Why are a lot of native English speakers bad spellers?
84029
Ok, this isn't a very good place to make a judgment on how well people can spell. \nFor one, there is a wide age range here. I have seen children as young as 11 here, so obviously they are more apt to make a mistake.\nSecondly, people make typos all the time.  This is an informal setting so they are not as likely to spend a lot of time correcting mistakes, as say they would be when composing a buisness letter.\nThirdly, how do you know who speaks English as their first language, and who doesn't just by reading the question.  I don't think that you can possibly know that.\n\nIf they had this same type thing set up in Spanish speaking countries, or German, Or whatever language, I think you would find just as many people making errors in their own language too.  I think it is a little unfair to single out Americans when I doubt you are actually comparing this evenly with everyone else.\n\nThat all said, it does bother me when there are excessive amounts of misspellings.  A typo here or there, I can understand, but some I've seen are ridiculous.
238044
OK, I'll 'fess up.  I do it sometimes.  It drives me crazy seeing people make the same grammatic or typographic errors all the time...but that's not to say I'm perfect.  I would hope someone would correct me if I erred (and on occasion, they have), but I see it as an attempt to help someone communicate better.\n\nI've seen what poor grammar, limited vocabulary, and spelling can result in...people not getting a job they really want or getting stuck in a dead end one, not being taken seriously when trying to communicate with other people or being misunderstood because they just don't have the language skills to get their meaning across.  This is of course not true in all cases, but if someone along the way had corrected them each time they were wrong instead of letting the error go, they'd probably be communicating a lot better by now.\n\nYes, probably some people do it to feel better about themselves and you can usually tell that that's their motive in the way they do it when they belittle a person while correcting them. But I'd bet that there are just as many people who correct others, and try to do it in a supportive, constructive way, because it's our responsibility as neighbors, brothers and sisters, as human beings to do what we can to help someone else, even in this small way.  What good is having knowledge if you don't at least try to pass it on?
101955
I'm hoping it's because some users are not English speakers. But I must admit,I'm appalled. The spelling and grammar are so bad,many questions are incomprehensible. As for spell check. I've never used it.
1116345
I'm sure a majority are non-native english speaking.  I find that in the gaming community as well.\n\nOne girl (I answered her question not to her liking) e-mailed me a long, rude and profane message and  informed me it's slang these days and perfectly acceptable to have poor grammer, spelling and sentence structure.  She knew how to spell and if she wanted to spell it that way she would.  If so, I wonder why they bother to put spell check available here?\n\nI hope I'm dead by the time they all take over the country.....
526141
All the time.  A lot of folks use their chat language.  Also, a lot of folks are not from our country and are trying their best, know what I mean?  And then, some are just real young and hate their english teacher! LOL!
546318
the same reason you have poor spelling?
367613
I agree. Too bad "much less spell, even with spell checking," isn't a complete sentence. The run-on sentence after that should be separated with a semi-colon. "English" should always be capitalized. There are a few other errors on your post as well. \n\nPerhaps, instead of teachers, the fault lays on adults who can not lead by example and type a correct sentence.
443645
People are lazy and indifferent. Chatrooms certainly don't help.\n\nI'm from England, and I think it's ridiculous that I'm tested on English by a bunch of Americans (the SAT, the Regents, the GRE). I'm also sick of professors correcting me when I spell "defence" with a "c" or "speciality" with an "i."\n\nThose words are SUPPOSED to be spelled that way, you dumb college professors!\n\nI don't have a problem with Americans spelling "speciality" without an "i" or "colour" without a "u," but don't expect me to do the same.
59411
Very interesting question, my dear. There is a vast multitude of people who have little or no regard for the language arts including English as it is written and meant to be read. Nor do they wish to improve!
185810
It is because improper spelling used to be a source of shame, but these days people do not care.  In fact, many people brag about their bad spelling because they say they are not "wasting time" worrying about spelling.
822872
You'll find it's mostly Americans who can't spell. Our educational system has gone down the crapper. As far as that goes our society as a whole is quickly turning into mush. It's a scary thought that these people will someday be running our country. Both the parents and the teachers simply don't care enough to make sure our kids learn how to do anything. I think the spelling talents are just the tip of the iceberg. It's just the most obvious. \nThe parents don't care. So the kids don't care. They say things like, "why do I need to know how to spell?" "You knew what I meant!". "It's never bothered me, why should it bother you?". It's not only pitiful but it's sad. America, the land of the free blithering idiots.\n.
