this isn't actually about peyton gin road, but it does bother me

I finally had one of those idiom snap points one gets when one hits both fanfic and published novels using the same one wrong in three days of reading (my new ereader is probably to blame for this: I get to read all the books without a breather, and it never ends well when one jumps from fanfic to profic to Jane Austen to, do not judge, Anne Bishop in a single day. Though funny, can't lie).

Making do not making due or God help us, making dew (though the third one at least is kind of hilariously adorable--what kind of dew are they making?) - the thing is, it must be invisible to me usually or something, because I've read it in either three or four fics (and a couple of profics) in the last few days with the 'due' spelling, and odds say it apparently shows up a lot if I can get a three to four fic random sampler in four days.

OTOH, it's more a spelling than a meaning issue I assume; if you've only heard it and not seen it written enough, 'due' looks better than 'do', which is a legit criticism since it's the reason I spell grey with an 'e' instead of with an 'a' (and why a street nearby was changed to Payton when it used to be Peyton and I still spell it Peyton because fuck Payton, that just looks ridic and come on, it's been fifty something years with the 'e', why an 'a' now? IDGI).

Comments

[starfish]

I think the one I was seeing over and over was "tow the line," but "making due" is not unfamiliar. Unfortunately.

("Peyton" is clearly superior to "Payton.")

[seperis]

..'tow the line'? Yeah, that's--not unfamiliar either. Or 'per say'. Dear God, 'per say'.

("Peyton" is clearly superior to "Payton.")

Just looking at it, right?

[arduinna]

I swear, I once saw someone justify "tow the line" because their professor had decided it was an "acceptable alternate spelling". Argh! We are not pulling on ropes, we are staying within bounds of the rules! Different words mean different things!

[etui]

The one that I'm seeing the most right now is reign for rein (free reign, reigned in) and even worse, I recently read "reigned down on". ^^

I'll swap you. :)

[seperis]

free reign - I HAVE DONE THAT. Though half on accident due to spellcheck, so I'm creating a Word macro to run looking for that to correct.

I recently read "reigned down on". - Okay, that one is hilarious. I wish I could see it. SO MUCH.

[genarti]

Oh lordy yes, I was going to comment with this one. IT BUGS ME SO MUCH. I would say that I don't even know why, but I totally do; is because I spent enough years riding horses that I have a very clear visual and kinetic picture of what free rein is, and it had nothing to do with ruling countries.

But laissez-faire rule or something is a logical enough etymology that I see it all over the place, even from authors who're generally very scrupulous about such things. Every single time, it makes me twitch.

[flamebyrd]

This one used to puzzle me until I realised that certain dialects pronounce 'due' and 'do' the same way. I see it a lot, too!

[seperis]

I'm from Texas, and I know I pronounce them teh same. How are they different where you are? *VERY CURIOUS* (do/due/dew sound the same to me)

[flamebyrd]

It's been a looong time since linguistics school or I would try to do this in IPA, but I pronounce "due" and "dew" like they have a y in them (almost like it's a j, not a d) and "do" like it doesn't.

It's one of those things that's fairly consistent, I think - like for "tune" I say tyoon and some US dialects (I don't want to say all?) say toon.

[devon]

ah. I see. I use the Y sound in "due" but not in the other two. I grew up mostly in East Texas, but I learned to speak in Michigan as a very small child.

[lilacsigil]

Me too. "Due" and "dew" are the same to me, but "do" is not.

[amireal]

They grey/gray thing is legit at least b/c that is a regional spelling thing and you have probably seen a lot of people legitimately spell it that way b/c that's how they were taught. It's like a Canadian spelling out zed.

[seperis]

I saw it used a lot when I read as a kid, so 'gray' looks very weird to me.

[in_the_bottle]

Making... Mountain Dew?

And 'per say' drives me nuts. Are you charging me $2 per say? Or timing me 5 seconds per say? :P

'Per se' isn't even English!

[seperis]

...wait, we could charge? Hey, I have an idea.

[in_the_bottle]

Ain't capitalism great? ;)

[sage]

OH man. I had friends living on Lamar when they changed THAT Peyton Gin sign to Payton Gin, and I had exactly the same kneejerk WTF reaction, especially since ALL THE OTHER Peyton Gin signs stayed the same. Austin roads, my god. /o\

Right now I'm hyper-aware of palate vs palette. Only one relates to paint! /o\

[seperis]

*g* That's my Peyton Gin too. All the road signs are changed, but the business park names aren't YET, thank God. I actually loathe looking at it.

[lferion]

Grey and gray are *different colors* to me -- grey is more silvery/cool and gray is more muddy/warm. As in Gandalf the Grey :-). I don't even pronounce them quite the same.

I think auto-correct has a lot to answer for.

[seperis]

I have a whole bunch I put in manually in autocorrect, but i really need a macro to double check for my personal weird ones.

[dine]

yeah, grey and gray are different colours for me as well, exactly the way you describe. I do pronounce them roughly the same, though.

colors

[devon]

I know exactly what you mean about two different colors! And the funny thing is that most men would have no idea what we were talking about and think we were insane for differentiating the two hues.

[genarti]

Same here! I remember once taking to someone who made exactly the opposite distinction between them, though.

[miella]

That's interesting. To me, grey is darker and greener, while gray is lighter and bluer.

[fanofall]

Uh, when did Peyton Gin Road start spelling itself with an A? Why don't they post notice of these things?!

[seperis]

Last ten years? I honestly block out the signs, but it was less than ten, more than two years ago. Though the business park is still Peyton, the roads and signs are not and IT IS SO AWFUL.

[synecdochic]

"For all intensive purposes".

[(Anonymous)]

"soliders". What are they more solid than?