Mangling Spelling - Tumblr Posts

Writing Tips Pt 5 - Google Can Help

I mean, Google can help with a lot of things (research for one). But in this instance, I specifically mean for checking words and phrases from other languages. Because sometimes you need to throw in something that doesn't originate from English (or whatever your native language is), and you might not know how to spell it correctly. Or you're using a word in English but aren't quite sure of the spelling but you do know what it sounds like. So what do you do?

Not wing it, that's for sure.

Please don't wing it.

Let's say you're writing your story, and suddenly your word processing program underlines a word in red because it doesn't recognize it. Well, this makes sense in our hypothetical because you've just typed a word in a language other than English, and your spellcheck is set up for English words. So your spellchecker doesn't know what you mean by "kitson" or "Wa-La" or "persay" or "sauter."

Don't just assume you got the spelling right on the first try if this happens. I've seen plenty of stories with those exact typos in them (yes, really), and all I can figure is that the author went, "Oh, the spellcheck doesn't know this word. That's fine. I'll just add it to the spellcheck dictionary now." That would be fine, if they had the word spelled correctly on the first try.

Thing is, it's kitsune (Japanese word for a fox spirit or multi-tailed fox), voila (origins from French for "see there!"), per se (from Latin, "by itself"), and solder (a soft metal used to join things together with the application of heat).

But if you put these into your spellcheck dictionary instead of doing a quick Googling to find out what the correct spelling is, you're going to just shoot yourself in the foot, as now the spellcheck won't point out where you keep misspelling it in the future, even if you do learn how to spell it correctly but just slip up occasionally. Just Google the word. It will usually give you the correct spelling for what you're looking for.

And should Google fail you? Ask around. There are writing forums you can ask on. You might know of a teacher you can ask (especially if you're still in school). Ask a knowledgeable parent or a well-read friend.

Example: I do not speak French. I do know there are phrases that people will use that come from French, though, and I wanted to use one of them in a story since there was a character with a French accent who regularly sprinkled such things throughout his dialogue. Thing was, I hadn't the foggiest notion how to go about spelling this phrase.

So I did the next best thing. I Googled "nes pa French," since I knew it was French and had an idea of the pronunciation. And Google returned results that showed it's properly spelled n'est-ce pas.

Voila, correct spelling achieved.