Grammar Moses: I spell tomato and you spell tomahto
An outfit called www.unscrambled-words.com decided to mine Google's search function data to determine which words we seem to have the most trouble spelling.
After seeing many of them, I'm truly terrified for our future. Please share in my grief.
"Tomato," "cheese" and "Idaho" are among America's most misspelled words for 2022, according to the study.
Yet these are primary ingredients in most Burger King meals, if you count potatoes as Idaho's chief contribution to the culinary world. I know this about Burger King from doing plenty of market research.
Do we really not know how to spell these words?
In defense of Alaska, where the biggest stumbling block is "cheese," let's consider that in the entire state there are only 10 dairies. So, like many of us, Alaskans probably eat Cheez-Its by the box and put Cheez Whiz on corn chips.
Former Vice President Dan Quayle's darkest hour was in 1992 when he led a sixth-grade spelling bee and, ahem, corrected a student who had spelled "potato" correctly by insisting he put an "e" on the end.
Unscrambledwords.com is primarily a website that will help you cheat at Words With Friends and Scrabble. Pro tip: Don't let your Scrabble partner bring a computer to the table.
But this is an interesting study, based on looking at "How do you spell" searches by state:
Alabama: exercise
Alaska: cheese
Arizona: scientist
Arkansas: therapy
California: tomato
Colorado: choice
Connecticut: schedule
Delaware: daughter
Florida: separate
Georgia: little
Hawaii: Kauai
Idaho: Idaho
Illinois: anniversary
Indiana: awesome
Iowa: cousin
Kansas: princess
Kentucky: again
Louisiana: gray
Maine: actively
Maryland: bearable
Massachusetts: picture
Michigan: impatience
Minnesota: paparazzi
Mississippi: independent
Missouri: dessert
Montana: beautiful
Nebraska: beautiful
Nevada: seizure
New Hampshire: their
New Jersey: thousand
New Mexico: bologna
New York: listening
North Carolina: multiplication
North Dakota: sorry
Ohio: choir
Oklahoma: business
Oregon: awkward
Pennsylvania: reimbursement
Rhode Island: months
South Carolina: college
South Dakota: beautifully
Tennessee: pneumonia
Texas: normal
Utah: boutonniere
Vermont: gray
Virginia: prank
Washington: experience
West Virginia: West Virginia
Wisconsin: lose
Wyoming: autumn
I have several observations:
• I would think a number of the most nettlesome words are also foreign to many of the denizens of these states: Alabama (exercise); Indiana (awesome); New York (listening); and Texas (normal).
• I give credit to Utahans for fumbling with a truly difficult word to spell: "boutonniere."
• But I am astonished by these three states and their biggest head-scratchers: Hawaii (Kauai); West Virginia (West Virginia) and Idaho (Idaho).
As New Mexicans would say, that's a bunch of baloney.
Write carefully!
• Jim Baumann is vice president/executive editor of the Daily Herald. You can buy Jim's book, "Grammar Moses: A humorous guide to grammar and usage," at grammarmosesthebook.com. Write him at jbaumann@dailyherald.com and put "Grammar Moses" in the subject line. You also can friend or follow Jim at facebook.com/baumannjim.