That Sound? Its My Sole Weeping.

Dear Internet:

I love you. I do. However, I have noticed a disturbing trend, a trend I cannot sit idly by and merely watch. I must step in, protest, curl up into the fetal position and cry and in a corner, if nothing else.

Spell check.

You see, spell check can be your friend, if you don't know how to spell a word. Just get close enough, spell check it and get the correct spelling. It's great. Unfortunately, spell check doesn't know the difference between the correctly spelled word you want and the correctly spelled word you don't want.

For example, we used to have an associate at the firm who was forever referencing the Untied States of America. He just couldn't figure out why the spell checker wouldn't pick that one up. As disturbing as this trend is, it's even more troubling when encountered in the blogs of homeschoolers, as in people teaching their children that "its" and "it's" are the same damn word. *sigh*

Anyway, for your edification, a few homonyms to ponder.

rein/reign/rain:

Rain is what falls from the sky.

Reins are what you control a horse with. As in "reining someone in" to mean controlling someone's behavior.

Reign is what a king does.

sole/soul:

A sole is the bottom of your shoe.

My soul is what you are hurting when you confuse these words.

threw/through:

You threw the rock through the window. Of my soul.

toe/tow:

Toes are at the end of your feet. You toe the line, btw.

Tow is what a tow truck does with your car when it breaks down.

here/hear:

Here is where I am.

You hear my words.

heel/heal:

Heel is the back end of your foot, as in "high heels".

Heal is what doctors do to your injuries. Jesus has never heeled your wounds. I hope.

bated/baited:

You baited the fishing line with worms.

You wait with bated breath.

by/buy:

You buy an iphone at the store by the mall.

no/know:

C'mon, people, really?

your/you're/yore:

You're reading your favorite blog right now, but in the days of yore there were no blogs.

they're/their/there:

They're enjoying their favorite music over there in the parking lot.

Feel free to add, oh, wait-

ad/add:

Ad is short for advertisement.

Add is what you do when you put 2 and 2 together to make 4.

Ahem, feel free to add your favorites to the comments. I'll be over here in a corner weeping quietly.