General Chat

Many moons ago when i was at school i'm sure i was tought to spell certain words.

Four.
Fourty.

Nine.
Ninety.

Why are the now spelt

Forty & Ninty

or am i a numpty ?

I am sure it has always been Forty and ninety, never seen them spelt any different.

I'm sure Ann is correct - forty and ninety.

Kath. x

yes i was taught forty and ninety,

I think you should go back and complain McB and ask why a Numpty taught you to spell "tought" instead of "taught"! :-D

Boom Boom, well spotted.

Ok i'm a numpty,

Perhaps iv'e had a senior moment.

McB...you might want to move that apostrophe too ;-)

( I can't help it you know, I try not to notice them...but I do! lol)

McB.....so many times i post something and then when i read it back, i have to go back again and edit my spelling mistakes!!

It can't be due to "Senior Moments" because i am only 27.

Well, i am in my head anyway! ;-)

wish i was 27 again, i'm double that & then sum, lol

The following info is for the people who are able to spell.


It is not a spelling problem it is a keyboarding problem. I know how to spell but I am certain my keyboard suffers from dyslexia.

It is not that your brain does not know which letters belong where, it is that your fingers absolutely cannot hit the correct keys in the correct sequence.


And for the last two generations, give or take a year or two, who were taught to spell phonetically or in text speak, sorry folks there is only one cure.........

A page of the dictionary every night. A dictionary? Well, that's a book with all the words in it. You can read it page by page or you can sort the words into different groups and make phrases, sentences and paragraphs. Then, if you are really diligent and practise (is it c or s for that one) you might one day be able to write a story.

There are of course Americanisms creeping into our language, courtesy of the media.

Color instead of colour, and many other "our" words with the "u" missing.

The letter "z" is no longer used as it was previously. I am certain I spelled many words with a "z" where an "s" is now used. My senior's brain will not co-operate with an example.

Example - organize - organise?

A S, quite a lot of the problem is the windows spell check thing. it dont like proper Anglo-English...only the Americanised version!! :-D

if yuo can raed tihs, you hvae a sgtrane mnid, too.
Can you raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Forty and ninety

Yes Patricia, I could read it easily.

Great mind, no
just love words

It might depend on what school you went to McB. If you went to a church school, the teachers were often nuns, brothers, etc. FIRST - then shown how to be teachers - where now the teachers must be qualified to Education Dept. standards.

I went to school in the thirties/forties (note spelling) - and all of my teachers were properly qualified. I have only ever known the spelling to be:

forty......ninety......taught

Taught - past tense of teach
thought - past tense of think

p.s. your last post - SUM??? It should be SOME.
You'd better quit before you trip again!

The muddled text. Do you know the trick to it. Providing the first and last letters of the word are correct, and you are familiar with that word you should be able to read the paragraph.


That is how the paragraph is written, if I recollect correctly.

You see I did not even read the paragraph apart from the first line. The paragraph contains an explanation of how it works, just as I have explained.

Yes, I was taught forty and ninety, can't remember seeing them any other way (I was at school mid1960's-mid1970's)

On my first day at senior school each pupil was presented with a Bible and a dictionary, both of which we were expected to keep, to use and to take with us to the appropriate lessons.
My English teacher was a stickler for spelling (and punctuation). She took us for English Language and Literature for 3 years. First, I remember she taught us how to use a dictionary, and then, every Monday she would give us 10 words to learn (spelling and meaning) and every Friday we would be tested on them.
And in her words, which I can still hear ringing in my ears.... "Woe betide anyone who doesn't know them".
I was lazy one week and didn't learn them properly, for which I was rewarded with an hour's detention!! This meant I not only missed the school bus and had to catch the regular bus home, but as I lived 9 miles away it took an age to get home. I didn't do it again, but I think it was my pride which hurt the most! :-0

K

Bob, you should be able to ser your spell check to UK English.

My problem is the fingers one and not touch typing, plus brain going faster than fingers. And on here I don't get spell check. Does anyone? I am on Firefox.

I was most impressed at the weekend when my 9 year old grandaughter said she was good in English at doing 'dropped clauses'' (I think it is what I knew as subordinate clauses). And I thought they didn't teach grammar any more. (i.e. The boy, who had ginger hair, was very friendly to her. 'who had ginger hair' dropped clause)