Spell Commonly Misspelled Words

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

Doc:Common Misspellings

Spelling Commonly Misspelled Words

  1. Remember 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”).
  2. Look 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)

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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