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someone should write a book to keep track of all the different words and definitions. they could put all the words in alphabetical order and show the different spellings. what will they call it?
wordopedia, alphabook, spellasaurus-text?
Wha – “Wha’ happened” – dumped due to lack of interest.
Why do so many question words begin with “w” anyway?
According to wikipedia, “the interrogative pronouns (those beginning wh in addition to the word how), derive from the Proto-Indo-European root kwo- or kwi, the former of which was reflected in Proto-Germanic as xwa- or hwa-. The Proto-Indo-European root directly originated the Latin and Romance form qu- in words such as Latin quī (“which”) and quando (“when”). In English, the gradual change of voiceless stops into voiceless fricatives (phase 1 of Grimm’s law) during the development of Germanic languages is responsible for “wh-” of interrogatives. Although some varieties of American English and various Scottish dialects still preserve the original sound (i.e. [hw] rather than [w]), the majority only preserve the [w]. The words who, whom, whose, what and why, can all be considered to come from a single Old English word hwā, reflecting its masculine and feminine nominative (hwā), dative (hwām), genitive (hwæs), neuter nominative (hwæt), and instrumental of all genders (hwȳ, later hwī) respectively. Other interrogative words, such as which, how, where, as well as the now archaic whither derive either from compounds (which coming from a compound of hwā [what, who] and lic [like]), or other words from the same root (how deriving from hū).”
man, I’m such an etymology geek. sorry about that.
It’s just the way people who can’t spell “Whoa” write the word. They mean the exact same thing and are pronounced the exact same way… one is just spelled incorrectly.
I always assumed the rampant misspellings were brought in by the same crowd who thinks “lol” is a punctuation mark.
Yes, only ‘whoa’ is correct. jessperson is wrong in saying that in the Bill & Ted context, it is spelled differently. It’s ‘whoa’ in that case too. ‘Woah’ is always wrong. One thing I’ve noticed when looking up common grammatical errors is that often people have made up similar arbitrary distinctions about when to use a particular spelling and when to use a supposed variant, that is actually always wrong. It’s quite odd, but interesting.
I do find it conceivable that, like most slang words, the common misspelling might become accepted.
It’s whoa. :) The etymology geek should have realized it’s one of those words that starts out meaning one thing then expands. You say whoa on your horse for something that you need to stop for, then eventually anytime you see anything giving you pause, you say whoa out of habit and eventually it catches on.
When my son was barely reading, he saw the word “Whoa!” in one of those old text-based adventure games and said out loud: “Wa-hoi-ay!” Now I will never forget how to spell it… W-H-O-A.
I Agree “W-H-O-A” Is the CORRECT Spelling. However, the English laungage is so confusing “Not to me, but to others” That it Would be Easy to confuse espically seeings the way we were taught to pronounce words when I was in school. Example, we’re taught that Who spells the word WHO, “Like the sound an Owl makes, Lol” So one might think that spelling the word as it should be “WHOA” would sound as tho u were saying WHO-Ahh & Spelling it WOAH with a Long O sound Pronounced “WO-AH” Actually makes more sense. Just a thought to ponder on :) Thanks for letting me ramble on… Hope You ALL Have a Great Day!!! :)
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When I was in elementary school, my friend and I thought the correct ‘whoa’ spelling was silly.
(Who-ah) whoa…wow, im sorry but the word’s aesthetics/spelling are counterintuitive to how it sounds when pronounced.
say Oh….it ends in an -ah sound just subtley as it rolls off the tongue like the letter ‘O’ by its lonesome…now say Oah
now add W in front..woah…..kthx I think (WHO-AH) whoa should be spelled differently language is subjective but the general consensus of the popluation subcsribes to the oft-used nomenclature.
whoa. I think. …
someone should write a book to keep track of all the different words and definitions. they could put all the words in alphabetical order and show the different spellings. what will they call it?
wordopedia, alphabook, spellasaurus-text?
Wouldn’t that be called a dictionary, pretty sure that has been written more over than any other book except from the bible.
Congratulations. You failed sarcasm.
Whoa. It has always been whoa. And it drives me crazy when people misspell it “woah”.
Whoa is one syllable.
Woah is two.
Whoa is the original – y’know, what a cowboy says to their horse to ease up.
