Microsoft Word Fails

Lots of people mix up words, and I've noticed it getting even worse in the past couple years. I think I've figured out why, and it's mostly the fault of Microsoft Word.

Consider the following sentence:

"I am increasingly weary of trying to shut you out"


The word weary, which means tired, is underlined in blue. When I right-click, the suggestion is wary, which means cautious. Both words would make sense in the sentence when it's taken out of context. But in the context, it's a guy talking about how tired he is of trying to tune out someone's inane chatter that she isn't even aware he can hear. I keep seeing people mix up wary and weary in typing, and as I said, it's been getting worse.


Another one is where and were. Where is a place. You can tell that because the word here is in it. Were is the past tense of are. In fact, every time I've ever seen a blue underlined word, the word that is underlined is the correct one, and the one that word wants you to substitute is one that I keep seeing used wrongly. Like than and then. 


WTF Word? Are you TRYING to make people not know what words mean? If you want to make suggestions, at least tell the people what the words are! 


I could see, if you right click on where, saying "did you mean where, refering to a place, or were, the past tense of are?" with the buttons were and where to make your selection. 


So here we go:


If a word has "here" in it, it's referring to a place. That means "here", "there", and "where". If you are not referring to a place, you do not want any of those words.


If a word has an apostrophe, it's either indicating possession or a contraction. If there is an apostrophe and it does not have an "s", you'd better be able to tell me what two words could be there instead of that one.


It's is ALWAYS it is. Its is how you do possession. "It's in the cupboard." "It puts the lotion on its skin."


Too has two uses. The first is "also". Think "there is also another o". The other is in places like "too much" and "too little". Think "there is one too many o's" If the word you are using does not fall into either of those, and is not the number two, then the word you want is "to".


They're, their, and there. Well, there has here in it, so it's a place. "There it is!" They're has an apostrophe, so it must be two words- they are. "They're running away". Their is neither of those things, so it must be the third word that sounds similar- it indicates the possession of multiple people. "Let's ride in their car."


weary- ea makes a long e sound. It also has ear in it, see it? that means you want to pronounce the vowels the way you would in the word ear. It means to be tired. "I'm so weary of listening to that song. They play it all the damn time!"


wary- there is no e here. So there should not be an e sound in the middle. ar you would almost think sound like car, but since there is a y after wards, the a becomes a long a. vowel consonant vowel means the first vowel uses the long sound. So you want the sound "ay", not "ah". wary sounds like airy with a w. It means cautious. "He was wary of the knife in his opponent's off-hand."


here vs hear: hear has ear in it. It means what you do with your ears. here does not. here is a place. "Where is the knife?" "Here it is!"


Then vs than. Then is a time. "When will it happen?" "It will happen then." It also marks place in line. "First came love, then came marriage."  This is because a place in line is like a time. "First comes twelve, then comes one." Than is for comparisons. "I would rather have the cake than the pudding." "That one is bigger than this one."


I'm heartily sick of reading forum posts where people don't understand the difference between these words. I'm hoping that these tricks which I learned in fourth grade will help people learn them- that is how I still tell the difference when I'm tired enough that the years of reading established authors isn't sticking to my brain.


Also- go read the classics. The shit they publish these days might have a fun story, but there's usually so many grammar mistakes that I want to take a red pen to their works. I understand- editors can't catch everything. I always suggest- take it to one editor. Fix everything they find, then take it to a different editor. Fix everything they find, then continue until they stop finding grammar and spelling mistakes. But that might not be feasible.


Also- if you read the classics, make sure they haven't been edited in awhile. Don't get the new edits, those tend to have typos and shit.