Orthography: QUITE vs QUIET

* Apologies for a pedantic orthographic nitpick:
* The words quiet and quite are not alternative spellings. There is a semantic difference and a difference in pronunciation.
* quiet = silent / not noisy, used as an adjective
* quite = partly, but not completely, used as an adverb

:poop: To quote the T-shirt of a friend of mine: "Ich bin kein Klugscheißer, ich weiß es wirklich besser!" Well, almost always, ignoring numerous and constant exceptions to my infallibility :unsure:
*
 
I'm certainly one of the offenders here, maybe the main or even the only one. Sorry about that.

In all probability I have used the wrong 'quiet' instead of the correct 'quite' all my lifetime (I really thought it was the same word with different meanings). So thank you for the little lesson I should have learned a few decades ago. I'd really appreciate if you would correct the many omissions of my english teachers in the future, as soon as you see that I make the same error several times (I'm a bit prone to typos; and my ability to write English is a bit dependent on my daily form). I don't have a problem with being corrected as this is the only way to learn something (and I'm still not that much used to write English. So my grammar and my orthography are a far way from being perfect). I already ask for forgiveness if I'll use 'quiet' in the wrong sense out of bad habit and because of a memory that meanwhile is working on a lottery principle.

But I would prefer if you'd do that directly addressed to me or maybe even in a private message. Not because I'm ashamed of my orthographical wrongdoings but because I see a little problem in stuff like this. Don't get me wrong, please. I see the problem, even more so in German. That language is utterly deteriorating as I see it daily in newspapers (and I'm not talking about the equivalents of the 'kronenzeitung' but 'serious' papers), comments, letters, advertising and whatever. People not only lose the ability to express themselves but that of understanding, too. So many perfectly German words they don't get anymore. Or they happily read over things like 'keinesfalls', understanding quiet the opposite of what's meant. The really bad thing is, that's happening at university level, too (I have seen horrible things done to this poor almost defenseless language from people who really should know better).

But in the case of international forums like this one here I'd make an exception in any language. Because for people who don't use English very often and know fairly well that they are not that good at it, it's sometimes quite difficult to overcome their inhibitions. They are self-conscious and even ashamed of the simple fact that they don't handle the foreign language very well. I actually know some people who don't ask questions in a forum (or to the support) if they have to do that in English. Not because they are not able to but they don't want to come over as stupid or uneducated. So if we talk too much about spelling and grammar here, some people might be discouraged in writing here.

On the other side, It's only my opinion, and I may be utterly wrong.

(By the way, I myself have stopped long ago worrying about what people think of me because of what and who I am and what I can do or not. I don't try to disguise my short comings or to act as if I was somebody else just to be liked. I honestly don't care. But I try to write half way correct English out of respect for those who read the postings. So, yes, I like to learn).
 
@Hasdrubal, You have me beat. I've been impressed with your writing, as I struggle with every line.

Although I've noticed, that one word was spelled differently than I would, I thought it could be correct where you live.
I've even used it myself wondering if you'd notice it.

As a child I was once laughed at in Sunday school because I mispronounced choir as chore.
After that I sat in the back and tried not to participate. :censored:
 
@ZooHead
Ok, I do care when I get heartfelt compliments from people I respect ;).

Actually I feel very limited in my ability to express myself in English. My active vocabulary is rather small (and like the spelling very dependent on my daily form). Often I remember the right word only dimly. Sometimes it comes to mind, more often not and I have to find another way to get over what I have in mind. So my sentences sometimes are a bit stiff (I'd prefer elegance) and come over more harshly than they are meant (probably a bad combination with being used to saying what I think and not being conflict-shy). It also doesn't help that I almost exclusively write in forums (mostly here), very seldom an e-mail, and almost never talk in English (and when I do, it's mostly with people who aren't native speakers).

