Would you believe we have a word in the English Language that can be spelled three different ways and each spelling has a different meaning?
Their
There
They're
They sound the same, but they are really not, isn't that interesting?
Such a novel idea. I don't know who came up with that idea, but all I can say is, "It's about time."
And the good part is; if used correctly in a sentence, that sentence makes much more sense. (or is that since?) Oh, who cares?
I just thought I would throw that out in case anyone ever wants to try to use a different spelling every now and then.
Just to keep this letter from being too short I might add, there really is no such word as alot. It's actually two words, with a space between.
Amazing, huh?

authors disclaimer:
This post is for information only. It's not a flame, slam, pick-on, finger pointing, accusation, or intended in any way to tell any specific individual they are ignorant of the English language.

But I will probably be on the receiving end of some of that.

A Lot more than just one. I mess with my kids' minds using homophones and homynyms. One of my favorites is pair, pear, and pare. I say to them, "I'm hungry. Can you pare a pair of pears for me?"

Reading some of the posts on the forums is sort of like reading a teenager's text message on their cellphone ( R U goin 2nite?) It may shorten things, but it makes little sense most of the time. I'm an old-schooler, and I think spelling, and proper grammar, is a reflection on 1- your education, and 2- your personal "precision".

And another phrase that gets jammed into one word is all right. Already is one word, but all right is two.

Along this same line. . . . we go "to and fro", which makes more sense than "back and forth". How can one come back before going forth? [:-]

Don't forget...

to
too
two

probably the most simple example.

Hear Hear, I here you on that one.

Keep hearing (hereing?) newsfolk using the word "nother". I looked in my aged dictionary and can't find it... Do they mayhaps mean another or other ? How about read, ried, reed for a threesome? As to spelling, my fingers are worse spellers than I. Or maybe they can't read the keyboard....

Some of us do have finger dyslexia. The one I notice the most is "teh"

how about one word being past and present tense? READ

depending on your accent.... Your-You're-Yore

No, actually, you picked a bad example.

Their is pronounced "thur"

There is pronounced "ther"

They're is pronounced "theyur"

But the to, too, two example is right on.

Your original example is confusing for most people becasue they've never been taught pronunciation.

Another example of dumbing down of the common man. How do we improve on test scores? LOWER THE STANDARDS. Brilliant. Meanwhile the Chinese, Indians and even the Russians are leaving us in the dust. Most Europeans learn two extra languages aside from their native tongue,,,, in grade school.

And how about the use of the apostrophe ('), which denotes possesive, to indicate the PLURAL.
You see this continuously throughout these forums (fora).[:@]

You just reminded me of something that pushes my buttons. People write about "RPM's" all the time when it should just be RPM. It's never possessive and is already plural because it is an acronym for RevolutionS Per Minute. At least I can't think of a case where RPM would be possessive.

Wow! I didn't know there were so many other people who felt the same as I do. It seems that poor grammar has become so commonplace that people don't even notice it anymore. My biggest pet peeve is "definately". Doesn't anyone notice the red line under that word when they type it? The word is spelled d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y. I will be the first to admit that my grammar and spelling is not perfect, but this is blatant disregard for proper spelling. A little proof reading can go a long way toward making one look less foolish. I love the analogy that it is like reading a teenager's text messages. That is so timely!

Brian

Sadly, we could go on and on and on... pointing out the very generalized misuse of written (and spoken) english. Might this signify a sort of generalized intellectual meltdown? Of course we all miss out on a word every now and then, but some of the stuff we see repeatedly constitutes downright lack of proper grammar education.

Has anyone ever seen the movie "Idiocracy"? It is scary!

Brian