To be so irritated by this common spelling mistake

[CaptainCabinets]

I’ve noticed about five different people in the last few days saying ‘rest bite’ when they mean respite.

It’s making my fucking teeth itch!

How funny. I've only ever seen it in your other thread and here.

I've seen it a lot and its irritating

I've seen this a lot but only in the last few months, before that people could spell it..... what happened??

Yes, it is awful. Another example of butchery of the English language.

Yes! Even the professionals do this.
Although I so hoped you were talking about discrete/discreet. That one gets to me.

I've not noticed that one but like @Yallnotreadyforthis discreet/discrete drives me bonkers. Two completely different words!

Madness

A lot of it's down to lack of reading, people hear something and try to make sense of it:

"Off my own back" when it's "off my own bat": back feels right because it implies effort, putting your back into something. But it's wrong. The cricketing metaphor is lost.

"Tow the line" when it should be "toe the line": again I think people imagine people pulling together, so "tow" makes sense. But it's wrong.

If people read more, they'd see these expressions in print. I cringe when I hear professionals/supposedly educated people doing this.

One's just occurred to me, though a one-off. Year ago a student of mine wrote about the Stack You Up Liberty. Again, it's what you hear.

"Delete if not aloud" - it must be compulsory to post anything to a Facebook group without this at the start

I meant "with", think we've found the real thicko

There are two of these threads.

Can we lose one?

He's instead of his.

I used to get annoyed too until I had a child who struggles with spelling. It's not laziness you know. Many people just find it very difficult.

I find maths hard...nobody's telling me off about it online.

Henny It’s not struggling with spelling though? It’s people spelling correctly (for the most part) words but using them in the wrong context. ‘Rest bite’ is the correct spelling but makes no sense as a phrase. Very often I imagine it’s words/phrases being misheard and never corrected. A friend of mine uses the phrase ‘belong as’ instead of ‘as long as’ e.g. “I’ll go to the film with you belong as it’s over by 10”. A lot of people in my part of the world use ‘why’ instead of ‘while/whilst’, e.g. “I went to Tesco why I was waiting for Jenny to come out of school.”

I always feel sorry for people when they make howlers like that. It doesn’t annoy me.

I saw "tack tick" recently!

Reign it in

I've often seen 'rest bite' on a forum for carers of people with dementia.

I suppose there's some logic to it - the poor things are desperate for a 'bite' of rest.

No such excuse for there/their, your/you're/loose/lose, advice/advise, and all the other basic mistakes that irritate me on a daily basis.

Hello,

The OP accidentally posted this thread twice so we're going to close this one now and redirect everyone over to this longer version - here.