I don't think of them as spelling mistakes-I think of them as typing mistakes. My brain goes faster than my fingers.

Worry not -- as long as you're aware that the mistake was made, things should be ok. I think it's much worse if one makes a mistake without knowing that said misteak was made!
;-)

(Hmmmm........ must be getting close to dinner. I don't know why but I feel like a steak tonight.) ;-)

Embarrassed? Not really. It happens. I don't worry about mine...or other posters' mistakes, as long as I understand what they are saying.

Blessed be the Google toolbar that spell checks my postings (when I remember to do so) before I submit. (And just insisted I capitalize Google.)

I agree with Cece, they're typing mistakes. And despite my best proofreading efforts, they still creep in.

Aoccdrnig to rseerach at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

Fortunately we on this forum are not pedantic about these things, but let a basic spelling mistake slip by on some of the LonelyPlanet forums and half the answers to your post will be criticisms of your spelling ability.

My friend's son Nicolas, aged 6, is very keen on doing well at school. His teacher recently told the class that it was good to make mistakes because "we learn best by making mistakes". For the next two weeks, Nicolas very carefully made lots of mistakes in all his subjects. In the end, his parents had to have a word with the teacher.
So, Jankin, what have you learnt?

Anyanka-how precious! I hope he now understands the premise-and that his teacher explained the other half of the lesson-at age 6, we learn by correcting our mistakes, or having them GENTLY corrected while we observe!

I've learnt a lot in my many years on this planet - some of it I wish I could unlearn, and I'm still learning - however my most important lesson is to 'keep an open mind'and thank whatever powers that be for the gift of imagination - creative AND responsive,

I think it was Henny Youngman (an entertainer ) who said "I have no respect for a person whocan only spell a word one way!!"

I was called on this once and posters set out to prove someone else said it before Henny. I like the quote anyway. Oldest DS used to spell people peapole.

I do it all the time. And I do proofread, at least in a cursory manner. Still, I generally miss something. I do not have an orderly mind. I'm actually a fairly good speller. But I am an abysmal typist.

Rosefolly

Guilty as charged! I used to be a competent speller, but over the years that ability has eroded with my memory and my patience. I'm also usually distracted and in the middle of five different things when I'm posting, which doesn't help. Can I blame the food crumbs under my keyboard as yet another reason for the typos?!?!?! (ha ha).

:)

I am not a good speller...my mind doesn't apparently work in the way that it does for a good speller. I'm good at other things, just not this...spelling for me is creative. I do proofread my posts to make sure that I've spelled everything I know how to spell correctly; though I'm sure lots of mistakes have gotten through simply because I didn't notice them. To reduce misspellings, I tend to write words that are simpler and easier to spell than the ones that initially enter my mind. Thank goodness for my normal correspondence I have spellcheck on word (this doesn't work with many chemical names, however - those I have to look up in my chemical dictionary).

Although English is not my native language I rarely make spelling mistakes because I learnt all words by seeing them first in print and I have a good visual memory. It is different for you who probably heard most words before having to spell them. I have several intelligent and highly educated American friends who make horrible mistakes in writing, and one reason may be that their vocabulary is so much larger than mine. I simply don't know enough difficult English words to misspell. You are also singularly unlucky in the spelling conventions of your language. I realized this when I was helping to teach firstgraders during my son's only semester in an American school. It is impossible to explain why "sea" and "see" should be spelled differently if you don't know Old English, you just have to learn by rote.

And then again ... there is "English" and "American English" and never the twain shall meet. I have given up worrying. I try my best and just hope my mistakes (all typos of course) are forgiven.

Bill

Marianne, I agree with you - it is probably easier to spell English correctly when learning it as a second language. A good visual memory helps, too.

I now have more problems with my first language, as the German government pushed through a major spelling reform a few years back, basically aligning the rules to fit the most common spelling mistakes... I am so glad that the British do not come up with silly ideas like that.

My impression is that the German spelling reform is a failure and has made little impact with the public. Personally I take more care than ever to use the double s in words like Schloà and StraÃe. I am old enough to have learnt to write it by hand. Sweden had a radical spelling reform in 1906 but then there was less printed matter about. It is far too late for the British to do anything drastic now, they missed the train around 1650, I think.

Any country that can come up with:-

rough, plough and thorough
precede and supersede
Leicester
island
knot and gnat
stone, bone, one, done, scone, gone, none

(and many many others) is going to resist any spelling reforms tooth and nail.

. . . through, cough . . .

This is more about pronounciation than spelling, but it seems appropriate here. It's from a website I have enjoyed for many years:

We are told that this little poem came about as an exercise for multi-national translation personnel at the NATO headquarters in Paris. English wasn't so hard to learn, they found, but English pronunciation is a killer. We haven't had time to check the provenance of this poem, but that really doesn't matter, as the poem is interesting, amusing and insightful despite its origin.

We were also told that, after trying the poem, a native French interpreter said he'd prefer to spend six months at hard labor than reading six of the lines loud.

English is Tough Stuff

Dearest creature in creation
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar.
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamor
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and droll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangor.
Soul but foul, haunt but aunt,

Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, knob, bosom, transom, oath.
Through the differences seem little,
We say actual, but also victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, Conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache,...

If I was embarrassed everytime I made a spelling error, I'd be in a permanent state of blush....

>I rarely make spelling mistakes because I learnt all words by seeing them first in print and I have a good visual memory.

Interesting idea, and probably true. Tho I do have a good visual memory and was an early reader. But for some reason, I am not a good speller. Yet I love scrabble. Tho my DH can still beat me in a game more oft than not.

> I simply don't know enough difficult English words to misspell.

Oh I love this! Wonder if I can use that line with my Spanish teacher when she complains about my repetitive use of the same words.....

martin and siobhan, I am emailing those to certain folks I know who will appreciate them! (and people wonder why ESL kids need more than two years to learn English as directed by No Child Left Behind. Bah)

I too tire of forums where they pounce on you for mistakes, which are usually typos. Yes I am lazy, I don't always want to stop my thinking to look up a word, so I do the best I can. If I catch it in the edit phase, great. If not - ah well. Tho I have to admit to being a stickler for some things. I really do not like the IM short cuts, and if a post comes up with them I am more likely to just pass it by. But then heck, I'm old.

I have learned to keep a list nearby of words I commonly misspell and make it a point to look for them each time I write something. Plus I use a spell check every chance I get. And because I know how that goes - I always have someone proofread if its something important.

Here is the addy for a really fun and informative website, Take Our Word For It. I've been reading it for years.

Here is a link that might be useful: Take Our Word For It