I’m typing this slowly today, but a hard deadline looms and despite the vertigo threatening to wash me off this desk like a rogue wave/waive, I’ll try to make sense/cents through all the fuzziness in my frontal lobes. I feel unanchored and today’s blog post tends to drift as well. If you’ve never experienced this malady, let me explain. A single snowflake would look like a blizzard the way my head is spinning.
But to use a stolen line, I shall endeavor to persevere.
Rev, don’t move your head too fast, and keep it still. At least you aren’t leaning over the porcelain throne like the first time in Key West with the Gilstraps…and it wasn’t the gin or wine/whine then, either. Quit wandering around and focus, Spin Boy!
All right. Debbie Burke’s fun post on A Pair of Pants several days ago brought to mind something that’s been bothering me for a good long while/wile. I guess I shouldn’t let the little things irritate me, but trying to lie/lye still all day yesterday, I found my fuzzy mind wandering, especially after looking at Facebook for a couple of minutes when the world settled down for a moment. This came to me.
I’m afeared the English language all us writers cherish is slowly deteriorating, and it might/mite due to social media.
Authors can use a number of platforms to promote their/there/they’re work, but I’m of the age to embrace only a couple. Facebook works best for me. (I’d always said I’d never have an FB account and avoided it for years until my first book was published. I knew so little about it, I once called it MyFace.) I eventually learned to link it to Instagram, figuring two/too/to birds were better than one.
So that’s where I settled, and I’m dismayed by all the abbreviations and the posters’ inability to use the correct words in a sentence or idea, let alone punctuation. Good lord, we all took English in school, and someone please tell me, did half the population of this country sleep through that class!!!???
Sentence structure aside, it’s/its/its’ the wrong words people select that drives me nuts. I suspect those folks don’t know/no the meaning of the word homophone. I’m not trying to be mean here, but I’m seeing more and more of those same issues arise in novels, whether/weather they’re self or traditionally published. I ask, “where were the copy editors!!!???
Biting down the rising nausea in/inn my office that refuses to be still, let’s get back to the classroom. A homophone is each of two/to/too or more words having the same pronunciation but different meanings, origins, or spelling.
Yep, these words can cause confusion when we use them in error and most word programs should catch the issue, but then again…
For the past few years, I’ve judged professional writing contests and the problem seems/seams to be getting worse. The wrong words with innocent intent are getting through. Here are just a handful I’ve seen in recent weeks, especially on social media and in other places, and in no particular order…wait, urk.
Getting back from the water closet and feeling like a freshman college student on their/they’re/there first night in the dorm, let’s/lets continue with our homophones.
Shear/Sheer
Sale/Sail
Sight/Cite
Bare/Bear
Peel/Peal
Whole/Hole
Roll/Role
Tale/Tail
Waste/Waist
Weather/Whether
Cell/Sell
Four/For
Break/Brake
Die/Dye
Heel/Heal
Creek/Creak
Idle/Idol
Knot/Not
Wright/Right
Sole/Soul
Accept/Except
Affect/Effect
Immigrant/Emigrant
Deer/Dear
Pear/Pair
Whole/Hole
Knew/New
Stationary/Stationery
Flower/Flour
Style/Stile
Know/No
Right/Write
Pane/Pain
Way/Weigh
Sweet/Suite
And of course, There/Their/They’re
Most of these came from Facebook posts I’ve collected over the past several months. Speaking of that platform, when I first became an FB user, I had the noble/nobel idea that it was a new version of the front porch on an old general store where people would/wood sit exchange positive ideas, stories, and information. Instead, it’s become a wasteland of manipulated videos, trolls who incite/insight fright or anger, and political antagonism promoted by those who hide behind an electronic wall and spew anything they want without fear of real/reel repercussion. If any of that had happened in front of a store when I was a kid, someone would‘ve gotten their nose busted and for good reason.
But back to what I was saying, this particular issue with the English language can be traced back to the way vowels were pronounced between the 14th and 18th centuries as individuals were more and more influenced by the introduction of other languages by migrants who moved to England after the Black Death.
Or/oar it might have come from what are known as “French loan words” (where the introduction of these words forced a change in the way English was pronounced). Another suggestion is that as the French language made/maid its way into everyday use during the war with France, general anti-French sentiments caused the middle class to deliberately make English sound less like the French.
Pronunciation is another key, and it’s hard to get specific vocalizations into what we write/right. It originates, I suspect, with our ancestors and region. For example, my former secretary from New Jersey and I often argued over the pronunciation of pen vs. pin. Each time I’d ask for a pen, she’d bring me a needle or map pin just for meanness. Here in Texas, the words are distinguishable only by spelling.
