Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Over-reliance on spellcheck

Just because the word is spelled right doesn't mean it's the word you want.


8 comments:

SiGraybeard said...

Consider it the other way around. If the spelling is right, that person should be seeing some sort of professional.

Comrade Misfit said...

Was that in an English-speaking nation?

Ratus said...

Who said it's not correct? :D

I assume it is Comrade, "The Food Market" is across the street.

Archer said...

The spell checker is not a mind-reader. It will provide a list of words similar to what you actually wrote, usually in alphabetical order, and none of which are guaranteed to be the word you actually meant.

So you get mistakes like this. "Rectal" comes alphabetically before "retinal" (and also before "reputation", "rental", "refute", and "refusal"), so it's likely whoever typed it out chose the correctly-spelled word provided at the top of the spell checker's list of suggestions.

Just because it's a common mistake doesn't mean it's not funny as hell, though.

R.K. Brumbelow said...

Would have won the internet if the eye had been brown instead of green.


'Old brown eye' indeed

waepnedmann said...

I once read a report written by a young fellow employee in which he complained about someone "flagelating in public."
After I sought enlightenment I discovered he was referring flatulance.

I once approached a teacher regarding a child's egregious spelling and indecipherable handwriting.
I was informed "We don't worry about spelling and handwriting. That is what word processors and spell check are for."

Most people have no idea of the power of a high school English teacher on the formation of the human mind.
Sigh.

Douglas2 said...

I know that eye shop chain. This is their branch store in Clevedon -- you can look up images on Google maps for comparison.

The chain head office claims that this misspelling was never on their signs:
http://metro.co.uk/2015/10/26/vision-express-denies-offering-free-rectal-photography-with-every-eye-test-5463418/

Douglas2 said...

This sign, however is real:
https://twitter.com/deb_mac/status/487233790247305218