Don't They Teach English In School Anymore?

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freesia said:
I was waiting at the reception desk in the doctors last year. There was a trainee on the desk sitting next to one of the receptionists. The trainee asked the receptionist how to spell "tongue"!! When the receptionist told him, he said he always uses spell checker so he doesn't have to think about things like correct spelling.
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Yup, heard that one before.
 
rebrascora said:
Maybe it is possible to change to to British English and I would be obliged if someone can tell me how to do it.
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This is set in your web browser, though the setting is in different places depending on which browser you're using.

In desktop Chrome the setting is at '3 dots icon' (top-right) -> Settings -> Languages
Click 'Add Languages' -> add English (United Kingdom) then..
Click the '3 dots' icon beside English (UK) and click 'Move Up' until it's at the top of the list
Tick the 'Display ... in this language' box
Scroll down a bit to the Spell Check window and turn on checking for English (UK), and off for English (US)

They could certainly make it easier to use proper English spelling couldn't they 😉
 
What is wrong with using a spell checker as long as you check the checker?
To me, it is like using a calculator instead of doing long division but understanding maths well enough to check the decimal point is in the right place.
It is good to.use Google to check facts as long as you know how to spot a dubious source.
These tools are all here to help us and let us focus on important things like communicating.

There are differing expectations of formality. Should I be Ms Helli or is Helli ok? Should I end a letter (not that I remember the last time I wrote a letter) "Yours sincerely" or "yours faithfully" if it is addressed "Dear Sir/Madam"?

I am no young whipper snapper but I much prefer the less formal approach to life. If this offends, it is unintentional but doesn't seem to offend the CEOs I meet through work.
 
I’m a fully paid up member of the Grammar Police, but I’ve learnt to just roll my eyes and bite my lip whenever I see the odd misplaced comma or the use of the wrong your/you’re, their/there/ they’re on a post or comment from an individual. It’s understandable when you’re typing fast or spell checker changes it and you don’t notice before pressing send. But when newspapers or news outlets, even the BBC, commits such atrocities on their social media pages or websites, it really boils my p**s! I’m just a working class lass who left comprehensive school at 16 with one O Level, in English language, and five CSEs, so why can’t those, who I’m assuming went on to further education, not grasp the basic rules of the English language. Are the standards so low in schools and universities now that it’s come to this? Rant over.
 
trophywench said:
There was me immediately amused by the first spelling error I noticed when someone had said they'd ceased to get wound up about such things - clearly not! thought I - that I entirely missed the very slight mis-spelling of the Latin since I automatically read it the way it really is spelled, which honestly I do know cos it was just one of the many bits of info picked up along the way of early Latin lessons at senior school. One of my failed O levels, which really didn't come as a surprise to me. My own fault for saying I'd rather 'do' languages than 'science' or the only other choice was shorthand, typing and economics which people of MY daughter's intelligence will NEVER EVER need since clearly she'll get a career where minions do those things for her. Hence I didn't opt for that option! Yes mom - and how much have I later regretted not learning to touch type when I was at school ..... I also failed O level German, since German grammar follows no easy rules, but is relatively simple to speak it badly once you learn the pronunciation (and can remember the word you need) by 'swallowing' the differential word endings depending on whether it's the subjective or objective in a sentence. At least it doesn't use the ablative ..... or is it that German does but Latin doesn't. Don't care any more!
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Morning Trophywench,
Interesting comment about touch typing as I notice that in my posts I make repeated “ errors” such as writing “ nit” when I mean “ not” but that is more to do with fat farmers fingers hitting the wrong letter on the key board or occasionally predictive text when it writes “ dies rather than does”.
I then try and edit the post to correct the obvious mistake but will miss things.
 
I pulled a Logic Police stop on somebody yesterday over the correct usage of "begs the question", confident in the power bestowed by my (actual) formal logic Ph.D.

But then I found that the common "raises the question" reading is nowdays viewed as OK, and the going-back-to-Aristotle petitio principii, "assumes the conclusion" reading is only for dweeby pedants.

So I ended up looking like a total pratt.
 
helli said:
What is wrong with using a spell checker
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I don't think that there is anything wrong with it. We all use at some point or another. Working in a primary school, we have to teach phonics and spelling. I know phonics doesn't work for everybody but it can be hard to hear that there is more reliance on spell checker for words when we work so hard to teach correct spelling
 
My daughter works for the NHS in a department that is currently working through the leaflets that doctors and other health professionals give out to patients, to translate them into plain English. Partly this is because they tend to be full of medical jargon, partly because the average reading age of UK adults is eleven. The leaflet that I got from my private dentist about my implant had the word 'abutment' in it and I had to look it up but hey, my phone has access to online dictionaries so I don't even have to go and get a real dictionary out to look it up.

I have to admit that I find people who confuse there their and they're and other similar words infuriating, I'm right with Mitch Benn and his song All The Small Stuff when he sings:

Y-O-U apostrophe R-E is a contraction of you are,
The possessive form of you is one word spelt Y-O-U-R,
It's really not that hard, it's really not that hard, it's really really seriously not that fkicnug hard.

On American versus English spellings, my phone seems to recognise both. It is possible that it just remembers once you have corrected it.

