Common Spelling Errors
Dr. Language has provided a one-stop cure for all your spelling ills. Here are the 100 words most often misspelled ('misspell' is one of them). Each word has a mnemonic pill with it and, if you swallow it, it will help you to remember how to spell the word. Master the orthography of the words on this page and reduce the time you spend searching dictionaries by fifty percent.
Here are some examples...
accommodate — Remember, this word is large enough to accommodate both a double [c] AND a double [m].
mischievous — This mischievous word holds two traps: [i] before [e] and [o] before [u]. Four of the five vowels in English reside here.
misspell — What is more embarrassing than to misspell the name of the problem? Just remember that it is mis + spell and that will spell you the worry about spelling "spell."
Privilege — According to the pronunciation (not "pronounciation"!) of this word, that middle vowel could be anything. Remember: two [i]s + two [e]s in that order.
Restaurant — 'Ey, you! Remember, these two words when you spell "restaurant." They are in the middle of it.
vacuum — If your head is not a vacuum, remember that the silent [e] on this one married the [u] and joined him inside the word where they are living happily ever since. Well, the evidence is suggestive but not conclusive. Anyway, spell this word with two [u]s and not like "volume."
My bêtes noirs...
occasionally — Writers occasionally tire of doubling so many consonants and omit one, usually one of the [l]s. Don't you ever do it.
occurrence — Remember not only the occurrence of double double consonants in this word, but that the suffix is -ence, not -ance. No reason, just the English language keeping us on our toes.
Do you have any words that tend to trip you up?
Posted on:
5/11/2010 12:55:00 AM
4 comments:
I have a chronic problem spelling these words:
- privilege (I tend to spell it as privelege)
- pronunciation (I tend to spell it as pronunication)
- rhapsody (rapsody or raphsody)
- genuine (I hate this word so much because I could never get the spelling right. Usually, geninue.)
- apocalypse (when I need to use this word, I google 'Coppola now' as it'll bring up results of 'Apocalypse Now' :D)
- insalubrious (I spell it as insalabrious)
- executive (which is still embarrassing because it was part of my job title. I tend to spell it as excrutive or excruetive. I still have no idea why I have problems memorising the correct spelling.)
- Chroma key (I tend to spell it as Roma key. I once spelt it as Coma key. *facepalm*)
- Medieval (not a misspelling exactly, but a lot of people online tend to correct my spelling 'mediaeval' as 'medieval'. I'm still not used to 'medieval', though, so I still spell it as mediaeval)
- aesthetics (I spell this as esthetics. It's actually a valid spelling, but American. So, editors tend to add 'a' to my spelling.)
- ecstasy (Probably the hardest to memorise. Enough said.)
Heh.
Maili, you caught couple of mine that I'd (conveniently) forgotten: privilege and pronunciation. I used to write it your way, too, and now I know I say it out loud as I write it to make sure I get it right. I know I don't know this one. I still get tripped up by privilege sometimes.
All those ae spellings that get re-corrected to the "right" spellings. How annoying. Do people correct your double Ls, too, in say, jewellry?
Not quite a spelling error, but I'm embarrassed to admit I get tripped up on affect vs. effect, at least in their verb forms. (As nouns, they're easy.) I think I got a bad or confusing explanation of them back in 6th grade or so, and ever since I've just looked for ways to use a synonym instead.
Susanna, for me it's practice and practise in that category. Now I know the former's a noun and the latter a verb, and yet, I have to stop and think, OK, in this sentence construct am I supposed to use the noun form or verb form. Ugh!
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