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GUIDE TO BASIC ENGLISH CXXXII

April 26, 2018 Benjamin

Avoiding spelling mistakes.

Drugs

As is often the case, short familiar words in English can be easy to spell wrong in academic research papers and theses. We feel sure that we know how to spell these words, so we let our guard down, and write whatever spelling seems natural instead of checking to make sure that we have everything correct. As a result, easy words that we know are spelled wrong on occasion. In Thai English, we sometimes see the word drugs misspelled as drag. All TU students know that these are two different words with different meanings. So how does this type of mistake, and others like it, occur? When we try to think of a spelling based on how a word sounds in Thai pronunciation of English, we can easily encounter problems. As we know, Thai English pronunciation is not the same as standard English speech, and the way we think a word may be pronounced is sometimes not the generally accepted pronunciation. When in doubt about how to pronounce almost any English word, it can help to Google the word in question, followed by the word pronunciation. When we Google drugs pronunciation, we get a result with several different YouTube videos of a person or machine saying the word drugs in standard English pronunciation. As a general rule, it is best to choose to listen to the shortest of these videos, since the longer ones tend to include filler or advertisements by whoever made the video. If we are still not sure, it is easy to replay a YouTube video and listen to it again. Several online dictionaries, such as Merriam Webster’s also include a pronunciation feature where we may hear how to say a word in standard English speech. However the dictionaries usually do not offer pronunciation guides to plurals. For Thai speakers, it can be challenging to say words with the letter s added to a consonant. For this reason, it is probably better to do a Google search and then listen to the YouTube suggested pronunciation. Even after we have done this, it is still not a good idea to try to spell a word based on how we think it may be pronounced. Instead it is more reliable to think of words we can group together because of the way they are spelled. These words all sound similar and end with the letters ugs:

bugs
hugs
jugs
mugs
pugs
rugs
tugs
chugs
drugs
plugs
slugs
thugs
debugs
shrugs
bedbugs
humbugs
unplugs
bearhugs
earplugs
firebugs
ladybugs
fireplugs
jitterbugs
litterbugs
sparkplugs

If we are familiar with how one of these words sounds, we should have an idea of how the others sound. This certainty will inform us that the vowel sound in the word drugs is more like uh and not like ah. We should also have a reminder that the word drugs ends with the letters gs. The letter s should not be left out just because many Thai speakers of English find it difficult or inconvenient to pronounce. Since this issue of pronunciation is very common and widespread, it may also help to consider a list of some of the most frequently seen examples of English words ending in the letters gs. Keep in mind that many words have this ending. According to one list, over 1600 English words end with the letters gs. These are just some of the most common and familiar ones, so it might be worth taking a little effort to become more comfortable with saying words that end with the letters gs. We will surely encounter them when writing an academic research paper or thesis:

If we can pronounce one of these words with confidence, we should have a good idea about how to pronounce the others as well. The list above also contains another potential problem. The noun dregs refers to the liquid that is left in a container after most of it has been poured out. People speak of the dregs of a coffee pot, or the dregs of a bottle of wine. More generally, the noun dregs may also refer to things or people considered to be without value, as in the expressions:

the dregs of society

the dregs of humanity

This a literary term often found in books of the 1800s. Since it is not scientific or objective, students should not use it in academic research papers or theses, but it is useful to be able to recognize its meaning. It still appears sometimes in the Thai English language press, as in these examples from The Nation:

For some years now, my husband, Horace Beasley, has been hanging around Soi Cowboy with a gang of riffraff who seem to have been spawned by the very dregs and scum of British society.
Human rights are not only for the criminals or dregs of society, as some might think or believe. It is more to protect the far-too-many others who are innocent or turn out to be innocent.

One of the main issues with telling apart short words in English is that the nouns drugs, drag, and dregs are all correctly spelled English terms. Our Word document spell checks will not alert us to any problem is we confuse one term for the other and write drag when we really mean drugs. This suggests that it is especially helpful for us to reread whatever we write in an academic research paper or thesis. Wait a few hours after writing a passage before reading it again. That should make it seem fresh, and it is easier to spot potential errors.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)