643527
yeah you make good points. I would like to point out though that in some other countries, there is a greater emphasis on spelling and grammar. \n\nThis sort of "lazy english", although prolific among the younger set all over the world, shows up in ridiculous amounts even in "normal" writing in the US. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen the word "websight" in articles published in the NY Times?!! It's scary. \n\nI can't think of any other specific misspellings right now (words that are written phonetically instead of correctly) in esteemed publications and the forums of the general public, but I catch them fairly often - if I see any, I will post an update here.
1166518
Some ppl just treasure the English language and find it so annoying that other ppl refuse to speak properly. It's like one of those things that just really gets to them and they can't help it.\n\nFor me, it can be a little confusing to try and understand what they r trying to say. But as long as they're understood i guess it doesn't really matter.
30465
No offense taken, from someone just as curious.\nAmericans make a lot of mistakes period, spelling and otherwise.  But ours is an experimental society.  Sure we speak English, but not like the English do.  We pronounce words differently and we spell some of them differently too.  Gray, not grey; check, not cheque; color, not colour.  We also change our spellings over time: it is now sulfur not sulphur, so why not fone instead of phone?  Or do we all have to call it a telephone all of the time?\n\nAmerican English is also one of the most complicated languages.  We tend to borrow more words and phrases than any other language and we also tend to make up new words for the rest of the world to use.  Television, transistor, vulcanization, teflon.  The list is a long one.  In addition, we have some of the strangest idioms, because we come from all over the world.  Many Americans speak English as a second language.  We are very diverse.\n\nThis is not a matter of a failure in education.  Sometimes the professional educator is too conservative for young modern minds.  And remember that until the advent of the press and the first dictionaries published by linguists, spelling was not taught as a subject.  Everyone spelled as they wished, and often used different spellings for the same word used more than once in the same document.\nAmericans were the first to even attempt to teach spelling to all of their citizens on a mass scale.  No other country can make that claim, not with numbers of students as large.  Is it any wonder that some of these do not spell well?\nWhat is more confusing is that we tend to type like we think except that we do not type very well.  The more excited we get, the worse the mistakes and many do not bother to check what was written.\n\nAs a final note it was also the Americans who developed the first spell checker programs (going back to the days of the CP/M operating systems in the late 1970’s).  Not bad for a pack of mongrels, semi-educated and with no cultural roots.  Ah, did I mispel anything?
1161763
The reason is very simple. Non-native users of the language normally tend to spell by the sound rather than focus on punctuation and/or spelling. And with English being the global language that it has become, native users should be a bit more considerate, taking into consideration that they are in a state of being able to decipher what actually is meant to be conveyed by the non-natives.
1056987
Sometimes I wonder about people who post here who say the are going to attend a university, yet they misspell words and their grammar is simply awful.  Makes me wonder what kind of university they will be attending.  Some questions posted are almost incomprehensible, what with poor spelling, and bad sentence structure.  Sometimes, I know very literate people will misspell on purpose... but I don't do that myself. I like to see words written correctly.  I try to correct my own sentences, most of the time. I don't know, is it that people want to sound/look dumb so they "fit in"?  \n\nI do realize that this site has people from all around the world, and for many, English is probably not  their native language, so grammar and spelling may be difficult for them.  I'm not frustrated, but I do censor what I read at times, based on the type question, and the literacy of it too.   I figure, if someone cannot write pretty much correctly, they will probably be clueless as to what I write in my replies.  Maybe that is presumptuous on my part, but I do like to use words that a barely literate person probably won't be able to read or understand.  \n\nThen again, spelling doesn't always affect my replies, especially with kids.
225946
Many users are internatinal users also who don't speak English as a first language, so it's understandable that they misspell some words. Also, people are very lazy and there isn't a spellcheck feature here on answers; you can't expect everyone to copy and paste all of their answers from word processing programs. A few of the users are younger children as well who are just learning proper spelling and grammar techniques.