I’ve noticed this a lot on here, the use of “and” rather than “an”:

“loose (sic) and hour”

Why?

I’d guess it’s thanks to autocorrect on tablet & mobile devices. What used to be correct is getting autocorrected to something similar but used more foten. What used to be a typo that you could figure out is now being autocorrected to a real word that makes no sense!

That and illiterate people being allowed on the interwebz. When I’m King…

Well let’s see in an hour.

Nope, no auto correct on my phone

I would of thought it’s obvious.

Jon Taylor – Member

autocorrected to something similar but used more foten

😀

Just a typo.

‘Loose’, ‘ridged’ (instead of rigid), ‘would of’…

illiterate! 😉

Dyslexia?

It’s usually a typo. Well, it is when I do it. I’m aware I do it all the time. It’s approximately 50% of my edits! 😆

I do understand the difference! 😆

I end all ing words with ign due to my ‘a few fingers on each hand plus a thumb’ typing technique which puts the n and g on different digits but close together.

I usually go back and correct but not always.

Quite a few “typos” come from phonetic spelling, hence ” would of” rather than “would have” but changing “an” to “and” doesn’t follow that pattern. Loose/lose is confusing two similarly spelt words. I’ve seen the “ridged” example in sales copy FFS!

“a” generally precedes a noun or adjective beginning with a consonant sound whereas “an” precedes an adjective or noun beginning with a vowel or aspirate sound. Why then make “an” into “and”? It’s quite common. You’d say “ham and eggs” but not “ham and and egg”

but changing “an” to “and” doesn’t follow that pattern.

Yes it does. Shortening ‘and’ to ‘an’ is very common.

You’d say “ham and eggs” but not “ham and and egg”

Ham an eggs
Ham an an egg

because you type “and” more than “an”, so from a mechanical muscle memory viewpoint, “and” is the dominant word, so slips in. Which is easy done, particularly in the context of a forum, where you are often just rattling off thoughts as they come to your mind.

the context of a forum, where you are often just rattling off thoughts as they come to your mind.

How very dare you, each one of my missives is a finely crafted, gramatical gemstone.

innit.

Ham an eggs
Ham an an egg

Is that esturine?

Shortening “and” to “an” may be common but not the other way.

Ha ha, that was me! Just a good old fashioned typo. I type pretty quick with about 4 fat fingers and very rarely proof read what I am writing for forums. It is chat after all, not a job application or a peer reviewed research paper (I have a few of them behind me so know all about proof reading!). What I do rely on is a bolt on spell checker that will underline any spelling errors so I can quickly correct spelling mistakes. Unfortunately, in the example you give it would not highlight the error of my ways.

Please forgive me 😉

autocorrected

The man who invented Autocorrect has just died.
His funfair will be hello on sundial

I would of thought it’s obvious.

I would HAVE thought it’s obvious 🙄

molgrips – Member

Ham an eggs
Ham an an egg

Bean an egg?

😀

And loose and lose. God, I can’t work that one out. I think being married to a German doesn’t help as we speak German most of the time at home. The German language is phonetic and to have a long oooo in lose is just wrong!

welshfarmer – Member

Please forgive me

I’m not a Christian.

For all intensive purposes it is the same thing. I remember once when we were on root to somewhere and someone said we’d forgotten the chester draws and we’d have to loose some storage space on holiday but wallah when we arrived there was a pedal stool and they r okay per say.

For all intensive purposes

🙂