YoYo -

My word nemesis is the same as yours: vacuum gets me every time!

I suspect it is because the pronunciation has changed. When I was a little girl, older people (my grandmother's generation) used to pronounce that word "VAC - you - um". We've dropped the middle syllable so now the spelling looks peculiar. There is another word I've noticed going through the same process right now, only this time, I'm the one in the older generation who sounds all the syllables. It is teasing around my brain right now; I'll post again if it makes itself known to me.

Older spellings fascinate me. When I had spelling in elementary school we had really old spelling books. Sometimes the teacher gave us an alternate (modern) spelling that was also acceptable to her when we had tests. I loved the idea that there was a choice for a few special words.

One older spelling I always liked was Hallowe'en with the apostrophe. I enjoyed the word origin built right into it, Hallowed Even, the holy eve of All Saints Day. There is a shift in pronunciation going on with that word, too. I'm not surprised people don't try to spell it Holloween rather than Halloween, the empty eve instead of the holy eve, because that is how many people say it now.

Rosefolly

It isn't one or just a few words for me. I've always been an excellent speller, but all of a sudden I'm doublechecking myself on many words. I put it down to too much information in my brain from all these years of living.

I never realised how many differences there are between US and UK/ Australian spellings until I got a US Spellcheck on my new laptop! It doesn't seem to like my use of the letter 's' and prefers 'z' a lot, judging by the red underlines!
Carolyn, I am with you about forgotten words. I am sure I could spell better years ago. I now have to do a Dictionary check because a word I have written doesn't look right. Even that doesn't help when one has started the word off with the wrong letter!

Annpan, I do a lot of growling and arguing with US Spellcheck when it automatically corrects my spelling and I have to go back and change it to the 'wrong' (the way I want it, usually British) spelling. Example: It changed my wilful to willful and I had to change it back. I spell most words the American way, but there are a few that I learned the British way that I want to keep.

There are a lot of words that used to be written with hyphens that are now run together. They still look wrong to me. Evidently coopted is legitimate now (no red underline); co-opted is acceptable, too. Every time I see coopted my brain wants to pronounce it like cooped.

I still prefer dialogue to dialog, catalogue to catalog, and prologue to prolog. Prolog especially looks ridiculous to me. Sigh. I am a fossil and my spelling shows it.

Rosefolly mentioned older forms of spelling. I used to read old detective novels and the authors used to put "foreign" words like "alibi" in italics, not a practice used now!
Friedag, I used to be careful to write "programme" when I wrote to my mother in the UK. She got quite stroppy if I didn't! Working in TV, I was used to spelling the word as program.

Like you, Frieda, I tend to spell many American words in the British manner. I will write "learnt" rather than "learned", and "dreampt", rather than dreamed. I like "cheque" far better than "check."

I still get confused with tenses, such as "Swim, swam, swum" which I learnt in grade school in Atlanta. But I never actually heard anyone say "he swum the Channel." Maybe some of the usages we were taught were archaic?

Woodnymph, I think one would say " he had swum the Channel many times in the past" putting the 'had' in to make an historic use of the verb. That sounds right to me.
How did you come across the British spellings of these words that you prefer? When I have been reading US mystery books for a while, I find that I start noticing words with their different spelling when I get back to reading a British mystery!

Am I the only one who still spells the word for the episodic spasms of the diaphragm as hiccoughs? Hiccups has taken over as the favored spelling in the US because of the way it is pronounced nowadays. (I got no red underline from Spellcheck for either hiccoughs or hiccups.) Apparently at one time the cough part was pronounced /coff/ but was superseded by /cup/. Who knows why? I figure it's just one of those caprices of spoken language. I say hiccup even though I spell it hiccough. I expect to see it noted as an Archaic spelling eventually.

Annpan, I had a couple of sub-editors in London who disliked my American spelling so much that I expected one of them to have a stroke while he ranted at me. The other told me she would teach me how to spell. I was young and wanted to please and did my best to comply. However, it gave me a spelling split personality instead. I forget where I am and for what audience I'm writing, so I'm likely to write plough in one paragraph and in the next paragraph write plow.

