When you read a lot, you learn a lot of words. You learn a lot of words that are not used in everyday conversation and you see them in context. If you don’t read much, all you know of language is what you hear in everyday conversation.
Nonreaders often reveal themselves when they write by using homophones—words that sound the same, but have different meanings. If you are accustomed to seeing those word forms in print, you will know the difference. If not, you won’t.
There is one example of this I see again and again: difficulty with the phrase “rein in”. Many nonreaders will write “reign in”, associating the meaning with a kingly mandate, not with the leather straps that a rider uses to communicate with a horse. I knew this at a young age, but then I grew up with Roy and Dale. And I’m a Texan.
Reading a comments sections somewhere one day, I came across what might be my all-time favorite use of a homophone. The writer complained that the baby boomer generation “blamed their elders for a lot of their whoa’s.” I still giggle when I read it.
I’m a reader in a world of nonreaders. Whoa is me.