"Symbols" makes me ANGRY.

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Chunchunchun

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On an anger scale of 1 to 10, I hit 70 when I see drummers spelling cymbals as "symbols". This annoy of you guys? I'm sure it's pretty horrible when browsing craigslist...
 
What did you expect from drummers? Symbols, cimbals, snair drums. There is a reason for so many drummer jokes :)
 
Locally, on an online classified page, I see cimbals, simbels, symbols, simbols, simbals, cymbels, cymbols and on very rare occasions cymbals..... when I sell one....
 
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The general literacy level in America has plummeted over the last 30 years or so...The vast majority of people do not read books anymore, so they never see words actually spelled or used in context...Hence, when trying to write words , they take their best shot based on how the word sounds when spoken; you get some interesting results...Very sad state of affairs, if you ask me...The US seems to have peaked as a literate culture sometime in the 50's or early 60's...
 
The general literacy level in America has plummeted over the last 30 years or so...The vast majority of people do not read books anymore, so they never see words actually spelled or used in context...Hence, when trying to write words , they take their best shot based on how the word sounds when spoken; you get some interesting results...Very sad state of affairs, if you ask me...The US seems to have peaked as a literate culture sometime in the 50's or early 60's...

But they (drummers) do get a steady stream of Sam Ash and Guitar Center catalogs. One would think that they could see the relationship between the symbols (called words) under the pictures of cymbals in those catalogs, connect the dots so to speak, and memorize the spelling.
 
I hate people not reading... I'm 16 but I love reading! Good explanation for wrong spellings actually. Worst thing is when a teacher at school spells stuff wrong...I'm one of those a**holes who HAS to point it out! :lol: That's English students for ya!
 
I hate people not reading... I'm 16 but I love reading! Good explanation for wrong spellings actually. Worst thing is when a teacher at school spells stuff wrong...I'm one of those a**holes who HAS to point it out! :lol: That's English students for ya!

In the case of "symbol" they are not misspelling, they are misusing a homonym.
 
It's okay by me . . . I have searched Craigslist and eBay with "symbols" (and other common misspellings) and come up with "stuff" no one else ever finds . . . NAD B)
 
I hate people not reading... I'm 16 but I love reading! Good explanation for wrong spellings actually. Worst thing is when a teacher at school spells stuff wrong...I'm one of those a**holes who HAS to point it out! :lol: That's English students for ya!

In the case of "symbol" they are not misspelling, they are misusing a homonym.
Aha, touché! What about simbel though? That's not exactly acceptable as far as I'm concerned!
Also, drums147 raises a good point about misspellings! Just reminded me of a website called Fat Fingers. You type in what you want and it shows eBay items with all the common misspellings! Handy for getting some cheap deals :)
 
I can understand the frustration when doing a 'search' for a 'symbol.'

I'm older and have never been a great speller and I do read a lot.
I just find the English language so feakin (I like that word) difficult!

You have to be an English/Latin historian and more to really get a handle on it. Or have a great memory. And - why should we have to memorize the way something is spelled anyway? Tons of the words we use aren't even spelled anywhere like they sound - and that's really too bad in my books. I've always had a problem with spelling and I have a Post Seconday 'ed-gee-mika-shon' - haha. No - really - all kidding aside - English is a tough one. Don't you think?

Look at what's happening on Facebook and "texting" - no wonder the youngins don't know how to spell - everything is shortened and no CAPS etc.

My kids can type a blazing 300 wpm it seems like, but if I were to do a spell check I'm thinking the 'wpm' would come back down to earth pretty quick!

Just my thoughts on this - and yes - it is frustrating when searching for whatever on the net.......
 
English is a crazy, messed up language as any linguist will tell you... But it's in my opinion the greatest and most expressive of all languages. I mean for example it has approximately 4 times as many words as French (I heard that the other day, and I liked it due to my oh-so-British disdain for the French language). And I can type at a relatively impressive speed (I take all my notes at school onto my laptop, I finally got fed up of my horrible handwriting and slow writing speed) and yet I can't bring myself to type shorthand. I use abbreviations like btw and atm, but any full word I CANNOT spell shortly. I also hold capitals and use of apostrophes in the highest regard :lol:
 
English is a crazy, messed up language as any linguist will tell you... But it's in my opinion the greatest and most expressive of all languages. I mean for example it has approximately 4 times as many words as French (I heard that the other day, and I liked it due to my oh-so-British disdain for the French language). And I can type at a relatively impressive speed (I take all my notes at school onto my laptop, I finally got fed up of my horrible handwriting and slow writing speed) and yet I can't bring myself to type shorthand. I use abbreviations like btw and atm, but any full word I CANNOT spell shortly. I also hold capitals and use of apostrophes in the highest regard :lol:

Had Teddy Roosevelt had his way over a century ago we Americans would be applying sanity and logic to Americanized English spelling: http://history1900s.about.com/od/1900s/qt/trspelling.htm
 

Had Teddy Roosevelt had his way over a century ago we Americans would be applying sanity and logic to Americanized English spelling: http://history1900s.about.com/od/1900s/qt/trspelling.htm
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NICE ONE!
 
some people don't even know what im talking about when i say cymbals...

i have to say you know that "golden plate"

hopeless...lol
 
Spelling misteaks drive me crazy...oops!

Seriously, I have little patience with bad spelling, but that's probably because it always came easy. Some people just have a hard time with spelling. That doesn't mean they're bad people or idiots. I had problems with math and science when I was in school.
 
some people don't even know what im talking about when i say cymbals...

i have to say you know that "golden plate"

hopeless...lol
Wow... I never knew it could be that bad!
kona1984 said:
Had Teddy Roosevelt had his way over a century ago we Americans would be applying sanity and logic to Americanized English spelling: http://history1900s..../trspelling.htm
So he's responsible for Americanised (yes, not Americanized :p) spelling? It angers me greatly when I typing something, and the program tells me I've spelt colour, honour, armour, recognise and other such words wrong <_<
 
I have seen a couple spelling "tricks" that I have filed away somewhere....

One involves spelling every word correctly but in its wrong form (ie won instead of one) and every word is spelled correctly and does not trigger the spell check errors. It is a little difficult to read.

The other involves an entire paragraph of words with the first and last letter of the word in the correct spot, but the rest of the letters are completely mixed up - AND YOU CAN READ IT. It has to do with the mind recognizing the word as a whole and not letter by letter. HOWEVER - if you are not a well read person you can not read it. It is the practice of reading that enables your mind to recognize the words.



My Uncle recently retired from his job as a college professor. He told me one of the most frustrating parts of grading papers recently was the spelling; especially when the "texting" spellings were used throughout the papers. He said he handed numerous papers back and told the students to redo them correctly.
 
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