Spell it Right

Ladies and gentlemen:

I insist on good grammar and punctuation for myself. Whether a line or a long essay, I try to be as correct in my grammar and punctuation as is within my range. After all, English is our language.

I had struggled with the correct spelling of eBay, having spelled it (or misspelled it) more ways than I can count. I am not a fan of eBay for buying anything, most of all razors, but that's another discussion.

Finally I decided to find the correct spelling for the word once and for all. Since I have always found the New York Times to be a stickler for spelling — though obviously it has its own style, as do other publications — I have decided to go with the way that publication spells the word.

Henceforth, I will spell the word eBay with the "e" in the lowercase and the "B" in the upper case, the way my most favorite newspaper spells it. I know, with all the major problems plaguing the world, correct spelling of something might be minor. To me, however, it is major in its own right.

So, for what it's worth: eBay.

Regards,
Obie

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Obie

I will spell the word eBay with the "e" in the lowercase and the "B" in the upper case, the way my most favorite newspaper spells it.

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That is how it is written on eBay's own website.
We ought to credit them with being able to write their own name correctly.

:roflmao:roflmao:roflmao

YouTube - Pink Floyd - We Don't Need No Education

+1, I always try to spell things correctly. eBay spell their name that way, so I aim to spell it that way!

My surname is Fingland, and the number of mis-spellings I get of that are unbelievable. I did actually get a letter once addressed to a "Mr Finlano", whoever he is. I sent it back with "Not at this address" on the envelope..!

Maybe its just me, but I find it a little insulting when someone can't make the effort to ensure they've spelled your name right. I'm really careful to make sure I've spelled peoples user names correctly here on SRP, or to refer to them by their name (correctly spelled again!) if I happen to know it.

Were it not for spell check I'd never post. :eek:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Obie

Ladies and gentlemen:

I insist on good grammar and punctuation for myself. Whether a line or a long essay, I try to be as correct in my grammar and punctuation as is within my range. After all, English is our language.

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No it isn't!!!:rant:

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Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

No it isn't!!!:rant:

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Well if it ain't it oughta be .......:roflmao ........ just kidding , just kidding as I run and duck for cover...... :w

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Originally Posted by Obie

... the way my most favorite newspaper spells it. ...

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I go back and forth on the importance of perfect grammar. I think it is important to make a reasonable effort to communicate clearly (otherwise why communicate at all?). But being a grammar stickler I am not as sure about. It is easy to pick nits endlessly. Here is an example. In the phrase above "most" is being used to qualify an absolute (favorite), which is technically incorrect grammar.:)

Spelling is easy, the question is how do you pronounce it correctly?
:p

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Originally Posted by Lazarus

I go back and forth on the importance of perfect grammar. I think it is important to make a reasonable effort to communicate clearly (otherwise why communicate at all?). But being a grammar stickler I am not as sure about. It is easy to pick nits endlessly. Here is an example. In the phrase above "most" is being used to qualify an absolute (favorite), which is technically incorrect grammar.:)

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Hello, Lazarus:

Thank you for your note.

In this case, right you are on the use of the word "most." It does not belong there. It borders on the neighborhood of "most unique."

My thoughts on the subject of the spelling of the word eBay were meant for myself and no one else. That's why I started my initial post with the following: "I insist on good grammar and punctuation for myself."

I try to do my best, though now and then I miss something, as you have thoughtfully noted.

Regards,
Obie

I am glad I have things in my life that are more important than proper speling, Like taking some pain pills and staring at a corner of the wall. How do you spell " obsessive compulsive disorder " ?

For the record the correct spelling is actually: eBetray. At least in this cyber-community.

My name is Axel. It's both ancient Germanic and ancient Hebrew. In spite of its validity I get plenty of jokes and tons of misspellings.

You can get by in English without much knowledge of grammar.
When you try to learn another language such as French, you find any deficiencies in your knowledge of grammar are a real hindrance.
I speak from practical experience.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Obie

Hello, Lazarus:

My thoughts on the subject of the spelling of the word eBay were meant for myself and no one else. That's why I started my initial post with the following: "I insist on good grammar and punctuation for myself."

