So, click on this link, and see how the month is spelt. Yes, Febuary. On the Penn Ice Rink calendar. Sad thing is, this is almost certainly not a typo. Somebody thinks this is how it is spelt. The mispronunciation of FebRuary has long been a pet peeve of mine. You may gather from this that I have many pet peeves of the rather odd variety. You would be correct.
But seriously, what does it show about the education system? Not very much, I guess. I mean, Americans can’t spell anyway, and spelling is at the centre of a lot of stuff. But still, this is ridiculous. I usually have a sense of humour about these things. Laughing brings colour to my cheeks (which, if you look at my picture, you will realise is rather hard to do), yet I cannot stomach this.
And see where this lack of spelling, this adoption of American “English”, as got you? Now you can’t spell February. What’s next, the University of Pencilvania? The Younited States of America? Defense? Plow?
Why did you guys actually do it in the first place? Because Noah Webster had a temper tantrum not deserving of a five year old, and decided that Americans wouldn’t spell the British way, because they were stinky and nasty. No, the problems of a fledging United States were best solved, according to Noah Webster, if he switched a few letters around.
Not that we cared. We laughed. We still do. Then we look on disdainfully.
To be honest, it’s all we have left.
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February 15th, 2008 at 12:22 am
You can’t seriously write a post complaining about spelling and use “spelt”. It’s “spelled” and the Indian perversion of the word is about as accurate as the ice rink perversion of February. It’s one thing to be a grammar Nazi, but at least be consistent.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
This has to be a joke, right?
Spelt? In a post about spelling mistakes?
February 16th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Maybe you two should have looked it up in the dictionary before saying he’s wrong.
http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/irregular-verbs/spell.html
February 16th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
I agree with speller. You should seriously check your sources before criticizing. On the other hand, the article is quite obnoxious. It is one thing to be bothered by a spelling mistake, but seriously Eric, someone as smart as you shouldn’t fall into the trap of blindly critiquing Americans because the say donut instead of doughnut, or color instead of colour (kinda funny that my spell check didn’t like the British spellings on those). That’s just the way the language has adapted here. You may not like it, but Americans shouldn’t adapt their language to their culture and to changing times just because the British don’t. I understand that the Brits will forever look down on America as the retarded child it wishes it had had an abortion for, but at the end of the day - the US and the UK are no longer linked - how about just thinking about english and american as 2 different languages. Maybe it will help you sleep at night.
February 16th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
sorry meant to say shouldn’t refuse to adapt … just because the British do
February 20th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
[...] has somewhat of a math crisis on its hands. We’ve already covered how Americans can’t spell; turns out they’re not so hot at basic math either. This report, for example, says that 50% [...]