kc_anathema: Sometimes I argue with spellcheck. Okay,

KC (

kc_anathema) wrote,
@ 2008-05-10 01:31:00

Sometimes I argue with spellcheck. Okay, *often* I argue with spellcheck. It's not my fault I sometimes use British spellings or words I read outta Shakespeare. It's just what happens from reading tons of British lit.

So when I saw the word 'perogative' flagged as misspelled, I thought no way. This is just another variant that it's not giving me the more archaic or formal term for. I got burned by 'bemuse', I'm not falling for it again. Oh no.

So I go and look it up. Perogative is not on m-w.com, but prerogative is. And after prerogative, as I look for more options.

Purgative.

Okay, we can go with prerogative. My bad. Let's not do any other options.

(Post a new comment)

	silent_myriad 2008-05-10 08:27 am UTC (link)
	giggles My favorite was when I was sending yet another "can you please fix yet another problem you've caused me" email to 'HelpDesk'. Wanna guess what my spellcheck wanted to do with 'HelpDesk'? ... 'Helpless' I almost clicked Replace. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	kc_anathema 2008-05-10 11:12 pm UTC (link)
	Omg, that's too good! (Reply to this)(Parent)

reijiro75
2008-05-10 02:03 pm UTC (link)

I hate the spelling and grammar check in MSWord. And they hate me. It's a good working relationship.

I have found though that the MSWord 'Australian' dictionary seems to have quite a few more American stylized words than I was ever taught back in school, or have ever seen regularly used here. Oz might not be as much of a colonial backwater these days, but it was less than a couple of decades ago when my teachers were still yelling at my class to "use the Queens' English!" And personally I think it's more a case of the MSWord developers being lazy in their research of the language than anything else. It really wouldn't surprise me if it were the case with the 'British' dictionary as well.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	kc_anathema 2008-05-10 11:19 pm UTC (link)
	Y'know, if you think about it, that's gotta be one of the worst jobs in the world, typing in the dictionary for spellcheck. I think there might be a riot if someone told the high schoolers here to use "the Queen's English." At the very least, the teacher would get a stern reminder that "I thought we were in America..." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

reijiro75
2008-05-11 02:46 am UTC (link)

Heh, well technically Oz is still a British Colony. The Queen is officially our Head of State, so yeah the Anglo-Saxon dominated education system happily endorses the British way of doing things here. But I don't think anyone argues the fact that American English is a different language in it's own right.

I suppose I was a bit harsh on the MSWord Dictionary folks. All languages naturally evolve and have their own sub-sets. However, Australian English in particular would be almost impossible to capture accurately. We're based on the old-school stuff whilst struggling to keep up with 'the cool kids' in the US, and all the while our slang evolves unpredictably at such a rapid pace no-one can keep up with it. We're like the 3 year olds of international language; take in everything, process it in our own unique way and then blurt it back out in the most unexpected moments and context. Or we just like bein' difficult. XD

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	kc_anathema 2008-05-11 03:16 am UTC (link)
	I think it's more the last one. You guys are fun to watch, tho'. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	lokifan 2008-05-14 08:06 pm UTC (link)
	YES! Trying to use any 'ised' words is annoying. They always want to make it 'ized'. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	musa_nocturna 2008-05-10 04:49 pm UTC (link)
	Perogative is not incorrect. It is one of the words that are slowly sliding towards a new spelling, which is perfectly natural. The dictionaries just haven't caught up with the change yet. They're not bibles, they're guidelines. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	kc_anathema 2008-05-10 11:14 pm UTC (link)
	Really?! I was right? You are my new special friend! ^_^ (Reply to this)(Parent)

	lokifan 2008-05-14 08:15 pm UTC (link)
	Really? But it's pronounced 'prerogative'. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	agkelos 2008-05-10 05:46 pm UTC (link)
	I just turn the whole damn thing off. Esp when I'm writing a biology paper. If I didn't, the whole doc would look like some angry Professor has gone manic through it with a red pen. x_x (Reply to this)(Thread)

	kc_anathema 2008-05-10 11:15 pm UTC (link)
	Yes, it particularly doesn't like a lot of Japanese words (yay Ninja Turtles) or Harry Potter words (leave Snape alone!). (Reply to this)(Parent)

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