Spelling: “forgivable” misses

Self-tutoring about English: the tutor mentions an interesting notion.

In English, consonants are easy, but vowels can be a challenge. Perhaps that’s why we might forgive wrong consonants but can’t forgive wrong vowels.

For instance, consider the word “meant”: spelling it “ment” is a gross error. “Thanx”, on the other hand, is a mischievous misspelling you can’t put in an essay, but certainly in a text.

Similarly, “mistery” wouldn’t be acceptable even informally, while “nite” (for night) is even in Webster’s Dictionary.

People allow “intentional” misses but much less those that might be genuine.

Source:

Mish, Frederick C (editor). Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Springfield: Merriam-Webster, 2004.