Skip to main content

Creative Spelling

I used to pride myself on being an excellent speller. I was that annoying kid in elementary school who got 100% on nearly every spelling test without studying too hard.

But bilingualism has sure shaken me up, guys. My serious study of the Spanish language began five years ago, and I love Spanish because just about everything is phonetic. My biggest struggles come when I mix up "b" and "v," and occasionally I flub up with "j" and "g," but for the most part my spelling is spot on, even when I've never seen the word written down.

But then comes English again. And phonetics gets the better of me every time.

Today I accidentally spelled "sour" as "sower" in a text. I stared at the word "yellow" for a solid thirty seconds last school year and was totally dumbfounded by that w on the end--it's totally unnecessary! And that uncomfortable moment when I've reverted to spelling "pterodactyl" without the P and an A instead of an O. And this last one isn't phonetic at all, it's just embarrassing--I've spelled "banana" with too few "an"s and too many "an"s before.

One of my mom's teachers in grade school said to her in a gentle euphemism, "You're my most creative speller." I've joined her ranks in creative spelling, and with her and with many of you, we continue to fight phonetics and "sounding it out" our entire lives.

English spelling, I love you. Because you give me words. But you confuse me.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Problem with Chick Flicks.

I really, really, really enjoy a select few movies that I willingly watch over and over again. Pride and Prejudice is one of them. You see, Elizabeth's defense of her family, her sense of self respect, her ability to admit that she was wrong and to appreciate Darcy despite all his quirks, and quizzical brow-ness... it's marvelous. My husband doesn't share the sentiment, could you tell? ... and that's okay. There's rare a chick flick I enjoy near as much as I enjoy Pride and Prejudice or A Walk To Remember , and I wanted to explain why. You see, there's more than just a few problems with (many, not all) chick flicks:  (and if you have a chick flick that escapes many of these pitfalls then please oh please leave it's title in the comment section!) The heroine (or suitor) is less than honorable. I have a hard time rooting for a girl to get a gentleman when she's spending her time being scandalously loose with other men ( #thenotebook) . An...

What you hear vs. what you say

Have you ever misheard somebody? For the longest time my old seminary teacher thought that the primary song said “shalminnow” instead of “by this shall men know ye are my disciples...” He was convinced that The song was referring to the Jesus fish some people plaster to their bumpers. My brother Austin used to sing “I almost want to be with my own family” instead of “always...” And I had a long debate with my old roommate about Michael Buble’s hit song “Met you yet.” She was convinced he said “I guess it’s half time-in, and the other half luck.” Like time-out time-in in a football game. Do any of those mistaken lyrics make any logical sense to anyone but the mistaken? Of course not. But that’s what makes them hilarious!! I’m particularly guilty of mis-hearing and mis-reading people. Just because  I  speak English with other English speakers doesn’t always mean that we communicate effectively. From this I’ve gathered a few things about talking with people: 1) ask ...

The Wright Kind of Family

Today's blog post is a question, a question for YOU, the reader.  No, I don't mean somebody else in the blogosphere.  You there, reading this, right now. What makes for a happy childhood?  How can I raise the "Wright" kind of family? During my brief visit to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C., what amazed me more than all the aircraft and space gear and aerodynamic science combined was the following quote by Katharine Wright, younger sister of Orville and Wilbur Wright: Additionally, Wilbur stated: WHAT A STATEMENT. What a tribute to their parents and to the family culture fostered in their home. My interest and desire to know more about their homelife is piqued, so I'm 99.9% sure I'm going to buy this book on Amazon tomorrow so that I can learn more:  What I want to know is how to grow a family where the kids rush home because home is the place to be! I want to know how to host an environment that suppo...