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Enough already! The word is GAUGE, not GUAGE!

ArVeeNiner

Well Known Member
The following is all done tongue in cheek. Notice the liberal use of Smileys! :)

OK, I need to get something off my chest. ;) Why do I keep seeing the word “gauge” misspelled as “guage”, not only on these forums but all over the place? I’m no English major, and certainly not the world’s best speller, but I’m pretty certain that “guage” is not a word. A quick Internet search does confirm this.

I’ve found that “guage” shows up in some surprising places. A couple of months ago I ordered a CT-482 Spark Plug Erosion Gauge from Aircraft Spruce. What I received was a Champion CT-482 Erosion “Guage!” It’s stamped right on it! Here is a photo from their webpage:



Where is this coming from? Maybe it’s some sort of ancient spelling?

Anyway, when you see that little red line under the word “guage”, right click it.

Now don’t get me started on “gage” vs. “gauge!” :D
 
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I confess

I'm fairly sure I've done that. I usually type it both ways and try to think which one looks right. I'm probably wrong most of the time.

But just to get you started on 'gage' vs 'gauge', wouldn't that just be a whole lot easier? who invented this overly difficult language anyway? Not an engineer, I promise you that!:)
 
I'm fairly sure I've done that. I usually type it both ways and try to think which one looks right. I'm probably wrong most of the time.

But just to get you started on 'gage' vs 'gauge', wouldn't that just be a whole lot easier? who invented this overly difficult language anyway? Not an engineer, I promise you that!:)

HA! I agree! It amazes me that we learn to speak and write English at all! There are rules but there are many exceptions to those rules!! I'm sure glad I don't have to teach it!
 
The aviation word that I see misspelled the most is "hangar", many people spell it "hanger" and I always chuckle when I see it thinking of an "airplane hanger".
If I was good at photoshop I'm sure I could show an airplane hanging from a hanger to demonstrate.
Or maybe a picture of Joan Crawford beating on a plane with a hanger to demonstrate "hangering a plane" or "always hangered".
OK, I'm done.
 
Compliment vs Complement
Insure vs Ensure

It's everywear, or is that everyware! :D
 
time for compromise...??

Three decades ago I repeatedly faced this term, across three continents, and determined that "GAGE" was the better spelling. It is phonetic, efficient, easy to remember without complex memorized exception rules. Language is constantly changing. Promulgate this "gage" spelling and consider your efforts to be a part of improving the language... in two years we can look back and gage our progress.

Does use of the term "dampener" when it should be "damper" raise yer dander? Mine, too. I haven't given in on that one yet.
 
Definition of pedantic
1: of, relating to, or being a pedant(see pedant)
2: narrowly, stodgily, and often ostentatiously learned
3: unimaginative, dull

pedant
a person who annoys other people by correcting small errors and giving too much attention to minor details

I like gage, and I am willing to discus it with anyone, anytime!
 
Guage is simply misspelled. At least it doesn't change the meaning like using the wrong one of these can:

there, they're, their

to, too, two

Very common on this forum.

Bevan
 
Spelling is difficult but can be mastered through tough thorough thought, though. [Copied from a coffee mug somewhere....]
 
Now you understand why we hate it when people talk about their "Conditional" inspection.
 
Coarse or course? Is it a heading or a file?

And the plural that has become popular recently:

Aircrafts

That one just grates on my nerves :mad:
 
I've always considered myself a pretty good speller. Being the son of a legal secretary who was a real stickler with spelling as well as grammar, I still benefit from her influence.

Now after all these years, somehow I've reached the point where I just don't care anymore. Well, I do care about what I write, and I try to be correct in my own writing. But as far as other folks' spelling and grammar, as long as I can understand what they are saying, then I say all those combinations of letters and punctuation marks are doing their job...communicating! :)

I'm beginning to think about the fact that I may not have time to correct others' errors; I'm getting older, and I've got enough errors of my own to worry about!

Have a good day, y'all! ;)
 
I've always considered myself a pretty good speller. Being the son of a legal secretary who was a real stickler with spelling as well as grammar, I still benefit from her influence.

Now after all these years, somehow I've reached the point where I just don't care anymore. Well, I do care about what I write, and I try to be correct in my own writing. But as far as other folks' spelling and grammar, as long as I can understand what they are saying, then I say all those combinations of letters and punctuation marks are doing their job...communicating! :)

I'm beginning to think about the fact that I may not have time to correct others' errors; I'm getting older, and I've got enough errors of my own to worry about!

Have a good day, y'all! ;)
Don, I can agree with this. However, it still throws me when I am reading along and a misused word stops the flow of what I am reading because a word that does not fit in the structure of the writing is incorrectly used. Then it matters to me.

The one that gets misused an awful lot here are the words:
Where
Were

These two words are NOT interchangeable!
 
Spelling is difficult but can be mastered through tough thorough thought, though. [Copied from a coffee mug somewhere....]

This one is fantastic. A good friend of mine teaches English as a second language to business folk in Italy. These are the ones he has the hardest time teaching. There is just no explanation for these. Especially to Italians, whose language is extremely rational with just a few fun exceptions.

In about two minutes one can explain all of the pronunciation rules for italian.
 
what's in a werd?

...that's why we changed to kilometres.....now, we say kil -AW-meh turhs around here, but I hear across the pond, it's more ...KILL -o-meeters.
funny, just thought of an old Hogan's Heroes episode....
Newkirk ( Richard Dawson) says something is about 2 miles down the road from the camp. ( makes sense, he's talking to a buncha US airmen etc.)
A later episode, he correctly uses kilometres.....I think he might even have later said, 'klicks' which is still in use here!
...altho' often incorrectly, such as
" I was only going 60 klicks...( per hour) and the Mounties were on me like maple syrup on Timbits eh?!." :)
 
Guage is simply misspelled. At least it doesn't change the meaning like using the wrong one of these can:

there, they're, their

to, too, two

Very common on this forum.

Bevan

Years ago I received a business email which used all 3 forms of "to" - all incorrectly. I kept it for years but eventually lost it. A shame, it was a classic.
 
...that's why we changed to kilometres.....now, we say kil -AW-meh turhs around here, but I hear across the pond, it's more ...KILL -o-meeters.

I had a physics prof who pointed this out...a kil-AW-me-tur is a thing that measures kilos.

KILL-o-meter is correct. Think about it...CENTI-meter, DECI-meter, KILO-meter, etc.

One of my pet peeves? Effect vs. affect.

And you think English spelling is hard? HA! You should try G?idhlig (Scottish Gaelic)!
 
Now you understand why we hate it when people talk about their "Conditional" inspection.

Yeah, that! It just drives me nuts to see that word misused over and over again on the forums. It's "condition", as in you are inspecting the condition of the aircraft for safe operation. It's so easy, but so many get it wrong...
 
What I notice as I read through the various examples is a case of proof reading as opposed to incorrect spelling.

Hanger is a correctly spelled word but it isn't where you park your airplane.
If you are waiting for your computer to advise you that you just used the word advice in an incorrect context you are going to lose, or should I say loose? :D
 
lm a pylut an I fry airpranes. I sumtimes climb at V why and dats when U climb at the best rait possyble. One time I checked the fuel guage and the guage said the tank waz full but when I checked it was actually emptie. Anyone know whyyy?
 
I can at least see where people come up with "guage", because of the words "guard", "guess", "guitar", etc...

I've seen people who stick an apostrophe before every "s", unless it's the first letter of a word. It drives me insane.

One local peculiarity around Savannah is the propensity of people to use what appears to me to be the capitalization rules from German. I get lots of emails at work where every noun starts with a capital. It's only the Savannah natives that do it. Was there some kind of long-ago influx of German immigrants or something?


Another one: "Lose" means to misplace, or the opposite of win. "Loose" is the opposite of tight.
 
To the OP (now, is that Original Poster, or Original Post, or Original Point?), I always have to second guess myself when writing, but immediately hear the aerospace engineering professor who once asked me in front of a class, "What the **** is a goo-AH-jee?" :eek:
 
To the OP (now, is that Original Poster, or Original Post, or Original Point?), I always have to second guess myself when writing, but immediately hear the aerospace engineering professor who once asked me in front of a class, "What the **** is a goo-AH-jee?" :eek:

Your professors discussed gauges?! I think most of mine would have shuddered at the thought of dealing with any kind of actual physical item. Most of them seemed like they never wanted to venture out of theory-land...
 
