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just another stupid question

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meowth08

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How do you know if a word is misspelled in the dictionary? :confused:

:p
 
Which dictionary?

Ken
 
In a similar way...

When I was young, many years ago, I remember asking a teacher how to spell some word.
The reply I got was...

"Look it up in the dictionary"

There is something fundamentally wrong with this answer I think!
If you dont know the spelling of most of a word, you will not find it.

Example
Scientist - correct spelling
But as a 7 year old, if you think it is something like "sientist", you will never find it in the dictionary.

JimB
 
In a similar way...

When I was young, many years ago, I remember asking a teacher how to spell some word.
The reply I got was...

"Look it up in the dictionary"

There is something fundamentally wrong with this answer I think!
If you dont know the spelling of most of a word, you will not find it.

Example
Scientist - correct spelling
But as a 7 year old, if you think it is something like "sientist", you will never find it in the dictionary.

JimB

I had that problem with my Senior English teacher in my senior year of High School. I wasn't the one who needed the correct spelling, but a classmate of mine asked him and he said "look it up in the dictionary". I told him "you need to know how to spell it before you can look it up", and he practically pitched a fit! :D:D:D
 
This is something stupid teachers should re-think about.

Meowth, just another good stupid question btw, I never thought about this :)
 
On the surface, it is a bit like, "Keyboard not found, press F1 to continue."

In reality, earlier generations of students were taught to get the first couple of letters from the sound of the word. That made looking it up in a dictionary practical. (BTW, I am a horrible speller. One of the things I enjoyed about looking up words in a dictionary was the opportunity to browse and learn new words. So, I have decent vocabulary, but I still can't spell half the words in it.)

When that fails, I resort to a Thesaurus using a synonym I can spell or a program with a good spell checker (e.g, WordPerfect or Word).

John
 
Then there is this little gem. It goes through most spell checkers. But requires some human intervention.

Code:
Eye have a spelling chequer,
It came with my Pea Sea.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss Steaks I can knot sea.

Eye strike the quays and type a whirred
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am write oar wrong
It tells me straight a weigh.

Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your shore real glad two no.
Its vary polished in its weigh.
My chequer tolled me sew.

A chequer is a bless thing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right all stiles of righting,
And aides me when eye rime.

Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The chequer pours o'er every word
Two cheque sum spelling rule.

The original version of this poem was written by Jerrold H. Zar in 1992
 
Hi,

I see different replies. :D ..i mean different interpretation on that single question.
I hope you also see what I am seeing here.
Try this:

How do you know (pause here)............................if a word is misspelled in the dictionary?:confused:

against...

How do you know if a word is misspelled (pause here)............................in the dictionary?:confused:

:confused::confused::confused:
 
"Let's eat Grandma!"
"Let's eat, Grandma!"
Punctuation helps! ;)

Ken
 
Which do you mean?

The Oxford English Dictionary ("OED")s usually used, even in America, as the final arbiter of spelling and usage. Unfortunately, some words have two accepted spellings, particularly when one compares the British version to the US American version. You can also check Fowler's handbook of English usage. And finally, depending on where your written piece will be published, there may be different accepted spellings or usages. You will see the latter in some technical journals where the preferred spelling may be different than the most common spelling.

I tend to get hung up on trying to spell correctly, but it rarely makes much difference to understanding. Capitalization, punctuation, and pronoun antecedents can make big differences, and I wish more people paid attention to those elements of grammar.

John
 
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