Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Oh yeah ... all the time. I think it's largely due to people basing their spelling on what they hear, and not doing enough reading. When a language is "learned" primarily by the ear and not the eye, mistakes like this are common.

I recall a student who wrote "for all intensive purposes" and meant "for all intents and purposes," because that's the way it sounded to him.

As a personal example, while a student myself, I thought for some time that the Taj Mahal was the "Tajma (or however I spelled it) Hall." Didn't dawn on me I had it wrong until I finally saw it in print.

I teach at a university, so I read students' papers on a regular basis. *Could of* does find a way to sneak in and punch my eyeballs 🙂