This has become a pet peeve of mine and as a non-native English speaker I just don’t understand why so many people make that typo in the first place- what is it?

  • Gamma@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Because that’s how most people pronounce it, and it’s an uncommon word so most are guessing on the spelling anyway

    • alex [they, il]@jlai.luOP
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      1 year ago

      Ah, sounds fair - the O is very much pronounced O in French and I didn’t realise how similar to A it would be in English. Thanks!

      • whiskyjack@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        So English is weird; any non-stressed syllable in a word has the exact same vowel sound: the schwa

        It’s basically a very neutral vowel sound because we are lazy speakers.

    • alex [they, il]@jlai.luOP
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      1 year ago

      Ah, sounds fair - the O is very much pronounced O in French and I didn’t realise how similar to A it would be in English. Thanks!

      • ramble81@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah to add to that it is pronounced more like “Mass-tah-don” rather than “Mass-toe-don”. The “tah” portion makes people think it’s spelled with a “ta” since that would give you that pronunciation normally instead of “to”. One of the many insane quirks of the English language stealing from other languages over the centuries.

  • Eddie Trax@dmv.social
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    1 year ago

    Native English speaker here. Although I pronounce it Mast-a-don, I spell it Mastodon because that’s how it’s spelled and I know how to read and write. Also, I’ve never seen it spelled like that. English speaking or otherwise.

  • Xariphon@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    English speakers, especially Americans, don’t put much value in spelling, especially on the internet. Can’t be arsed to Google it, or even look at the logo on the page they’re on. Just wing it because it sounds right and they’ve never actually read it.

    Then they do read it and continue to get it wrong anyway, because fuck you that’s why, I guess?

    • Unbeelievable@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      People think it’s spelled Mastadon, because they pronounce it Mastadon. No one googles what they think they already know.

    • corytheboyd@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      We may be pretty fucking dumb, but I don’t think disregard for spelling things correctly on the internet is a strictly American quality lol

    • madcaesar@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’ve said before the name mastodon sucks… It’s like mastrubation and dong combined.