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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To expect a cafe to be able to spell cafe au lait?

175 replies

Orangeanddemons · 15/09/2013 15:32

On a picture on wall in said cafe. Spelt caff iau latt. Seriously.

What is wrong with these people?

OP posts:
Buzzardbird · 18/09/2013 10:59

elQuinto "Jacked on Potatoes"! Shock Spermy spuds...yuk!

sydlexic · 18/09/2013 11:33

Ewe must bee knew hear. Eye know linger had any expectation.

yegodsandlittlefishes · 18/09/2013 11:57

sydlexic I love your funny spelling of expectation. Grin

(I tried adding Spanish to my language choices and now Ole is the only word not underlined. I can't choose English and Spanish.)

QuintessentialShadows · 18/09/2013 12:07

I love spelling mistakes (not my own, though I have made a few. Most notably an essay about ancient Greek Temple Architecture where I made repeated mentions of the Angels of the roof. Of course, I meant the angles.... Hmm)

A cafe in Oslo was tempting people in to to eat Ba-gutter, rather than baguettes. Gutter is boys in Norwegian by the way.

And as for the Arctic? Imagine being in the arctic and not be able to spell it? A local car dealer is called Artic Cars....

QuintessentialShadows · 18/09/2013 12:08

"elQuinto "Jacked on Potatoes"! shock Spermy spuds...yuk!"

That will be the cheese.....

wowfudge · 18/09/2013 12:39

There has long been a tradition of mis-spelled words on signs in the UK. I remember 'cauliflour' in Tesco years ago and markets are usually a rich source of mis-spelled signs. I ordered a cortado in a branch of Costa Coffee at the weekend and pronounced it as I would in Spain (I speak Spanish) only to have the server correct my pronunciation to cortaarrrrdo. It wasn't a cortado either - twice as large as it should have been and way too much milk!

MummyPig24 · 18/09/2013 13:14

Someone was advertising their childminding business saying that they provide a "happy and stimulating enviorment" I did point out the spelling error but they continue to use the same advert.

PeppiNephrine · 18/09/2013 13:50

Yeah, you're all much smarter than the little people. Feel better now? And a lot of you might want to check your own spellings before complaining.

And before anyone protests that its a lighthearted amusing thread about spelling mistakes, its really not. It's people calling others "stupid fuckers" and similar because they don't know the correct conjugation or spelling in a foreign language Hmm

Orangeanddemons · 18/09/2013 13:52

CharmingHmm

OP posts:
Beastofburden · 18/09/2013 14:02

Most of it is about English, Peppi. "Stupid fuckers" is also not what most people have been posting most of the time. (and if you are referring to MrsTP, she particualry said that she didn't call them that).

You are being over-sensitive.

Orangeanddemons · 18/09/2013 14:05

Well, I knew how to spell cafe au lait at secondary school. As for jacked spuds, that's just ignorance. How can anyone get to the stage of preparing and selling the things without knowing how its spelt FGS?

OP posts:
Catsize · 18/09/2013 14:07

Sounds slightly Welsh. Perhaps it isn't meant to say what you think - could be a new type of drink.

If feeling really naughty, you could always ask what a 'caff iau latt' is, because you haven't heard of one before, assume it is a new type of coffee-based drink, and as a coffee buyer for insert well-known international brand, you would love to try it.

MrsTerryPratchett · 18/09/2013 14:09

"It's people calling others "stupid fuckers" and similar because they don't know the correct conjugation or spelling in a foreign language"

Then call it a sandwich. I have no issue with having a sandwich, while drinking a coffee, then having an ice cream. However, if I am having a panini, while drinking an expresso then having a gelati, I reserve the right to be annoyed about it.

BTW, I called them fuckers, in my own head, because they corrected me. Wrongly.

Thanks to beast

MrsTerryPratchett · 18/09/2013 14:10

Grin at my italicisation fail.

bulletwithbutterflywings · 18/09/2013 14:11

There's always one.... Hmm

Beastofburden · 18/09/2013 14:11

Smile to MrsTP who has managed to marry my favourite man

ThePuffyShirt · 18/09/2013 14:22

Local gastro pub has a brushed stainless steel menu holder on the outside walls with 'Menu's' at the top.

I spent some time, to my childrens' horror and to the detriment of my thumb nail, scraping that apostrophe off.

OxfordBags · 18/09/2013 14:25

This has got nothing to do with sneering at 'the little people' (which sounds like posters are talking the piss out of dwarves, btw).

If you are going to sell a product or offer a service, you should make sure it is spelt correctly. To not bother to find out is very sloppy and shoddy and does not engender confidence in the company, that is a major reason why it is important. I refuse to go in a local café because it offers 'tease, coffee's and cake's', as well as 'capperchino's'. It is so unacceptably unprofessional that I don't trust them to provide decent products or service. And there is zero excuse for huge companies like Tesco to be getting spellings and grammar right. They can afford to employ a few proofreaders, surely.

If someone can't spell or use grammar right on their FB page, for example, it might be a bit annoying, but that's their personal thing. A business needs to be professional. And many of the things they are getting wrong are primary school- level stuff. Unless someone has a specific problem that affects their English skills, then there really is no excuse for pluralising with apostrophes or writing things like 'jacked on potatoes'.

Beastofburden · 18/09/2013 14:27

I do have a tiny bit of sympathy for those overworked cafe staff who may have grown up in Poland and are doing their best. But the management ought to help them.

OxfordBags · 18/09/2013 14:28

Puffy, me and DH stayed at a place on holiday once that was next to a business called 'Fishermans Rest'. The words were picked out in white mosaic on a green background. The whole holiday we kept daring each other to buy some glue, smash a cup and go mosaic an apostrophe in the right place!

Catsize · 18/09/2013 14:30

Just remembered a long-term huge great sign outside a nursery proclaiming its excellent standards in ecducation. Confused

SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 18/09/2013 14:32

I don't think it is taking the piss out of the little people.
If you can't spell, get someone else to write the sign or use a spell checker. Most mobiles have one.
Nothing is more unprofessional than badly written signage.

ThePuffyShirt · 18/09/2013 14:36

You should have done, Oxford!

At my gym recently, a laminated printed sign stuck above a sink - 'Out of Order. Apologies for any convenience this may of cause'.

After looking at it with my mouth agape for 5 minutes, I took it off the wall and out to reception.

The young reception staff were suitably mortified just looked at me with their mouths agape. They were quite clearly going to call me a weirdo when I walked away.

Next time I went, the sign had been replaced with one that simply said 'Out of Order'. The rest of it was clearly too much of a conundrum for them.

PeppiNephrine · 18/09/2013 15:04

Yes, lots of people are ignorant. Or uneducated, or maybe just forrin. Lets laugh at them and tell ourselves how much better we are. If spelling is your barometer of intelligence. Good show.

MrsTerryPratchett · 18/09/2013 15:17

Peppi I am forrin. I live in a country not my own, I have lived in others. Including Italy, which is why my teeth itch when people use Italian badly. I used to Shock ask native speakers to proof read.