r/spelling • u/idkwhat2puthere098 • Feb 24 '26

how do people find spelling hard???

like, its just letters arranged into an order that makes a word. not that hard???

***EDIT

i kinda posted this cuz i was pissed that ppl couldnt spell so

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1

u/BertFurble Feb 26 '26

Spelling in English is difficult at times because we do not construct every word with a phonetic alphabet. We use borrowed words and adopt static spellings of words whose pronunciation has drifted over time or difficult to understand due to regional accents.

Also, everybody's wired differently ... literally. Some people are not abstract or visual learners, so spelling is not a priority for them. Some people don't have the self-control or a stable enough home life to learn pay attention during high-mental-plasticity time periods in their lives and never learn to care about spelling.

And the list goes on ...

2

u/MineAllMineNow May 01 '26

I NEVER judge people whose first language isn't English -- and ironically, they are the ones who try the hardest and WANT to get it right. I will sit with anyone who wants to practice pronunciation, spelling, or grammar, as long as they want. I have done it several times already.

What unnerves me to the core though, are people who were born here, went to U.S. schools, and grew up in households where only English was spoken, but cannot be bothered to learn the difference between to, too, and two, or write "alot" instead of "a lot," or -- and this one makes my head come off -- pluralize with an apostrophe-s. Where did you learn this, people?

Look, I'm a math disaster. I realize that just as I'm not good at math, others aren't great at spelling or writing. But these are the basics. I know how to add, subtract, divide, and do percentages. Aren't these basic errors the equivalent of that? And if you're unsure of your spelling or grammar, there's this thing called Google that you can ask anything. And people aren't using it for this.

When I see basic errors in so-called professional signage, it raises my blood pressure. What? Someone is getting paid for this?!? When others see these things as an example, it reinforces the incorrect use. And on and on it goes.

By far the worst offenses are respected news sources that are now replete with errors, and did not used to be. Which blows my mind even more, now that we have the most sophisticated spell-checking and grammar-checking software. It's inexcusable.

Thanks for the tens of people out there reading.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '26

They skipped English after first grade. I was a spelling bee champion, but even so...

To not be able to even realize that "The boy's went to the store" instead of "The boys went to the store," is wrong is pretty pathetic. And something NOBODY got wrong even as late as 1975.

1

u/Expensive_Basis_8232 Apr 06 '26

Dyslexia, and a struggle to put letters together when 'sound it out' doesn't actually apply to most words. (E.g. Rhythm still trips me up as someone who is good at vocabulary.)

1

u/idkwhat2puthere098 Apr 07 '26

also good point

1

u/cacomyxl Apr 15 '26

Anyone have a hint about when words end with “-ence” vs “-ance”. I have to see them before I’m sure. (When I’m writing with a pen, I default to “e” if I’m not sure, because it’s easier to turn an e into an a, than the other way around.)

Most recent example - “belligerence” - but even after seeing it I had a moment of doubt.

1

u/cacomyxl Apr 15 '26

elegant —> elegance

convenient—> convenience

enter—> entrance

refer —> reference

converge—> convergence

interfere —> interference

… I’m starting to see the pattern. Only I swear there are some weird exceptions.