Spelling police

I'm a very language-savvy person, so it sometimes bugs me. Yes. But I have to remember that everyone has different skill levels, and I shouldn't judge someone on that note. I know that I know virtually nothing about programming, and my lack of knowledge in the area would probably bug some computer genius. :D

nope.i have better things to do than pick on people's spelling. as long as i can still understand what they mean,i'm good. english is my first language and i make mistakes from time to time,so who am i to speak? ;)

Since English is not your mother tongue(as is the case with me) you shouldn't be worrying quite a lot over your spellings. After all, I feel that you are expressing considerably well in a language that is alien to you. Good luck.

Hello! I think it's a bit rude to correct spelling errors unless it's something that my kids are turning in for a school assignment, or unless someone asks me for help. I guess a good idea would be to incorporate the misspelled word into the response so that when it's read, the difference can be seen. Personally, I think that your writing is very good! It's a lot better than a lot of other things I read in here which are posted by people whose native language is English.

spelling mistakes do not bother me much because english is my native language but sometimes after 24 hours of no sleep i start to slur my typing lol...and sometimes i have typing difficulties because i have been typing all day long so yeah it is kind of annoying when people correct me even when i already know how to spell the word... it drives me crazy lol my mom does it all the time i tell her she should have been an english teacher.

i dont used to correct their mistake, i just let them to kwn what their mistake, oz in the long run i knw they will learn by expressing theirself and that how i do learning is a continous process for me that is poor in lingo, but except for the pronunciation i will never understand anymore.

First, I have to say that just from this one message, you seem to be doing a great job with the mastery of the language and spelling. Honestly, much better than a lot of native English speakers I know too! lol I'll start by responding that what I say is specific to people whose first language is English. I have no room to be critical of people who are learning and using English as their second language since they haven't been taught from birth how to speak and eventually write the English language. I've studied several languages and I know I've made more than my share of mistakes. I cringe to think of some of the ridiculous things I said and wrote! That being said, there are times when spelling (and grammar) errors really bother me. Most of the time though is when I find mistakes in some form of printed material like books and newspapers. I just feel that there are people whose job it is to make sure things that are going out to the public are error free. People get paid good money to make sure things aren't riddled with mistakes and typos. So in that situation, I think it's sort of inexcusable to have errors. The only other time it really bothers me to find spelling mistakes is when English is the person's native tongue and the mistakes are simple ones. Times like that make me think the person is just being careless or apathetic about what they are writing. I try to correct people's mistakes if I catch them and they are writing something they are going to be sending to someone else or if it's professional of of a business nature. But if it's something really informal like a reminder note or something inconsequential, I might not take the time to bother.

Hi teison, this is very pertinent for me as well. I belong to non English speaking country and many times even I do mistakes. Many times it's the typing errors as well. And due to huge craze for text messages kids are losing their sense of spellings these days. I hardly point any one out about their syntactical or spelling mistakes. I am not above it either. But if I find someone is consistent with a similar kind of mistake which is very odd and annoying I would rather PM him/her. Thanks.

My favorite response when someone complains about my spelling is -- "Spelling is for Wiccans" ... (Wiccan - witch who cast spells ...) actually more complicated than that, but I'll let an actual Wiccan explain it ... After more than a year in existence everyone should know not everyone here speaks English perfectly - (and there are some English persons who question us Americans' use as well) - add dialects that include the use of "ain't" and such, and we have a well rounded group of posters all expressing ourselves according to the subject at hand. If the English majors have such difficulty understanding us lower life forms using substandard English - it's their character flaw, no one else's.

i am pretty bothered by spelling mistakes as sometimes it distorts the entire message. i enable the spell check in my browser just so that i won't make much spelling mistakes. however, i try my best to NOT correct others. personally i'd like to be corrected as much as possible so that i won't make the same mistake again. then again, not everyone is like me and i'm not sure how another will react to the correction. so most of the time i try not to point it out unless i see the same person making the same mistake many times. cheers.

You should use Firefox. Firefox corrects spelling mistakes so this saves the embarrassment. Usually, I'll make sure my spelling is good before I post. English is my first language so there's no reason for me to make spelling mistakes. However, sometimes when I type too fast, I still do make mistakes. I do not mind others correcting me so long as it's done in a nice way. If it's done in an insulting or rude way, I would be unhappy.

