Forgetting how to spell! (conversation, years, adult, conversations)

[Sand&Salt]

I used to be a good speller. DH was forever asking me how to spell this or that.

I've noticed in the past few years since auto-fill has become common, I am sort of forgetting how to spell certain words because usually auto-complete will do it.

Sure, I could turn it off, but I love it, most of the time.

Anyone else notice this?

Another good thing about C-D: no auto-complete, so we have to figure it out here!

[reneeh63]

Yes - me too, and I'm only in my 50's. Sometimes words just don't look right and I can't decide! Maybe I'm reading different things that are more dumbed down (online, of course) so I'm not "seeing" those words as often, just hearing them?

I'd love to know (or maybe not!) if my vocabulary is getting smaller. I think there have been studies done on Agatha Christy's novels through all the decades showing her cognitive decline, depressing and scary.

[lieqiang]

The autofill is even worse with Chinese. I remember having to learn stroke order of all these characters, now just type in the pinyin of how they sound and the IME throws up a little popup to pick which one I want. You get used to which order they come in so eventually can just type the ordinal number of which one you want without having to bother looking to pick.

I wonder how it affects education in China/Singapore/Taiwan/Japan/etc. where any kid with a smart phone doesn't need to all those hours memorizing to be able to write.

Also wonder if they still teach cursive in western countries, man did I suck at that.

[ABQ2015]

I am having the same problem although I do not use auto-complete or even know what it is. Assumed my issue was age related just like not being able to think of a word that I want to use so having to substitute with a poorer alternative. Also being isolated during COVID is not helping as I have few conversations with people so not used to speaking and even stumble a little while speaking as am so rusty. On the spelling, the other day I wanted to write out "embezzlement" and could not figure out how it was spelled - just sort of blanked out.

[lieqiang]

Hah I remember the other day trying to type "hierarchy" but couldn't even get it close enough to get auto-corrected. It's not that hard a word I just blanked on it.

[Lillie767]

I find I rely on the spell checker to tell me if I've spelled a word correctly. If I get that dreaded underline that tells me I've goofed, I go to the dictionary to look up the word. I rarely use auto-correct.

I still love love love the dictionary. It gives me so many definitions, many of which I didn't know, and I love the etymology. Which words come from Greek and which ones come from Latin. Ahhh. More pieces of useless knowledge.

It makes me sad to think that so few homes probably have a dictionary these days. I learned many new words perusing the pages.

[Listener2307]

A priest, an Imam, and a rabbit walked into a bar.
"What are you guys doing here?", the bartender asked.
The rabbit said, "I dunno. I'm just here because of auto-correct!" ............

Yeah. I can't spell, either.

[BOBNCHI]

It's also the same with phone numbers. I used to remember everyones, but now with autodial, voice dial, etc..I even have to look up MY own number!

[bound2TN]

I am not familiar with auto-check, and I hate spellcheck! So many people rely on it to their detriment. I read one of the Tom Clancy knockoffs and they talked about the fellow using the "site" picture on his firearm. Not even close!

[otowi]

I was a really good speller as a youth. In adulthood, I got a little worse in part from working as a teacher and seeing things misspelled so often they started to look normal that way!