Why?

I've seen it done so many times - we were even taught about this common error in English at school, but surely logic and the knowledge of english dictates that spelling tongue "tounge" will simply not work, not even phonetically. "tounge" is pronounced "town-jah" - far removed from the "tun-gah" that we're looking for.

I had a similar experience with words myself - I always spelt Weird "wierd" - but of course weird ignores the "i-before-e" rule. I wonder what it is that can lead to humans spelling things wrong - or am I just irritatingly labouring a fairly useless point anyway whilst simultaneously making those that do it feel inferior? If I am, I apologise and I'll get back to this Jack Russel I haven't finished polishing off yet.

I don no

PANDURITO said:

Why do spaniards spell don't "don"

Ay ay ay...

deaf t

PANDURITO said:

Chitón!

Because it puts "to" closer to "u"

Why do people spell there their they're?
your you're
Why can't it all be one word?

at housequake there is an emoticon for [Tongue] as well as one for [Tounge]

i always thought that odd
i have to purposely misspell a word in order for the little guy to stick his tongue out a certain way

another one... site/sight
site is a physical place... a camp site, a web site
the other is the ability to see

luv4all7 said:

Their is a possessive pronoun showing ownership (It's their dog)
They're is a contraction of "They" and "are" as in "They are beautiful"

Same with your and you're...and its and it's.

emm said:

omg.

That would seriously piss me off. It would really, really bother me. lol.

why is english spelling different from american on certain words?

why isn't imago here to learn from this thread?

luv4all7 said:

Because those are two totally different elements of grammar - one is an abbreviation, the other is a possesive adjective.

They're is not a word - it is two; They are
It's the same with "your" and "you're" - "you're" is short for "you are."

"your" is for "your car, your house"
same thing applies for "their" - so don't be silly, you silly girl.

applekisses said:

Thanks.

I hate it though.
I'm not doing it.

evenstar3 said:

Because you lot bastardised perfection - oh wait, should that be bastardized?

luv4all7 said:

fine then, flaunt the rules of language.

maybe that's why american's changed english:

"why is that 'u' there in "colour"?"
"because it illustrates its pronunciation; "cullah" rather than "cullu""
"oh, okay - i won't use it anyway"
"dipshit - you can have your independence if you're gonna behave like that."

Spookymuffin said:

I don't care either way.
Who cares?

luv4all7 said:

evidently I do.

Spookymuffin said:

I do too.

CarrieMpls said:

Cheers then. I'm going to pluck my eyebrows.
[Edited 9/19/06 12:31pm]

Spookymuffin said:

which words differ seems so arbitrary and strange.

(and hey- wouldn't it be 'maybe that's why americans changed english:'? )

evenstar3 said:

A minor grammatical slip brought on by venting some pent-up anger. I assure you I'm most certainly otherwise perfect. In every way. :evencooler:

The words that have been changed seem random, except for the words ending with "ised"" to "ized"

and the strange inability of your tongues to say "Aluminium"

"No...it's not "aluminUM" there's an "i" before the "u" - try again, Uncle Sam."
"Alumin....UM"
"NO! COME ON SAM! TRY HARDER!"
"Fuck this. War of Independence!"


Oh, and it should be...wait for it...wait for it...."American'ts"
[Edited 9/19/06 12:38pm]

Spookymuffin said:

al-u-MIN-ee-um? WEIRD. and how do you pronouce ketchup? for some odd reason, i say 'catch-up', but almost everyone else i meet pronouces it with the e instead...it's bizarre.

america'nts

evenstar3 said:

Ketchup is pronounced, unsurprisingly, how it's written! ("ketch-up"; none of your "catch-up-with-me-i'm-running-away nonsense")

Keep working on the "al-u-min-ee-um" thing, maybe you'll get some respect from british scientists if you're ever over here. What posessed you lot to say "aluminUM" in the first place? Was that "i" just too difficult or something?

Spookymuffin said:

I blame my parents, they say it the same way. You can KEEP your silly extra letters (u, i, the whole mess)! It's all about expediency.

evenstar3 said:

Bollocks to that - you wouldn't be speaking this shit, let alone be in existence, had a bunch of idiotic religious zealots not hopped on a boat at Portsmouth and headed for the New World.

evenstar3 said:

sooo how does one pronounce 'catsup'

sweet said:

As it's written.

Spookymuffin said:

au contraire, i'm almost certain none of my ancestors were here before the mass irish emigration! so HA!....but sadly, those same zealot's stuffy morals flood my culture even today.

luv4all7 said: