Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Spelling for Gearheads on the Internet



Until recent times, it didn't matter if you could spell carburetor, provided you could tune one. I'm sorry, Cletus, but those days are over.

I'm not such a pedantic tool as to correct someone's spelling online, but that doesn't mean it doesn't bother me. Beyond simple annoyance (your/you're), it gets to be a problem when trying to buy stuff online.

While I may know that what you've listed as an "axel" sits under the springs and between the wheels, Craigslist has yet to implement Google's "Did you mean _____?" feature. The means I'm not going to find your "axel", because I'm searching for an axle.

That said, here's a list of commonly misspelled car related words:
  • axle
  • bearing (not "baring")
  • brakes (not "breaks")
  • Camaro
  • carburetor
  • clutch
  • convertible
  • differential
  • Galaxie is the Ford product, galaxy is a bunch of stars
  • hydraulic
  • manifold
  • manual
  • torque
  • transmission
  • viscous (not vicious)
  • wrench

That's enough for now. I'm hoping to link back to this post, and or edit the (unfortunately) growing list as time goes on.

2 comments:

Braff said...

you no wanna bye my camero?

Unknown said...

If I had a nickel for every manuel transmission on Craigslist...I could buy Spain.