I have never had anyone ever correct me on my spelling or grammer, here in mylot. If I ever did I think I would politely ask the person if they do everything right and know how to spell every single word in our language. I think it is very rude of these people to correct you, and your right, they shouldn't do it in public and embarress you. I think they should send you a pm if they want to correct you. I just think it is very rude of them. I would never do that to someone online or offline for that matter. Not everyone is perfect. I think your English is very good and if you spell something wrong, oh well, so what, it isn't important so why not just let it be and not make any kind of comment to anyone about it.

some kids in my neighborhood are found difficulty in spelling example the spelling from english is color but in someway the spelling is colour did you get my point? sorry for my grammar :)

yes, specially for the pronunciation like japanese u can hardly understand them but im proud for those people though its so hard atleast they try to expressed theirself coz i belived in the process they will master it and thats how i do...and its helps me too.

english is not my native language as well. but i try my very best to deliver not only the correct spelling but the grammar as well. i love polite people correcting me with my grammar but not those unpolite people who just want everyone around to think that they're good at it. nobody's perfect anyway, right?

I never correct peoples spelling because often I don't know where they come from. I'm English and I know that we spell a lot of words differently than Americans do, so I'm not always sure if its correct or not! I once had someone reply to a question I'd asked about favourite colour for a cat with a lecture on using Correct English in both spelling and grammar and they didn't answer the question. It turned out it was an American woman so it annoyed me when she told me it was 'favorite' and 'color'. Sorry but in the 'true' English language it isn't. If it had been a child I'd have accepted the criticism, told them why to me it is correct, and tell them I'm glad they care enough to notice, (too many use 'Text speak' I often wonder if they even remember How to spell)but I'd ask them to be polite next time and answer the question. I applaud you, I think your written English is as good and even better than some 'native speakers'. I've seen some very hard to understand questions and not all are written by the young or other learners of the language. One of the reasons Written English is difficult to learn is that it contains a lot of words that have different spellings, have letters that are not pronounced, and have words that are pronounced differently, mean different things and yet are spelled in the same way! English has many variations depending on where you learn it too! You really are very good! I'm much more interested in WHAT you think and why than I am in how you may write it. There could be many reasons for bad grammar or spelling, and the spell checker doesn't always catch a mistake! As long as it's understandable what difference does it make?

I think that you are doing a great job spelling things. Since english is not your native language and you have a congnitive difficulty you are doing the best you can. People don't seem to understand that others may not know english completely since it is a second language to them. English is very hard to learn anyways. You've posted over 4,000 posts. You can't be doing too bad of a job spelling things. Honestly people should give you credit for at least doing the very best you can spelling in english. I have difficulties sometimes too and most people that speak english as their 1st language can't spell that well anyways. They just like to pick on other people and criticize them. Which is completely wrong. Spelling mistakes don't bother me because they are just that a mistake. It's not a big deal. I do think that a private message would be better than posting it in a discussion, but people want to get credit for posting. So they don't have the courtesy to do that. I try to spell everything correctly, but mess up sometimes. It's in our human nature.

Sometimes I correct them if they ask me to, but often times not specially if I do get the meaning afterall. But if they ask me and I know the correct spelling I will honestly say the best answer, but if I don't know I will say " lets get on this way, I know what you're taking about and that's the most important matter. Have a nice day!!!

Sometimes the mistakes are unintentional - I speak for myself, really. My hand-brain coordination is crazy in the mornings (which is now) and sometimes I type a few words out, delete some but not all and it ends up becoming a mistake without me even realizing it. My brain can think of one word but my hands can type out another... =.= I think if the mistakes are simple, genuine and well, minor (one or two in a paragraph is okay - we aren't sitting for an English test here), then I don't mind. If the whole entry is littered with errors, it's annoying but I wouldn't bother writing a PM to people and asking them to write better English. Writing them makes me sound self-righteous and perfect, which I'm not. Besides, if I don't like receiving such PMs, what more other people?

I try as well and sometimes someone will find flaws . It is a curse sometimes for me .