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Hi all,
I came across a misapplied word in a passage a month or two ago.
As far as I was concerned, a shutter is something you use to pull across a window to either block the light (to a certain extent) or the wind, when it's stormy. Or both.
I supposed that it could be someone employed to go around shutting things.
I know that cameras have shutters.
In this last week, I have now seen the same misapplied word no less than eight times.
"I don't know how long I lay on that cold and dirty tiled floor, shuttering."
"I shutter to think how bad it could have been had the Army Reserve not reacted so well."
"I shuttered like someone had just walked across my grave."
and so on.
Why on Earth, or indeed on Anmar, would anyone get the words 'shutter' and 'shudder' confused?
Do they sound the same in American?
Is some teacher going round subverting the spelling of 'shudder'?
And now I saw it in a television news extract, a shot of part of a note, written by some victim of some desperate crime.
Do writers not check the words they are not sure about?
I did see once a picture of a 'redneck' advertisement for what we would call a 'garage sale' in which the event was advertised as a 'grudge sale'.
I had thought that 'grudge' and 'garage' would be the ultimate in misuse, but now I reckon 'shutter' and 'shudder' are trying to force their way into top spot.
Have a good weekend all, especially those who are going to change their clocks. And all our New York siblings, look after our Penny - a case when a Penny is worth a great deal indeed.
Good night from Switzerland
Julia.
Comments
Regional use can make words sound similar
in one location even if they don't in another.
A case of this in my own writing is my story "Dear John." When I wrote the first draft I had references to Dawn and Don sounding the same when pronounced, but one of my test readers with more regional experience than I told me that, in most locations outside the southern US, there are specifics to the pronunciations that make the two easily distinguishable. Likewise there have been words I've seen that I've felt had very clear separate pronunciations -- such as there and their -- that everyone seems to treat as though they are pronounced the same.
Aah, regional differences in pronunciation: it is to laugh.
Melanie E.
It could have been a 'grudge'
It could have been a 'grudge' sale, if he was selling his ex's stuff.
shutter and shudder
In the us we tend to use shudder because shutter is defined as something that closes. While shudder is defined as To shiver convulsively, as from fear or revulsion.
Hugs,
Jenna From FL
Moderator/Editor
TopShelf BigCloset
It is a long road ahead but I will finally become who I should be.
I shudder at the thought
that people get that wrong far too often. I always use 'shudder' for the shivering in revulsion bit, but I often see others using shutter instead. They sound similar, but the meanings are so different and when I see it it usually bothers me to the point where I lose interest in the story, especially if I see similar mistakes elsewhere. It could be otherwise masterfully written, but when people make mistakes with words like that and it's most likely not just a simple typo it annoys me. We all make typos, and sometimes they're missed, but when I'm reading a sentence and see shuttering instead of shuddering I wonder for an instant what the hell they're shuttering and when I realize it's just an error it's too late, my mind is off the story and I'm annoyed.
*hugs*
Amethyst
Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3
A couple of Ts, a couple Ds...
Unfortunately "shudder" and "shutter" do sound similar , much the same as "effect" and "affect." When people don't enunciate clearly and then try to spell phonetically they do run into trouble.
Re: "grudge sale" you never know, maybe he was holding a grudge against someone and taking it out by selling off their stuff while they were out of town. ;o)
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
thank you, julia
you just brought up one of my favorite peeves. not only on bc do authors use wrong spelling and meaning. I also read ebooks on kindle pc. to see authors that sell books make mistakes like youre talking about makes me shudder. I am an American reader if it makes any difference. I also realize that as I once heard americans and those residing over the pond do speak two very different forms of the same language. love you stories keep up the good work.
Shuttering
Shuttering is something you use when casting concrete, I believe.
As for the grudge match, depending where you live you pronounce 'garage' as either 'graaj' or 'garridge'. 'graaj' is quite near to grudge, I think.
I just love the English language. It is allegedly easy for foriegners to speak but difficult to grab hold of properly. Yet there are clear, unambiguous rules, for those of us who have been brought up as natives, it's just that they aren't written down and we just absorb them without realising it. Oh, and of course, we know all the exceptions to those rules.
Thank you for your best wishes. I think we packed everything, but you know what happened last time...
Penny
PS I'll check in from time to time while I'm away, but don't hold your breath.
I thought I had seen every misuse,
until today, when I read a story by an author who shall remain nameless and found her using "virginia" when she obviously should have written "vagina."
Shudder and shutter are a couple of my other pet peeves, along with "loose" and "lose." Let's not forget "heels" and "heals," or "waste" and "waist." I did actually found a case or two in which "gentiles" as used instead of the correct "genitals."
Also today, I found several stories in which the aUthor consistently used "was" instead of the proper "were," as in "We was going to the store." No. We WERE going to the store. Unless the author was using dialect, this was a misuse.
Look, I am, by NO means, perfect, but it seems to me that, more and more, misuses of soundalike words is growing. In some cases, it can actually take me right out of a story.
RE: Spellcheckers. They can be useful, but are by no means perfect. NEVER assume that your spellchecker is doing the right thing. If there is ANY doubt in your mind that the word is right, spelling-wise, check a dictionary. It ain't rocket literature, after all. Yes, most of the authors who post here are amateurs and completely error free posts are not to be considered more than the courageous attempts of those brave enough to try to stretch their talents. All I ask is: if you ARE posting here, and it is not your first attempt, please learn from your mistakes and don't repeat them in every story you post? Learn from blogs like this one and ASK if you aren't sure. Almost every established author here will willingly help with spelling and a lot will offer to do a quick proofread if you just ask.
Thank you,
Catherine Linda Michel
As a T-woman, I do have a Y chromosome... it's just in cursive, pink script.
TD
In English, the consonants are very different. It's only in America that they sound the same. In the most populous English-speaking country, India, there would be no confusion, though V and W would sound alike. In fact, in English it would be very common to pronounce the 't' as a glottal stop, hence "shu'er", innit, lahk, narmin*?
A non-PC joke.
"Mrs Weinstein!"
"Yes Rabbi?"
"We found your little Moshe playing with his genitals!"
"So nuh, Rabbi! Some of my best friends are genitals!"
*"Isn't it, like, know what I mean?"
Basically, It's Just Ignorance
I shudder to think what my shuttered existence has done to me. I never mixed the two, but I have enough problems writing as it is. There are a plethora of writing gaffes showing up every day at this site (less so) and others (more so). I think some writers care; however, it is obvious that others do not. I feel many authors (they are not writers) do not care one bit. They are just turning out material to satisfy their proclivities. I don't mean to denigrate the many excellent authors who do post here and elsewhere. Many of the writers posting at BCTS are very skilled and obviously learned what I never did when I was in intermediate and high school. Great imaginations abound here, but so do the unimaginative and grammatically challenged. What is tragic is when an imaginative tale is obfuscated by atrocious writing. I see good stories destroyed by poor writing. It's a shame.
Portia
I believe it is all explained by Bruce Willis' quote...
From tha movie "The Fifth Element".
"Lady, I only speak two languages, English and bad English." (Plus I would say the balance is strongly tipped toward the "bad English" side of the scale.)(Writing proper English is a skill LONG lost to the unwashed masses, IMHO.)
with love,
Hope
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
Hmmm
As we said on the farm, that's udderly ridiculous.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Your write
The thought of improper word usage made me shutter as I installed the snow shudders on the windows. I couldn't even get that write since I use a MAC, Arecee
use a mac?
Me too, but only when it's raining.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.