Spell & Grammar Check
by Jackie Mason on January 16, 2009

Scott Hardie | January 16, 2009
When I was a kid, I used to make fun of my family's pronunciation of words like "warshcloth" and "Warshington." I didn't understand how someone could see that word spelled and think that was the correct way to say it.

Last week I read the brand name "Hannaford" on a package, and said it "Hannah-ferd." I had to say it over and over again until I could make an O sound. My brain just wants to pronounce it wrong. Now I understand.

"Thanks" comes up a lot in my emails at work, but I type fast and tend to type "Thnaks," so I turned on the auto-correction. That's great for when I type it in emails, but now I type "thnaks" everywhere without catching it, and I haven't any spellchecker to stop me. One of these days I'm going to catch myself writing it with a pen. Thnaks a lot spellcheck!

Steve West | January 16, 2009
I'm a big stickler on proper pronunciation around my house for the benefit of my children. Brenda is a big 'don't' person as in, 'that don't make sense'. I always respond 'doesn't', please. But every once in a while, I'll use 'ain't' intentionally to mimic someone else's quote or speech pattern. Oh, Brenda has her 'correct Steve's speech' radar working overtime.

Tony Peters | January 16, 2009
Grammar, whenever I write something serious (that I am actually getting paid for) I have my 8th grade Warner's Grammar and a 2005 Associated Press Style Guide on my desk next to the computer, I am the worlds worst speller so auto correct and a thorough review are a requirement of anything I write. My other problem is that I write like I talk which has made me a very good speech writer but not so good with things that need to be published Growing up a Navy Brat has luckily left me with very few local speech quirks, eluding y'all, though my use of it is no where near and natural as say Amy. All that said I now really enjoy writing, more so than way back when I was in school, funny how that works out.

Jackie Mason | January 16, 2009
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Scott Hardie | January 17, 2009
I've never understood the adding an apostrophe-s onto stores and restaurants that don't have them. Aldi's. Montgomery Ward's. JC Penney's. Sears's? I've never found it difficult to keep track of which businesses have a possessive name and which do not, but we all have our quirks.

Amy Austin | January 17, 2009
Ha... I have known some "winder" "warsh"ers in my time... I think I used to make fun of my grandmother on both counts, actually.

And apostrophe usage is a MAJOR peeve of mine. I love the website that makes fun of it, though I've only been to it a couple of times. I feel like it should be required reading, though, for all news reporters... that's where I get the most inflamed over it -- I, too, see at least one stupid error in nearly every news story I read. I *try* to be a kind-hearted person and tell myself, "Well, it's news -- it has to be done on a deadline, and typed fast!" But my pretty sharp internal copy editor -- especially while unemployed -- gets a bit pissed off with that excuse.

Vernacular would be much less bothersome, if it just didn't seem to have such an impact on these things... including apostrophe usage -- such as the store example that Scott mentions.

I guess we all just have only so much storage space in our brains, and for (too) many, rules of spelling and grammar just aren't a priority. But if you're in any kind of business of public speaking or writing... they damn well orta' be!!! ;-)

Jackie Mason | January 17, 2009
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Scott Hardie | February 8, 2009
Lately I've seen a lot of one of my pet peeves, putting "A.D." after the year. This is A.D. 2009, not 2009 A.D., thank you. It stands for anno domini, or "in the year of our Lord." You wouldn't say "2009 in the year" would you?

Scott Hardie | February 26, 2023
I mentioned above my ongoing confusion at the common tendency to add an imagined apostrophe-s onto businesses named after people (Kroger's, Meijer's, Lord & Taylor's, et cetera). I was today years old when I realized that Truman Capote had to be one of the people who do that, since his novella Breakfast at Tiffany's that was adapted into the classic film was named after the store Tiffany & Co.