Defiantly VS Definitely

Definitely is a word I never get wrong! This is because I was scarred for life by the word when I was 13 – I did a reading test and it was the only word I didn’t know – I actually remember to this day pronouncing it “Defiantly” in the test and it knocked my reading age from 17 to 16. Gutted I was. So I defiantly never gotted it wrong since.

Generally instead of genuinely is one that does my head in.

I can not spell either word correctly. Andy age 42

A lot of things like this occur due to spell check choosing the wrong one from your initial attempt, now the problem is that if you need the spell check you have might have problems telling the difference or you have so many corrections is easy to miss as you’re just pressing correct correct correct and reading at speed easy to miss. In addition when it comes to rereading you end up reading what you want, hence the need for work to be peer reviewed.

The way I remember how to spell definitely is that it contains what it means. It’s means without doubt,  the last word. In the middle it says fini…

There, their, they’re. Aren’t they just interchangeable? 😜

Ooh, I’m gonna try and remeber that nickc. I always pronounce it definAtely so always spell it wrong, but yeah it contains the word ‘finite’ in it. Brilliant!

I have to check what I’ve spelt as I ALWAYS press ; instead of ‘ for some reason…..

There’s a guy at work who uses conformation instead of confirmation.

The use of addicting puts my teeth on edge, surely it’s addictive?

“Could of, should of” etc is my pet hate. It’s all over social media now.

Once had a CV from someone applying for a job who listed their skills as being a “diligent prof reader” and having excellent “attention to deal”. Needless to say they weren’t shortlisted.

Former sub-editor here, so constantly triggered by this kind of stuff. Affect/effect and principal/principle get me going.

Obviously my pure hatred is reserved for people who don’t know what disinterested actually means. 🙂

Also see draw instead of drawer and shirely instead of surely (which I am never sure people do deliberately or not).

Stop calling me Shirley

Seems the op inspired today’s farside

Spellcheck has been a thing for at least as long as I can remember within Office apps.

How old are you? I know my early attempts at office most definitely didn’t have any sort of spell checker.

Damp squid.

Even after explaining the etymology of the actual phrase one of my grown up daughters still says it, she thought I was making it up.

You say break I say brake.

How can this be misspelt so many times?

If you spell definitely ‘Definately’ then if you have autocorrect its 50/50 whether it goes definitely or defiantly.

Also see draw instead of drawer and shirely instead of surely

See https://screenrant.com/airplane-best-quotes-ranked-dont-call-shirley/

I know my early attempts at office most definitely didn’t have any sort of spell checker.

It was in word star from about 1982 and word prefect around the same time.

Don’t get me wrong you might predate those but it’s unlikely you were using a computer day to day unless you worked in a quite specific field in the late 70s.

Damp squid.

Even after explaining the etymology of the actual phrase one of my grown up daughters still says it, she thought I was making it up.

Ask her if she’s got that sick squid she owes you.

On a slight tangent, one of the headlines in our local rag this week said “Tonnes of recycling is going to waste”
Err, no… tonnes ISN’T doing anything at all, you buffoon. Tonnes ARE going to waste.
The same grammatical nonsense appeared a couple of times in the accompanying article.

FFS, your sposed to be a professinial journalist, ect, ect

word prefect

*Perfect

‘Chomping at the bit’ is a slight annoyance to me.

I think this is a spell checker problem

What’s interesting with spell checkers is which words are programmed in.
On my phone, I can start typing the word “various”. The first option it gives me on auto complete every time is Vario.

In what world am I talking about watch straps or a Mercedes heavy van?! Never! So **** off with that option!

You would not believe how many people that work in the bike world cannot get descent vs decent vs dissent right. Or ride on bridalways. Or are peddling along.

word prefect

*Perfect

Damn you auto correct 😂 (which, FWIW, I think first defaults to on in word 2003)

descent vs decent

One is on single track, one is “gravel” right?

It is a particular joy of the modern age when a ranty gammon on social media uses ‘defiantly’ when they mean ‘definitely’. Since there is no way in hell they’re going to back down, it is then very easy to manoeuvre them into arguing defiantly that they are right. I can usually elicit a tirade of badly spelled abuse in less than three replies. Then I just block them anyway – leaving them fuming into empty space.

