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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be so irritated by this common spelling mistake

421 replies

CaptainCabinets · 23/05/2019 00:33

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!

OP posts:
TheAverageJuror · 25/05/2019 18:27

I just want to point out that I have nothing against Americans! I was just looking if walla doesn't have a different meaning since I know it from arabic and found that entry on urban dictionary 🙈

di2004 · 25/05/2019 18:42

Using ‘discusted’ instead of disgusted.. another spelling mistake!

Knickerthief · 25/05/2019 18:43

The organisation for which I work provides support for service users to help them stop smoking. Many of the clients ask to see " smoking sensation " advisors ( smoking cessation) but now many staff seem to make the same mistake. Irritates me for some reason .

BluebonicPlague · 25/05/2019 18:45

"rest bite" might be an eggcorn. There's the sense of rest, but not a lot so only a bite. I guess it's come about because some people have only seen respite written down, so understandably pronounced it with a long i and the people who heard them had never seen it written down so tried to make sense of what they were hearing.
Eggcorns are fascinating.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggcorn

Dra1972 · 25/05/2019 18:46

I'm with you on the brought and bought thing. It's so irritating.

Babyroobs · 25/05/2019 18:47

So annoying along with aloud when they mean allowed and careers allowance when they mean carers allowance !!

ruthboros · 25/05/2019 19:01

I have never heard rest bite but it’s awful. My pet hate is ‘gift’ used as a verb. It makes me want to ‘gift’ the perpetrator a kick up the arse. I also hate it on the Today programme when they talk about the Pry Minister or the Pleece.

ruthboros · 25/05/2019 19:04

Gift them a kick up the arse. It’s just pretentious and wrong.

missmouse101 · 25/05/2019 19:09

Why, oh why, do people think breathe is spelt as breath? Angry AngryAngry

Habibi27 · 25/05/2019 19:11

It shouldn’t be aloud.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 25/05/2019 19:14

I've often seen 'rest bite' on a forum for carers of people with dementia. There's some logic to it - the poor things are desperate for a 'bite' of rest.

Nearly all the above-mentioned in pps drive me mad, too.

IMO it's pretty shocking how many people don't know the difference between it's/its, your/you're, there/their/they're, etc. - all perfectly simple basics that should have been sorted out in primary school.

At a higher level, the number of supposedly reasonably educated people who don't know the difference between disinterested/uninterested, discreet/discreet, among others, does often raise my eyebrows too.

Oh, and advice/advise!!!

I used to have a colleague who always said, 'I done it,' 'I rung her,' etc. I would never have dreamt of correcting her, but at the same time she was very conscious of her lack of education and I really think she'd have liked to know.

I've only ever corrected somebody online once - after that person had corrected someone else, and made a basic mistake in their own post!

Pots and kettles....

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 25/05/2019 19:15

Discreet/discrete of course - bloody autocorrect!

BenWillbondsPants · 25/05/2019 19:21

Invite instead of invitation.
Could of/would of
Someone emailed me about 'a lot of dramer' in their office

BluebonicPlague · 25/05/2019 19:34

I'm a bit saddened to see the spread of 'Here, here' instead of 'Hear, hear'. Perhaps I shouldn't be. Perhaps I should be glad the old public school braying sort of debate is now so unfamiliar (except in Parliament).

And 'women' as singular - how did that happen? Is it some kind of muddle or overcorrection because people have at the back of their mind there's something about the word that means it's pronounced differently from how it's spelt?

Mostly I try not to get worked up about these things but it's interesting to speculate about their origins.

MrsLinManuelMiranda · 25/05/2019 19:57

Feel three two borrel mi spell chequer if in dowt !
Ode to the Spell Checker-
Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

SimplyTwinkly · 25/05/2019 19:59

My personal hate is I've been excepted, instead of accepted. Arghhhh

Tartyflette · 25/05/2019 20:00

Notice on the doors at my local pool
"The use of mobile phones are not allowed on the poolside"
I have resisted correcting it but I'm sorely tempted....

BeingATwatItsABingThing · 25/05/2019 20:06

Not spelling but people using commas when they want a full stop.

We went to the park, it was nice.

No!!!

Incorrect uses of an apostrophe also drive me mad and the use of coordinating conjunctions to start a sentence. Just stop it!

A PP mentioned about reading books to help. The number of books I have read that don’t use punctuation correctly is incredibly frustrating. Who is editing them?!?

BeingATwatItsABingThing · 25/05/2019 20:08

Should proof read my work...

The incorrect use of an apostrophe also drives me mad

Frazzledstar1 · 25/05/2019 20:19

Mixing up formerly and formally is one I see a lot at work!

EggysMom · 25/05/2019 20:25

Perhaps we would have been awarded respite sooner if I'd misspelt it as rest bite ...

ilikemethewayiam · 25/05/2019 20:31

Mum: what would you like for your birthday?
Me: Anything
Mum: could you be a bit more Pacific!

Lol, bless her!

Wantopinions · 25/05/2019 20:33

A common spelling mistake on the page 'rate my plate' is the hideous spelling of sausage - sosij.

I promptly unfollowed when I saw that...

SheSnapsThenSheFarts · 25/05/2019 20:36

Yep, I'm with you. My cousin and my best friend have both used it and it makes my stomach clench. My best friend has a masters degree so she should be able to spell surely....

rainbowunicorn · 25/05/2019 21:15

I keep seeing weighted instead of weighed. I only see it on Mumsnet and it seems to be every thread about diet or losing weight. A poster will come on and say I weighted 12 stone 2 and I want to scream no you didn't you WEIGHED.