Words with 2 Spellings
Posted by iKey on 05/24/09 in Education
One of the things that irks me the most as a writer is that there are some words that have two different options for how to spell them. I’m not talking about words in which the different spellings mean different things (such as there and their) because it makes sense that those two entirely different words have different spellings. What I’m talking about is a word that has a single definition but two different ways to spell it.
This is on my mind right now because I was just reading an article on Atlanta colocation hosting companies. These are companies that basically offer self managed server hosting but that’s not the point. The point is that I was trying to get more information about colocation and it was hard to find what I wanted. I didn’t find what I was looking for until I started searching for information about collocation which means the exact same thing even though it has two l’s in it instead of one.
Buses is an example of a more common type of word that we see this with. It’s correct to spell it that way but it’s also correct to spell it “busses”. The fact that you can spell it either way just irks me to no end. Shouldn’t there just be one right way to spell things?!
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Ms. Santiago | Jun 15, 2009 | Reply
Judgement is my personal battle. Technically it’s spelled either way, judgement or judgment, but I think that judgment violates most english language rules and yet judgement is more frequently (and incorrectly) regarded as false. What the heck!?
Evan Daley | Jun 15, 2009 | Reply
How about spelled and spelt? I can’t think of any others right now, but I totally know what you mean. The English language is designed to trip us up; did you know it’s the most difficult language to learn because of all the exceptions. Lame!
Geena B | Jun 15, 2009 | Reply
Of course there are going to be multiple spelling words in the English language. The language was never solidly formed, and it was being written down all during its development, meaning that misspellings became visualized and commonplace; no one could tell if the chicken came before the egg or the other way around, and literary chaos ensued.
Kevin Carson | Jun 15, 2009 | Reply
I’m not surprised at all; the English language is complicated, messy, and really crazy. If you think about the number of really diverse influences that the English language has just folded in, it’s kind of creepy!
Jason White | Jun 15, 2009 | Reply
Personally, my biggest pet peeve as a writer is the amount of other people that think they are too. I went to school for writing and I’ve studied long and hard to develop my craft; I’ve been writing for more than ten years and only recently do I count myself worthy of the title. People are just too quick to pat themselves on the back.
Deanna | Jun 15, 2009 | Reply
The language is tough, but that’s what makes writing so beautiful! The ability to command and manipulate such a difficult and complicated thing is really so inspirational and incredible. Isn’t it? I think writers open up a whole new world, and it’s just incredible!
Anne | Jun 15, 2009 | Reply
As a high school teacher its stuff like this that’s really tough to teach to my students. How are you supposed to explain that to them without completely losing their interest and attention? “The whole english language is given to change at any moment–be prepared!”