Friday, May 13, 2011

Those Words I Never Quite Got

So this post has nothing to do with motherhood, being at home, kids, fashion, or anything I have written about in the past. Today's post is just a snip it I'd like to share with you. Perhaps you can relate...
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Am I the only one out there that recently discovered they were misspelling a very common word on a regular basis without knowing it? 

Being that my background is in communications which involves a heck of a lot of writing and proof reading, this is embarrassing to admit, but, there are a few words out there that I consistently misspell and honestly, only realized I was doing it within the past few years.  The culprits:  at least (I spelled it atleast) and definitely (I spelled it definately). I was shocked. Thrown back. In awe of my ignorance. Again, you have to understand I copy edit for goodness sakes and just discovered that "at least" had a space less than 12 months ago.  (Even as I type, I have to force myself to add the space).  Where was the spell check? Was I simply choosing to ignore the red squiggly lines in my documents, assuming I was smarter than the computer?  Sure misspelling "embarrassing" or "recommend" could be forgiven - lots of double letters and they're fairly long (maybe they're even misspelled here), but "at least" come on - brutal!

And on another different, but related "misinformed" note, I remember growing up and being a teenager and discovering that there were words that I was mispronouncing that I never figured out when I was young.  A good example, I thought it was a "hard attack" not a "heart attack" and I thought when someone sneezed you say "Bleshoo" not "Bless you."  It's those funny little words that sneak by and our pronunciation may be close enough not to be corrected or stared down with bewilderment, but the error passes through years and then (hopefully) at some moment you read it, or catch on and it is the funniest thing - like you have just been let in on the joke everyone was telling.

So, anyone have any confessions they would like to share?

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