I mean, keep banging on about British this and English that, but they can’t even get their own language right.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

ect, ect

Ectetera, ectetera?

Also see draw instead of drawer

This irritates me way more than it should.

and shirely instead of surely (which I am never sure people do deliberately or not).

It is deliberate, and don’t call me Shirley. (As someone else pointed out, it’s a Leslie Nielsen gag.)

The way I remember how to spell definitely is that it contains what it means.

“Definately” always legs me up. But you’d never misspell “finite.”

The use of addicting puts my teeth on edge, surely it’s addictive?

I don’t think “addicting” is a word at all. It’s either an Americanism or an affectation of non-native speakers.

Affect/effect

I’ve never had a problem with this until I’ve seen it wrong so many times that I’ve started to doubt myself. The Internet has literally made me stupider.

On a slight tangent, one of the headlines in our local rag this week said “Tonnes of recycling is going to waste”
Err, no… tonnes ISN’T doing anything at all, you buffoon. Tonnes ARE going to waste.

I’m not convinced this is right, you know. “Tonnes of recycling” is a singular entity containing many parts. It’s like saying “Microsoft are…” vs “Microsoft is…” – it’s counterintuitive but the latter is correct.

Also it’s already waste, which is why it’s suitable for recycling. You don’t recycle things which are in use.

It was in word star from about 1982 and word prefect around the same time.

Please tell me that was intentional 😂

Yeah even the crappy WP I had with my Amstrad CPC mid-late 80s had a spell checker!!

I work in design/printing and have one customer who always insists on things having a “boarder” 🙄 😂 Always makes me think of pirates capturing a ship 🤣

It was in word star from about 1982 and word prefect around the same time.

Must have been missing in the software we had at uni then (1992) as i had to manually proofread and spell check all my work (Lotus Word Pro IIRC).

It could do word count though, so at least i knew how many more (badly spelt) words i needed to pad the document out by.

Please tell me that was intentional 😂

Regrettably I can’t assume perchy’s much coveted crown

ect, ect

Ectetera, ectetera?

Posted 28 minutes ago

Fazackerly!

“Tonnes of recycling” is a singular entity containing many parts”

Hmm, that doesn’t convince me the grammar is correct . Consider if it had said “Several tonnes of recycling…” – that’s surely a plurality, so IS would defiantly be wrong there. Anyway, apart from my attempt 9 or 10 words ago to drag things back on topic, I recognise I’m being grammar pedant rather than completely-wrong-bloody-word pedant.

Must have been missing in the software we had at uni then (1992) as i had to manually proofread and spell check all my work (Lotus Word Pro IIRC).

I’m surprised by that, I know that by 1997 Word Pro had an as-you-type spellchecker, so it seems odd that didn’t have a menu based on only a few years earlier.

Consider if it had said “Several tonnes of recycling…” – that’s surely a plurality, so IS would defiantly be wrong there.

Respectfully disagree. There is only one “several tonnes of recycling,” the recycling is a homogenous mass not discrete items. It’s perhaps easier to see if you make it the object in a sentence, “in the loading bay there [is|are] several tonnes of recycling.”

“Several tonnes of recycling” is no different from “a pile of recycling” and you wouldn’t say “a pile of recycling are…” Similarly, you wouldn’t say “tonnes of water are…”

There’s probably a linguistic term for this. Mass noun? Maybe.

Espresso/Expresso. Really grinds on me. The latter is not even a word FFS.

Or are peddling along.

When not breaking.

Must have been missing in the software we had at uni then (1992) as i had to manually proofread and spell check all my work (Lotus Word Pro IIRC).

I’m surprised by that, I know that by 1997 Word Pro had an as-you-type spellchecker, so it seems odd that didn’t have a menu based on only a few years earlier.

I’m not even sure Word Pro was a thing in 92 (still called Ami Pro back then?) But that definitely had a spell-checker so more than likely too many pints of snakebite-and-black at the Students’ Union was the factor here 😂

spell checker

We’re not at **** hogwarts 😜

Gawd it’s noun FML 🤯

I’m defiantly dyslexic and have no idea what is going on in this thread.

(I also just had to google how to spell dyslexic :-D)