Taters and tatters are easily confused words.
The spell-check application of most word processing software programs would not catch a slip-up of these two words. Spell-check is looking for words that aren’t in its dictionary, and words that resemble words in its dictionary, but are possibly spelled wrong. Spell-check isn’t perfect. It doesn’t know and can’t guess what word you wanted, or what word you meant, it can only judge the words on the page. If you used words that are all spelled correctly, it gives you a pass anyway.
Autocorrect suggests words that start with the same letters. It’s suggesting what word you may want to save time, but quite often, its suggestions are pretty off base. They don’t help you out, but they do make you laugh.
Taters (“tay-tuhrs”; rhymes with gators, haters) has multiple meanings.
- As a noun, it is plural form of a slang term for potatoes.
- As an adjective, the singular form (tater) describes a food with potato contents. Tater tots are shredded fragments of potato rolled into a tube shape, sliced into cylinders, and then fried and salted.
Tatters (pronounced “tat-uhrs”; rhymes with shatters, platters, matters) is an adjective. It means pieces, fragments, or shreds. It is used more in the UK than in the US.
The following story uses both words correctly:
Tate looked out across field as his dad, Taylor, drove the tractor. “It’s hard to believe how things come full circle. We wouldn’t be here if the ‘taters hadn’t failed.”
“What?!”
“Our ancestor, Teague, came to America in 1847 with his clothes in tatters. He had lost everything in the tater famine.”
“What’s a tater famine?”
It’s where the crop gets a disease and fails to grow right.” Taylor continued. “So he had nothing, he was penniless. He boarded a ship for the Americas. He worked odd jobs in Boston and saved money. He heard there were mining opportunities out West so he got a covered wagon and headed out to the frontier. He made pretty good money in Nevada with silver. Met Great Grandma Tara. After 20 years of that, he bought property up here, and got back into farming.”
Kathleen W Curry 