I think we've discussed this before, Annpan, but one of my pet peeves is idiot publishers who change the English spellings into American ones or vice versa. I actually threw an Agatha Christie mystery out a window one time when I realized it had been 'translated' for an American audience. I've run across American authors/novels translated into British spelling, too, but unfortunately I can't recall any titles. I think it's an insult to readers who surely can figure out for themselves what an author means or have a fun time trying to guess. Leave the originally published spellings alone! -- even if they are archaic.

Friedag, I forgot that you once worked in the UK. Was it at Reuters or a similar news service or have I confused you with someone else?
Yes, I think we did have an earlier discussion about changed spellings in books and agreed it was unnecessary. Although I recall one poster saying that her mental picture of someone British running through the woods carrying a torch made her visualise a flaming object rather than a flashlight!

As a medical librarian, it's importent to be aware of the differences between British and American spelling when doing literature searches. One can miss important articles w/o taking into account 'hematoma vs. haematoma' for example.

Sorry--I meant 'important.'

I have always been an excellent speller, both in Icelandic and English, and could often guess the right spelling of English words I heard.
Now, however, when I do most of my writing in English on a computer, with automatic spelling assistance on hand, I find my ability to spell correctly in English declining. I think it's because I no longer have to retrieve the right spelling from my memory because it pops up automatically on the computer screen.
I don't dare turn it off, however, because I don't use standardised typing but an eccentric, mostly two-fingered method of my own, which produces interesting and occasionally embarrassing typing errors.

I once failed to solve a mystery I was reading because color was spelled with the British u in a kidnapping note. I noticed it but thought it was just an older book when, in fact, it was a vital clue. Ever afterward I have noticed the spelling differences.

Annpan, you can usually change your computer so it will use British English instead.

I generally spell quite well, but I have mnemonics I use for some words, and there are some that I'm never sure of, usually when I am unsure whether to drop the final 'e' to add 'able' for instance.

Kath, I didn't know the Spellcheck could be altered. I shall ask my computer guru if I can do that, thanks.

Yes, Spellcheck can be altered. (One time it did it on its own when I was under a big deadline. It started checking words with a French spellcheck... That was a bit of headache.)

I wonder if you can spellcheck Romulan....

I have resigned myself to never being able to spell maneuver (American spelling) or manoeuvre. (English spelling) without checking the dictionary.

Another word which now challenges me is dilapidated. I used to be able to spell it. Not sure what is going on in my brain now.

As a learner of English as a foreign language I have no problems with spelling. I learnt most words from seeing them in writing and have a good visual memory. Pronunciation and accent are another matter, I have to work on them.

DEFINITELY is a word that I see constantly misspelled "definately" even by educated English speakers and I have wondered if there is an explanation for this common mistake? Do people not make the connection to finite as in finite verb, finite mathematics etc? Nobody misspells infinite. Why?

I've always been more interested in ideas than spelling. actually, and on this forum, I tend to just spit things out and write very informally...as if I'm talking. So forgive glaring errors, some of them are just typos and some just I didn't bother to check. I notice I'm often leaving out the apostrophes on contractions when I type...that little finger just doesnt want to move over to the apostrophe button. So just ignore those, ok?

Another one who stumbles over vacuum. I always hesitate over religious too. I was a good speller in school but in Gr. 6 I got that one wrong on a spelling test and to this very day, still struggle to remember to put that last i in. I keep wanting to spell it religous.

I've met a number of Americans who say "drug" when they talk..like "I got drug over to the inlaws for dinner." Is this an American thing?

Using drug instead of dragged isn't necessarily an American thing; mostly it's a family thing, I think. You hear it a lot from under-educated people but also colloquially. (And I had to double check the spelling of colloquially. I really did used to be an excellent speller.)

My current nemesis is maneuver (did I get it right?), and that's particularly annoying because it seems lately that I'm always having to report on a maneuver from one or other of our satellites! :) If they are not maneuvering due to extra solar drag from the active sun, they are dodging on-orbit debris!

"Drug" is sometimes used humorously, as is "snuk", for the past tense of sneak. Of course, sometimes it is just used incorrectly when people are not aware of tenses, even though it is their native language.

I once had a library clerk who used "binded" for the past tense of "to bind", as in bound journals.

"DRUG"??? over to the in-laws?"
An American thing?
I guess if you live in the Ozarks, maybe.
( my appologies to anyone living in the Ozarks :0)

Although I have to admit that on not a few occasions I wished I could have been drugged WHILE at my in-laws !
Ah....family and fish.....they all begin to stink given enough time.