Spelling

 

1.     Thunderstorms over Victoria have inspired many people to declare they see lightening. The sky has been lightened up, ever so temporarily, but what they see is lightning. My primary school teacher drew a jagged line between these two false friends on the blackboard: lightening/lightning. The population seems, on the evidence, to be divided on this matter. Fortunately, none of my friends say lightening, but social media friends could lighten my load by appreciating that thunder follows lightning, at a space of five seconds per mile.

2.     There are people out there who, in a fit of Horatian zeal, would sieze the day. They are not sizing the day, they are seizing it. We are besieged on all sides by these well-meaning friends, who prefer to say beseiged. Should we be full of understanding? They have brains like a sieve, who cannot recall that the simple order of letters never included seive. It’s weird; or as their spellchecker warns them against, wierd. It grieves me, but is it my problem or theirs? My dainty corrections on their Reply lines could reap the whirlwind. But then what are freinds for?

3.     My teacher drew an ice-block on the blackboard next to the word ‘practice’ and the letters ‘is’ next to ‘practise’. This was his mnemonic for permanently distinguishing between the noun (an ice-block is an object) and the verb (‘is’ is is). Not all friends on social media were taught this lesson at an early age and it shows. They have not been helped by people in the United States who gave up the practice of practise some time ago, preferring ice-blocks on most occasions. Not that Americans are consistent in this respect, as we witness each day when they go online. Do they like being different, or have they just never been told? ‘Practise’ is one of many examples where Australians remain decidedly British in their preferences, but not all Australians. Practice makes perfect.

4.     Have I mentioned accommodate? The population could be doing a lot better with accommodate, though admittedly double double-letter words still cause us to reach for the dictionary. How many occassions has that occured?  We cannot underate the confusions friends get into trying to be sucessful with succesful, or their permutations of something as simple as a reccomendation.

5.     From time to time I lose it when I see people on social media complain how their team looses all the time. Am I the only person who loses it in this way? Should I hang loose, make a few shaka signs with my hands and move on? It raises personal questions that go way back, about meaning what you say and saying what you mean, about spelling being my favourite subject at school. It’s not enough to be loose with language, you could lose the plot, you could lose your credibility. Not that I go looking for false friends, they seem to find me and all I can do is monitor the situation and get right my own judgement of them. Remain loose. Don’t lose it!