[MBTI General] Link Between Spelling and Personality Type?

[onemoretime]

I don't think it has to do with type per se, but more with a person's relationship with written language. I could see people who learned to read via the sight-word method being better spellers than those who learned via phonics, simply due to the differing conceptualizations of textual processing those two techniques provide.

 

[poppy]

I don't think it's Si, at least not in all cases. I'm pretty particular about spelling and Si generally fails me. So in that case, it's probably Te, or just generally being kind of anal.

 

[JocktheMotie]

I won my city spelling bee in 5th grade, but really I just read all the time and had a good memory. I don't go out of my way to adhere, however the built in spell checker in firefox is the primary reason I use it. I like to be precise.

Like Onemoretime said, I think it's just a combination of your exposure to the written language and your innate ability to remember stuffs.

 

[NewEra]

If you want to link spelling and type, I would try looking at function usage. I've always had excellent spelling skills. I learn to spell the same way my Mom does, but it's essentially just use of Si. I remember the way things were spelled and I spell them they way I saw them initially.

That's the case for me - that's why I'm such a good speller. Because when I usually see a word for the first time, the picture sticks in my head like a photo.

But like I said, my ISFJ sister doesn't spell nearly as well as I do. Maybe you were right about Te, or maybe it's the combination of Si and Te. Or the most probable reason is it doesn't have anything to do with type or function.

Might tend to correlate with verbal intelligence, but I don't know about type.

No, if it did, I'd be a horrible speller. My memory helps me more with spelling than anything else.

 

[Laurie]

I won my city spelling bee in 5th grade, but really I just read all the time and had a good memory. I don't go out of my way to adhere, however the built in spell checker in firefox is the primary reason I use it. I like to be precise.

Like Onemoretime said, I think it's just a combination of your exposure to the written language and your innate ability to remember stuffs.

Agreed. I've always been a good speller. Although, along with ENFPfer my use of the computer has actually lowered my spelling ability. It's certainly not a J/P, S/N, or Q/Z thing.

Read more, spell better!

 

[BerberElla]

Agreed. I've always been a good speller. Although, along with ENFPfer my use of the computer has actually lowered my spelling ability. It's certainly not a J/P, S/N, or Q/Z thing.

Read more, spell better!

Odd, I have found the same thing happening to me.

Spelling always came easy, most of my friends and family phone me whenever they have anything important they need to write just to ask me to spell things. (lazy sods don't want to use a dictionary and seem unable to remember, no matter how many times I show them, how to use the spell checker on their pc's )

Grammar eludes me though.

 

[Lambchop]

I'm an ISFJ and have always been great at spelling. I've won quite a few spelling bees in my time. However, my INFP husband is a writer and he is an awesome speller as well. We are both good with grammar too. I don't think it's a type thing per sae. I think it possibly has to do with hemispheres of our brain.

My youngest son is not good with spelling, grammar, etc (he's an ISFP), but he's excellent with math and science. I despise math and had to take a remedial math class in college for no credit just to take the basic Algebra class. You know how they say some people are right brained or left brained (I think they are balance brained people too)...I think we all are good with different things. I wish I was better at math!


I do think how much you read does relate to how well you can spell and your grammar. We didn't have a tv until I was 12 and I, so I read books like crazy. When I would take the annual testing at school, I would score off the charts on things like "figuring out the meaning of words by their context" and things like that. My sister, on the other hand (also an ISFJ, weirdly) was outside playing baseball or building treehouses with my brothers, rather than reading. She's terrible with spelling and grammar.

Anyway, I don't think it's related to personality type.

 

[poppy]

Sounds like the verdict is that it's not particularly correlated with anything

I do think how much you read does relate to how well you can spell and your grammar. We didn't have a tv until I was 12 and I, so I read books like crazy. When I would take the annual testing at school, I would score off the charts on things like "figuring out the meaning of words by their context" and things like that. My sister, on the other hand (also an ISFJ, weirdly) was outside playing baseball or building treehouses with my brothers, rather than reading. She's terrible with spelling and grammar.

That was pretty much my situation growing up too

 

[NewEra]

My youngest son is not good with spelling, grammar, etc (he's an ISFP), but he's excellent with math and science. I despise math and had to take a remedial math class in college for no credit just to take the basic Algebra class. You know how they say some people are right brained or left brained (I think they are balance brained people too)...I think we all are good with different things. I wish I was better at math!

I'm awesome at math, spelling, and grammar. I don't think spelling and grammar have to do with the right side of the brain (or the left side for that matter).

 

[brainheart]

I don't know. I'm a freak for spelling and correct grammar. The first thing I will notice on a page is a misspelled word. I will be laid back and sloppy about things I'm not interested in, but words and language... to me they matter so I notice and try to be perfect.

 

[Giggly]

 

[BlueGray]

I'm a pretty good speller and pick out more mistakes in people's spelling then I wish to. I don't care overly much about spelling, though. If it's understandable it works.

Seems to me that spelling ability can be achieved through attention to details as well as general understanding of how words are constructed so there isn't some great N/S divide.

 

[Nonsensical]

I'm a poor spellur.

It may or may not have something to do with being COMPLETELY INDIFFERENT to how things should be spelled.

People fuss way too much about it. It's annoying, and comes off as arrogance when people bitch about it all the time.

 

[Haphazard]

I go by what seems right when I spell something. I'm usually a pretty good speller on the computer, but I make a lot of typos because my right hand is faster than my left.

I notice that I spell well when I'm writing down stuff from my own head but really shittily when I have to take anything dictated. I come up with crazy and stupid errors with letter where they completely don't belong. Is this my brain typoing?

Maybe it's not related to type how well someone spells by why they're concerned with it or not.

 

[runvardh]

I try to spell properly in order to communicate more effectively, but shit happens when I'm in a rush.

 

[Lambchop]

OMG, I laughed out loud Giggly! So funny!

 

[SillySapienne]

I'm a word nerd and I've always had a knack for spelling.

 

[Tiltyred]

I don't think it has to do with type per se, but more with a person's relationship with written language. I could see people who learned to read via the sight-word method being better spellers than those who learned via phonics, simply due to the differing conceptualizations of textual processing those two techniques provide.

My mother learned by See and Say and I learned by phonics, and I can spell my ass off and she can't spell cat. She's a good writer, but she can't spell.

I think there's a correlation between reading and spelling. I hypothesize that good readers are better spellers.

 

[King sns]

When I was a kid I was a very good speller... For some reason, I've lost it a little. I'm not terrible, and can sense when i've spelled something wrong. I think that spell check made me lose my spelling ability. This website made me realize that I can't spell words that I use a lot.

Such as:
strength (seriously.. it took me forever. stregnth? streghnth? strenth? )
necessarily (necissarily? neccissarily? neccisarily?? who the hell knows???)
definitely (definately? definatly? definitly?)

and finally,

recommend: (I started off right and then started to second guess myself. Reccommend? Reccomend? Recomend? noo.. )

I place value on spelling because when I see something that I know is misspelled it impedes my reading and I get stuck on it. I think it kind of detracts from the point. So I figure that other people probably feel the same way, so I try to spell as accurately as I can. (Sometimes that means editing a couple of times.) I've even recently caught myself on the

too's and the to's and the than's and the then's and the there's and the they're's.

Don't know where my spelling head has been at!!!

 

[SillySapienne]

I think there's a correlation between reading and spelling. I hypothesize that good readers are better spellers.

Agreed.