Thursday, December 22, 2011

How to spell so people understand

There is an art to spelling, especially names.
First, pronounce what you are going to spell. "I live on Atherton Drive."
Second, spell it by grouping the letters IN SYLLABLES. "That's spelled ATH ER TON."

Here's another example:
"My last name is Williamson. WILL IAM SON"

And here is a spelling joke from http://www.best-funny-jokes.com/spelling-jokes-8974

THE teacher announced that to practice spelling, each member of the class would say what their fathers did for a living and then spell the occupation. Mary went first. "My Dad is a baker, b-a-k-e-r, and if he were here, he would give everyone a cookie." Next came Tommy. "My dad is a banker, b-a-n-k-e-r, and if he were here, he'd give each of us a quarter." Third came Jimmy. "My dad is an electrician.'' But after struggling through a number of attempts to spell the word, the teacher asked him to sit and think about it for a moment while she called on someone else. She then turned to Johnny. "My dad's a bookie, b-o-o-k-i-e," Johnny said. "And if he were here, he'd lay you 8 to 5 that Jimmy ain't never gonna spell electrician."

Thursday, December 1, 2011

I wonder if you know that Microsoft Word has a dictionary attached to it. All you have to do is right-click on the word and choose either "look up" or "synonyms" to get a definition or a list of synonyms.