Words that Set my Teeth on Edge

A person whose spoken language is sometimes grammatically incorrect and whose typos abound, I probably shouldn't mention this, but among the blogs I sometimes browse there are some misspellings that bring out my worst annoyance.

A BOARDER is someone who pays to live and eat at someone else's house, or else someone who snowboards or skateboards. I wonder about amateur decorators who mention putting boarders on their walls. Maybe it helps to pay the bills.

A BORDER is the edge along a flower bed or a strip of wallpaper.

WHA-LA is not a word, despite the obvious belief of some young bloggers.

VOILA is a French word meaning literally, "Look there!" Voila is intended to call attention to something that appears almost as if by magic. It really should have the little diacritical mark over the a, but I can forgive that. Just don't spell it viola -- that's a flower, or a musical instrument.

Your is a pronoun that means belonging to you.

You're is a contraction of you are.

Speak the sentence aloud using you are if you're not sure which to use in your blog.


If you see a mistake in my blogs please, please tell me. I'm much better at proof-reading the work of others.