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Because our job entails writing these posts, we're usually pretty good at avoiding these 8 Spelling Mistakes Even Smart People Make. (Well, that, and we have great editors!) But, even if we escape the whole your/you're debacle, we still trip up on a few select words. For instance ...1. Debacle. We totally had to Google the word we just used in the intro. Speaking of which, that's totally ...
2. Embarrassing. Gosh darn it, the double "r" and double "s" get us every time. If we had it our way, it'd be one or the other. Period.
3. Baccalaureate. We think we had one of these in high school, but we couldn't spell it then and we sure as hell can't spell it now.
4. Separate. We finally started spelling it right after our history professor docked points when the majority of class wrote about the "seperation of church and state." Whoooops.
5. Diarrhea. This word is gross and hard to spell, which is why we avoid using it in written or verbal communication at all costs.
6. Elementary. You know, the place that's supposed to teach us this spelling business. Elementry? Elementery? Boo.
7. Misspell. What spelling demons thought this was a funny practical joke?
8. Recommend. Two C's? Two M's? Problem with this one -- they both look right!
What words you do most misspell all the time?
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Tuesday 22 September
By FOURDOGSLAUGHING
the words rediculous and chihuahua are the worst for me to remember!
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Friday 25 September
By sadgalinsd
It's ridiculous. :-)
Tuesday 22 September
By Lewis
Shouldn't the last sentence read " do you" instead of " you do" ?
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Tuesday 22 September
By Trish
Thank you...that was driving me nuts.
Tuesday 22 September
By dawn
Some that drive me crazy:
* loose instead of lose...you don't loose your keys, you lose them
* desert instead of dessert.....you get lost in the desert, you eat dessert
* all of the times when someone uses to instead of too, its instead of it's, your instead of you're, their, there, or they're (not really spelling, but grammar issues)
* while we're on the subject of grammar, not everything is "Jim and I"......if it's used objectively, we should say "Jim and me"
* patience instead of patients....you must have patience to take care of patients
Some that I personally struggle with and always have to look up:
* judgment (I always want to put an "e" after the g)
* Cincinnati (is it one n or two, one t or two?)
* accommodate (same thing as with Cincinnati)
* naive (guess I'm too naive to remember it correctly each time)
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Tuesday 22 September
By dawn
Ha! I hadn't even noticed that...good catch!
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Tuesday 22 September
By Mary Pat
Courtesy of my 8th grade English teacher, Mrs. Miller: Just remember, there's always a rat in 'separate'.
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Tuesday 22 September
By Ryan
Some of those words are difficult to spell; however, good teachers can teach you tricks to help spelling some of them. For instance...
There is "a rat" in Separate.
Recommend--The base word is "Commend" which only has one "C". When you recommend someone, you are re-commending him/her.
Tricks are always good to help remember.
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Tuesday 22 September
By susan
People misuse "effect" and "affect" and thy alway screw up "lose" and "loose". Oh, and the word is "regardless"...not "irregardless" which is actually okay, but you sound redundant.
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Tuesday 22 September
By chacha
i always write tounge instead of tongue
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Tuesday 22 September
By Mali Beic
Wit spell check it's easy to spell rite butt, some-times ewe use the wrong ward.... and spell check can't correct that.
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Tuesday 22 September
By jim hardie
OH, YES THERE TWO WORDS THAT ATE TOO HARD TO GET RIGHT AND THIS IS ONE OF THEM
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Tuesday 22 September
By Randi
I've noticed, even in print, the word "lose" spelled "loose", as in, "Don't loose your temper!" BAH!! Also, when I see people confusing "your" and "you're", it drives me batty. Interiorly, of course, because if you point out spelling errors to grown-ups, you look like a butthead.
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Tuesday 22 September
By Kris
Well, there's only one on the list that I have trouble with (bacclau . . . the degree one), but I always want to throw a second "a" into Lavender. Lavendar. Lavander. See? That last one looks almost right. It's not right, is it?
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Tuesday 22 September
By SpiceMonkey
Hemorrhoid--I see spammers spell it every way but the right way. Who the hell is going to buy a product to cure a condition that they can't even f*ing spell?
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Tuesday 22 September
By steve
apparently we've become a society if illiterates.
did ALL of you go to school in California?
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Tuesday 22 September
By jackie
How about redundancies such as "ATM machine", or "6:00 a.m. in the morning" or "VIN number"?
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Tuesday 22 September
By pyeager123
In this age of text shortcuts and sloppy grammar, I'm always happy to see an article like this--and they're good examples, too. I have a very tough time with recommend!
My blog, languageandgrammar.com, might be of interest to those who enjoyed this article.
--Paul Yeager (author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever)
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Tuesday 22 September
By frb
Im surprised Tomorrow was not on that list! i never remember if its 1 m 2 rs or 2 ms 1 r :P
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Tuesday 22 September
By polsonbxk
The word that bugs me is "preventative". It is used so often it is now in the dictionary. The preferred word is "preventive". Another word is "nuclear" when it is pronounced as "nucular".
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