Separate

[vaneramos]

I never remember how to spell that word. It's a life-long mind block. I must look it up every single time I use it. Several other words plague me this way, but separate is the most annoying. I try telling myself that it means to break something into a pair, but then my mind second guesses itself, and I can't remember whether separate is like pair or unlike it. If I were to add up all the times I have opened the dictionary, I would probably find I have wasted an entire day of my life on this stupid word. Including a few other troublesome spellings would extend the time by several days. I could do the lazy thing and always rely on spell checkers, but I'm determined not to let these irritating demons turn me into a dependant dependent slob. This must be a hideous joke perpetuated in my mind by a twisted second brain, degenerate but inseperable.

Comments

[dakoopst.livejournal.com]

Separate is a bit of a bugaboo for me, but terrific is even worse.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Ha, I never have troubles with terrific. Now I feel so superior. ;-)

[leafshimmer.livejournal.com]

I love it that you deliberately mis-spelled inseparable at the end!

xo Shimmer

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Isn't that right? :-P

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

It's Latin, from the verb parare, to arrange. (pah-RAH-ray). That might help. I also pronounce words in my head exactly like they're spelled. seh-pah-rayt. bay-ah-oo-tee-full. etc.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Now I can't remember how to pronounce it! ;-)

The Latin is helpful though.

[robearal.livejournal.com]

I assume you're talking about the adjectival form with one heavy stress at the beginning. Try thinking of the verb form, which has (at least in US pronunciation) primary stress on the first syllable, but secondary stress on the last syllable, and the long a-sound as in "ate".

[rsc.livejournal.com]

None of which makes it any easier to remember what the second vowel is. I used to have trouble with "desperate", partly because I did know that the second vowel in "separate" is an a.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Funny, I never have trouble with desperate, even though the root is despair. I guess that's why thinking of pair doesn't help me. :-)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

It's the middle vowel that gives me trouble, and the syllable sounds like "per" in both forms.

[robearal.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm really a yutz. Don't know why I focused on the last vowel.

[poetbear.livejournal.com]

isn't that why spell-check was invented?
i used to be a very good speller, but
why bother when you have a tool like
that?~paul

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Why bother? Do you really mean that? How can a writer not care about words? A poet in particular must pay attention not only to how they sound when strung together, but how they look and fit together on the page. As a wordsmith I care about each word, not only spelling, but the shape of each letter and its arrangement with the others.

Besides, spell-check is not fool-proof. It can make mistakes no matter who uses it; more so in the hands of a lazy writer. It's easy to pick out a writer who can't spell, even if he uses spell-check. With so many kids reaching high school and not knowing how to spell, I am surprised you would say, "Why bother?"

[poetbear.livejournal.com]

goodness! don't you recognize
this userpic by now? of course
i care about spelling, grammar, punctuation,
and the whole lot. i specifically
care about words themselves. don't be so
strict! it's a beautiful Spring day. laugh!
(i will both spell-check and edit this myself)
--mea culpa, but i prefer the one word
userpic, not the hyphenated version that
spell-check wants me to use--
~paul

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll just say it's pouring rain here.

[poetbear.livejournal.com]

rain today, flowers tomorrow!
the scarecrow is smiling, why
not you?
~paul

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

The scarecrow is the closest thing I have to a clown. How do you know I'm not smiling?

[poetbear.livejournal.com]

your comments and picture were so
stern! if you say you're smiling
now, i'll believe you. okay?~paul

Eep.

[stealthpup.livejournal.com]

The main reason is that no spell-checker is foolproof -- homophones and typos that translate to other valid words won't get flagged by it.

I don't use a spell-checker -- I prefer to proofread my own copy before submitting. That way, not only do I check for misspellings, but I get a chance to make edits on clunky word choices or ooky grammar mistakes.

And this is an instance of where I don't want to get lazy. I *prefer* to spell correctly, and checking my own words exercises the Spelling God in me. (I was a national finalist in the 1976 National Spelling Bee, after all.)

Re: Eep.

[poetbear.livejournal.com]

i prefer it myself, but i've been
trying to stifle the Spelling God for
many years. what i usually try to do
is, use the spell check and the
preview to well, preview. then,
i can pre edit, and make a good stab at
spelling it right. it doesn't even
recognize a lot of words and definitely
thinks abbreviations are a no-no. i'm
half Texican myself, how do you find
life there?~paul

Re: Eep.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Wow, no wonder your so much fun at Scrabble.

[susandennis]

I'll see your separate and dependant and raise you one definitely.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Amazingly, with all the adverbs I constantly and unnecessarily use, apparently I rarely use definitely, probably because I'm not particularly assertive.

[zombietruckstop.livejournal.com]

"Separate" is, of course, the devil. But I remember how to spell it by the pneumonic "a rat is in the middle." As in sep a rat e

[fredli.livejournal.com]

Double trouble for me is bicycle.

:)

[ahira.livejournal.com]

This is how I learned to spell it:
pa is a rat
se pa rat e

Now if I could only learn how to spell independant :)