The Best (worst) Spelling and Grammar Errors Thread

[dak4n6]

Aha!  Te 'g' and te 'h'.  Tat wasn't to callening...

Here's a silly one:

Quote:

My parent's house growing up was on the 11th green which was a par-5,   550 yards from the tips.

Can't help but wonder if their house still growing. Must be a veritable mansion by now...

[bwdial]

Originally Posted by Sherpat

This isn't a grammar or spelling error so much as it as gaffe. But I can't resist telling it.

I'm a network radio announcer for Clear Channel. During the news portion of my shift I have to rip through stories filed by field reporters all over the country, edit and assemble the ones I want for each 'cast, and rush to get on the air at a time that's determined to the second. Then I have to read the copy out loud - often for the first time - while simultaneously watching a countdown clock because I know when it hits zero my mic will be automatically cut off and every client station carrying my report will return to local programming. I have to adjust my tempo starting about a minute before that so I finish my outcue right at that cut-off point and not a second earlier or later. To do that my mouth goes on autopilot while my brain gives priority to everything else. Which is why I know exactly what happened when this (female) ABC Network anchor wrapped up her top-hour national news feed the other day with:

"...as announced today by the American Board of Obgins. I'm ______, ABC News."

It took me a second after I heard that. "Obgins"? (She said it almost as a rhyme with "hopkins".)

Then it hit me: "OB-GYN's".

Seeing that clock tick from 3...2...1.... does funny things to your composure

A friend of mine (eons ago) was reading aloud in class and came to the word 'chihuahua'.  He pronounced it "cha-hoo-ah-hoo-ah".

He's a doctor now.

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by dak4n6

Aha!  Te 'g' and te 'h'.  Tat wasn't to callening...

Here's a silly one:

Can't help but wonder if their house still growing. Must be a veritable mansion by now...

Well done.  And that is an excellent quote you posted.

Originally Posted by bwdial

A friend of mine (eons ago) was reading aloud in class and came to the word 'chihuahua'.  He pronounced it "cha-hoo-ah-hoo-ah".

He's a doctor now.

I will never forget a International Business Communication (I think) class I had as a senior in college.  We were giving presentations, and as per the norm, I was zoned out thinking of something else while a young lady was giving hers.  Midway through the presentation, I kept noticing that she was referring to the "Pacific" a lot.  I was thinking to myself, "what does the Pacific Ocean have to do with International Business Communication?  So I started listening.  She was saying things like the following:

"It was very pacific."

"You must pacifically..."

"The pacific words you use..."

After the first or second one I was sort of chuckling a bit, but when she kept going on with it, I started to feel a bit embarrassed about it.  I was looking around to see if anybody else was noticing and getting a kick out of it.  I didn't have the heart to tell her after the presentation.

[Zeph]

[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvKXDYoab5w[/VIDEO]

[dak4n6]

Originally Posted by Zeph

[if IE]>

[bplewis24]

I did well to contain my laughter.  But since this is the internet, LOL.

[Gregoryhouse]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gregoryhouse

I'm thrilled that you guys kept me out!
Living in a spanish talking country I am really surprised:D

Spanish is with a capital S!

Ha ha!:D

[BeRich]

WSJ today

Teaching 'Taco Bell's Canon'
Today's students don't read. As a result, they have sometimes hilarious notions of how the written language represents what they hear.

By JAMES E. COURTER

Is it true that college students today are unprepared and unmotivated? That generalization does injustice to the numerous bright exceptions I saw in my 25 years of teaching composition to university freshmen. But in other cases the characterization is all too accurate.

One big problem is that so few students are readers. As an unfortunate result, they have erroneous, and sometimes hilarious, notions of how the written language represents what they hear. What emerged in their papers and emails was a sort of literary subgenre that I've come to think of as stream of unconsciousness.

Some of their most creative thinking was devoted to fashioning excuses for tardiness, skipping class entirely, and failure to complete assignments. One guy admitted that he had trouble getting into "the proper frame of mime" for an 8 a.m. class.

Then there were the two young men who missed class for having gotten on the wrong side of the law. They both emailed me, one to say that he had been charged with a "mister meaner," the other with a "misdeminor."

Another student blamed "inclimate weather" for his failure to come to class, admitting that it was a "poultry excuse." A male student who habitually came late and couldn't punctuate correctly had a double-duty excuse: "I don't worry about my punctual errors."

To their credit, students are often frank when it comes to admitting their shortcomings and attitude problems. Like the guy who owned up to doing "halfhazard work." Or the one who admitted that he wasn't smart enough to go to an "Ivory League school." Another lamented not being astute enough to follow the lecture on "Taco Bell's Canon" in music-appreciation class.