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Well said Obie. Focusing on the only person we can control (ourselves) is so much more productive than trying to fix those around us. Please be assured I didn't mean to imply that you were advocating being a pedantic grammar stickler. I was really just talking to myself as I suffer from a tendency to such pedantry as demonstrated by my correcting your use of the word most.

I always find your posts to be thoughtful and well written and I have derived much pleasure and edification from reading them.

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Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

No it isn't!!!:rant:

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No, it isn't! :) Mine is Portuguese. But we got the point... I always try to spell everything as correctly as possible. And I try to do the same in English - because English became what Esperanto was supposed to be: a common language. However, the point is taken! ;) And I do think that I do pretty well in English... :) Mind you that my English is written without any aid from a correcting gizmo.

Since we're here let me tell you all a little story. You all remember when you went to school to learn how to read and write, right? I do. And I remember that spelling mistakes were not accepted in any way. Why? Because this was the point - learn the way to express yourself. If we do not have the propper vocabulary we will never be able to express aour thoughts, our ideas and ultimately, we cannot fight for our freedom.
So... some years ago my eldest cousin (now 15 years old) was learning how to read and write. One day he came home with a text he had written at school. My aunt took a look at it and was appaled. The thing was uncompreensible. There were so many spelling mistakes that they were no longer mistakes... the kid didn't know how to write as he was supposed to.
The next day my aunt went to school and paid a visit to her son's teacher thinking that something was wrong with the kid's learning abbilities. To her amazement the teacher - if I can call her that without offending the teaching class - told her that the spelling mistakes were not a problem... because the important thing is not to learn the tools to express yourself propperly but what the kid thinks! :soapbox: WHAT?!!! What is a 10 year old supposed to think? Who cares about that? Is she quite MAD?! :mace: I felt like... kidnaping the little idiot (the teacher) and tie her up in my basement and force her to read Orwell's 1984 one thousand and eighty four times aloud until she realizes that without propper vocabulary one simply cannot express oneself correctly. Plus, writing is the one thing that makes what we are as a culture... Fortunately the kid got to grow up with propper schooling because the stupid idiot teacher went away at the end of the school year and the kid is quite clever and curious.
Well... this is me ranting and speaking my mind.

I hope the spelling was acceptable. :)

i too am a stickler for correct spelling.. punctuation on the other hand is something i have no idea how to do correctly.. i just place a ".." between sentences and will go ahead and throw a question mark in whenever needed.. and who needs capitalization anyway? as long as i'm using the right who's or whose.. i figure i'm doing ok..

Gentlemen:

Thank you for your thoughts.

What led me to my initial post on the frequency with which I have misspelled the word eBay is an item in my book "Obie's Opus." It is about the great opera composer Rossini, who was known for his acerbic sense of humor.

Rossini marked the errors on student papers with crosses. He once sent a manuscript back to a student with few markings. "I'm so happy there are so few mistakes," the kid beamed. Looking stern, Rossini shot back, "If I had marked all the errors in the music with crosses, your score would be a cemetery."

Regards,
Obie

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Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

No it isn't!!!:rant:

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The people who post on this site using correct English, although English is not their first language, make me ashamed about the state of my spelling ability.

Spell checker is God sent.

I must say thank you to fpessanha for using the term 'proper' english. As Obie used the term 'good' it made me cringe slightly. Grammar and spelling, in most cases cannot be good or bad. Being that currently I do not wish to prove cases for bad spelling right now I won't.
I, usually, do not care about proper spelling. Up until fairly recent times in the history of language proper spelling was not only unnecessary, but uncommon even among the educated.

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Originally Posted by deighaingeal

I must say thank you to fpessanha for using the term 'proper' english. As Obie used the term 'good' it made me cringe slightly. Grammar and spelling, in most cases cannot be good or bad. Being that currently I do not wish to prove cases for bad spelling right now I won't.
I, usually, do not care about proper spelling. Up until fairly recent times in the history of language proper spelling was not only unnecessary, but uncommon even among the educated.

