Homonymphobic

Ok, if you have issues with words that don't appear to be what they really or are a member of some sort of group that supports idiots with no grammar skills, this probably isn't a blog for you.

It occured to me reading an article on Wikipedia yesterday that there are many words in the English language that people just plain do not know how to use. Most of these words are homonyms. For the dolts reading my blog, a homonym isn't a word that likes words of its own gender, it's a word that is pronounced like a similar word but is spelled differently and has a different meaning.

The grammatically gifted folks reading this know what I mean, as we all cringe when we see such words misused on a daily basis -- especially now that blogs, email, myspace, and the web in general gives anybody with a keyboard the ability to publish their mundane thoughts.

Here is my short list of words that are often misused:

there, their, they're

Proper use: Their house is over there, and they're going to paint it yellow.

spelled, spelt

Spelt is a european wheat. Spelled is many different things, but for my example it is the correct arrangement of letters to form a word.

your, you're, yore

Your house is on fire so you're going to have to step back a few feet to allow the firemen in with their big hoses.

I just threw the other one in for giggles like they used to do in the days of yore.

its and it's

It's sad how many times its taken me to explain the use of these two words.

it's -- only use this if you're too lazy to type "it is"

to, too, two

I lost the directions to your party, so it was two in the morning before we arrived. Oddly enough, my good friend Jimmy lost his directions too.

by, buy, bye

By the time you decided to buy the television, the salesman had walked away and said bye.

The basketball team had a first round bye in the tournament, so by the time we arrived at the tournament, I was not able to buy a ticket.

I supposed in this day and age, I could add 'bi' to the list as well, but this is about homonyms and not binomials.

but let's not forget a few others...

deer, dear

You eat one...wait you could eat both...

Dear Bambi,

Deer meat tastes good.

Sincerely, Elmer Fudd

meet, meat

Before we sat down to eat the meat, I had the glorious opportunity to meet her parents.

I saw a few new ones today....that I had not even considered. These are not homonyms, just abused words and phrases....

alot versus "a lot"

A lot of people do not know that ALOT is an acronym and now a word.

outside written as two words "out side"

I actually saw this today...instead of saying outside, as in "they were doing something outside the lines", the writer split them up.

wear, where, were, ware

Most people who live out where the buffalo roam wear their hearts on their sleeves.

Were you planning on to wear that shirt where you pedal your wares?

Mostly, people just don't type were right, but it happens way too often...

One pair of words that I haven't quite figured out is:

awhile versus "a while"

Mostly, I ask for you to consider all words equally and please use treat homonyms with respect because after all they too are words. Their feelings are important was well as their order in sentences we write to post here and there. If they're not treated well, they too will rebel and form their own society.

Please help stop word abuse.
Gio