Grammar Rant 11/14/18
Woah, Nelly! That is one major spelling error!
It’s a simple error, but one that I see even the most learned of my colleagues make on a regular basis. And I’ve even seen it in books from reputable publishers, which makes me cringe and want to send a tersely worded email to their copy editors.
The correct word is “whoa.”
And a simple way to remember this is that “woah” rhymes with “Noah.”
Got it? Good.
I just check Microsoft Word’s spellcheck, and it doesn’t flag woah (although the spellcheck in this website does.) Apparently WOAH is a Christian radio station of enough renown to be recognized by “smart lookup” in Word. Sigh.
And this is why spell check is NOT the best way to proof read, as every teacher on the planet has tried to convince every student since the inception of spell check. 😉