Is spellcheck working?

Raise your hand if you have done this! (I have.)

Humor: You say potato, I say... GHOUGHPHTHEIGHTTEEEAU

Via Grammarly at Facebook:

Bologna and Pony

I am not a fan of Grammarly software, but they do share some fun writing and spelling humor, as here:

Micromanager

This cartoon always makes me laugh because, by definition, as a writing teacher, I end up being a micromanager... and that is not a role I feel entirely comfortable with, ha ha. For the uses of the hyphen in English, see this Wikipedia article.

---

---

Cartoon by Dave Coverly

The ten pronunciations of -ough

I found this fun graphic at Twitter.

And if you are wondering about the word lough, it's an Anglo-Irish word, which you might know as in the Scottish word "loch" ... as in "Loch Ness" and that lake's famous monster:

(AllPosters.com)

Violators Will Be Toed

English is a language that is very prone to puns because of the large numbers of homophones, words that are spelled differently (and mean different things), but which are pronounced the same way, as you can see here: towed and toed - not to mention toad! Check Wikipedia for more about homonyms and homophones, and also see the article about puns.

---

---

Cartoon by Gary & Glenn McCoy

Dropcloths

The difference between English "cloths" and "clothes" is one that I see in student writing every single semester. Similarly: the difference between "breath" and "breathe." If you want to know the history of English spelling and how we got into this wild mess, there is a wonderful book by the British linguist David Crystal: Spell It Out. Highly recommended!

---

---

Cartoon by Mark Parisi

Pterodactyl Pteenagers

The name of the dinosaur Pterodactyl comes from ancient Greek, a language in which there are lots of words that start with "pt" (here's a list, in fact!) - in English, though, no words start that way. You can see this same word-initial "pt" combination in the Greek name Ptolemy and in the phrase "ptomaine poisoning" which also derives from Greek.

---

---

Cartoon by Scott Hillburn

Space Matters

SPACE: The difference between a kid napping and a kidnapping.

Spelling Rules

I actually use the "I before E except after C" spelling rule when I am not sure about a word. It's a spelling rule that actually does work in English... most of the time; for exceptions, see the Wikipedia article devoted to this rule. Are there any other spelling rules you know and use? What memories do you have any learning to spell in school?

---

---

Cartoon by Dan Piraro

Prefectionist

Poor guy: a spellcheck could have saved him from being a prefectionist. You can reading about the history of spelling checkers at Wikipedia. There is also, of course, a long article about irony!

---

---

Cartoon by Dan Piraro

Werewolf ... and the Joys of English Spelling

Because you can never have enough English spelling humor:

a werewolf

a wearwolf

a warewolf

aware wolf

The Perils of Cursive

A great comic by Jim Benton about the perils of cursive: demon? lemon? The wizard is not happy with the results!

And here's an image I found online: the problem works both ways!

Raze a Village

Here is some more humor for the homophone files, and it's also a nice example of an antiproverb; you can read more about homophones and about antiproverbs at Wikipedia.

It takes a Viking to raze a village.

(Andrew Jackson)

Viking Kids: Because sometimes it takes a child to raze a village.

Humor: Homophones Kill

Here's a great item from MediocreComic:

You're Great

For a hilarious post about using the apostrophe, check out The Oatmeal.

---

---

Cartoon by Brian Crane

Sound It Out

There is an article at Wikipedia about the phonics-based approach to learning to read.

---

---

Cartoon by Dan Piraro