You've hit most of my pet peeves there, too, Kate.

I'm pretty informal when it comes to letters or emails from friends. Like Kate says, it's about communication, not perfection.

On the other hand, when it comes to things like newspapers or professional publications I tend to notice spelling and grammatical errors more.

I posted this humorous look at English spelling and grammar in the Writer's World thread, but it's appropriate here too. Enjoy!

I can never spell "weird."

I have a terrible time with that one too.

I'm an English major, so people expect me to have perfect grammar and spelling, even when speaking (grammar only applies here).

I was a creative writing minor and I am really into grammar. I can relate a little. My dad expects me to know how to pronounce words because I'm good at grammar. I'm not good the best at spelling or pronunciation (the two kind of go together). I'm expected to know the answers to every grammar question too.

Pet peeves of mine are the "its," "it's," "their," "there," "they're," "your," "you're" words. Not so much the "its," that one's hard.

Those would be some of mine too - but its and it's really drives me nuts (I think this is because it is one of my mom's pet peeves and she drilled into my head so much it became on of mine.)

On the other hand, when it comes to things like newspapers or professional publications I tend to notice spelling and grammatical errors more.

I tend to notice grammatical errors anywhere I see them. I'm not that great at spelling so I notice those mistakes less. Some bug me where ever I see them, but it newspapers and professional publications (especially from schools) they really bother me. I confess I have to resist the urge to correct quotes from people and articles when I am posting them in my posts.

I posted this humorous look at English spelling and grammar in the Writer's World thread, but it's appropriate here too. Enjoy!

That poem is great!

Bother Eustace, I have the exact same problem and use the same solution for "friend" and "beautiful."

The spellings I have trouble with most of the time are "ie" and "ei" ones; especially the rule-breaker words of those type. (Especially "weird" and leisurely") Another problem is that in all sentences, I write "it's" instead of "its."

Pronounciation, or pronunciation? Which one is it?
Chief
Thief (Although, the Attolia series helped me remember this one better, lol.)

I don't have a problem with this one, but when writing "tongue" I always say "tong-yew."
On the British spellings- I sort of grew up in a British-influenced province, so "saviour", "favourite", "colour", "realise", "recognise" are always the correct spelling to me.

Also, is it only American grammer that the plural tense of "beef" is "beeves"?

One grammatical error which usually bothers me is incorrect use of the verb "be", and when the wrong grammer is used when expressing comparitive and superlative degrees.

'Friend' used to give me trouble all the time, until one day I started thinking of it as "Fry-End". I even say it that way in my mind when I'm writing it.

I do that too, I always say that in my head .

I have a hard time with 'effect' and 'affect', hate those words lol.
And I have a hard time with 'definetely', 'stood' (not sure why but it trips me up lol), 'Cindy' (I always start writing C-y-n..), 'aesthetics', 'acceptable' (I put an 'i' where the 'a' is).

There are others, of course.

I have a hard time with 'effect' and 'affect', hate those words lol.

Here's a little thingy to help you remember:

RAVEN - Remember Affect is a Verb, Effect is a Noun!

And for the whole "i before e" thing, my High School Senior English teacher had a "B.C." comic that had the entire rule. I don't remember the whole thing, and I can't find it, but it went something like "I before E except after C or when sounding like A as in Neighbor and Weigh, not including the eight exceptions..."

Sorry, I can't remember the eight exceptions, but it was pretty clever. I am also an English major, but I do have a problem with "i before e" stuff. I have a hard time with "thief," "receipt," "rehearsal," etc. Some common mistakes that are pet peeves of mine are: "your/you're", "its/it's", etc. Comma problems also bug me like no other.

I was a spelling bee champion. I can spell pretty much everything. There are a few ones I may have a bit of trouble when I first see them- especially if they are in foreign languages (yup- I almost misspelled a German word today, spelled it in English instead!). But spelling has always been a strong subject of mine.

My dad is American and my mum is British, so I get very confused.

However, I do try to spell the British way! Where I get confused is with things like "dreamed" and "dreamt". I read in a book once that "dreamed" is correct in American English, and "dreamt" for the British, but I find that I use both. I also get confused whether to use an "s" or a "z" sometimes.

When I was little, I couldn't spell "though". I used to write something like "touhgh". In fact, I got very confused about the letter "h" in general.

I use "grey" generally but use "gray" when referring to the colour of a "white" horse.

"Affect or effect" is a nightmare for me. The problem is that though I know what a verb is and a noun is ("A verb is a doing word and a noun is a naming word ... ") I don't instinctively know what each is. Don't even bother asking me about adverbs and things ... *shivers* I really should know, but somehow I have got through school and university without knowing those or my times tables.

'accquire' (is that right?) is one of my main problem words. Fortunately I needn't use it very often

I get confused between British and American spelling as well. I learnt my English as British English, but on the Internet I'm exposed to even more American English. For many words, I don't know which is which.

Ooh, spelling. I am very familiar with this topic, as I won my school spelling bee last month! [/bragging]
I just basically memorize all the spellings of words. For me, it's as simple as that.

Wow, I never thought it would be a problem for some people with British v. American English! (I'm American, btw). I mean, I've known most of my life that we crazy Americans spell things differently than the British (I swear, I bet we just did it out of spite or something when we became independent. ), but I haven't really been exposed to any British spelling until recently. I know some Americans spell things the British way just because they think it makes them look sophisticated or something. I don't know. Although, I almost wonder if we need to start calling American English simply "American," since nearly half our words are from other languages anyway, like French and German and Greek and Latin. In fact, we have so many Latin Americans in the US now that we've developed a type of slang called "Spanglish," where we actually use both Spanish and English in the same sentence. It's rather interesting. So can we really call it "English" anymore? Definitely something to think about...

I always spell especially wrong.... but definitly the one I get wrong the most is definatly....oh whoops...DEFINITLY.

i get definitely wrong all the time. and mischivieous. i think i spelled it wrong there...

I am the worst speller I have ever meet! If not for spell check I wouldn't be able to post this at all! I often spell words with one or two to many letters like "speelll"
Sometimes I cannot spell even the really easy words like "went" which I spell "whent"
I almost always got D's on my spelling test. The only time I got an A was in forth grade. I had done somethng bad and my parents (yet another word I had to use spell check for) made me write my spelling words in till they got back. They got stuck in traffic. And wrote the words about 40 times each!

I can spell most things, but there are a few words that always trip me up. The only one I can think of now is legitimate. I had to go look it up.

Uggg! Spelling is my least favorite subject. It used to be P.E., but I homeschool now. I learned how to spell blue from Blue's Clues. I also couldn't spell the word probably till just recently. I used to spell it probly.