Spelling pedants -- your votes required!

[frogs]

Dd1 (9) has been sent home with a spelling list that gives the plural of 'gateau' as 'gateaus'.

Being a clever-clogs know-all, she apparently informed the teacher that she'd looked it up in the dictionary, and the plural was actually 'gateaux'. Teacher maintains the normal spelling is the -s one, with the -x spelling as an unusual alternative. Dd1 is spitting tacks.

Who do you think is right? Your votes, please.

Just a thought (and yes, this is how sad I am) - if the gateaus spelling is a sign that the word is being assimilated, why don't we spell it gato / gatoes?

Gateaux!!!!! Oh don't get me started - this is my real bug-bear. It's just more confirmation that the standards of education are declining to an unacceptable level. I constantly despair at the number of people with a "good" education (graduates) who can't spell or construct a gramatically correct sentence. I almost had a fit when I went to parents' evening last year and saw that dd's teacher had written "excellant" at the end of her work - on several occasions. Why can no-one spell anymore?????? I would just tell your dd1 that teachers are not always right although I guess at 9 she already knows this.

[ks, just popping in in a "safe" place - where I think you might check in - to say I was wondering why the presidential debate thread kept staying so high, so had a look, and now I know, and am thinking of you. I think I understand what circumstances you are referring to, and send you all my sympathies]

can I just add my support too ks. You're one of my top favourite mumsnetters and it makes me sad to think of you being distraught XXX

Back to the spelling - another bugbear is the fact that Microsoft's spellchecker has "liaise/liaison" in with the wrong spelling - ie it suggests "liase/liason". I've checked with various dictionaries - and none of them even suggest that "liase" is an alternative Amercian spelling - so it is just plain WRONG! I keep on meaning to contact Microsoft - but never do!

PS Any other spelling mistakes in this posting are purely typos - I can spell, I just can't type!

liaise is also one of my bugbears! can't bear it when it is spelt ' liase'. Regarding the remark about Teachers misspelling things, I am a teacher myself but have had to get colleagues to rewrite reports etc on occasions. One which sticks in my mind was a science colleague who wrote something like ' Unless X works harder he will LOOSE marks ' - aaaaaargh!!! and only the other day I was perusing the Daily Mail( which of course I did NOT pay for, it was in my health club and I burnt it afterwards) and saw a showbiz article which used the term ' comprises of' which made me puke instantly. Estate Agents make this mistake all the time. Lastly, WWW what was the disagreement about Brideshead Revisited?

BTW if anyone wants to really rant about bad grammar, the multi-packets of mini cheddars have been running this little ' info-words' pitch on the back of the packs for at least a year. They have a word which is then defined ( like ' excited' or somethign)and then named as a noun or adjective and so on, but in almost every case I have seen it's been plain wrong.I actually rang them to complain and the woman said ' Oh yes, we've had loads of complaints',but they're still around. So ring them and hassle them!!!

as a cynical colleague once said to me, 'don't you know that every noun can be verbed?'

donnie, I just read a piece about verbing nouns - can't remember where - will link to it if I find it! (I still think "A4 me" - meaning send me a letter - is the worst I ever heard though )

A4 me??!

that is absolutely vile

donnie - you'll see that 'loose' for 'lose' clanger in a number of threads on mumsnet too .

My dp is a science teacher and has terrible spelling, he's always getting things wrong when writing on the board, but is very grateful when the class point it out to him! I hate seeing spelling errors, and grocers apostrophes, but have had to mellow since living with dp and his gaffe-ridden scribblings. He's just a numbers guy and I'm a words girl!

Isn't it, suzy? [spittingicon]

I found the verbing thing - surprisingly easy, it's in today's Guardian! - by Polly Mortimer , is she related to John?

have we mentioined 'less' instead of 'fewer' yet? You know what I'm talking about....

or mentioned mentioined?

Less v fewer has been mentioned. I'm taking vicarious credit for my mum helping to get M&S change their signs from "5 items or Less" to £5 items or fewer". She used to complain every single time she went in.

Just discussed this with DH.
He was - as I was - particularly aghast at the criterion / criteria one.
On the subject of gateaux, he commented that he hadn't realised that gateaux had a singular - though maybe he's just a greedy guts .

My own bugbear is licence / license. I've rarely had a CV from someone who doesn't have a driving "license".

Any spelling mistakes my own - I may be a fussy pedant, but I'm not very good at spelling.