Many students have difficulty adjusting to life in dormitories. One complained that his roommate was "from another dementian." Another was irritated by a roommate's habit of using his "toilet trees" without asking. A female student, in describing an argument over her roommate's smelling up their room with cheap perfume, referred to getting in her "two scents' worth."

Some find you can't go home again. After several weeks at school, one coed returned to her childhood house only to find life there "homedrum."

To be fair, many of the young men and women I encountered over the years are capable of serious thinking on social issues and international affairs. The Iraq War, in what one student called "nomad's land," was very much on their minds. Some were for it, some against it. The most ardent supporter was the guy who described his attitude as "gun-ho." One student lamented that we're becoming a society that "creates its individuals in a lavatory." Another worried that education reform might result in school being in "secession" year round.

When it comes to relationships, it is, in the words of more than one undergraduate, "a doggy-dog world." But I'm sure most of us could sympathize with the girl who said she resented being "taken for granite" by her boyfriend. Some learn the price of intimacy the hard way, like the coed who referred to becoming pregnant on "that fetal night." She might have been better off with the young gentleman who spoke of his policy of keeping relationships "strictly plutonic."

One struggling freshman summed it up for all of us when he wrote, "Life has too much realism." Maybe so, but I don't recommend coping like the guy who referred to getting away from it all by spending the day "sitting on a peer."

Among students' biggest complaints is that they have to write so much in college. In his end-of-semester evaluation, one honest soul complained that "writhing gives me fits." Sad to say, it's not uncommon to hear students remark on how much they look forward to being done with English.

Who knows what language they'll use then?

Mr. Courter recently retired from teaching at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Ill

[bplewis24]

What a great find, BeRich.  It illustrates that not only are students not reading, but they're also not thinking about what they're saying/writing when it comes to expressions or figures of speech.  I find it hard to believe somebody could be thinking about the words when writing/saying "toilet trees."  How could they possibly think that was a thing?  What would a toilet tree even be?

Very amusing though.  Although only one of the references escaped me: what was the Taco Bell's Canon a reference to?  I'm not well-versed in music appreciation

[jamo]

What a great find, BeRich.  It illustrates that not only are students not reading, but they're also not thinking about what they're saying/writing when it comes to expressions or figures of speech.  I find it hard to believe somebody could be thinking about the words when writing/saying "toilet trees."  How could they possibly think that was a thing?  What would a toilet tree even be? Very amusing though.  Although only one of the references escaped me: what was the Taco Bell's Canon a reference to?  I'm not well-versed in music appreciation :-)

Not totally surprised. Have you seen a high schooler try to spell "used to" or "supposed to?"

[Harmonious]

Originally Posted by bplewis24

Very amusing though.  Although only one of the references escaped me: what was the Taco Bell's Canon a reference to?  I'm not well-versed in music appreciation

I'm assuming Pachelbel's Canon in D. Famous classical melody.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOA-2hl1Vbc

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by bplewis24

Very amusing though.  Although only one of the references escaped me: what was the Taco Bell's Canon a reference to?  I'm not well-versed in music appreciation

Originally Posted by Harmonious

I'm assuming Pachelbel's Canon in D. Famous classical melody.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOA-2hl1Vbc

It's one of those things you probably know, you just don't know that you know.  If you've been to a few weddings, you've certainly heard this song.

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by jamo

Not totally surprised. Have you seen a high schooler try to spell "used to" or "supposed to?"

I'm guessing they drop the "d"?

[dak4n6]

Yup. As in, 'How am I suppose to know that? I'm not use to reading.'

[jcorfive]

Came across this one on a golf forum.

Quote:

...putt for doe...

This one as well.

Quote:

...just no closer to the whole...

[bplewis24]

Hmm, that would mean you drive for buck?  Which is the opposite of putting for dough?  Ha!

[NuclearMike]

Originally Posted by bwdial

A friend of mine (eons ago) was reading aloud in class and came to the word 'chihuahua'.  He pronounced it "cha-hoo-ah-hoo-ah".

He's a doctor now.

The "Cha-hoo-ah-hoo-ah" pronunciation line was also used in an old episode of WKRP in Cincinnati where newsman Les Nessman  pronounced golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez as "Chai Chai Rod-ri-gweez".

[jamo]

A friend of mine (eons ago) was reading aloud in class and came to the word 'chihuahua'.  He pronounced it "cha-hoo-ah-hoo-ah". He's a doctor now.

I've got a friend who's in med school who pronounces "Chipotle" "chip-o-tell."