Why so many British can't spell ?

good observation, e e cummings


Great! Who's going to be me? Remember - you'll need a sharp tongue, an occasionally surreal view of the world and, of course, good spelling and loads and loads of punctaution. No smileys or abbreviations. lol : )

Hello all, my two cents (being an Irish person, in Ireland and being 'british' geographically and not politically (being apart of the british isles).

Spelling, while important, is not the be all and end all. It is communication. English is one of the best languages in the world in that it is easy to learn and be understood. Polish and Chinese are languages that pose difficulty to many people not from those countries and can take a long time to master.

There are many considerations, education, medical (dyslexia), colloquialisms (Telephonica mentions this very well) and so forth.

Spelling is not a uunique (;P) british trait or Irish or Polish or specific to G (random check of posts). When we are more focused on the message, sometimes we (and I include myself) brush over spelling at the expense of urgency and haste. It is not correct but it is one more explanation to the list.

Re the tests. When a test has the results on the paper - it is not a test worth its weight.
It is a good thing to know that the Polish are intergrating in there new home's though. Just like the Irish of old to Austraila, America, etc :)

besides, it's just G stirring the pot at the end of the day ;)

Take care all!

I ignored the answers at the bottom of the page and got all but one of the answers right.
It was the population of Wales that got me. Numbers were never my forte.
(In other words it wasn't one I got wrong it was all of them).

Q. What is the population of Wales?
A. = Q. Humans or sheep?

Feel free to check this post for spelling mistakes.

i wasnt edumacted proper when i was a children so me cant tell on this subject....

test about britishness, god half them i didnt get right, but then again i couldnt care about it that much anyway....*walks off in a huff*

Did you not see option C? 'Wales? . . . who gives a sh!t"

can anyone explain why poles arent any good at forming questions in english - english is a pish easy language to learn apparently so it cant be that hard

"Text talk" has a lot to answer for. Personally I like to write text messages in proper English but when I do I get replies that look like this "Im fine, how r u? It was gr8 2 c u lst Tues, ur m8 is a laff 2". So among the younger generations, this is becoming the norm while texting and it creeps into other things as well. Like this forum perhaps.

I agree with ewe (sorry, I'm still thinking about Wales).
It's having two greight an influence on the written language.

Exactly. How long b4 such things bcum norm 4 us to spell like?

I F 2 say it cud B rather 2 soon 4 my liking.

No-one writes like that and includes the word 'rather'.
Anyone for tennis? It would be a lark.
Rather!

LOL. I see Grzegorz is starting to imitate some stupid questions asked here on PF...
Hey, it works both ways.

I misread that and thought you called him a G string :)

If I were to choose, I'd rather be a Scotsman.

Anyone else tempted to choose a new pseudonationality?
You don't have to be from there, or even to go there.
You just have to be able to spell it.

I'd be a Spitsbergener. Or it it Spitsbergish... Spitzbergenese... Svalbardian...
Svalbardic... Spitsbergenic...
...

* slowly fades to silence beneath the sound of strengthening Arctic winds and various Polar Bear noises *

Who wouldn't ? LOL
BTW re immigrants paying tax - for every bottle of whisky Bart drinks he pays around £7 tax.

If I were gender-confused, maybe. Then again, I have once claimed to be male and hairy.

is this a dig at us wearing kilts?;)

...and I have claimed to be a gay bodybuilding bricklayer from London with a penchant for gingham....unfortunately this got deleted off the Random Thread......

Not only for Ole Good Malt, but also for broccoli, Japaleno peppers and every CD (the last position is 'consumed' with my ears, however). And, sadly, it will never be refunded to me :)

Me.
Spitsbergen, in its more northerly position, views Scotland as being a bit mamby-pamby!


What was the response? "Your dicusting!' and that was from a Yank!


But some of remember. I believed you. Well, I was new at the time!

Someone from work goes there for holidays - nutters. The photos arent that exciting - white mostly.

I wrote I would choose to be a Scotsman in regard to this discussion. If I were to choose from all nationalities, I'd be a Pole on eternal holiday in Margherita Isle !

That bit there... is a polar bear!

But the Spitsbergener is closer to the Pole!

lol! Maybe it should be, I'm not fond of the kilt. Hehe, I meant about wanting to be a Scotsman - I had the Scots part down but hopefully not the man part. But perhaps it is an underlying wish (Actually I used to joke about this when I was in love with a gay guy hahah).

That may be because it is not random if it is relevant and true - is it either? jk Too random even for random, maybe the mods were bored.


I think he said the words 'you're wrong.'

What do you mean?

no,me neither , I much prefer my LBD for those special occasions :)

It is true to say that the English Education system is not very good on the whole, unless you can afford to pay for it and go private. English spelling is difficult and is not always logical. I had a letter once from a lady in Poland who wrote the word słów as słuf!! So many Poles too have problems with their knowledge of grammar and language look on this forum-oczów for example so it is not only the English with a problem.

There seems to be some truth to the lack of spelling ability amongst children in Britain. Like others have said, it's due to the many irregularities in spelling in the language. Teaching phonetics is not always so straightforward. My Dad has to constantly correct his students spelling. It's hardly a national crisis but it needs to be addressed more

English is half-way between the alphabetic system of Spanish and the picture-writing of Chinese

James Pitman MP

Spelling and pronunciation differ in English speaking countries. Words have entirely different meaning in various countries.

Brits spell it colour, Americans spell it color. Many such examples abound.

Brits ride a lift to third floor while Americans take an elevator. My granny wears a bonnet, but cars in Britain have bonnets. An American biscuit is quite different from a British biscuit.

We have big differences in pronunciation. Vitamin. Americans: witamyn, Brits: wytamyn.