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This is true. If you look at the original writings of our founding fathers, in paricular Jefferson, who took great pride in education, their spelling was atrocious (did I spell that correctly?) by our standards It just wasn't important then. On the other hand, I've seen hand-written letter by a 19th century ranch hand by the name of Henry McCardy (aka Billy the Kid) and noted that the spelling, grammar and even the handwriting were impeccable.

Sadly, folks here seem to pay little, if any, attention to how the owners of PayPal spell/portray their name; it's

http://p.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/logos/logoEbay_x45.gif

and please notice that only the "Y" appears in upper-case; the other letters are clearly lower-case.

Perhaps all the squinting through tiny jewelers' loupes, at even tinier scratches (real and imagined) on the bevel of a blade, have caused some of you to "lose the forest for the trees". I'm just sayin'.

:w

Hey! smooth shaving...

PS: My family name is Horen, but it took forever to get JimmyHAD to not prepend a "w".

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Originally Posted by leadduck

This is true. If you look at the original writings of our founding fathers, in paricular Jefferson, who took great pride in education, their spelling was atrocious (did I spell that correctly?) by our standards It just wasn't important then. On the other hand, I've seen hand-written letter by a 19th century ranch hand by the name of Henry McCardy (aka Billy the Kid) and noted that the spelling, grammar and even the handwriting were impeccable.

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Very interesting I'd want to see that. I love small facts of history.

I only know poor english and bad english, I'm lucky when spell check recognizes my words :p

Lets hear it for the school system letting me out functionally illiterate and only 1 semester of general math :p At the time I thought it was pretty funny, now I'm just sad...

I think my English and spelling is more or less ok although i still make mistakes. I've heard that getting into same level with someone who speaks English as a mothers language is almost impossible.
I get Obies point about proper spelling, but he should hear me (or any other Finn as well) speak English. Wouldn't be a pleasure for any English ears. We pronounce vocals more or less different here.

Have to consider, at least here, that 'official' language is something almost nobody speaks correctly. It is a compromise between different dialects from different parts of the country, and those dialects might differ very much.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JBHoren

Sadly, folks here seem to pay little, if any, attention to how the owners of PayPal spell/portray their name; it's

http://p.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/logos/logoEbay_x45.gif

and please notice that only the "Y" appears in upper-case; the other letters are clearly lower-case.

Perhaps all the squinting through tiny jewelers' loupes, at even tinier scratches (real and imagined) on the bevel of a blade, have caused some of you to "lose the forest for the trees". I'm just sayin'.

:w

Hey! smooth shaving...

PS: My family name is Horen, but it took forever to get JimmyHAD to not prepend a "w".

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They actually spell it both as "ebaY" and "eBay" but your post gave me a good chuckle anyways.:roflmao:roflmao

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Obie

I insist on good grammar and punctuation for myself. Whether a line or a long essay, I try to be as correct in my grammar and punctuation as is within my range.

I had struggled with the correct spelling of eBay, having spelled it (or misspelled it) more ways than I can count. Finally I decided to find the correct spelling for the word once and for all.

Henceforth, I will spell the word eBay with the "e" in the lowercase and the "B" in the upper case.

Regards,
Obie

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My dear Sailor:

Thank you for your note. Of course, you make excellent points, and all well taken.

I must say, though, sometimes the threads on this learned forum have a tendency to detour in such directions that we lose the subject's focus.

As you notice, I have quoted my initial post in part to refocus on the original subject. My comments centered on my struggle to spell the word eBay the proper way. I also used the term "good grammar" instead of "proper grammar" intentionally, because in America the term "good grammar" is often used. I know one of the gentlemen made a critical reference to my using "good" instead of "proper." I let it pass, because it would have taken us on another detour. But back to the subject . . .

