Spelling Pet Peeve of the Day
The culprit: Spelling an exclamation of glee as "Yeah!" when it should be spelled as "Yay!"
I understand why people frequently make this mistake since the word "yay" just sort of looks wrong. But it's not. Really.
Just keep in mind that the word "Yeah" is an informal form of "Yes"--you know, as in the Beatles song "She loves you, yeah yeah yeah!"
"Yay," on the other hand, is a variant of "hooray" and shares the same vowel sound as the second syllable of that word. So when you want to express this exclamation in writing, think "Hooray!" and you'll remember it's spelled "Yay!"
By the way, I'm glad to know that this isn't just my pet peeve. Random House has got my back.
I understand why people frequently make this mistake since the word "yay" just sort of looks wrong. But it's not. Really.
Just keep in mind that the word "Yeah" is an informal form of "Yes"--you know, as in the Beatles song "She loves you, yeah yeah yeah!"
"Yay," on the other hand, is a variant of "hooray" and shares the same vowel sound as the second syllable of that word. So when you want to express this exclamation in writing, think "Hooray!" and you'll remember it's spelled "Yay!"
By the way, I'm glad to know that this isn't just my pet peeve. Random House has got my back.
posted by Steve Shapiro at
1:09 AM
3 Comments:
Yay! My brother has too much time on his hands. Or is it...Yeah, it's obvious that my brother has too much time on his hands.
By
Anonymous, at 11/01/2009 7:34 PM
Co-signed!
(The original post, not the "brother" comment.) =)
By
Unknown, at 11/08/2009 8:16 PM
Love it!!! I often think of this, but glad you put it in writing!
YAY!
By
jody egel, at 11/17/2009 11:46 AM
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