Take the word “here” for example. In Texas, we make it two syllables, whereas country music stars Dolly Parton and Dwight Yoakum have a unique Appalachian pronunciation that’s hard to duplicate unless you’re from that part of the nation. It’s an Old English soft sound produced at the back of the throat and can only be written as “hyer,” but not spoken as harsh as the spelling would dictate. In fact, I prefer their version, and though I’m a fairly good mimic, I can’t get that one down.
I believe those from the Ohio Valley pronounce “hear” with two syllables the way we do down hyer in Texas.
Trying to steer back to my original discussion in this mental tempest, no matter the origin, I suspect there are hundreds of other homophones I haven’t thought about. I bet you have your own to add, along with stories that tweak your Irritation Nerve.
And with that, I hope others find some value here in my version of English 101.
Everyone shout in agreement, here here! Which is what I thought people we saying back when I was in elementary school, (supposedly to authenticate our presence, I suppose). but then again, I soon found that the “dawnzer-lee light” was actually “dawn’s early light” in the Star-Spangled Banner, (it made sense since we pronounced “window-light” for a window pane) but I digress…and the spins are getting worse.
You missed a critical one, which I had the honor of NOT correcting on the back-and-forth texts with the person at my online pharmacy, who kept answering all my
“Thank you” lines with
“Your welcome.”
I had my assistant with me, who is this time a U. California Davis junior whose mother insisted she learn penmanship, and who is a history major, and I asked her it I should correct ‘Brenda’ at the other end of the chat feature – or let her continue thinking the company wouldn’t care when it might be possible that they wouldn’t want an employee who couldn’t spell representing them. Because she WAS representing my online pharmacy.
My assistant didn’t know. When my assistant texts me, there are no grammatical mistakes in her texts – because, if you know the right words, it costs you no more to type them than the incorrect ones.
I try not to be a snob about it, and wouldn’t dream of correcting a post or comment on the blogs I read, or FB – but I wonder whether I should when the person making the error/mistake/non-standard version of grammar is supposed to be a professional, making her living by writing. That’s all I could see of her, and the rest of the interaction was too fuzzy to use that to judge, but SOME people/READERS DO judge the writer who writes, “Your welcome.”
In the end, I did nothing. Cowardly or prudent?
I’m sure I missed hundreds. You’re/you’re seems to bamboozle folks, and I never understood why. However, English was my subject, so it always came fairly easy.
Have a great weekend.
Peek/Peak makes me nuts too. I had a hard time reading that list – each one a small hit to the soler plexus. (yes. on purpose)
And pique.
These little things shouldn’t bother me, but it does…
Should read, but they do. Another thing that makes me tic/tick.
Great post, Reavis! Homophones challenge many, especially in this social media era.
I’ll come clean and say that Affect/Effect was one I struggled with for some time. As a writer, it’s important to work to learn these, but also all the more reason to be thankful for copy editors.
Hope your vertigo lessens ASAP and you can enjoy this weekend.
A former boss and I used to argue over affect/effect, and she was a former English teacher. By the way,/weight I was always right in its/it’s usage.
This is my pet peeve (horror) and I see these kinds of things more and more, in everything from published books to advertising flyers. My family roots are deep in the South and I apparently pronounce some words differently than people around me in the Midwest, but I’m careful to use the correct ones. I have also felt it my duty to teach my children and grandchildren the correct words to use. My son found the word ‘pedantic’ and texted me, “How long I’ve searched for the right word!” But, my goodness, if someone doesn’t pay attention, ignorance will prevail. That same son wrote ‘nicked it in the butt’ instead of ‘nipped it in the bud’ and when I corrected his ‘per say’ he asked, “Are you sure?”
The Bride and I saw a huge error in a local commercial not too/to/two long ago and it drove us nuts. I wasn’t going to be the one to write and point the error out, but someone finally noticed.
It’s a curse.
Kudos to you for even being able to type a blog post while you’re dizzy. My dizzy spells (thankfully infrequent now) make me have to stay in bed. I hope you feel better soon.
Now you can have AI write you FB posts and check your grammar and spelling, but even then, it could make a mistake, kind of like spell-check in Word. I loathe the idea of people using AI for anything, and if I had to choose between reading a post written by AI, with perfect spelling and word usage, and one written by an actual human, with all the mistakes, I’d choose the human’s post every time.