With the different spelled word you really got me puzzled. I read over what you and I wrote for several times and couldn't find it. In such cases I'm a blockhead that needs a more direct approach. I'm not very good at finding typos because often I see what should be there instead of what I wrote (which istn't helpful in writing code in any way. I sometimes read over the wrong part several times without finding the error. Sometimes I had to write the wrong part anew to get it right). At least I'm not the only one with that problem. It's at least partly the way the human brain works (if at all). So, no, I don't see the difference.

But whatever it is, I'm wrong. In my part of the woods (Switzerland) we don't have an own variant of English (it's already enough what we do to German, French and Italian). We use British or American English, in my case the latter because it's a trifle less difficult and because I often read books from American writers (that's where my vocabulary comes from). So whatever it is, I would like to know what word that is (if people will do this a few hundred times over the next years my English will get quite acceptable).
 
Hi, Elephant Man
* Well, I don´t mind apologising if you feel offended. This certainly was not my aim.
* I occasionally contribute to other websites and note that numerous native English speakers mix up homophones like "quite" vs "quiet", "there" vs "their" vs "they´re" and many folks don´t seem to know the difference between "its" and "it´s", "affect" and "effect" and a stack more.
* My comment was not meant to be directed to ESL speakers.

* In any case, the orthography (and grammar) of native German speakers is also far from faultless. Readers´ discussions on sundry matters on the websites of German and Austrian quality media (aside from the notorious Kronen Zeitung you have mentioned) seems to imply that the skilful use of language is declining. Inter alia, the genitive case has all but vanished in colloquial communication. It seems to me that online news are redacted by journalists who, at best, are semi-literate.

* Most of all: I am not infallible myself, having produced quite a few linguistic morsels beyond the threshold of excruciating pain and shame. To err may be human, but one does not need to stress one´s humanity in every sentence.
* Once more: Sorry if you felt offended :oops:
 
There is no need to apologise as I don't feel offended in the slightest. My other posting is really meant at face value, without a hint of irony. It's for me really as I wrote: If nobody tells me, I can't learn because obviously I don't see it for myself. So please, mention it if I repeat an error. And quiet instead of quite was a mistake I really made so much that I felt I was the main culprit here :rolleyes:.

My problem with the way you did it was really only that what I wrote. Some persons could be discouraged to participate in discussions or ask a question if they fear that their grammar or spelling could be discussed later on.

Otherwise I fully agree with you. I have seen the stuff you mentioned myself on websites, in comments and forum postings, but my real complain is mostly about German (the ' they lose is abundant in German where it doesn't belong). Not only the genitive is dead, but dative and accusative seem also to go way to oblivion. Swiss papers are not any better then the others. With this decline of language we not only lose elegance and beauty. There are too many words already I can't use anymore because I know that some people already don't understand them anymore. We're really losing whole levels of communications which reminds me of that one chapter about language in Orwell's 1984.

(I definitely don't want to further the decline of another language through my incompetence if somehow avoidable. Really, I don't mind being corrected. And I never would be offended if somebody takes his time to correct my errors :)
 
:eek: Ooops: I just hear that even the birds are complaining that twittering is getting into disrepute by the messages of semi-literate twits. The alpine eagles in front of my window are even tweeting belligerently about impoachment.
:sick: Fancy Big Bird in the kitchen, having his eggs submerged in gently boiling chicken soup
 
English is most definitely confusing. Even for native speakers. That's why I'm so impressed with the people that can write it as well as they do on here and aren't native speakers. I do have more trouble with spelling and grammar vs speaking. Some of the English pronunciations and spelling rules contradict themselves. I worked with a woman from Russia that moved here years before, and she was just totally confused by how some of the rules contradicted themselves. I didn't have any good explanation of why other than English is a mash-up language coming from several others. Celtic, Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, etc.
 
Then there is:

stationery & stationary
whether & weather

and the confusing list goes on . . .

I used to get laughed at and called Molly Mix-up
I learned to laugh at myself.

Indeed Laughter IS the best medicine.
Thanks Helmut for the steady supply of medicine.
 
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