Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

suenami_98 asked in Social SciencePsychology · 1 decade ago

Typing the wrong word -- mental lapse?

Even though I know better (I used to be an editor and proofreader, for goodness sake), I find when typing emails I occasionally type "here" instead of "hear" or "there" instead of "their" -- and a few other such things.

I'm wondering why the mind, when not properly concentrating, would push forward those "substitutes". Hopefully it's not early onset anything...

Update:

Baby Blue, I suspect there's more to it than that. It's always a homophone (a word that SOUNDS the same but is spelled differently). I believe I've even done it with "two" and "too". I'm a fast typist, and clearly not thinking, I guess, as I'm firing off those emails. LOL.

2 Answers

Relevance
  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    I think that it is merely a result of fast typing and reliance on spell-check to find misspelled words.

    Spell-check doesn't catch grammar mistakes, so the mistakes you mention will not be highlighted by spell-check.

    A grammar checker like the one in Microsoft Word is what you should be relying on. It will catch those grammatical errors.

    I don't think that your mistakes are a sign of any dysfunction. You're just a fast thinker and you type fast. You're going to make mistakes. Let the computer find them for you.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Because the words looks similar to the ones you wanted to type ... = )

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.