Can one famously misspell a word?
The answer is yes, if you are the Vice President of the United States, you’re leading a spelling bee, and you attempt to correct the correct spelling of a word.
In 1992, Vice President Dan Quayle told 12-year-old William Figueroa to add the letter ‘e’ to his spelling of p-o-t-a-t-o on the blackboard.
The kid was in a tough spot. He added the ‘e’, and Vice President Quayle said, “There you go,” and proceeded to clap for him.
The intrusive and indefensible silent ‘e’ on the end of potato resulted in the incorrectly spelled word seen around the world.
A spelling faux pas can happen to anyone.
Yep, anyone can misspell a word, but not just anyone can become famous for doing so.
Correctly spelling words is not a potayto, potahto situation; the English language demands many norms, including spelling. We can all agree that spelling certain words correctly is a challenge, even the word potato.
Even today, some people add an ‘e’ to potato.
The spelling p-o-t-a-t-o-e looks perfectly correct to me, as it does for many; I don’t know why this is the case.
Thank goodness for the red underlining of spell-check, which keeps us in check.
And thank goodness there is nothing politically correct about the spelling or pronunciation of this beloved, starchy vegetable.
Potato as opposed to potatoe is a matter of academic English norms.
To satisfy the English teachers of the world, the oblong, round, variably shaped vegetable must end in the letter ‘o.’ The letter ‘e’ only comes into play when there are two or more of the mashed, fried, baked, or potato-chip making foods.
So, it is one potato, but two or more potatoes.
For those who cannot shake that p-o-t-a-t-o is visually lacking something, I’m with you.
Like the world, spelling and pronunciation can be ‘a many splendid thing,’ especially considering one’s dialect, geographical location, or even the way one’s brain works.
Believe it or not, potato vs potatoe is not a North, South, or East versus West thing.
Nonetheless, geography does come into play, considering that the potato originates from the Spanish word ‘patata.’
The Spanish explorers brought the vegetable to Europe in the 16th century. The European and English people came to love the food, and the name patata stuck, eventually evolving into potato.
I’m sure there is more than one reason why some people are still confused about the spelling of potato. There’s no way to determine Vice President Dan Quayle’s influence on people’s correct or incorrect spelling of the word since 1992.
Let’s not forget that the misspelling conundrum may also stem from pronunciation variations. There’s not much difference between the ending ‘to’ and ‘toe,’ the pronunciation sounds very similar in many dialects.
Spelling other words that end in ‘o’ may not be as problematic because they don’t begin or end with ‘to.’
This may be a corny way to avoid misspelling potato. If you don’t want to mash, fry, or bake your toe, don’t add the ‘e’.
Many people struggle with spelling tomato just as they do with potato. For some unknown reason, I always spell tomato correctly.
I don’t think I laughed at Vice President Quayle when he made the spelling gaffe in 1992.
Everyone isn’t a great speller.
I’m so thankful for spell-check, or is it spell check?
I hope you are happy and well.