Commonly mis-spelled words

[INTJoe]

OK, as INTJ's, I think we have a need to know how to spell every word we see, and do so correctly. I find this weird, in that, we aren't supposed to be "concerned" with details, yet it seems like you rarely see a mis-spelled word on this site, and I always used to dominate my elementary school spelling bees!!! F YEAH DUDE!!! But as can be seen from perusing this site, I'm not the only good INTJ speller.

So, what are some commonly mis-spelled words, along with their correct spelling? I'll start with:

Rediculous...there is nothing "red" about it, the word is Ridiculous.

Definately...I believe the word is rooted in "finite", so it's Definitely.

Truely...drop the "e" folks. It's Truly.

Bloddy...blood has two O's, and one D, why would this be different? Bloody

Liscense...it's license.

[Pinkie]

^Doesn't 'licence' (or 'license') change according to whether it's a verb or a noun? I don't mean to be picky (oh... wait... yeah, I do actually) but I want to know if I've been using it wrongly all these years...

Other ones I've picked up on tend to be incorrect usage, rather than incorrect spelling (there, they're and their seem to cause problems for some), but I think that that might have to come under grammatical error rather than anything else. Also, of course, accomodation for accommodation, embarassed or embarrased for embarrassed...

I may return to this later when my pedantry has fully kicked in.

[Bear Warp]

One time, I saw someone spell the word "bloody" as "blodde". I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, correct the person, hang my head in shame, or perform some combination of the four possible actions.

Anyways....I've seen "coming" spelled "comming" a couple times.

Can't think of anything else at the moment.

[ScottH]

The ones I see most often are:

To (as in "I go TOO," or "it's TOO big")
Than ("if this, THEN that")
Then ("my coffee is darker THAN yours")

and other little stuff.

[Bear Warp]

The ones I see most often are:

To (as in "I go TOO," or "it's TOO big")
Than ("if this, THEN that")
Then ("my coffee is darker THAN yours")

and other little stuff.

I forgot all about those!

Another problem I've noticed is misuse of there/they're/and their.

Misuse of 's is pretty common too, but this isn't really a grammar discussion.

[ScottH]

Also Your and You're, etc.

[INTJoe]

Anyways...

Anyway. Drop the "S", it's the cool thing to do. :)

Usually, if I'm not sure how to spell a word, I'll type it out both ways, and it becomes obvious which one looks weird and which one looks normal.

I mean, how would anyone write "Blodde" and not notice that it looks absurd?

[Bear Warp]

I appreciate the tip, INTJoe. :thumbsup:

Should help prevent future embarrassment. :embarassed:

[HarleyQuinn]

Not a word I notice but a word I've struggled and finally conquered was: cemetery (had been spelling it cemetary for years before).

I also struggle with the word: license and I don't know why considering I'm really anal about spelling things properly.

[bubbles]

Words like "tomorrow" and anything with consecutive consonants are often misspelled. Endings like -ant and -ent are also confusing.. But I'm very bad at spelling.

For the record, while typing this, I misspelled "misspelled." The "miss" in "misspelled" just looks awkward for some reason.

[INTJoe]

Not a word I notice but a word I've struggled and finally conquered was: cemetery (had been spelling it cemetary for years before).



That is a tough one. Once at work, one of the partners was writing "Cemetery" on a presentation drawing for a church we were designing (there was a cemetery next door). He said aloud: "How do you spell cemetery?" The only ones there were another partner, and myself, and I said "C-E-M-E-T-E-R-Y", and he was like "There's no "A" in there? That looks weird. I hope you're right because I'm about to write it on here..."

Luckily, after he wrote it down, the other partner verified it, and I was correct. lol.

But I, too, think I spelled it Cemetary for years. Just remember, it's all E's.

Yeah, Tomorrow is another toughy. Often it's spelled Tommorow, or Tommorrow. Or Tamaro if you're dealing with a true moron.

Wednesday and February are also tricky.

