"Spelling Mistake or Just Plain Stupidity? 8)" Topic

Hi everyone,

I wasn't sure what to call this one:

A: Why the US Needs to Spell Properly

or

B: I am REALLY Dumb Sometimes

Two days ago, I had left work for an appointment. On my way back to work I stopped at a gas station to fill up my vehicle. I pass by this station a fair bit but don't often get gas there. Anyway, as I was standing holding the nozzle and wondering if the drop from $1.40 CAD/litre (that's $5.30 USD a US gallon to my friends south of the border who think the world will end when it hits $5 USD/gallon ) to $1.36 CAD would really make all that much of a difference (unrelated to the story – it didn't really), when my eye caught something on the pump.

On the left, just below the screen with the numbers and slots, was a small slot with a silvery coloured metal behind it. It looked very much like these small garbage containers you sometimes see in airplane bathrooms, you know, where the silvery metal thing is really a lid you push on to drop your garbage into the receptacle behind the wall. It even had "Litter" stamped into the lid.

"Hmmm, neat, never seen that before on a gas pump" I thought.

Then I realized, "geez that's awful small!" Indeed, it was perhaps a bit wider than a credit card, and perhaps three quarters of an inch high. How ridiculous, you'd not be able to fit anything in there!

"Huh, ‘litter'? That's so weird" I puzzled, "What's going on?"

Convinced the drugs I am on were starting to have mental effects in addition to some of the others, I went in and paid.

I came out and went to get in the van and then realized:

The word on the lid was not "Litter", it was "Liter". As in this machine is set to dispense litres of gas. Had the same model pump been in Michigan or some such place, the shiny metal sign would have slid over and probably read "Gallons".

The puzzling questioning of my own sanity could have been avoided had the manufacturer of the pump spelled the *&^%ing word correctly, IE "LITRE" instead of "LITER" , Arrrrgh!!!! Curse the spelling in the US!
--
Tim

Yeah, but you love the gas prices.

Do you thik that sapelling it "litre" would have made any difference to the orthogonally-challenged?

Well, that's probably how they spell it in China, where the thing was made.

Noah Webster removed the unnecessary Frenchiness from our words. So no programme, armour, or other examples of superfluous vowels for us.

Surely that should be superfluous vowls…?

Well, that's probably how they spell it in China, where the thing was made.

This. Don't get me wrong; I've seen some horribly misspelled words in the business world, but given the fact that it's a manufactured piece with stamping *and* involving a badly-misspelled English word, the chances are excellent it's not from the US of A.

Now, if you'd have been talking about the *sign* on the gas station (with the movable black letters), your case would be excellent. We're idiots.

Actually folks, "liter" is a legitimate spelling of "litre" and it is how it's spelled in the US, is it not?

In the same we we spell theatre, you spell it theater, kilometre is kilometer, centre is center, and so on.

I was really trying to partly relate my own stupidity (how the hell did I think that was a garbage drop?) and also poke fun at the great nation that disrespects the English language by dropping the "u" on everything.
--
Tim (it's not about u, it's never been about u!)

Interesting, because it was miss-spelled you just automatically assumed it was made in the US?

Oh, Ditto, you've really stepped in it!

Oh, Ditto, you've really stepped in it!

S'ok, I'm usually covered in IT from my parrot buddies!

Interesting, because it was miss-spelled you just automatically assumed it was made in the US?

No no, it was spelled correctly as I've said: See my post directly above yours. It was spelled with the American spelling: From the first line of this wiki article: "The litre (American spelling: liter; SI symbol l or L) is a non-SI metric system unit of volume…"

So because it was spelled the American way, I assumed it was made in the US. I was making fun of US spelling.

Silly spelling goes on everywhere. You should see what goes on here. I live in an area called Kilbride. Sign got knocked over by a plow two years ago and the city replaced it with a sign saying "Kildride". Some of the sign making and road marking in our maintenance department at this university are ridiculous: "ENTER DO NOT", anyone?
--
Tim

at this university..: "ENTER DO NOT"

Wow— you work at the Jedi Academy?

Ah…now *I've* stepped in it, because I stopped at "litter". Mea maxima culpa.

However, that having been said…when will the rest of the world realize that honest, decent, true-blue, American spelling is really the only correct way to go?

'Sam' is not amused ! :-)

or other examples of superfluous vowels for us.

Now we just need to get rid of the superflous consonants – like the K in knife, knee, knight as well as others.

Where else but in English can you spell "fish" as GHOTI?

(the GH as in laugh, the O like in women, and TI like in nation)

Made it all that more confusing for emigrees from the old world. My great great uncle reputedly celebrated his arrival at Ellis Island by spending a night in a warehouse and wondering where all of the painted ladies were…

JJ

Sign got knocked over by a plow two years

Interesting that Canadians apparently spell plough the same as they do in the US…..

Doug

Interesting that Canadians apparently spell plough the same as they do in the US…..

Yeah…correctly!

Is that because in English, "GH" is "F" like in laugh?

"I went out to plouf my back forty" just doesn't sound right…

Or maybe "GH" is "G" like in ghost?

"I went out to ploug my back forty" doesn't sound right either…

Or maybe "GH" is silent like in weigh and Bligh?

"I went out to plou my back forty" is closer, but not quite right either…

J3J (the 3 is silent…)

Is that because in English, "GH" is "F" like in laugh?

"I went out to plouf my back forty" just doesn't sound right…

Or maybe "GH" is "G" like in ghost?

"I went out to ploug my back forty" doesn't sound right either…

Or maybe "GH" is silent like in weigh and Bligh?

"I went out to plou my back forty" is closer, but not quite right either…

J3J (the 3 is silent…)

Undoubtedly….

According to the Canadian Oxford, "plough" is "often" used in relation to a farmer's plough or in the verb plough wrt digging up earth. "Plow" is more usually used wrt snow clearing, plowing through a book, a ship through the sea, or a collision.
--
Tim

If the differences between US and British English are to clean up spelling, there are a lot more words yet to go:

I take it you already know
Of plough and tough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough and through.
Well done! And now you wish perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead, it's said like bed, not bead-
for goodness' sake don't call it 'deed'!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(they rhyme with suite and straight and debt).

A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth, or brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's doze and rose and lose-
Just look them up- and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart-
Come, I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I'd learned to speak it when I was five!
And yet to write it, the more I sigh,
I'll not learn how 'til the day I die.

Amen…

meh

!) The majority of native speakers of the English language use American spellers

2) English-speaking cultures are known for their love of democracy, in which the majority rules

3) Therefore, it's "liter" or "color" or "theater" etc.

‌‌

Rick

(Actually, I learned both ways: my Mother taught me Canadian spelling at home, and I learned American spelling in school.)