For some reason, even though I have seen it in the company's website and in other places, I ended up mangling the word eBay. I forget how many different ways I have spelled it in the past. I blame it on a mental block, probably because I am not all that fond of eBay.

I think it took seeing the word spelled correctly in the New York Times, which I read daily, that the spelling finally sank in. Of course, I could have shrugged at whether I spelled the word correctly or not, but spelling and proper grammar are important to me.

Whether they are to others on this learned forum is not the point. Nor is it my business on which to comment. By no means do I preach anywhere in my post about how my fellow SRP ladies and gentlemen speak or spell. Do as you please. Spell and speak as you will, for either way, you have my highest respect as a friend and colleague at SRP.

My post was personal, directed at me by tapping me on the shoulder and barking, "My good man, get it right." I thought I should share my thoughts with you. That was the only reason for the post.

Thank you for reading, and for your comments.

Regards,
Obie

Next order of business....


let's get mad that IBM, GE, GM, KPMG, et al are not spelled I.B.M., G.E., G.M., K.P.M.G. and so on.

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Originally Posted by deighaingeal

Very interesting I'd want to see that. I love small facts of history.

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I saw the letter in the book, Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride by Michael Wallis. Interestingly, I saw it in a bookstore but it was absent from the edition I bought on Amazon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Obie

Ladies and gentlemen:

I insist on good grammar and punctuation for myself. Whether a line or a long essay, I try to be as correct in my grammar and punctuation as is within my range. After all, English is our language.

I had struggled with the correct spelling of eBay, having spelled it (or misspelled it) more ways than I can count. I am not a fan of eBay for buying anything, most of all razors, but that's another discussion.

Finally I decided to find the correct spelling for the word once and for all. Since I have always found the New York Times to be a stickler for spelling — though obviously it has its own style, as do other publications — I have decided to go with the way that publication spells the word.

Henceforth, I will spell the word eBay with the "e" in the lowercase and the "B" in the upper case, the way my most favorite newspaper spells it. I know, with all the major problems plaguing the world, correct spelling of something might be minor. To me, however, it is major in its own right.

So, for what it's worth: eBay.

Regards,
Obie

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I've been wondering for quite a while now how to spell that company's name correctly. Thanks.

Now I have to learn how to spell B. P. the abbreviation for British petroleum. I was informed that the company does not use any periods, only the letters. I hope they have a better nose for grammar than they do for drilling safely for oil.

While we all seem to be sharing our pet peves about spelling and grammar, here is mine. I am sick and tired of people refering to initialisms as acronyms. If it spells a word, or if the letters become accepted as a word such as NASA then it is an acronysm. If it is said as letters, such as I.B.M. then it is an initialism.
It seems to me that there are far more initialisms than acronysms, especially in this world that is trying to go too fast.

CamelCase - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I find spelling to be of no special importance really. Punctuation, perhaps, a bit more. I am a comma junkie and tend to write in rather long, complex sentences, or rattle on nonsensically. A few commas, its more potent brother-the semicolon, and a few dashes, or parenthesis sprinkled about can add clarity, as well as flair.

Quite often I have quoted a post to which I am replying and find my spell-check redlined, as it is now with my spelling of redlined, throughout. Never mind that I had just finished reading that post and had no difficulty whatsoever making sense of it, indeed, never noticing a single misspelling.

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Originally Posted by Desdinova

let's get mad that IBM, GE, GM, KPMG, et al are not spelled I.B.M., G.E., G.M., K.P.M.G. and so on.

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Like "et al."?

I suppose it's due to my age and lack of a cell phone, but I despise "text spelling." I appreciate that it seems to be discouraged here. I don't fault the occasional spelling error and certainly in the context of a forum not all sentences need to be perfectly structured, but I'd appreciate some level of effort to make communications understandable. I consider it to be a basic courtesy to make such an effort.

Now, if I see that a post is from another country (other than England and perhaps Australia :)) then I throw that opinion out the window. Given my difficulty with other languages, I have nothing but admiration for anyone capable of posting anything in a foreign language!

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