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Mar 20

Put that strange plural in parentheses

Posted on Saturday, March 20, 2010 in Incorrect word usage, Misspelled words

parenthesis is singular

parentheses is plural

Mar 19

Ice house, ice box, Frigidaire, fridge, …

Posted on Friday, March 19, 2010 in Incorrect word usage, Misspelled words

The appliance that keeps your food cold is called a refrigerator or fridge.

Before artificial refrigeration was common, communities had ice houses where lake ice was stored. They would have the ice delivered and kept in an ice box. At the beginning of the 20th century, artificial food refrigeration was invented.

The first self-contained mechanical refrigerator was invented in 1915. It was sold by the Guardian Frigerator Company which later became Frigidaire. That is where we get the word fridge but it is not part of the word refrigerator.

Mar 13

Careful not to spell all words as heard

Posted on Saturday, March 13, 2010 in Incorrect word usage, Misspelled words

liberal means not limited to traditional views.

libral is related to libra, the Ancient Roman unit of weight.

Mar 6

Saturday, in the park…

Posted on Saturday, March 6, 2010 in Misspelled words

Saturday, not Saterday

It comes from Saturn Day.

Mar 5

It was ripped after it was wrapped

Posted on Friday, March 5, 2010 in Misspelled words

ripped, not wripped

wrapped, not rapped

Feb 14

He threw the ball through the tire swing

Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 in Homonyms/Homophones, Misspelled words

theirs, there’s
theirs means something belonging to a group of people
there’s means a contraction of there is or there has

threw, through
threw means that someone caused something to move rapidly through the air
through means to pass from one side of an opening to the other

thrown, throne
thrown means that something had been caused to move rapidly through the air
throne means an ornate chair for a king or queen

Nov 26

Thanksgiving vocabulary

Posted on Thursday, November 26, 2009 in Misspelled words

autumn, not autum

Corn is also called maize, which is a strange spelling since it is a type of grain of the species Zea mays

pumpkin, not pumkin or punkin

giblets, not jiblets

grateful, not greatful

Oct 12

He was taught to make the rope taut

Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 in Incorrect word usage, Misspelled words, Nonexistent words

seamless, seemless
seamless means without seams
seemless is not a word

taught, taut
taught is the past tense of teach
taut means under tension [like a rope]

Sep 27

Mispronounced then misspelled

Posted on Sunday, September 27, 2009 in Misspelled words, Pronunciation

perseveres, not perserveres

verbiage, not verbage

Sep 26

Commonly misspelled words

Posted on Saturday, September 26, 2009 in Misspelled words

threshold, not threshhold

tomorrow, not tommorrow

unfortunately, not unfortunatly

vehicle, not vehical

weird, not wierd

withold, not withhold