I have actually heard and seen in print furrier for farrier. Oh the mental image! Shoes are quite expensive enough without being made of animal hides 
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Well, if I wanted to be really pedantic, I could point out that this thread is about grammatical peeves, not spelling peeves.
I know lots of wicked smart people who are terrible spellers and would be lost without spell check.
Thereâs a misconception that the ability to spell well is an indication of intelligence. Itâs not. Itâs an indication of a certain kind of intelligence plus certain kind of education.
Grammar and usage are the same - high level usage indicates a certain level of education; not necessarily raw intelligence.
When I attended grade school, not only did we learn to read using phonics, we learning the rules like double consonants indicate a short vowel sound and how to read the diacritical marks in the dictionary like this, the diacritical representation of the pronunciation of resolute:
However, my wicked smart daughter went to grade school when learning âsight wordsâ was the preferred method for reading instruction, she never learned phonics and canât âsound outâ new words. She is an epically terrible speller and would be lost without spell check. She uses the recorded entries in the online dictionary for pronunciation, she doesnât understand diacritical marks.
TL;DR? Spelling =/= intelligence. Grammar =/= intelligence either.
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Welch is a family surname and thus the brand name for a specific jelly in the U.S often used for pb&j sandwiches. If someone advertises that they have a Welch filly for sale I immediately suspect the authenticity of the breeding/pedigree on the part of the seller because Welsh ponies and cobs typically trace back to their predecessors in or around Wales not the makers of grape jelly.
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Why donât you respond to everyone on this thread then?
I think that people who misspell ridding and riding are probably poor readers as well. I wonât go so far as to say illiterate, but if this is a common spelling mistake, then it has to mean that they missed some foundational understanding of spelling/phonics in English - and/or that their schools werenât great.
I donât disagree to an extent. Spelling is not the same as basic phonic rules in a language.
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In case you missed it in my post;
PHONICS IS NO LONGER THE BASIS FOR READING INSTRUCTION IN AMERICAN PUBLIC (AND SOME PRIVATE) SCHOOLS.
I think itâs a tragedy, too, but there it is.
Interestingly, it doesnât impact reading comprehension, but it does impact spelling and the ability to pronounce new words correctly.
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Because not everyone said the below quote. Everyone else was simply expressing their frustration with specific things, not saying those who say them wrong are basically stupid.
I am glad I was able to predict that the comment about people who can not spell are poor readers was going to come next.
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Actually the current focus is the Science of Reading which has been thoroughly researched and is a more in depth version of phonics.
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Dear horse sellers: âFoalâ is gender-neutral. âColtâ implies a young male horse. âFillyâ implies a young female horse.
The Craigslist ads for an eight-month old âcoltâ named Princess are always funny.
And although this is clearly due to imperfect enunciation on my part, please note, dear co-workers, that Iâm going to the barN, not the bar. (Though the bar may come later! 
) And the farrier will be coming out tomorrowânot the furrier.
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I canât see you posting ads for teaching or boarding and spelling it RIDDING! I never see you write things like this here.
and donât worry, I got made fun of on here for a good bit for using âeffectâ when it should have been âaffectâ. I see people do that a lot on the board here but I guess when I did it it struck a nerve that day lol
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I taught myself to read (with help from my mom) at age three, so I remember being very impatient with phonics (geared to non-readers) in kindergarten and first grade. So much so, I once nearly got kicked out of the gifted and talented program for refusing to do the piles of busywork phonics the teachers assigned, despite reading at an adult level in grade school. I donât think I really mastered grammar until I took Latin for a year in high school.
Iâm not an educator or a parent, but although Iâm sure it goes against the grain of teaching theory, Iâm very grateful to have learned reading through a whole language approach so early, because it inspired me with a passion for reading and writing.
I admit I was very reliant upon spellcheck for most of my college years, although since I write so much, over time spellcheck has taught me better spelling. For me, learning about words and getting a feel for language has always come through reading, though.
I think many of the errors people see in this thread are in part due to how much time people spend on their phonesâmy phone often suggests incorrect grammar or homophonesâand they assume their phoneâs autocorrect is an accurate spell or grammar check. Phones are also relatively tiny and people are typing fast, and when people see the same error over and over again, they start to assume it is correct. At least pre-Internet, if someone read enough, theyâd usually encounter the correct construction pretty frequently in print. Hence, if on a particular sales page, there are many horses with âsmooth gates,â then âgatesâ pops up more and more.
Especially after writing multiple books, plus my day writing jobs, and assimilating so much written material on a daily basis, I cut people a lot of slack, as long as the meaning is clear.
I did kind of wonder about the family with multiple expensive horses and fancy brass nameplates at one barn, though, which had plates proclaiming the horses was âOwned and Loved by The Smithâs.â So I guess that apostrophe thing on nameplates, cards, and ornaments is my one big peeve.
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Good to know.
I donât know when phonics was de-emphasized and sight reading emphasized, but my daughter is now 24, and she did not learn phonics. In good private schools and a good public school system.
I have an acquaintance who is a VERY sought after, very successful reading tutor. The basis for her program is phonics. Kids come to her as reading below grade level or with various LDs, and having not had phonics instruction.
Maybe the pedagogy is regional as well?
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I really take my hat off to reading teachers of young children, because I think I would have lost my mind if forced to learn phonics before reading chapter books. I know some people say they were completely the opposite, however (often very math-y, technical guys). It must be very hard for teachers to cope with such different developing brains, even with students who are otherwise equal in ability.
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The early to mid 1980s was a transition point here. My older two children were taught phonics whereas the younger two were never exposed to phonics.
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I have those two (effect/affect) written on a post-it note on my cubby wall. I still mess them up all the time. Those two are hard (for me).
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Same here, even after my lecture on it I still struggle to know which one is correct!
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Change it to impact. Problem solved.
I struggle with this one too. I can do it if I stare and think long enough, but wherever I can just substitute impact, I just go with that. I donât have enough time to ride that struggle bus.
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Oh, this is a good idea. I will try to remember that substitution.
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Yes. I am not a reading instructor but work in education and one of my best friends is a 4th grade teacher. I donât know exactly what the method is called but not being âphonicsâ does not mean there is no reading instruction. My friend spends lots of time in âguided readingâ with her students in addition to reading instruction.
Iâd love to see this research.
The ability to pronounce new words is part of reading. Most new readers know many of the words but have not read them yet, so being able to make the connection between the written word and the one they know is important.
If you donât think this is true, try learning a foreign language. I can read many words in Russian but I donât know them. So, I am not able to read like a native speaker; I have to learn the vocabulary in addition to learning to recognize the word.
Yes, youâre brilliant. Iâm sure you have lots of actual reading instruction credentials too.
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I see this a lot. âââ
Ummm, I looked thru, but didnât find an answer.
Western tack usually includes two-piece split reins. However, I prefer a one-piece âYacht-ropeâ thingie, with scissors snaps on either end. Still âreinsâ, or singular âReinâ? I generally say âMy reinâ.
And just for your reference library, here is a useful document:
common_english_usage_errors.txt (719.7 KB)
Oh, gosh, as an early reader I mispronounced so many words aloud, even though I knew what they meant and could use them in my written prose all the time! Ditto in grad school, with all the jargon I read I never heard said aloud, but saw in print all the time.
English is such a weird, bastard language, too, Iâm so grateful itâs my native language and never had to learn it as a second language. So youâre dealing with so many words and rules from a variety of feeder languages, I think pronunciation from text to speaking is especially challenging. Throw in different spellings and pronunciations from British/ Canadian/ Australian/ American English. I love English so much, but I understand why it frustrates people who are learning it.
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