The Chronicles of Ridiculous...

[Chock]

ri·dic·u·lous: [ri-dik-yuh-luhs]
Adjective - causing or worthy of derision; absurd; preposterous; laughable: a ridiculous plan

Normally I'm not too concerned with grammar nazis on the 'net, after all, expecting people from nations all around the world to write in perfect English would be very pedantic. But I was talking about this the other day, and I reckoned this word gets the most mispellings on internet forums, a colleague thought that there were probably more cases of people using i.e. when they really mean e.g. Anyone think of another word that can challenge it for the most numerous incorrect spellings or uses?

Chock

[Prof]

I would say 'their' is the most mis-spelled word on the Internet. Most people (especially those from the UK) seem to spell it 'there'.

I suppose one might class that as poor grammar rather than poor spelling. I'd class it as bone-headedness.

[Chock]

I would say 'their' is the most mis-spelled word on the Internet. Most people (especially those from the UK) seem to spell it 'there'.

Yup, that was another contender in the discussion, along with they're, which of course brings up the thorny issue of apostrophes too.

Chock

[Lurchi]

I noticed that "then" and "than" are often mixed up too.

[Letum]

I'm very tempted to run a spell check through your posting history Chock.

[Tchocky]

There's "alot" of trouble with "free speach"

[DeepSix]

Originally Posted by Tchocky

There's "alot" of trouble with "free speach"

They're definately is.

P.S. As an ex-English teacher, I don't even like the word "a lot" (although I do slip and use it sometimes). In my book "a lot" is a parcel of land, while "a great amount" of something is better described with words like much, many, great, copious, plentitude, etc.

[Skybird]

Bah, taypos, nothing but taypos... I should know - my speedtayping redefined the meening of the turm!

[Chock]

I'm very tempted to run a spell check through your posting history Chock.

Do it if you like, I daresay you will find many, I don't claim to be correct all the time when posting in forums (or anywhere else for that matter), although offline in my work I have to be, as I run a copywriting course in Manchester! Which is why I keep a dictionary and thesaurus to hand and generally proof read things carefully for work-related stuff, although I always caution my students to have someone else proof their work, as was the case when I was a writer for a newspaper, because reading your own stuff makes you miss things like typing 'the the' on line breaks, which most spell checkers will miss.

I'm not pulling people up about typos, it was more about which word do we think gives people the most trouble, and it's not even about not knowing how to spell it, most people type stuff as they 'speak' it phonetically in their head, which is why things such as we're/wear/where etc crop up, two/too/to being another one. And I know how to spell amend, but I also spell it ammend sometimes, I just get brain lock on it occasionally. I knew a holiday reviews writer once who could never remember how to spell accommodation!

So I'm not being elitist here, it's just a fun discussion, I'd much rather meet a nice person who couldn't spell to save their life, than an obnoxious literary genius.

Chock

[Camaero]

Sometimes, in my haste to get the word out, I spell banana like bannana or bananna.

It is a funny word if you stare at it long enough.