Monday’s ‘Musement

And not a ‘C’ in sight…..

Why is spelling so hard?  Why can’t the spelling rules apply always, not just sometimes?  Why can’t words spelled the same way, sound the same?

I was always a good speller (even won spelling bees), and still am, most of the time, but there are some words that stump me regularly

• vaccuum – oops, got that wrong, only 1 ‘c’ but two ‘u’s – does that make any sense?
• nemonic – wrong, there’s a silent ‘m’ at the beginning
• read – ummm….is that ‘reed’ or ‘red’, all in the context, but couldn’t somebody have come up with a different word?

And then there’s grammar, much of which has to do with how a word is spelt (spelled?) 

• there, their or they’re – each has its own meaning and obviously its own spelling
• its or it’s – the first is possessive, the second a contraction.  And why, when every other possessive has an apostrophe, isn’t there an apostrophe when we say something belongs to it

I could go on, but won’t.  This little quote made me smile, just because for whatever reason English is such a difficult language to spell, at least that’s what I’ve been told.  And the little bit of spelling of other languages that I’ve learned seems to uphold the truth of that.  And yet, English is the universal language – have to wonder why it was chosen when it’s so difficult to learn the spelling.

But when I read a book, magazine, newspaper, or sign, and see words misused and/or misspelled, I get downright annoyed!  Really – in this computer age is there any excuse?  And I have to assume that magazine and newspaper writers are educated, as are the editors of books, so shouldn’t they know how to spell!  And if spelling is difficult for them, as I know it is for many, maybe they should find good spellers and grammarians to double check their work before putting it out there for the public.  After all, if our children don’t read good grammar and correct spelling, why should they be expected to learn good grammar and correct spelling, and how can they?

I’m sure that I’ll have made some grammar errors in this missive, please excuse me if I have.  But I know that the words are spelt correctly – after all Spellcheck told me so!

Here’s to spelling bees!                    Blessings, Peg