Your rediculous at spelling. They're, I said it.

It seriously irks me that an enormous number of young people cannot spell simple words to save their life. With some words, it's not that they can't spell them but rather they use the wrong spelling. The English language is a pain like that, but it's no excuse. If they thought about what they were typing it would be easy. It actually hurts my head when I read posts using the wrong version of word because my brain must then stop and process it to work out what you really meant. Do my brain and every other intelligent persons brain a favour and learn to spell properly.

To combat this, I am going to form the Internet Society Against Rubbish Spelling (ISARS).

Allow me to go through some of the common mistakes.

Your/You're

Your is possessive. This means that it refers to what someone possesses. You're is short for you are. Notice that the 'a' is removed and replaced with an apostrophe. Some examples of use:

You're not very funny. - Correct
Your house is on fire. - Correct
Your annoying. - Incorrect. STOP IT!

The simple way to get the correct one is if you can use 'You are' then you use 'you're'. If not, you use 'your'. Your stupid. If you're writing this, just stop and think "Does 'you are stupid' sound right?". If it does, then it should be You're stupid.

There/Their/They're

This ones a little bit trickier, though you can eliminate 'they're' quite easily because it's the same rule as above. They're is short for "They are". If you're using "there", just stop and think whether you could say "They are" instead, and if you can, then you should be using 'they're'.

That leaves two spellings. Their is possessive, meaning it should be used when referring to what someone is, does or has. There is used for everything else.

Their hair looks a bit daft - Correct
Go over there - Correct
They're (they are) walking together - Correct
There taste in music is rubbish - Incorrect. No no no no no!

Rediculous

This one annoys me the most. Let me spell it the proper way for you:

RIDICULOUS

Here's a simple way of remembering it. Just think "I am ridiculous". That will remind you to use an I instead of an E.


Congradulations

If this is how you spell it, I really hate to think how you say it, since the 'd' is not the right sound for the word. If someone said 'congradulations' to me in the street, I'd probably correct their speech by rearranging their teeth for them.

CONGRATULATIONS

Notice it is in fact a T, not a D. Just remember "Congratulations, I'm thick" and that should help.



That's all for now. If anyone else wishes to contribute to the "spelling for dummies" post, just post a comment and I'll add it.

Update: I'm going to create a 'name and shame' scheme in my blog. If I see someone falling foul of the simple spellings listed above - even after I've taught you the right way - your name will be added to my blog!