As sophisticated as we like to think we are with our on-line ways - and in particular shopping - we are still struggling with our command of the English language.

A survey by Argos suggests that if we could just improve our spelling companies could do a whole lot better out of our willingness to buy on-line. And we might find what we are looking for a little faster.

Apparently, there are now an estimated 1.9 billion of us making 40,000 Google searches daily. Despite the practice which our spelling is not improving and we are leaning heavily on the ability of algorithms of clever seo programming to save us.

Argos itself receives a staggering 18 million visits a day so it knows a thing or two about customers searching for products, not least because it decided to look into just what people were searching for.

English teachers and grammatical scholars should look away now.

During the recent hot weather thousands of us searched Argo's site for a "trampiline", a "trampoline" or "tramploines" and for "charcole" and "barbacues".

Just how many children are still waiting for their new trampoline or how many of those with plans for al-fresco cooking had to retreat indoors is not clear.

Whether we do not know how many people who searched for a "Ninetendo" games machine were left wanting it also unknown.

Housework could be stacking up in one or two houses if the 3,000 people who searched between January and June this year for a "vaccum cleaner" or the 2,000 who searched in vain for a "vacume cleaner" is anything to go by.

Big names which spend billions building their brands will be left wondering what they need to do. It could have been enough to reduce Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc, to tears.

Hundreds of potential customers shopped for an "ipone" or an "aiphone" while others browsed happily in the hope of finding a pair of "Rebooks".

It is doubtful anyone searching the Argos site went away empty-handed thanks, as we said, to the firm's clever technology.

A spokeswoman for Argos said its website "correctly guesses what you you're trying to find, regardless of whether you've made a mistake".

UK online retail sales were up 13.9 per cent year-on-year to January 2018 according to the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index.