Now no one loves the younger generations any more than I do especially since I once was a member of one myself and have raised a couple of children through the last few decades.
Disclosure: the title of this article was invented with only one aim in mind: to grouse about and expose those of the younger persuasion who seem to have blindspots when it comes to the spelling of a particular word.
The particular word to which I refer is: definitely--which so many whippersnappers insist is spelled: definately.
Perhaps it's from a Valley Girl-esque pronunciation they've grown up with the last few years, made worse by teen films, or perhaps they need the strength of their spectacle prescriptions upped.
I'm toe-tully not sure of the cause, so if you have any insight into this quirkiness of theirs--or of yours, if you are such a whippersnapper!--then please advise.
As a parent and an English-speaker, I am concerned.
This problem came to my attention with a vengeance about three years ago when I hired a college student who needed the credit, the money, and the experience of designing and setting up a website so we made a deal.
It took six or seven times over a period of five weeks for me to get through to her the correct spelling of the word, and then she only changed it in the text to humor me--and was totally certain that I was the one with the bogus spelling.
Now I'm wondering if there are any more examples of the young and feckless who are wreckless with spelling, who've apparently never met a real live dictionary, and who pass their brain typos off as hapless typing fingers gone astray.
Is the popular, if sometimes misguided Spellchecker letting us down as a society?
I'd have to say: definitely.
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Comments: 22
LOVE your new icon...will have to check it out! ;D
yes, spellcheck lets us down as a society, as writers, and as human beings...not to mention its 'authority' is often laughable ;) I say, Puh! on Gates and on the other Gates, too!
I said lie-berry for years until someone corrected me, I guess for all those years people thought it was cute and didn't say anything to me. Then one day out of the blue I was working on some network problems and my co-worker asked me if I knew the correct pronunciation and i said "definately"!
Now I've insulted just about everyone on this thread, haven't I! But I'm a good speller, have always been a good speller, so... I mean... Who in heaven's name did Noah Webster think he was, anyway? Insisting there was only one way to spell something! (I recently discovered he wasn't the first)
I cannot tell you how many times a day I find myself correcting student writing that frequently includes the newly minted word "alot". Adolescents insist I am definitely off the chain, as it were, until they are unable to locate it in the dusty old dictionary. Lower case "i" for the first person personal pronoun along with using "cause" or (gasp) "cuz" instead of "because" continue to depress me.
Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so.
My daughter, the editor, won't like any of this...fortunitely, she's so swamped with dedlines, she'll knever sea this....
Great idea for an article...:)
Jiya, it's pretty amazing that that one hasn't been generally discontinued by now, but it could be a holdover from inherited tendencies of the tongue. Still, it would seem to me that training could be successful if so desired!
only kidding, honey. its a pet peeve of mine as well. doesn't anyone own a freaking dictionary anymore?