Ot - Misspelled Word Challenge

[QuikSand]

Okay, since we've squeezed all the blood we can out of the stone that is "good grammar and spelling," I thought it would be interesting to turn this into a puzzle.

The challenge: Find a misspelling of a certain word that appears on the internet as the highest share of the times that the word is used.

Here is how we will measure this: partially objective, partially subjective.

-Pick a correctly-spelled word and an incorrect form of that word, which is clearly an attempt to spell that word.

-Use Google to see how many hits the word gets, and how many the misspelling gets.

-To be eligible, your correctly-spelled word must yield at least 1,000 hits -- we don't want this to turn into a battle using absurdly obscure words

-Your score = (hits for the misspelling)/[(hits for the word)+(hits for the misspelling)]

Example:
"turn" = 31,400,000 hits
"trun" = 41,400 hits
Score for "trun" = 41,400/31,441,400 = 0.13%

Yes, I am aware that this calculation ignores other potential misspellings... but I get to make the rules. So there.

In judging whether a given misspelling is "clearly" an attempt to type another word, I will use a "reasonable person" standard. If a reasonable person, in my judgment, would agree that it was clearly an attempt to spell your word, it counts. (Let's try not to make this a contest exclusively about this issue)

My general thinking is that the shorter the words, the more likely that you'll have trouble in this regard. But I don't yet have any sense of what type of words might win this contest - a rare, hard-to-spell word? Or a common word with an easy misspelling?


Enjoy.

[korme]

correct: wienerschnitzel - 10,600 hits
misspelling: weinerschnitzel - 1,990 hits
score - 1,990 / 12,590 = 16%

fixed the error

[QuikSand]

That's pretty good... it comes out to 16% actually, not 0.16% - very strong.

Best I got initially has been "sacreligious" getting 9.6%.

[cuervo72]

definately - 720,000
definitely - 6,750,000

9.64% :D

[korme]

Originally posted by QuikSand
That's pretty good... it comes out to 16% actually, not 0.16% - very strong.

Best I got initially has been "sacreligious" getting 9.6%.

How I came up with wienerschnitzel as my first word is beyond me. :)

[korme]

correct: misspell - 34,700 hits
misspelling: mispell - 3,620 hits
score - 3,620 / 38,320 = 9.45%

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by Shorty3281
correct: misspell - 34,700 hits
misspelling: mispell - 3,620 hits
score - 3,620 / 38,320 = 9.45%

I just looked that one up too :)

[Marmel]

Quiksand 938
Quicksand 139,000


0.67%

[cthomer5000]

correct: supersede - 266,000 hits
incorect: supercede - 75,000

28.19%


edit: just to note (not correct) the fact that I actually misspelled incorrect while typing it.

[Fritz]

correct: Jell-O 85,100
incorrect: Jello 361,000

I hate math

[mrsimperless]

just - 147,000,000
jsut - 93,200

.06%

Very low, but this is by far my most misspelled word - usually in IMs. If it's a post I can correct it.

On second thought, this is more of a typo than a misspelling.

[mrsimperless]

Originally posted by Fritz
correct: Jell-O 85,100
incorrect: Jello 361,000

I hate math

DOLA

80.92%

[mrsimperless]

DD

Here we go... not sure if it will be counted, but it was my best effort.

Correct: gangster - 679,000
Misspelled: gangsta - 415,000

37.93%

:D

[Airhog]

anoint 5,700
annoint 3,530

3,530/5,700=.6192 or 61.92 percent

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by cthomer5000
correct: supersede - 266,000 hits
incorect: supercede - 75,000

28.19%

edit: just to note (not correct) the fact that I actually misspelled incorrect while typing it.

I would submit that for it to be regarded as misspelled, Google itself should offer up "Did you mean alternative".

[mrsimperless]

Ewwww, horrible math by me! Correcting all posts above...

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by Airhog
anoint 5,700
annoint 3,530

3,530/5,700=.6192 or 61.92 percent

We'll score that as 38.2% - but still darned good. I wouldn't have guessed.

[Bee]

correct: Anrhydeddu 530
incorrect:Handydandy 412

I know, it doesn't meet the 1000 rule ...

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by QuikSand
We'll score that as 38.2% - but still darned good. I wouldn't have guessed.

Um, I'm getting 102,000 for 'anoint'.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q=anoint&btnG=Google+Search

[QuikSand]

Hmmm... "gangsta" and "Jell-o" both ring hollow to me.

My inclination is to eliminate proper words, including trademarks. Jell-o is very clever... but I think outside the original intent.

But a deliberate misspelling seems to have its own meaning - I have to think someone writing the word "gangsta" has a different thing in mind than someone who is just making an error when trying to write "gangster."

