The following list of words that are either misspelled or misused by bloggers are important because a spell checker will not correct them for you.
Extensively misusing them throughout your posts may actually cost you a visitor or two every now and then because some folks do get caught up on these, which means they won’t focus 100 % of their attention on your incredibly valuable content!
1. Your – You’re
2. Then – Than
3. Its – it’s
4. To – Too – Two
5. Were – Where – We’re
6. There – Their – They’re
7. A – An – And
8. Off – Of
9. Here – Hear
10. Lose – Loose
Johan Holmberg has more.
Originally posted on January 31, 2007 @ 11:59 am
Your right! Its sad when readers loose interest and focus on bloggers’ grammar rather then there valuable content. Perhaps were going to here more about this issue in the future.
;)
I’m guilty on 1. all the time, and not even on purpose, it just seems to happen unconsciously.
Beyond those misspellings is my other pet peeve – punctuation on the outside of the quote.
“Everyone always writes it like this”.
“When it should be like this.”
Now parentheses and punctuation…that still throws me.
I dont agree Graham, shouldn’t the . be on the outside if you’re finishing a paragraph?
I think you are right Duncan.
The . should be on the outside if you’re writing in British English style, and on the inside if you’re writing in American English style.
Also, if we’re going to get really picky, “The following list of words that are either misspelled or misused by bloggers *are* important” should be “The following list of words that are either misspelled or misused by bloggers *is* important” – subject-verb agreement with “list,” not “words.” :)
Graham and Duncan could be right. It all depends if they are from the United States or not.
In the U.S. the . usually goes inside the ” character. British usage calls for the . outside the ” character.
See here (correct American English usage) and here (a brief explanation).
Lynne, you beat me to the punch! :)
I feel better now. “British English” style is actually “proper” English style, it’s only the US that barstardised the English language (the rest of us follows the original, English standard), and would you believe it was Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900’s that made the push for what we now know as US English? prior to that you guys were all Centre, Gaol and Tonne like the rest of the world.
It’s amazing how often “lose” is misspelled as “loose.” I wonder if anyone has written an analysis of how such misspellings proliferate and to what extent blogging contributes to the spread?
I learned this silly ditty a long time ago to help remember the correct spelling:
“It makes you loose as a goose but
Too much booze will cause you to lose.”
The position of punctuation in quotes has nothing to do with British or American style. It has everything to with whether the quote is a complete sentence.
He said: “After I finished shopping, I went to the park.”
Once he finished shopping he said he went “to the park”.
Ok…now you’re going to force me to go to the various manuals of style to look this up. What style book will be accepted by this crowd?
I’ll be back.
Looking at these words it’s obvious to me typos are to blame. There’s a type and publish, then check mentality online.
As we grow our little network, I read a fair number of submissions from bloggers. The number of bloggers who don’t know the difference between there, their & they’re drives me crazy.
If it’s worth blogging about, isn’t it worth spelling properly?
The words ‘lose and loose’ and ‘to and too’ are the ones that I see misspelled or used incorrectly very frequently. Some are typos but I have seen so many instances of the incorrect use of ‘loose’ that it seems that many people don’t even know the correct usage. I have added a signature to one of the sports boards that I use — ‘We are going to loose this game because we have had to many fumbles.’
I am usually very careful and will ensure that I use a spell checker to check all my words. Making too many spelling mistakes just create a bad impression about you and ultimately your business too.
What’s really sad about the lose/loose mistakes is that they are starting to show up in mainstream press. A new generation of proofreaders are up-and-coming, and they can’t spot the obvious mistakes.
thanks wery nıce
Really nice list, i knew that however, i am really annoyed when someones makes that mistakes.
I always do internet spell and grammar check before publishing my post.
Thanks For Sharing
Abhishek
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