Love the thread. Growing up with English Parents was a challenging endeavour when it came to the correct application of the grammar rules. I have a bit of a story about being a Pilot and our required "english" skills.

According to my parents, I wanted to be a Pilot before I could walk. When I was finishing high school and applying to University I had done well with math/physics marks in the high 80's. Unfortunately I failed grade 12 English for some strange reason (something to do my love of Shakespeare/Chaucer which caused excessive absenteeism). You have to show up to pass.

My Dad went nuts. Down to the high school he goes with me in tow. I remember my Father in the Principals office arguing with the English Teacher to give me a pass with a grade of 50% so I could accept a scholarship to University. The conversation went back and forth and was slowly getting heated. My Father who had read (studied) History/English in the U.K. tried every argument going and finally, exasperated, blurted out "the boy only wants to be a Pilot". My Dad at the time was Manager of a major airline's hub in Toronto.

I got the pass and off to school I went. The rest is history....

Almost 40 yrs later my Dad (87 and still going strong) and I still laugh about the story. His boy still loves airplanes. He comes round often to check up on my RV14 build. He has even banged a few rivets. I hoping that he'll be my first pax when the time comes ....
 
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Fly "safe"

As far as I can tell, the word "safe" is an adjective or a noun, NOT an adverb.

Thank you.

Whew. Now, go fly safeLY! :D
 
Since I'm not too gud a speller myself, I jist try n exaggerate it a little so you never no if it's ententional or illiteracy.

exhaust? exhaust?.....oh well just use "smoke pipe" its much easier to write.
 
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Correct Spelling ?

Well the way I see it , not being an intellect like a lot of your folks, working with my hands in the autobody industry for 50 years. If you were to remove us who cannot properly spell and punctuate as we try and communicate with the people who have the same love of building airplanes and flying them, you wouldn't have many Homebuilders to talk to ! You would be missing out on a tremendous amount of hands on knowledge that has been gathered over the years. Just because we are Not good spellers and I for one Don't care to be ! If I can understand the context of your post , I'm Good with that ! :cool:
 
Did the house burn UP or burn DOWN? Is the light blinking OFF & ON or ON and OFF?

The English can be very confusing.

:)

Vic
 
I like this thread alot.

I've heard "cut the light switch on" down here.

...and who the **** came up with vacuum?
 
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When Garmin introduced the Aera family, at least half of their own documents and press releases spelled it 'Area'.

Whoops!
 
Your not going to draw me into this argument two. Their are rules about witch words are right to use they're.

Seriously, I have a customer who just retired as an English instructor at Long Beach City College. Her license plate is "THERAR2" When I asked her about the meaning, she said it reflects a pet peeve where people use the the word "there" followed by "is", like "there is instructions included". I will forgot that license plate. ;-)

~Marc
 
And why do we need hot water heaters?

I was reading about the derivation of gauge. Seems to have been the word for some sort of dip stick.
 
not busted yet

You only have to do a Craigslist search to find very funny (or sad) representations of our language. Barnstormers is a bit better... maybe the editor fixes some submissions?
I taught fifth grade for seventeen years. Now, my former students can't spell a thing when they draft a local Craigslist ad. I failed. But I still passed all the rating written exams the FAA could invent. So, in balance, I suppose I am not loosing my mind. (funny aside... none of the proofreaders in this thread caught my dig at the Donald. I count that sneaky one as a win... since I pulled a political no no and DR did not catch me!)
 
While we marvel at the complexities of the English language, I have to admit that our language can't hold a candle to French. In the French language, for every grammatical rule there is at least one exception. Don't get me going on the "logic" of a language, either. In English we count "five, six, seven, eight nine" while, literally translated, the French count "five, six, six and ten, four twenties, four twenties and ten". It's enough to drive you bonkers. And since when was something as flat as a dinner plate considered to be feminine? Yes, in French, a plate is a feminine noun. The only logic to the French language is the one rule that applies universally... there IS NO LOGIC to the language!

Coming back to the aviation origins of this thread, let's add to the pile of pet peeves the word "yoke". Sure, we don't have them in RV's, but ask yourself how many times you've seen any airplane that has a "yolk"?!?!?!
 
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