100 Most Commonly Misspelled Words

Comments

10 responses

1. 

   Wendi Kelly

   September 2, 2010

   Every word gives me trouble on any given day! What amazes me is how many great creative writers hide in shame over the fact that we can’t spell. And, when I finally stood up and admitted that I was a DX’d dyslexic writer, I’ve found so many others who have come out of the woodwork to admit that although stories and subjects may whiz through our brains in Technicolor, they may not slow down enough for spelling and proofreading.

   A resource like this is a godsend. Almost as awesome as spellcheck and the computer. And, since I am old enough to remember being a dyslexic writer before computers, I’ll add white out to that short list.

   Thanks for this.

   Reply
2. 

   Ingwa

   September 2, 2010

   It’s interesting to see how these words cause problems for people, including myself. There are a few times where I really have to think about a word and type or write it out, to look at the shape of it to recognize that it’s not right. One of the most important lessons I learnt whilst learning English was that reading, and a lot of it is the best source of learning material you have. When you read, you are following a story or message through the words of another person. That person talks to you, or you hear them talking to themselves and, lets face it, as they are published they have mastered a part of the language that has enough importance to be published.

   Old manuscripts such as the Book of Kells took years, and in some cases decades to produce through meticulous hard work. Writing perfectly formed letters, absolutely proportioned for clarity and magnificent artworks and ornaments. The message was of that much importance that it was published, to be frozen in all time, as it was written.

   The great authors of the past have a huge lesson to teach us because we get completely unadulterated language produced by learned people. So surely I should read their works to understand my language better? Through puzzling passages comes the curiosity to investigate a word, phrase, or saying to understand it and appreciate it’s value to the context of the text. It’s that spark of want that creates the need to know what it means. That makes ones language evolve and improve over time with the understanding that it’s good, descriptive words that enable us to write better so that we too can be immortalized in the published words of our works.

   I haven’t learned as much English from text books and lessons as I have reading, and listening to the forming of words and inquiring about the meaning or context of something that just doesn’t look quite right to me. At times though I do have to stop and think about a word to appreciate it’s placement, and others I have to write down because I cannot see the word clearly and then I have that eureka moment and rearrange the misplaced letters.

   Language is ever evolving, and words are changing their meaning on a constant basis. Reading the classics helps teach us the actual origins of the language, and we can follow that through time to see it’s progression in presentation and interpretation.

   Thank you for sharing the article, it was very informative and reassuring that it’s good to question whether we have something right or not.

   Reply
3. 

   Nikola Hartmann

   September 3, 2010

   lie u ten ants is an easy way to remember how to spell lieutenants. I learned this tip during my stint as an army officer.

   Thanks so much for sharing this post!

   Reply
4. 

   Noemi Twigg

   September 3, 2010

   I think it’s “occasional” for me. I’ll never (I hope) forget how to spell “accommodate” since I lost in a spelling competition (many many years ago) because of this word!

   Reply
5. 

   Elizabeth Marles

   September 3, 2010

   Jewellery always gets me (had to double check it before posting just then!)

   Reply
6. 

   Lyn Murphy

   September 3, 2010

   Whenever I write anything, even an email, I always have a web browser open to my home page. Any time I come across a word, the spelling of which I’m not sure, I type it into the Google search. It takes a bit of extra time, but at least I know my finished article will not be full of spelling mistakes. It’s been proven over and over again that the Spellchecker function isn’t always to be relied upon.
   But thanks for the tip on accommodate. I’ll certainly remember that one.

   Reply
7. 

   bonju patten

   September 4, 2010

   I love spell check otherwise I’m doomed to repeat – again, again, again….to infinity.

   Reply
8. 

   Bakari

   September 4, 2010

   These words can easily be put into any word expansion and spelling correction program (e.g., TextExpander, Typinator, Spell Catcher) which would help catch many of the misspellings.

   Reply
9. 

   Debra Stang

   September 5, 2010

   Yet another reason why I love my spell-checker. True, it doesn’t catch every mistake, but it has saved me from making a fool out of myself a number of times.

   Most recently, I was advertising my editing services and I misspelled “misspelled.” Thank goodness I caught it before the ad went out!

   Reply
10. 

    Unpublished Guy

    June 10, 2012

    Google has become my spell checker.

    Reply

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