| 12 February |
Spelling Quiz |
My husband sent this little email quiz to me yesterday. It has been circulating the Internet for quite some time, but it is still intriguing.
fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it
I was able to read this quickly and easily, stumbling over only the word strange in the headline. How did you do?
I did a quick Internet search this morning in an attempt to discover if the information was accurate and who the author might be. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the original author, if there is one. If anyone knows it, please leave a comment so I can give proper credit.
What I did discover, though, was that this did not originate from research done at Cambridge University. Matt Davis, a scientist who works at the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, has a long webpage devoted to this ever-circulating email. Davis attempts to explain which statements in the above paragraph are true and which are incorrect. It was interesting reading, if you’ve got an extra few minutes.
I also found The Jumbler. Type in your own text, jumble it and see if you can still read what comes up.
Can you read this?
I sltil fnid ecah day too srhot for all the tthguhos I wnat to tnhik, all the wklas I wnat to tkae, all the bkoos I wnat to raed and all the ferdins I wnat to see. ~ Jhon Bhguruors
Names, obviously, are not so easy to read. Longer words are more difficult too.
Here’s the original, one of my favorite quotes:
I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see. ~ John Burroughs
Does this little exercise tell us that correct spelling is not important? Or does it tell us anything? What do you think?


