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?

    • alex [they, il]OP
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      711 months 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!

      • @[email protected]
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        811 months 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
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    311 months 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.

  • @masterairmagic
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    211 months ago

    Because it’s fuckign confusing that is why 🤣

  • Xariphon
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    111 months 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?

    • corytheboyd
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      11 months 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

  • erp
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    011 months ago

    It’s to subconsciously avoid the closeness to Mast O’Don