"A taught chassis","a flair of revs","a heard of cows", ...
Discussion
... do homophone errors bother anyone else when reading about cars?
I'm enjoying a nice piece of car journalism, soaking up the detail and putting myself in the writer's shoes, when I hit a speed bump. That word doesn't belong there, what do they mean? Oh I see, they meant the other word that's spoken the same way.
Dickie Meaden's otherwise excellent evo piece on the Aston Martin Victor was punctured by two - 'embarrassed at my gaff' and 'every flair in revs'. The 'taught' chassis came up in a PH article lately, and a 'heard' of animals elsewhere.
I assume that the rise of word processing and spellcheck has led to a concomitant reduction in human proofreading, and the computer is powerless to catch most of these errors since the offending word is spelt correctly, it's just the wrong word for the sentence.
So my question is, does it spoil other people's enjoyment of reading about cars? Or do you not even notice, or not care? If it's just me then I'll stop being a pedant and try to re-train myself to ignore it, and accept the evolution of the English language. I don't want to come across as picky and unappreciative. OTOH if others feel the same way then I'll keep looking for ways to flag up these mistakes to the authors.
PS is this where we're headed?
I'm enjoying a nice piece of car journalism, soaking up the detail and putting myself in the writer's shoes, when I hit a speed bump. That word doesn't belong there, what do they mean? Oh I see, they meant the other word that's spoken the same way.
Dickie Meaden's otherwise excellent evo piece on the Aston Martin Victor was punctured by two - 'embarrassed at my gaff' and 'every flair in revs'. The 'taught' chassis came up in a PH article lately, and a 'heard' of animals elsewhere.
I assume that the rise of word processing and spellcheck has led to a concomitant reduction in human proofreading, and the computer is powerless to catch most of these errors since the offending word is spelt correctly, it's just the wrong word for the sentence.
So my question is, does it spoil other people's enjoyment of reading about cars? Or do you not even notice, or not care? If it's just me then I'll stop being a pedant and try to re-train myself to ignore it, and accept the evolution of the English language. I don't want to come across as picky and unappreciative. OTOH if others feel the same way then I'll keep looking for ways to flag up these mistakes to the authors.
PS is this where we're headed?
Edited by samoht on Sunday 24th July 11:03
I'm with you OP, being made to think 'well that's wrong' in the middle of an otherwise well-written article/post/comment does detract from the flow of it and from the point being made. In fairness I've never noticed PH articles being particularly bad for it, and you have to try to let all the errors below the line wash over you else you'll go mad. That being said anybody who repeatedly says could of/would of/should of gets tarred with the imbecile brush for ever.
FazerBoy said:
Here here!
Very good.Brought in stead of bought riles me.
As does "the proof is in the pudding" when it is actually "the proof of the pudding is in the eating".
I saw someone the other day post "catholic" instead of catalytic which just had to be autocorrect being too keen, surely?
beambeam1 said:
Very good.
Brought in stead of bought riles me.
As does "the proof is in the pudding" when it is actually "the proof of the pudding is in the eating".
I saw someone the other day post "catholic" instead of catalytic which just had to be autocorrect being too keen, surely?
'in stead' instead of instead?.. Sorry couldn't resist.Brought in stead of bought riles me.
As does "the proof is in the pudding" when it is actually "the proof of the pudding is in the eating".
I saw someone the other day post "catholic" instead of catalytic which just had to be autocorrect being too keen, surely?
LennyM1984 said:
Things being "effected" when they should have been, "affected," is the one that always makes me cringe
And it’s the one I always get wrong. I admit I barely scraped a C at GCSE English. I did however get 7 A* in total, maths, science, design and technology, Information Technology, geography and a few others. I can live with getting the odd word spelt wrong.
I’m 45 and still don’t know if it’s affect or effect.
MB140 said:
And it’s the one I always get wrong. I admit I barely scraped a C at GCSE English. I did however get 7 A* in total, maths, science, design and technology, Information Technology, geography and a few others.
I can live with getting the odd word spelt wrong.
I’m 45 and still don’t know if it’s affect or effect.
I was taken to task over 'affect' and 'effect' in my PhD viva.I can live with getting the odd word spelt wrong.
I’m 45 and still don’t know if it’s affect or effect.
One of the undervalued skills is scientific writing...you spend 6 years drawing molecules / doing calcs and at the end it's a shock trying to write with effectively only 'GCSE level' English.
Edited by hungry_hog on Saturday 19th June 15:26
hungry_hog said:
MB140 said:
And it’s the one I always get wrong. I admit I barely scraped a C at GCSE English. I did however get 7 A* in total, maths, science, design and technology, Information Technology, geography and a few others.
I can live with getting the odd word spelt wrong.
I’m 45 and still don’t know if it’s affect or effect.
I was taken to task over 'affect' and 'effect' in my PhD viva.I can live with getting the odd word spelt wrong.
I’m 45 and still don’t know if it’s affect or effect.
One of the undervalued skills is scientific writing...you spend 6 years drawing molecules / doing calcs and the at the end it's a shock trying to write with effectively only 'GCSE level' English.
People mixing up fewer and less annoys me. Less cars on the road...
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