Oh, the Difference One Letter Can Make

So... Does anyone see what's wrong with this sign? 🤔

Highway sign with misspelling of the phrase "Buses Entering Highway"

The sign was on my way into town to talk with elementary teachers about spelling instruction.

I just wrapped up two afternoons collaborating with upper elementary teachers helping them learn about how to teach kids to think like good spellers and how to teach them how to understand the deep orthography of the English language.

What was funny was that on the first day of our spelling workshop, one teacher remarked how her family just shook their head that a street sign in town (that was about school buses) had a spelling error on it. 🤣

I had to see for myself, so today when I came into town, I took a picture.

What's the error? Buses only has one "s" at the syllable break. The "s" shouldn't be doubled.

This is a funny thing. A school bus, in English, only has one "s". It doesn't double the "s" at the end, like one might expect with the FLoSS+Z pattern, which says that short one syllable words ending in f, l, s, and z will often double the last letter to protect the short vowel.

The FLoSS+Z pattern is a generalization, not a rule, because there are a lot of exceptions.

Usually, there is a reason for the exception.

For example, what do you get when you double the "s" at the end of the word "his"? You get a totally different word -- hiss!

I learned that while buses with one "s" is the preferred spelling, there was a time when it was acceptable to spell the plural with the double "ss". That was a long time ago, though, and the word bus (a vehicle that carries people from one place to another) and its plural "buses" was seemingly standardized in the Merriam Webster dictionary in 1961...long before this sign was created. The reason is because there is another word that is spelled "buss" and we don't want to confuse it with a big yellow vehicle.

Buss means "a kiss" and its plural is busses.

So, properly, this sign says/means... "Kisses entering highway." 😁

Oh the difference one letter can make.

I love words. 😉