[mrsimperless]

traveling - 4,660,000
travelling - 3,230,000

40.94%

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by mrsimperless
traveling - 4,660,000
travelling - 3,230,000

40.94%

I think these two are listed as acceptable variants.

[cuervo72]

Doesn't win, but I found it interesting that Google knew it was misspelled:

Zaxon - 1,290 (some of these look to be a company's name)
Zaxxon - 17,400

[Fritz]

Quicksand 140,000
Quiksand 950


which tells you that google does not look here or they would have 10,000 more hits.

---

Now back off my Jell-O

[Fritz]

web page 4,620,000
webpage 3,980,000 (no such word, as I have been told)

[QuikSand]

liquefy - 30,300
liquify - 30,000
49.7%

...but M-W online also lists "liquify" as a variant. Drat.

[Airhog]

Originally posted by cuervo72
Um, I'm getting 102,000 for 'anoint'.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q=anoint&btnG=Google+Search

that is so wierd, when I first searched it I got 5000, but now im getting 100,00

nevermind, I saw my mistake :)

[Hammer755]

Quiksand - 950
Kickstand - 47,700

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by Airhog
Also, am I not doing the math right?

score = misspelled / (correct + misspelled)

[Airhog]

a lot = 5,600,000
alot = 2,460,000

2,460,000 / 8,060,000 = .3052 or 30.52%

[Grego]

how about

dumb 2,430,000
dum 793,000

25%

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by QuikSand
score = misspelled / (correct + misspelled)

Whoops.

[VPI97]

Correct: acapella - 73,800
Incorrect: accapella - 30,700

29.37%

[Dutch]

"Usama bin Laden" 36,800
"Osama bin Laden" 799,000

2,171% :D

[QuikSand]

Is Usama/Osama a spelling issue, or a matter if imperfect transliteration? (I've always assumed the latter) Proper words just don't make a good fir for this, of course.

[ShagVT]

Separate: 16,800,000
Seperate: 830,000

Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be ... only 4.7%.

[ShagVT]

Dola.

It's too bad we can't do a check for improper use of there/their/they're, which I think has to be #1 all time.

[VPI97]

correct: coolly - 135,000
incorrect: cooly - 54,700

28.8%

[VPI97]

correct: dumbbell - 109,000
incorrect: dumbell - 38,700

26.2%

[Mustang]

hmm.. not as good as I thought on these.

regardless - 6,080,000
irregardless - 34,900

february - 32,700,00
febuary - 134,000

congratulations - 2,860,000
congradulations - 39,900

All Right - 1,770,000
Alright - 1,610,000 (although, guess some will say alright is all right but... oh well. Aight'?)

[VPI97]

correct: dalmatian - 163,000
incorrect: dalmation - 63,700

28.1%

I can't seem to break 30%...

[EagleFan]

Favre: 284,000
Farve: 186,000

39.6%

[Mustang]

2/3 - 8,830,000
1/2 - 9,390,000


Sorry.. couldn't resist

[nilodor]

Correct- solder - 622000
Incorrect- sauder - 130000

17.3%

[Mustang]

Originally posted by nilodor
Correct- solder - 622000
Incorrect- sauder - 130000

17.3%

Off because Sauder is a furniture company...

[Maple Leafs]

Correct: Leafs (441,000)
Incorrect: Leaves (9,490,000)

95.5% ... I win!

(What? It is? Really? Oh. Never mind.)

[Samdari]

QS - please come up with a metric to rate how far off the spelling is.

For example, here are the google scores of one I found today.

acceptable 8,130,000
exceptable 4690

A paltry 0.06% - not 6% or .06, but 0.06% or 5.7*10^-4

And I imagine many of those incorrect were typos or misspellings for expectable. But, there is one guy (teen, I hope) on the SWG boards comlaining that the first patch introduced unexceptable changes.

I would put this up in any contest for quality of misspelling rather than mere quantity.

[RendeR]

very interesting quest/game posting =)

[Solecismic]

solecistic 286
Solecismic 1920

87.0%

m&m 459,000
eminem 2,310,000

83.4%
Intentional misspellings and puns don't count, I know.

[Celeval]

Originally posted by Samdari
But, there is one guy (teen, I hope) on the SWG boards comlaining that the first patch introduced unexceptable changes.

Comlaining: 488
Complaining: 1,280,000

Score: .04%

Ah well.

Kevin

[cuervo72]

Nevermind the incorrect usage of "unexceptable".

[dawgfan]

Hmmm, my biggest recent pet peeve (dominate used in place of dominant) can't easily be tracked, but I suspect this would rank pretty high in terms of incorrect usage.

[sterlingice]

I go for quantity, not quality

the: 3,510,000,000 (yes, that's 3 BILLION)
teh: 875,000

score: .000249

SI