Sorry, but there have been sooo many threads in which Cinque Terre is misspelled as Cinque Terra.

I don't know why, but it really irks me. And today, there are two new threads, both of which have it misspelled! Why do so many people get this one wrong?

That's all. I just had to get that off my chest. Carry on.

Careful! I just got a scolding in another thread for posting that in Italy, people don't say "San Gim" when referring to San Gimignano (at least as far as I know). I was told I was being insulting by offering up the information.

I think a lot of people get it wrong because they don't realize the plural of a feminine Italian word is "e". (It looks French!) And "terra" is a very well known Latin word among English speakers ("terra firma, terra incongita"). It's so common to see Italian words ending in "a" -- bella, Italia, pannacotta -- hey! That reminds me: What's with this "panecott" spelling?

I don't repeat the error but I don't bother to correct it like I do some other spellings because there is no Cinque Terre train station.

I think people should spell place names correctly since the information offered in a thread with an incorrect spelling is useless to others when searching at a later time.

But then again...many people whose first language is English don't spell normal English words correctly so how can we expect these folks to get the Italian right.

And I'm not referring to the difference between British English and American English!

Why do so many people get it wrong? In his episode about the Cinque Terre, the great travel guru Rick Steves consistently mispronounces it as Cinque TerrA. And since Rick Steves is considered infallible by many people...

Oh, that explains it. It figures Rick Steves would get it wrong. I just think that if people want to go somewhere, they have presumable done some research and should catch on to the correct spelling.

zeppole, I'm not "pannacotta" - cooked cream; I'm pane cotto - cooked bread. As I've explained on one of the threads about screen names, my grandmother used to call me that when I was a baby, b/c I was soft and warm like freshly baked bread. I just dropped the "o" for my screen name.

heck - all the time folks spell Stonehenge wrong (Stonehedge), Edinburgh wrong (Edinburg, Edinborourgh), Monterey wrong (Monteray), so a Cinque Terra now and then doesn't seem so terrible.

oops, "presumably".


And BTW, that Carpi/Capri thread should convince people about how important correct spelling is, especially a place name.

Zerlina - why do so many people say Tras-te-vere instead of Tras-tevere? Probably because that's how Rick Steves pronounces the area.

janis, It's really very frequent. If you did a search, you'd probably see "Cinque Terra" on this board a lot more than "Cinque Terre".

Oh. I assumed you were Sicilian.

I don't think people are going to get lost looking for Capri -- or Carpi.

Anyway, I simply can't throw stones. I actually lived adjacent to that heath in London for some time and to this day I have to look up the spelling to make sure I don't include or leave out "e"s. Likewise how to spell the word for those 20 administrative districts in Paris. With those, I try to fake it with just using "e".

adrienne,

You're going to have to render those better, because the accent is on the middle syllable. I guess you want to attach the "s" to the "tra"?

http://www.forvo.com/word/trastevere/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trastevere

zeppole, I am half Sicilian, but the SN has nothing to do with that.

About Capri/Carpi, didn't you see the thread on the Lounge? There was a story about a Swedish couple who set their GPS for Capri, but mistakenly spelled it Carpi, and that's where they wound up. In Carpi.

Carpi instead of Capri...that's crapi.

paris,

Well, it's better than setting your GPS for Capri and ending up in the Mediterranean.

panecott: "<i>janis, It's really very frequent.</i>"

Yes - I know -- and when we try to correct folks on the USA forum (CA gets LOTS of misspelling due to all the Spanish and Spanglish place names) they just don't pay attention. It is amazing how many British names are misspelled on here too. Can't blame it ALL on Rick Steves (though I'd love to since I often find him insufferable)

I never watch Rick Steves, but the few times I caught a few minutes of him, and from what I've heard and read about him, I don't like him either. So I'll just continue to blame him for everything.

My pet peeve is Wimbledon pronounced "Wimpleton." I can't figure out how anyone looking at the name sees those hard consonants.