There are too many words for the average person to know how to write them all perfectly, myself included. And with so many tricky words that can be both a noun and a verb, it's no wonder we make mistakes. I always have to double-check my text because I type much faster than my brain can process the rules, and I know I'm not the only one. For example, advice vs advise is an easy one to get wrong.
You can find a list of commonly misspelt words here (UK spelling). And if you scroll down, you'll find a list of some of the differences in spelling between three English-speaking countries. Because, why not?
Word | Explanation/Example |
Accommodate | Often misspelt due to doubling of 'm' and 'c' |
Acknowledge | Often misspelt due to forgetting the silent 'k' at the beginning |
Believe | The 'i' and 'e' are often confused, leading to misspellings such as 'beleive' |
Calendar | Often written as 'calender' |
Definitely | Often written as 'definately'. Often misspelt due to confusion with similar words like 'defiantly' |
Embarrass | Often written as 'embarass' or 'embarras' because of uncertainty regarding the double 'r' and 's' |
Familiar | Often written with an extra 'l', 'familliar' |
Guarantee | Often written as 'garantee' because you don't hear the 'u' when pronouncing the word |
Necessary | The double 's' and 'c' often cause confusion |
Privilege | Often written as 'privelige'. Confusion because of the 'e' and 'i' sound when pronouncing the word |
Receive | The 'i' and 'e' are often switched, leading to misspellings such as 'recieve' |
Separate | Confusion over where the 'a' and 'e' should be placed |
Weird | The 'i' and 'e' are often switched, leading to misspellings such as 'wierd' |
Acquaintance | This is a long word where the 'cquai' part is tricky because you don't hear the 'c' when pronouncing the word |
Exhilarate | Often written as 'exhilerate' due to how people tend to pronounce the word |
Exaggerate | Often written as 'exagerate' because you don't really hear the double 'g' when you pronounce the word |
English is the primary language of many countries. Take, for example, the UK, the USA, Canada, and Australia. These four countries have varieties in vocabulary usage and spelling conventions, which can be very confusing and cause many spelling errors. For example, when one mainly reads books from American authors, they may get used to seeing 'traveling'; while in the UK, the dictionary shows 'travelling'.
UK Spelling | US Spelling | AU Spelling |
Travelling | Traveling | Travelling |
Modelling | Modeling | Modelling |
Draught | Draft | Draught (also Draft) |
Programme | Program | Program (also Programme) |
Trousers | Pants | Pants |
Pants | Underpants | Underpants (also Pants – though, mostly women's) |
Defence | Defense | Defence |
Labour | Labor | Labour (also Labor) |
Metre | Meter | Meter |
Neighbour | Neighbor | Neighbour (also Neighbor) |
Centre | Center | Centre |
Australian spelling can be tricky if you're not from there or don't work with it. As you can see from the small sample above, it looks like a mix of US and UK spelling conventions where you can spell certain words in two different ways.
We all have words we need to correct while writing, no matter how many times we've corrected them in the past. Which word do you always mess up? Let me know in the comments.
References:
UK Spelling: Oxford English Dictionary
US Spelling: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
AU Spelling: Macquarie Dictionary
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