Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion The Relief of being Understood

Yes, the embarrassment of having only read a word and never having heard it pronounced correctly is something I've experienced since childhood! I remember some funny mispronunciations of "eccentric", "cantankerous", and "hyperbole".

Mine were berefit and segue.

Having learned to read phonetically I still vividly remember the moment as a kid when I realised that the world 'foreign' was not pronounced 'fo-ray-zhun' LOL

As a voracious reader from the moment that I learned to read, I hardly ever remember having issues with spelling as words just 'looked wrong' if I misspelled them.

Like HK, I still have some persistent misspellings, though, I instinctively spell weird as 'wierd', for instance, which is weird itself LOL

I had success in spelling bees via whole-word visualization. Once I had thrown up the mental picture, I just read off the letters, which almost seemed like cheating. Learning new words was a pain, though... basically drill-and-kill. Luckily I was an avid reader, so I already had an extensive collection of word visuals to begin with.

I still hear words from time to time and find out I'd been pronouncing them wrong in my head for eons. The most recent entry was "pedagogy."

If I meet you, you tell me your name, and it's a common one, I still have to work to remember it. If it's unusual, then the thing you just said to me is a jumble of unconnected noises. Even if I can reassemble them into something that makes the same sounds, I still can't associate that with you, because I'm not sure how badly I've constructed it. If you're wearing a nametag, then no worries. I had a neighbor with an unusual name that I couldn't hold in my head for more than a few seconds, until finally a piece of her mail was left in my mailbox by mistake.

Yes, I'm similar. Particularly with names and mispronunciations. I also have a difficult time with unusual names, I must see it before it sinks in and I couldn't believe the correct pronunciation of facile when I first heard it. I still want to pronounce it the wrong way.

I visualize the whole word as well. I can't imagine doing it another way.

Nope can't visualize it. And if you spell a word to me verbally I usually have to write it down. (Except for short well known words) For example if my kids while reading a book ask me 'Mom what is 'f' 'l' 'a' 'c' 'c' 'i' 'd', I have to write it down or see it in print.

I can remember patterns and pictures well. I can remember a map in my head and give directions off it even if I'm new to an area.

This post just sent me to my dictionary to confirm that "berefit" is not a real word. Funnny real-life example of the problem, though!

I also usually visualize in order to spell. I have many words "tagged" in my brain by their number of letters, too.

I don't really visualize words at all.

Spelling isn't really on my priority list, mentally speaking.

Although, I function as my own lexicographer.

Meaning that I am duly authorized by the courts to assure that words really do mean what I want them to mean, neither more nor less, as follows:

"An applicant is entitled to be his or her own lexicographer and may rebut the presumption that claim terms are to be given their ordinary and customary meaning by clearly setting forth a definition of the term that is different from its ordinary and customary meaning(s). See In re Paulsen, 30 F.3d 1475, 1480, 31 USPQ2d 1671, 1674 (Fed. Cir. 1994) (inventor may define specific terms used to describe invention, but must do so “with reasonable clarity, deliberateness, and precision” and, if done, must “‘set out his uncommon definition in some manner within the patent disclosure’ so as to give one of ordinary skill in the art notice of the change” in meaning) (quoting Intellicall, Inc. v. Phonometrics, Inc., 952 F.2d 1384, 1387-88, 21 USPQ2d 1383, 1386 (Fed. Cir. 1992)). Where an explicit definition is provided by the applicant for a term, that definition will control interpretation of the term as it is used in the claim. Toro Co. v. White Consolidated Industries Inc., 199 F.3d 1295, 1301, 53 USPQ2d 1065, 1069 (Fed. Cir. 1999) (meaning of words used in a claim is not construed in a “lexicographic vacuum, but in the context of the specification and drawings”). Any special meaning assigned to a term “must be sufficiently clear in the specification that any departure from common usage would be so understood by a person of experience in the field of the invention.” Multiform Desiccants Inc. v. Medzam Ltd., 133 F.3d 1473, 1477, 45 USPQ2d 1429, 1432 (Fed. Cir. 1998)."

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2111.html

Berefit is not a real word until such time as I see fit to poof it into existence through my will.

So, perhaps such a letter combination should be called a "pending word" rather than "not real", as I have the option to create it ex nihilo.

Granted, prior to today, I was unaware of it's non-existence, so it would have not occurred to me to create it.

So, merely by asserting that a word does not yet exist is a simple way to bring that word closer to being a real word.

Kind of like Pinocchio and the Blue Fairy, I suppose.