Are you a good speller?

[zanne]

Do you know why? Last night, my husband asked me how something was spelled. I told him and he said "How do you KNOW that"? I thought about it for a minute and said "I don't know". I'm even pretty good at spelling foreign names that I've never seen written down.
If you're a good speller, do you know how you got that way?

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

1. I am, but I don't know how

I've always been good at spelling and with language in general. I learned to read at age 4 and have been in love with words ever since!

[billyskank]

2. I am an excellent speller

I got that way by remembering every single word I know how to spell, after having seen it spelt properly. :P

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

3. was it from a magical goat?

[Sanity Claws]

6. That's not a goat, that's an ass.

Magical ass. I like the sound of that.

[Shell Beau]

4. I am, but like you I don't know why I know

how to spell words I've never seen. My mom is a great speller and I am as well. I spell better when I write compared to when I type. I get ahead of myself when I am typing. But it is interesting how we just know how words are spelled.

[Orsino]

5. Incredibly good.

I attribute this to my reading voraciously from an early age. In second grade, I used to give the spelling tests.

Alas, the Internets have wrought havoc on my skill (as my father says forty years of grading freshman essays did to his).

[zanne]

7. Do you stop yourself from correcting someone's spelling?

Sometimes, I get all the way up to "Hey, that's not how you sp..."
Then I stop myself. Nothing worse than a spelling Nazi, y'know?

[deadparrot]

8. I won our school spelling bee in grade school.

I've been able to read since I was three and my parents are both teachers. I suppose it's just something I picked up along the way.

[Redstone]

9. You're born with it. That's why Mark Twain said it's not something

to be proud of, because you don't have to work for it.

Of course, there are those of us who are damn good spellers, but not great typists, so it doesn't seem like we know how to spell if we don't proofread...(PS: "Spell checkers" are NOT a substitute for proofreading. Period.)

Redstone

[July]

15. I've posted this before.

I knew an English professor at an Ivy League school who could not spell for shit. He read widely, as you would expect. I think Twain was right. It seems to be like language-learning ability -- you either have the aptitude or you don't. You can still spell a lot of words correctly (or learn a language well enough to communicate, using my analogy), but fluency, whether in spelling or speaking, just doesn't come easily for some.

[Mutley]

10. Sometimes.

Especially with a spell checker. But really, no. For someone who has done a lot of reading and writing in her lifetime, I am one sorry speller.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

11. I'm an excellent speller.

It's one of the few things I do well. I've won practically every spelling bee I was in and went to the UIL state level (Texas) all the time.

I guess it's a combination of something I was born with, reading from a young age and being able to memorize large chunks of information at a time.

[SarahB]

12. Im an awsum spellur!

:silly:

[Gormy Cuss]

13. I'm a good speller

Off the top of my head I would attribute it to in order of importance

1)Good elementary school teachers, lots of spelling practice
2)Greek and Latin root identification exercises in junior high English class
3)Latin coursework
4)Learning other languages.

IMO some people are just wired to grok spelling more than others. i have the same peculiar ability to guess the spelling of foreign words.

On edit: and I'm another one who may not spell words correctly when I type them because my brain gets ahead of my fingers.

[AirmensMom]

14. I'm a good speller.

I have no idea why, but I do remember that it was an easy A in grade school. Maybe that made me work at it when the words got harder ... I don't know.

:shrug:

[katty]

16. Phonics and parents using big words all the time

[ghostsofgiants]

17. My friends have used me as a human spell checker since grade 6

I've just always been good at it.

[johnnie]

18. Nope

Never could spell worth the shit. A few weeks ago I had that right brain / left brain thing on here. I am too much of a right brained person. Spelling is not something that we do well.

[bicentennial_baby]

19. reading

lots and lots of reading :)

[MissB]

20. yep.

[cally]

21. Yes

except on DU. I don't spell well when I type and I usually don't proofread on DU. I have to print something out and look at it on paper to proofread well. If I've read a word, then I know how to spell it most of the time. I see a picture of the word.

My sister and my daughter are horrible spellers. Both read constantly and still can't spell. I've tried to help both. I think you are born with spelling ability.

[ZombieNixon]

22. Ima grate sbeeler!

Seriesly, thow. I'm actually an excellent speller. I won my school spelling bee five years in a row or something.

[nutsnberries]

23. not perfect but pretty good

it has always come easily for me, for others it just doesn't.

is that a left/right brain thing?
i usually test equally right and left.

[Shine]

24. Yes, I am a good speller and have been all my life.

It comes from being a voracious reader.

[LaraMN]

25. Check it!

:rofl:
I had three others and a medal but the other trophies were dismantled by my kids and I have no idea what happened to the medal. My sister placed second in the state in '98 or '99, I think.

[nini]

26. pretty good...

I tend to type phonetically though so sometimes I misuse a word but I really know how to spell it.

The Sisters of St. Joseph Cluny would smack me if I wasn't using my spelling skills they taught me. :evilgrin:

[rug]

27. Of cuorse.

[miss_kitty]

28. Yes

until chemo-I forget small things now. but all my life don't know how, maybe from being a reader.

[pdx_prog]

29. I am....

And I have no idea why. It's always come easy to me for some reason..:)

Grammer and puncuation is a WHOLE other story...

[Canadian Socialist]

30. I am a very good speller.

I attribute this to a family that reads. In addition, I was very lucky to have an excellent education. Case in point, we had spelling tests in grade 12! And grammar tests! Imagine that. Oh, and I was a proofreader for 15 years.
edited because of typo! not spelling misteak.

[marzipanni]

31. Waiter: "How did you find your steak, sir?"

Diner: "Well, I pushed my peas aside, and the steak was under them!"
;)

[marzipanni]

32. Yes, because I think words are fun

Ever since I was a kid whenever I come upon a word that doesn't look the way it sounds I make up my own altered pronunciation of it that fits the way it looks, then I usually remember it.
I read slowly, and I have a friend who says she does, too, and we are both good spellers. (Maybe we really notice the construction of words rather than skimming over them?)

[patricia92243]

33. Yeth. n/c

[ThatsMyBarack]

34. Funny you should ask!

When I was in 5th and 6th grades, I was the best speller in the class! :think:

[no name no slogan]

35. Eye no mi Ingles