Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Common misspellings

Mi è venuta un'idea forse bislacca... :)
Le liste dei misspelling più comuni dei native speaker potrebbero essere
alquanto istruttive per un italiano che cerchi di imparare la corretta
pronuncia.
Che ne dite?
Per esempio: 
column / colum
their / there
you're / your
should've / should of
library / libary (UK?)
February / Febuary (UK?)
address / adress
retail / retale
weird / wierd
and so on :)


You can find something (IMHO) more didactic in "Test your pronunciation" 
(Longman).
For instance, here is an interesting exercise:
In the following sentences, the words in *bold* show how certain words 
or phrases sound in ordinary, fast speech. Work out how they should 
really be written.
Example: A Hollywood studio wants to film my *scream-play*!
          = screenplay
1) Tonight there are likely to be some *miss patches* in the North.
2) The *pry minister* is due to visit Russia within the next few weeks.
3) Careful on that street. There's a lot of *bag guys* there.
etc...
Kiuhnm

 phrases sound in ordinary, fast speech.
Carino, però si tratta di una situazione un po' diversa, in cui la
pronuncia di una parola cambia anche secondo le parole che la seguono o
precedono, specie nel parlato veloce.
Invece, la enne in 'column' è muta sempre e comunque, AFAIK. :)
-- 	

 Invece, la enne in 'column' è muta sempre e comunque, AFAIK. :)
The phonetic transcription is far more precise and useful.
Honestly, I don't see any advantage in your proposal.
Kiuhnm

 Per esempio:
_It's_ quando ci vorrebbe _its_.
-- 
Tchau, -João do Sabão

 wrote in message 
news:xn0fev3l3...@news.lillathedog.net...

mmm... 'Your' and 'you're' don't sound the same , and 'libary' isn't how we 
pronounce the word 'library' , so I think there are weaknesses in your idea 
!
Incidentally , where did this list of 'most common misspellings' come from ? 
I've read tens of millions of words hand-written by native speakers , noted 
millions of misspellings , corrected most of them , but can't remember ever 
coming across 'colum' ; and the word 'column' certainly wouldn't intrude 
itself very frequently into the writing of most native speakers , however 
spelt .
Mike 

 mmm... 'Your' and 'you're' don't sound the same
Not necessarily, but they can sound the same. Both can be pronounced in 
different ways. (iur o ior, detti all'italiana.)
Laz 

 _It's_ quando ci vorrebbe _its_.
Eh eh, questa era facile. :)
Forse vale solo per me, ma quando mi imbatto in misspelling dei native
speakers mi fanno far caso alle pronunce uguali o simili non sempre
ovvie per un learner italiano.
Lentulax: sì, naturalmente non sempre perfetti omofoni; si tratterebbe
di spunti da approfondire e verificare caso per caso, non di un libro
di testo :D
Kiuhnm: l'idea è di sollecitare l'apprendimento attirando l'attenzione
su un aspetto particolare.
E non tutti conoscono le phonetic transcription. ;D

 Incidentally , where did this list of 'most common misspellings' come from ?
[...]
"Column" came from
http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/misspelled.html
100 MOST OFTEN --MISPELLED-- MISSPELLED WORDS IN ENGLISH
However, I think *frequency* is not so relevant to my point.

 100 MOST OFTEN --MISPELLED-- MISSPELLED WORDS IN ENGLISH
And
http://www.esldesk.com/esl-quizzes/misspelled-words/misspelled-words.htm
"Misspelled words list has 507 words."
http://wordsatwork.blogspot.com/2007/07/misspelling-trend-alert.html
Sometimes, misspellings are intentional! :)
I'M IN UR NEWSPAPER WRITIN MAH COLUM
Rapidly spreading Web photo-posting phenomenon centers on felines with
poor spelling
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4862013.html

 wrote in message 
news:3ee5042b-873b-4ea2...@d21g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

Yes , I agree .
But the list is silly - 'bellwether' ! You could spend a lifetime reading 
English without seeing this word , and of the few people who have occasion 
to use it , probably most know how to spell it !
Mike