Saturday, October 27, 2007

words misspelled or used incorrectly

I am far from being a grammar freak. Perhaps because I'm spending more time online due to my job hunt it's getting increasingly annoying for me to see words misspelled or used incorrectly.

Some common examples:
The present tense of "lost" is "LOSE". Not LOOSE. I don't understand why this is so common, especially since "lose" isn't even pronounced the same way as "loose".

The incorrect use of "your" when it should be "you're" or vice-versa. Get a clue. A word with an apostrophe means it's been shortened from the full phrase. "Your" is a pronoun, like your car, your clothes. "You're" is shortened from "you are".

Same with "there" and "they're". There she goes. There's the bus. "They're" is shortened from "they are". After typing or writing "they're" in a sentence, repeat the same sentence using "they are". They're moving next month. They are moving next month.

The word "receive" is NOT spelled "recieve". Give me a break. Use YOUR spell checker here. I've seen far too many craigslist.org job listings misspell this word. It would make me think twice about applying to an opening with a misspelled job title.

Oh, and one that really annoys me. "Alot" is NOT one word! It is "A LOT". Geez, I almost hyperventilated on that one. Is there a brown paper bag handy?

I realize for many of us spelling and grammar in school were not fun subjects. For me, it is something I probably worked harder at than most people because my parents are not native English speakers. But if you want to be taken seriously anymore these days, choose your words correctly!!!

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