I regard the ability to read an analogue clock as an essential life skill. I was taught it at school as a very small child. I can also remember it being taught on TV programs that were aimed at pre-school children.
 
freesia said:
I don't think that there is anything wrong with it. We all use at some point or another. Working in a primary school, we have to teach phonics and spelling. I know phonics doesn't work for everybody but it can be hard to hear that there is more reliance on spell checker for words when we work so hard to teach correct spelling
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In the mid 60s I was taught ITA, a latter day phonics, it obviously worked. My grandchildren were all taught phonics and are excellent spellers, in fact my grandson, at 17, is also a member of the Grammar Police.
 
Chris Hobson said:
My daughter works for the NHS in a department that is currently working through the leaflets that doctors and other health professionals give out to patients, to translate them into plain English. Partly this is because they tend to be full of medical jargon, partly because the average reading age of UK adults is eleven. The leaflet that I got from my private dentist about my implant had the word 'abutment' in it and I had to look it up but hey, my phone has access to online dictionaries so I don't even have to go and get a real dictionary out to look it up.

I have to admit that I find people who confuse there their and they're and other similar words infuriating, I'm right with Mitch Benn and his song All The Small Stuff when he sings:

Y-O-U apostrophe R-E is a contraction of you are,
The possessive form of you is one word spelt Y-O-U-R,
It's really not that hard, it's really not that hard, it's really really seriously not that fkicnug hard.

On American versus English spellings, my phone seems to recognise both. It is possible that it just remembers once you have corrected it.

I regard the ability to read an analogue clock as an essential life skill. I was taught it at school as a very small child. I can also remember it being taught on TV programs that were aimed at pre-school children.
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The book I’m reading at the moment has had me reaching for the “dictionary” a couple of times. I love learning new words, the only snag is as I age, I’ve often forgotten what it means by the next day!
 
Eddy Edson said:
But then I found that the common "raises the question" reading is nowdays viewed as OK, and the going-back-to-Aristotle petitio principii, "assumes the conclusion" reading is only for dweeby pedants.
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Ah the evolution of language through usage!

You’ve got me thinking about “aspersions” again. And why they are only ever “cast”. I wonder if there was a time when they might have been suggested, implied, or inferred. But no longer! If you have an aspersion to share, you have to cast it.

One of the ones that gives me a twitchy eye (for reasons I really can’t understand) is people muddling “comprising blah, blah, and blah” with “consisting of blah, blah, and blah”.

I can’t be doing with “comprising of” o_O
 
Wendal said:
Morning Trophywench,
Interesting comment about touch typing as I notice that in my posts I make repeated “ errors” such as writing “ nit” when I mean “ not” but that is more to do with fat farmers fingers hitting the wrong letter on the key board or occasionally predictive text when it writes “ dies rather than does”.
I then try and edit the post to correct the obvious mistake but will miss things.
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I've recently had some sticking keys, the n then the f which is very frustrating. A good blow out with an air duster seems to have fixed it for now.
 
On the subject of comprising or consisting of, I get the same annoyance from the phrase 'for free'.

On learning new words, the most recent one that I learnt is 'porcelator' which is the little hole at the top of your bath or sink that stops it from overflowing.

I'm not sure about phonetics. Back in the 1980s I used to help running a karate club. New kids, when asked to spell their names would respond with a strange series of grunts rather than the names of the letters. Juh, ohh, huh, nuh, suh, muh, ih, tuh, huh. I mean, sure teach kids how the letters translate into sounds, but not actually teaching them the names of the letters at all can't be good.

I also need to mention Muphry's law. This is the one that says that if you jump on someone for a spelling mistake or grammatical error, your correction, no matter how many times that you proof read it, will contain an error too.
 
@PerSpinasAdAstra Really kind of you to talk me through that and I have followed your instructions closely and even deleted the US English altogether, so that I just have English as my language, but it is still underlining "colour" in red when I test write it.
Will I need to shut down my PC and then fire it up again?
 
rebrascora said:
@PerSpinasAdAstra Really kind of you to talk me through that and I have followed your instructions closely and even deleted the US English altogether, so that I just have English as my language, but it is still underlining "colour" in red when I test write it.
Will I need to shut down my PC and then fire it up again?
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Sorry to hear that - it should have worked immediately. Testing - analyse analyze color colour - seeing red squiggly lines under the Americanese. Did you add 'English (United Kingdom)' and use that rather than use plain 'English'?
 
PerSpinasAdAstra said:
Sorry to hear that - it should have worked immediately. Testing - analyse analyze color colour - seeing red squiggly lines under the Americanese. Did you add 'English (United Kingdom)' and use that rather than use plain 'English'?
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I only saw "English" and "English (United States) but I have now found the language options list and selected "English (UK)" so here goes for another "colour" test.... Bingo!! Thank you soooo much! Can't tell you how much happier I am getting rid of those wiggly red lines! Really appreciate it!
 
I can even write "driving licence" and "realise" without doubting myself. Just a small thing like that had really caused me to think I was losing it mentally!
 
rebrascora said:
I can even write "driving licence" and "realise" without doubting myself. Just a small thing like that had really caused me to think I was losing it mentally!
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The really assertive US English spellcheckers change pavement to sidewalk 😱 :D
 
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