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How to Spell Commonly Misspelled Words
In this Article:Word ListSpelling Commonly Misspelled WordsCommunity Q&A
There are many slippery spelling words in the English language. They can trip you up at the worse of times.To spell commonly misspelled words, use the simple strategies below.
Steps
Word List
Spelling Commonly Misspelled Words
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1Remember a few spelling rules. Though English isn’t known for its consistency, learning a few spelling rules can go a long way. For example:- “I” before “e” except after “c” or when sounded like “a” as in “neighbor” and “weigh.”
- Some exceptions to this rule are “weird” (which is kind of weird, right?), “their,” and “protein.”
- Words containing “cien,” like “ancient” and “science,” don’t follow the “except after ‘c’ ” part of the rule.
- There are also a bunch of “eigh” words that don’t follow this rule like “eighty,” “height,” and “foreign.”
- They’re with their things over there. To understand the differences, remember that:
- They’re = they + are; the apostrophe marks where the “a” and the space used to be.
- Their is possessive; after all, you can’t write it “their” without “heir.”
- There denotes a location; you can’t write “there” without writing “here” any more than you can with the word “where!”
- When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking. In words like “foe,” “toast,” “scream,” and “bait,” the vowel sound is determined by the first vowel, not the second. This is quite often the case, though many “ie” words (“chief,” “grief”) don’t follow this rule (not to mention the word “you”).
- “I” before “e” except after “c” or when sounded like “a” as in “neighbor” and “weigh.”
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2Look at the list of commonly misspelled words below. Note the bolded differences between them; many of these should look familiar to you now that you have learned the rules above.
| MISSPELLING | CORRECT SPELLING |
| acheive | achieve |
| accomodate | accommodate |
| accidently | accidentally |
| adrenalin | adrenaline |
| adress | address |
| alot | a lot |
| athiest | atheist |
| beggining | beginning |
| bereu | bureau |
| beleive | believe |
| beleif | belief |
| bisness | business |
| breath | breathe (verb) |
| catagory | category |
| committment | commitment |
| concieve | conceive |
| copywrite | copyright (intellectual property) |
| decaffinated | decaffeinated |
| decathalon | decathlon |
| definately | definitely |
| desireable | desirable |
| diarrea | diarrhoea (British English) |
| diarrea | diarrhea (American English) |
| diety | deity |
| dissppoint | disappoint |
| dispell | dispel |
| ecstacy | ecstasy |
| embarass | embarrass |
| enviroment | environment |
| expresso | espresso |
| extremly | extremely |
| facist | fascist |
| Febuary | February |
| flourescent | fluorescent |
| fourty | forty |
| freind | friend |
| guage | gauge |
| goverment | government |
| grammer | grammar |
| grievious | grievous |
| harrass | harass |
| hemorage | hemorrhage |
| heros | heroes |
| hieght, heigth | height |
| hygeine | hygiene |
| hym | hymn |
| independance | independence |
| inate | innate |
| innoculate | inoculate |
| it's | its (possessive) |
| knowlege | knowledge |
| lazer | laser |
| leprecan | leprechaun |
| libary | library |
| lightening | lightning |
| maintainance | maintenance |
| managable | manageable |
| millenium | millennium |
| mischievious | mischievous |
| mispell | misspell |
| mit | mitt |
| monestary | monastery |
| monkies | monkeys |
| morgage | mortgage |
| mountian | mountain |
| neccessary | necessary |
| neice | niece |
| nickle | nickel |
| nineth | ninth |
| ninty | ninety |
| noone | no one or no-one |
| noticable | noticeable |
| nuptuals | nuptials |
| occured | occurred |
| occurence | occurrence |
| occurrance | occurrence |
| oppurtunity | opportunity |
| paralell | parallel |
| pasttime | pastime |
| pavillion | pavilion |
| peice | piece |
| percieve | perceive |
| perserverance | perseverance |
| persue | pursue |
| pinocio | pinocchio |
| posession | possession |
| pertend | pretend |
| potatoe | potato |
| preceeding | preceding |
| pronounciation | pronunciation |
| priviledge | privilege |
| recieve | receive |
| reccomend | recommend |
| rediculous | ridiculous (as in ridicule) |
| reguardless | regardless |
| remeber | remember |
| restrant | restaurant |
| roomate | roommate or room-mate |
| rythm | rhythm |
| sacreligious | sacrilegious |
| seige | siege |
| sentance | sentence |
| seperate | separate |
| sieze | seize |
| similiar | similar |
| sincerly | sincerely |
| sooveneer | souvenir |
| speach | speech |
| stationary | stationery (as in office supplies) |
| stragedy | strategy |
| suggestable | suggestible |
| supercede | supersede |
| supposively | supposedly |
| suprise | surprise |
| thier | their |
| throughly | thoroughly |
| tommorrow | tomorrow |
| tounge | tongue |
| triathalon | triathlon |
| ukelele | ukulele |
| vaccuum | vacuum |
| vegeterian | vegetarian |
| villian | villain |
| Wendesday | Wednesday |
| wierd | weird |
| writting | writing |
| your | you're (you are) |
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Community Q&A
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- QuestionAny tips on remembering how to spell the word category?wikiHow ContributorCommunity AnswerTry remembering "cate," and then "gory." Eventually you'll remember "category."
- QuestionDo I spell paster of church paster or pastor?wikiHow ContributorCommunity AnswerYou spell it "pastor". You can look it up in a dictionary or online if you aren't sure.
- QuestionWhich is the last step for reviewing frequently misspelled words?Top AnswererWrite them down (or spell them out loud) over and over.
- QuestionWhat is the proper spelling for "light em up"?wikiHow ContributorCommunity AnswerBecause "em" is an abridged version of "them," then the correct spelling would be "Light 'em up."
- QuestionWhat is the correct spelling for Me-Me - like grandma?Top AnswererThere is no correct spelling. Just spell it the way it's pronounced.
- QuestionHow can you learn to spell medical terms?wikiHow ContributorCommunity AnswerThe best way is to research those terms on Google and find the correct spelling. Write that spelling down and constantly repeat writing down the term until you know it. It is believed that a human brain requires 24 repetitions of a term to remember it, so aim for that number.
- QuestionWhat help can I give to a person who knows how to read but not spell?wikiHow ContributorCommunity AnswerYou can help them by encouraging them to practice with you. Pick out some words from a text that they recognize and practice the spelling with them. To make it more fun, you could pick out some words that are specific to a series they like. For example, if they like to read Lord of the Rings novels, you could try practicing words like "Gollum," "dwarves," etc.
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Submit Tips
- There are many tools out there on internet that can help you spell. Try http://tellspell.com/, or just Google the word and see if it is spelled correctly.
- Try a practice exercise: Write the word on a piece of paper five times in the morning when you wake up, and then write it on the back of the page five times at night before you go to bed. After doing this for a few days, you should have mastered the word!
- If all fails, try to create memory sentences or phrases involving the troublesome words. (Examples: Remember together as to-get-her. If you struggle with believe, try committing "never believe a lie" to memory.)
Warnings
- These are very complicated so it will take some time to spell them correctly.
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