I’m terrified by AI, and will never use it to write. I’ve seen some stories generated by that monster, and it’s obvious, to me. Like you, I prefer human error.
AI is only good for minimal things–like brainstorming, or when you are stuck and need a way out, or “I have a post to do by tomorrow and I need an idea of what to write about.”
You never, ever use anything from AI without redoing it. And you always check for sources for any stats or other information it gives you. AI seems to take hallucinatory drugs when it comes to research questions being answered.
For marketing it can give you a start, but again, you can’t use what it gives you. Everything it does, needs a human to fix. But it can get you started with expansion on an idea, or needing help on a twist or a character, etc. And it will take you places that you may not think about depending on the prompt you give it.
Blame onscreen keyboards and predictive text on cell phones coupled with laziness. Using correct punctuation takes a few more precious seconds. Even using a “full stop” seems to trigger the connected generation.
My life became much better when I learned that “shift Enter” gave me a new line on FB posts.
My kids/kid’s laugh because I use complete sentences, no/know abbreviations, and NO emojis. I don’t even know what that word means.
Great post, Reavis. And one that strikes too close to home. I seem to write more by ear than eye. I recently was reusing a bio for my query letter when I noticed I used formal instead of former. Thank God for editors.
I bet that word was auto-corrected. I’ve had that happen, or it was a slip of the mind or finger when typing. I run across a lot of words like that when I’m working on a manuscript.
After an update on any software, I turn all AUTO functions OFF – or they start trying to take over again.
Minor typos – and catching and correcting them – are a continuing IQ and spelling test/challenge, free brain activity toward keeping the thing working. Otherwise I get lazy.
Rein/reign. So few people are around horses these days that “reign” makes more sense than “rein” when they rein in their feelings.
You’re absolutely right! I’ve seen it more than once and it makes me cringe each time.
Fun post, Reavis. I’ve taught English as a second language, and my students wrestled with the complexities of our language. Bass was a real problem. Pronounced one way, it’s a fish and another it’s a musical instrument.
I despise autocorrect. Put a line under it and let me know it’s spelled wrong and I’ll correct it. Texting is the worst–small keyboard and autocorrect will get you some of the weirdest things and then the text to speech is hilarious if you have an accent like my husband.
But I agree, people need to learn to use correct English. I learned way back in elementary school that when you combine are with another word, it end ups (word)’re. If it is possessing something, then it’s (‘)s other than in its because it’s is it-is.
People tend to be lazy. They will post “waiting 4U” because it’s easy. Being old school, I still type it out most of the time whether it’s in a text or on a post on a FaceBook or Instagram.
And I’ll agree–editing today is hit or miss. I’ve had an author tell me that she doesn’t edit her books because her readers do it for her. Hmm, not me. Too many mistakes and your book never gets read and I’ll leave you a review that says it is an unedited manuscript and not worth reading. Then again, I have a wonderful novel in hardcover where the editing was done very poorly from a traditional publisher. So even there, things are getting worse. Makes me wonder if they are using AI without a human to edit.
What a delicious rant, Rev!
I second your/you’re/yore list with unfettered enthusiasm.
And, may I add this? Knock/nock. I guess you could say, “I nocked but no one answered” if you strung your arrow first… 🙂
Carry on!
I got called out by a reader for the incorrect use of discreet/discrete
Hope the vertigo goes away soon, Rev. I suffer from it as well and no/know what your/you’re going through.
Rev, thanks for the shout out.
Coincidentally I’m teaching a self-editing workshop on this very subject next weekend at the Montana Writers Rodeo in Helena. Y’all come on down if yer/your/you’re in this neck of the woods. In my workshop Power Point, there’s a slide with the caption:
“The man who invented auto-correct has died. His funfair is next monkey.”
Closed captioning on TV news shows is full of these goofs.
Trad publishers cut most editing staff and the few who remain are too busy to edit. In the past three years, I haven’t read a traditionally published book that didn’t have errors like this.
Take care and feel better soon!
Faint/Feint is a good one. I have also recently seen instances of “sever” (cut). used in place of “severe” (harsh) in reputable e-books. Not homophones, but likely due/do to auto-correct.
Love this post, Rev, but I’m sorry to hear about your vertigo. Hope you feel better soon.
A few years ago I was running on the treadmill while watching a movie that had subtitles. The words “peek,” “peak,” and “pique” were all used in the movie, and the subtitles were wrong every time. I had to stop the treadmill at one point because I was laughing so hard I couldn’t continue to run. In retrospect, I wonder if the subtitle writer did it on purpose just to see if anybody was paying attention.