to see grown Brits all confused about the difference between they're, their and there, or writing things like "I would of thought"...


 
Sergei Leshchinsky
Sergei Leshchinsky  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 08:37
Member (2008)
English to Russian
+ ...
The truth of spelling Apr 22, 2010

Nesrin wrote:
I'm surprised to see grown Brits all confused about the difference between they're, their and there, or writing things like "I would of thought"...

That's surprising! How can you confuse such simple things! You, the Brits, have a good analytical language... How can you take a wrong brick to lay the wall if the bricks are clearly different?!


 
Brian Young
Brian Young  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 23:37
Danish to English
problems with spelling, and bees Apr 22, 2010

I think that many adults have problems with "they're, their and there" for the same reason that they have problems adding or dividing fractions. Education has gone way down in quality, and it is a huge problem over here in the USA. I don't blame teachers, it is a complicated thing, way beyond this forum. So it is not just an isolated language problem.

 
Jack Doughty
Jack Doughty  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:37
Russian to English
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In memoriam
English grammar is not taught in British schools. Apr 22, 2010

It was when I was at school, but that was in the 1940s. From the sixties onwards, it became unfashionable to impose rules about grammar on children. I did a two-month couse in Spanish at a school in Málaga, and the teachers there said that their English students were the most difficult to teach, because all those from other countries had at least been taught the grammar of their own languages, but the English had no such basis on which to build knowledge of Spanish grammar.

 
Amy Duncan (X)
Amy Duncan (X)  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 03:37
Portuguese to English
+ ...
mischievous, bureaucracy, diahhrea...oops, I mean diarrhea Apr 22, 2010

I'm sure there are more, but those 3 drive me mad!

 
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Words you can never spell






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