I think the two syllable version is stupid, but it’s one of those 21st century mutations that’s worming its way into the vernacular.
Whoa – woh like whoa… Nelly.
Woah – Bill and Ted, like, woah dude.
Wha – “Wha’ happened” – dumped due to lack of interest.
Why do so many question words begin with “w” anyway?
According to wikipedia, “the interrogative pronouns (those beginning wh in addition to the word how), derive from the Proto-Indo-European root kwo- or kwi, the former of which was reflected in Proto-Germanic as xwa- or hwa-. The Proto-Indo-European root directly originated the Latin and Romance form qu- in words such as Latin quī (“which”) and quando (“when”). In English, the gradual change of voiceless stops into voiceless fricatives (phase 1 of Grimm’s law) during the development of Germanic languages is responsible for “wh-” of interrogatives. Although some varieties of American English and various Scottish dialects still preserve the original sound (i.e. [hw] rather than [w]), the majority only preserve the [w]. The words who, whom, whose, what and why, can all be considered to come from a single Old English word hwā, reflecting its masculine and feminine nominative (hwā), dative (hwām), genitive (hwæs), neuter nominative (hwæt), and instrumental of all genders (hwȳ, later hwī) respectively. Other interrogative words, such as which, how, where, as well as the now archaic whither derive either from compounds (which coming from a compound of hwā [what, who] and lic [like]), or other words from the same root (how deriving from hū).”
man, I’m such an etymology geek. sorry about that.
“Woah” isn’t even in the dictionary.
It’s just the way people who can’t spell “Whoa” write the word. They mean the exact same thing and are pronounced the exact same way… one is just spelled incorrectly.
I always assumed the rampant misspellings were brought in by the same crowd who thinks “lol” is a punctuation mark.
Yes, only ‘whoa’ is correct. jessperson is wrong in saying that in the Bill & Ted context, it is spelled differently. It’s ‘whoa’ in that case too. ‘Woah’ is always wrong. One thing I’ve noticed when looking up common grammatical errors is that often people have made up similar arbitrary distinctions about when to use a particular spelling and when to use a supposed variant, that is actually always wrong. It’s quite odd, but interesting.
I do find it conceivable that, like most slang words, the common misspelling might become accepted.
i cannot STAND the “woah” spelling. “whoa” all the way.
Woah for me all the way. Seems silly to pronounce Wh
Haha, the “h” in “wh” is supposed to be silent. It would be how you pronounce the beginning of “what”.
It’s whoa. :) The etymology geek should have realized it’s one of those words that starts out meaning one thing then expands. You say whoa on your horse for something that you need to stop for, then eventually anytime you see anything giving you pause, you say whoa out of habit and eventually it catches on.
When my son was barely reading, he saw the word “Whoa!” in one of those old text-based adventure games and said out loud: “Wa-hoi-ay!” Now I will never forget how to spell it… W-H-O-A.
I Agree “W-H-O-A” Is the CORRECT Spelling. However, the English laungage is so confusing “Not to me, but to others” That it Would be Easy to confuse espically seeings the way we were taught to pronounce words when I was in school. Example, we’re taught that Who spells the word WHO, “Like the sound an Owl makes, Lol” So one might think that spelling the word as it should be “WHOA” would sound as tho u were saying WHO-Ahh & Spelling it WOAH with a Long O sound Pronounced “WO-AH” Actually makes more sense. Just a thought to ponder on :) Thanks for letting me ramble on… Hope You ALL Have a Great Day!!! :)
Several natural green coffee bean extract side effects appear to be numerous alternatives that have
been put up by people over the time regarding
green coffee bean extract side effects. Some of
the reactions may be very dangerous to you that these pills can damage
your health, a product should be taken just by people that are sensitive to
caffeine may not tolerate it.
When I was in elementary school, my friend and I thought the correct ‘whoa’ spelling was silly.
(Who-ah) whoa…wow, im sorry but the word’s aesthetics/spelling are counterintuitive to how it sounds when pronounced.
say Oh….it ends in an -ah sound just subtley as it rolls off the tongue like the letter ‘O’ by its lonesome…now say Oah
now add W in front..woah…..kthx I think (WHO-AH) whoa should be spelled differently language is subjective but the general consensus of the popluation subcsribes to the oft-used nomenclature.
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