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Pick out the correctly spelt workd:

Forums: English, Spelling, Do My Homework For Me
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sreeja
 
Reply Sat 20 Jun, 2009 03:27 am
a: dispensable
b. despensable
c.dispensible
d. despencible.
e. none of these.
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Type: Question • Score: 2 • Views: 4,031 • Replies: 37
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contrex
 
  1  
Reply Sat 20 Jun, 2009 03:54 am
@sreeja,
Well, "workd" in your title is certainly wrong! Do you have access to a dictionary? Your teacher almost certainly intends you to use one, so that you may learn a skill that you will not get if we answer your question.
solipsister
 
  1  
Reply Sat 20 Jun, 2009 03:56 am
@contrex,
an indispensible skill
contrex
 
  1  
Reply Sat 20 Jun, 2009 04:09 am
@solipsister,
solipsister wrote:
an indispensible skill


Indeed.
0 Replies
 
McTag
 
  1  
Reply Sat 20 Jun, 2009 04:16 am

You'll see dispensible and dispensable: I'm not sure the second one is actually wrong, just less common and an alternative.
contrex
 
  1  
Reply Sat 20 Jun, 2009 05:47 am
@McTag,
Many dictionaries state that "dispensible" is an obsolete spelling and that "dispensable" is the modern spelling.
McTag
 
  1  
Reply Sat 20 Jun, 2009 01:52 pm
@contrex,

I don't like it: but then I'm not very modern, I suppose.
contrex
 
  1  
Reply Sat 20 Jun, 2009 01:58 pm
@McTag,
No more am I.
contrex
 
  1  
Reply Sat 20 Jun, 2009 02:24 pm
@contrex,
Since "dispensible" and "dispensable" are both acceptable spellings, whoever drew up that multiple choice question is a lousy teacher, assuming that the question is meant to be "Pick out the correctly spelt word:"

0 Replies
 
Merry Andrew
 
  2  
Reply Sat 20 Jun, 2009 03:52 pm
Well, let's see. Inasmuch as the poster uses the word "spelt", we must perforce assume that the poster is British or from one of the Commonwealth countries which adhere to British useage. Were the poster a Yank, his/her teacher would have insisted that the word be spelled correctly, at least according to accepted American useage. This being the case, we may further assume that the spelling being saught is "indispensible" as it is more commonly British. "Indispensable" is the generally preferred American spelling.
JTT
 
  0  
Reply Sat 20 Jun, 2009 04:28 pm
@Merry Andrew,
Quote:
Well, let's see. Inasmuch as the poster uses the word "spelt", we must perforce assume that the poster is British or from one of the Commonwealth countries which adhere to British useage. Were the poster a Yank, his/her teacher would have insisted that the word be spelled correctly, at least according to accepted American useage. This being the case, we may further assume that the spelling being saught is "indispensible" as it is more commonly British. "Indispensable" is the generally preferred American spelling.


What's the term for a situation where someone screams that things be done correctly then slips up?
JTT
 
  1  
Reply Sat 20 Jun, 2009 04:39 pm
@contrex,
Quote:
Your teacher almost certainly intends you to use one, so that you may learn a skill that you will not get if we answer your question.


I suspect that Sreeja has learned a whole bunch more by asking here than by simply going to a dictionary, a task that he or she most assuredly already knew how to do.
0 Replies
 
Merry Andrew
 
  2  
Reply Sat 20 Jun, 2009 04:40 pm
@JTT,
Good catch, JTT. I dunno. What is the right word? 'Fatfingers' comes to mind. So does the phrase 'mental disconnect.'
JTT
 
  1  
Reply Sat 20 Jun, 2009 11:33 pm
@Merry Andrew,
I realize how it happened, Merry and it's come up before. I think that there should be a special term for this, but damn if I know what it might be.
0 Replies
 
McTag
 
  1  
Reply Sat 20 Jun, 2009 11:45 pm

American spellings ptooey.

These are the people who could not understand "inflammable" and invented "non-flam" instead.

Wink
dadpad
 
  2  
Reply Sun 21 Jun, 2009 12:05 am
@JTT,
JTT wrote:

Quote:
Well, let's see. Inasmuch as the poster uses the word "spelt", we must perforce assume that the poster is British or from one of the Commonwealth countries which adhere to British useage. Were the poster a Yank, his/her teacher would have insisted that the word be spelled correctly, at least according to accepted American useage. This being the case, we may further assume that the spelling being saught is "indispensible" as it is more commonly British. "Indispensable" is the generally preferred American spelling.


What's the term for a situation where someone screams that things be done correctly then slips up?


Clarm...????
Merry Andrew
 
  1  
Reply Sun 21 Jun, 2009 03:12 am
@McTag,
Inflammable is a bloody ridiculous word! How does it differ from the simple flammable?
Merry Andrew
 
  1  
Reply Sun 21 Jun, 2009 03:13 am
@dadpad,
Quote:
Clarm...????


Excellent choice!
0 Replies
 
dadpad
 
  1  
Reply Sun 21 Jun, 2009 05:51 am
@Merry Andrew,
Merry Andrew wrote:

Inflammable is a bloody ridiculous word! How does it differ from the simple flammable?


Inflammable and flammable both mean “combustible.” Inflammable is the older by about 200 years. Flammable now has certain technical uses, particularly as a warning on vehicles carrying combustible materials, because of a belief that some might interpret the intensive prefix in- of inflammable as a negative prefix and thus think the word means “noncombustible.” Inflammable is the word more usually used in nontechnical and figurative contexts: The speaker ignited the inflammable emotions of the crowd.
McTag
 
  1  
Reply Sun 21 Jun, 2009 07:16 am
@dadpad,

The way I heard it, Americans could not understand "inflammable" and particularly in the military, got confused.

So they invented "flam" and "non-flam" descriptors which have the advantage at least of being clear (and the disadvantage of being less literate)

I'm not trying to inflame your passions, btw. Maybe just a bit. Wink
 

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