Why does this spelling mistake bother me so much?

Not being a native English speaker, makes me less critical about other peoples spelling. However, there's one spelling mistake that just makes me cringe whenever I see it. Now, because I spend at least some of my internet time in forums, that means I see that word quite a bit.

The word is Your. What's that I hear you say? “Your” is not a misspelled word? Oh, but it is when it’s used instead of You’re. And the problem is that it seems like this mistake is starting to take roots – starting to pop all over the place. I just got this in my email:

 

I just hope our dictionaries will be smart enough to point this mistake out at some point.

I usually don’t like ranting about such inconsequential things, but I guess I have my pet peeves just like each of you have you’res.

Comments

• Anonymous
  December 08, 2005
  The title of your blog entry has a spelling or grammer mistake!
  
  'bothers' should be 'bother'.
• Anonymous
  December 08, 2005
  This is not a spelling mistake. It is a grammar mistake.
  
  Alex,
  You have a spelling mistake too since you like to point them out. Grammer is not a word. Grammar is a word.
• Anonymous
  December 08, 2005
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  December 08, 2005
  The problem is, that everyone these days has become a publisher, but not everyone has well-developed editing skills (...because it is not their career or interest).
  
  It used to be that information that was sent out to lots of people was typically written by a professional writer, and often times edited by an editor.
  
  Times are changing!
• Anonymous
  December 08, 2005
  You think that's bad? What if you had that same misspelling, only in tattoo form. Think about that for a few minutes.
  
  Then, look at this, and marvel:
  http://busdriver3030.shackspace.com/pics/youralive-lol.jpg
• Anonymous
  December 08, 2005
  Thanks for the comment about the grammatical mistake. Fixed it. :)
  
  It was obvious that at least one would be found. Not to talk about my liberal and often misplaced use of punctuation marks.
  
  I tend to not be bothered too much about spelling mistakes. But for some reason Your and You're seem to me like a somewhat more serious offense.
• Anonymous
  October 22, 2008
  Since this is a mostly technical blog: technically this too is a grammatical issue of when the phrase "You are" is appropriate instead of the word "your."  This is not significant until one would dismiss other grammar issues as not relating to this issue by virtue of category of the error. Part of the issue is attitude and position of the statement.   I agree the advertisement shown should have been grammar checked by the editor before publishing via mass email.  I would therefore be inclined to discard it as fake spam or at least be skeptical when reading it.  Companies should know they lose credibility and effectiveness when those blatant errors are distributed en masse. Blogs, as you mentioned, are published by the author; sometimes in first draft.  I am more inclined to allow for small slips in grammar and spelling here.  As you have shown editing is possible, however not always done before noticed by someone. Instant messaging, chat rooms, game lounges, and the like have brought a whole culture of young and old who easily accept all defects as acceptable to instant display of the idea.  They also sometimes adapt fabricated shortcuts from text messaging to further quicken the process and sometime obfuscate from persons who might look over their shoulder. In those mediums of your complaint you’re likely to see:  ur rite!    IMHO gen X & Y edit 4 a co. & 4get wen they edit they r no in chat ;)