Why can't cyclists spell?

[Spinners]

Plenty of pedants on here to pick your posts apart, so no need [emoji6]

Sew tru.

[Si]

Standard bikeability exchange while doing the chain part of ABCD bike checks:

Instructor: What part of your bike begins with 'C'?
Child1: "saddle"
Instructor: Now, does saddle really start with 'C'?
Child2: You idiot, it's "seat"

...almost every school.....

[TrevA]

My mother was a pendant

Ahem.....

[gaz]

Ahem?

My mother was a pendant, and I used to be one, ...

Vorpal has admitted before that she used to be a pendant, not surprising that her mother was one too .

[foxyrider]

My mother was a pendant

Ahem.....

I was trying to resist - did she have matching earrings?

[Vorpal]

My mother was a pendant

Ahem.....

I was trying to resist - did she have matching earrings?

My phone obviously thought so. At least it didn't correct it to Norwegian. That's what usually happens.
Of course, I meant pedant.

[PDQ Mobile]

My phone obviously thought so. At least it didn't correct it to Norwegian. That's what usually happens.
Of course, I meant pedant.

Which is Norwegian for cyclist!?

[661-Pete]

Hmmm.... I wonder what triggered off this thread? "Guilty as charged, Your Honour..."

I'm not sure whether it's fair to describe me as a 'pedant'. I'm certainly one for calling out careless, sloppy or ignorant spelling and grammar, when I come across it. It's just in my nature. It's the way I was taught, and the way I've stuck to ever since. Maybe my English teachers at primary school, in the 1950s, were the pedants?

For the record, I don't ever use a spelling or grammar checker. In fact, whenever I take possession of a new computer, one of the first things I have to do is find, and disable, the spelling checker, which is invariably 'turned on' when I first boot up the thing. Can't stand them! This can be quite an exercise: the options are often deeply buried!

[661-Pete]

Also for the record, I'm quite happy with some solecisms which are no longer such, having become so commonplace as to be accepted into the general vernacular.

"Alright" is a good example: it's technically wrong: should be written "All right", but the one-word version is so often encountered, that hardly anyone complains. I don't.

Another is "different than". This combination of words is usually bad grammar, to the pedant at any rate, but it trips off the tongue so readily, so why object?

Even the celebrated "greengrocer's apostrophe" has its place. Especially with abbreviations. Plurals like "MP's", "PC's" etc., are quite alright....

[old_windbag]

I think that quite often mistakes are made due to speed entering text, also due to the small keyboards of smartphones etc, as i'm using now. I can decode most errors and work out what is being conveyed by the poster. Perhaps thats how we should view it, data with transmission errors and our brains make the corrections. Those who pass 661-Petes criteria will have no errors. It may be viewed as laziness but i don't feel it reduces the information content of the forum.

One use of a word that i personally find feels out of place, but i think the american use is correct, is math. I did math's lessons at school or mathematics in full. I'll do the math's in solving a problem but the Americans do the math. It simply doesn't sound correct, even if it is.

[PDQ Mobile]

I think that quite often mistakes are made due to speed entering text, also due to the small keyboards of smartphones etc, as i'm using now.

Yes I agree.
It's a PITA, my phone keypad.
Why did they use QWERTY format on a one (or 2?) finger keypad. It's the single worst thing about iphone!

A halfwit could improve upon this keypad!!

Thread drift sorry.

[661-Pete]

If it's a matter of American versus British usage, of course both versions are valid - inside their respective countries and outside (what about Australian?). I think the distinction between what are, in effect, separate dialects, is becoming blurred anyway. I have recently read books (especially on the Kindle) which incorporate a mixture of British and American spelling. A bit of an irritant, but nothing to get upset about. My guess was, this was a book, originally written by a British author, which had been 'Americanised' for the US market, but the 'translator' missed several things...

I'm beginning to think, this thread might end up being merged with the "...what does your head in?" thread over in Fun and Games.

[Redvee]

Isn't it about time the forum had a spell checker?

It's difficult to read all those posts were peeple discribe wear fay've been, without a grimace .

The only words of consolation I can offer in this sad time for you are there, they're, their

[[XAP]Bob]

I think that quite often mistakes are made due to speed entering text, also due to the small keyboards of smartphones etc, as i'm using now.

Yes I agree.
It's a PITA, my phone keypad.
Why did they use QWERTY format on a one (or 2?) finger keypad. It's the single worst thing about iphone!

A halfwit could improve upon this keypad!!

Thread drift sorry.

MOst of my errors come from apples autoscrewup feature.

It's actually remarkably difficult to improve upon the qwerty keyboard for most people nowadays... you have to learn whatever keyboard you use, and qwerty is well used.

Of course it was designed to reduce the chances of two keys being next to each other, so that the Mach animal arms of a typewriter didn't get tangled. Try Dvorak if you want a 'better' keyboard

[Vorpal]

My phone obviously thought so. At least it didn't correct it to Norwegian. That's what usually happens.
Of course, I meant pedant.

Which is Norwegian for cyclist!?

Except that I wouldn't then say, 'I used to be...'