[Kfbr]

Tommorow is spelled tomorrow. Two r's one m!

Judgement is spelled Judgment. Drop that E, maybe it's the legal side in me.

[generalowk]

Joe, that's a very good list! Other very common mistakes include the incorrect use of apostrophes in plurals, lack of use of apostrophes in contractions, confusing your/you're and to/too/two.

Lately, I've seen a great number of people mixing up lose and loose.

It's good to know I'm not the only one annoyed by these mistakes.

[Santana28]

Rediculous...LOL...i still do that one.

Reallize. It took me about 20 years to figure out that it only has one L :)

[Hdier]

:chuckles: Most of the time I'm using my school computer to post, an Apple, which spellchecks the messages when I'm typing them. I always try to figure out what I did wrong first, though, so that I don't get it wrong later when I don't have spellcheck.

[LJB]

Words like "tomorrow" and anything with consecutive consonants are often misspelled. Endings like -ant and -ent are also confusing.. But I'm very bad at spelling.

As a writer and editor, I frequently come across the misuse of -ant and -ent words (e.g., dependant and dependent); in fact many industries (e.g., health and insurance) have made up their own "language" (i.e., they only use "dependent") because employees are too dense or lazy to look up a word in the dictionary. For the record, "dependant" is used as a noun and "dependent" is used as an adjective. Another similar example: "health care" is a noun "healthcare" is an adjective. Drives my INTJ mind nuts!

[Calliope]

Judgement is spelled Judgment. Drop that E, maybe it's the legal side in me.

"Judgement" is valid in British English.

I am pretty anal when it comes to spelling too. I also do what someone else mentioned - when in doubt, I write the word down, and it gets pretty obvious usually; if not, I open a dictionary. I guess my very worst though, is stuff like "irregardless" - argh.

(I still manage to make weird mistakes in English - not my native language - cut me some slack.)

[INTJoe]

(e.g., dependant and dependent)

Yes, similarly "affect" and "effect" are often mixed up.

Affect is a verb. "How will his recent scandal affect his popularity numbers?"

Effect is a noun. "What are some of the effects of drunk driving?"

[RustyWinger]

Ok, here we get to the dirty ones.

So I am chatting up a babe online and we are talking about private parts. What do I want to call mine? I say "Dick", because there are so many cool rhymes.

She says she wants to call hers couch.

I was... "uh, couch?"

"Yes, couch."

I was just blown away. She wants to call it a couch. What in the world was I getting myself into? How do you react to "Stick it in my couch?"

So I said, "I take "Dick" back. I'm going to call mine 'love seat'. Now we'll have a matching set of furniture in bed!"

And then she realized she had been spelling "cooch" wrong.

/I still got her to sit on my love seat anyway. :-)

[Danisty]

It drives me crazy when people spell tattoo wrong.

[Gavisi]

My favorite misspelling was in a poem written by a high school sophomore. At the top of the poem, in large bold letters, was the word "POME".

I had a good laugh that day.

[ushop]

Blonde vs blond is another one that confuses people.

[OmegaPsi]

Not only on spelling, but on word usage too.

The word 'Barely' can be kind of ambiguous....

Is it for just enough
or almost made it?
=)

[xhaan]

IMO, everyone misspells words at some point, especially in English, which can be convoluted and confusing.

I spell incorrectly all the time, and often make grammatical and punctuation errors, I don't really care so much that I have to be 100% perfect, but it does still matter to me. I believe a thinker wants to be taken seriously when they speak or type, and this comes out in their spellings and word choices. It would seem that it isn't as much an attention to detail for the sake of it, but because it is practical and almost necessary.

Most of my words which end up being misspelled are "ie/ei" words, like 'piece', and 'their', and occasionally things with letter doubling, like 'really', 'usually', 'coming', and so on.

A lot of spelling is from memory, and unless you either have a super-brain, or spell check everything you ever write for all time, you WILL make a mistake eventually, and you probably won't even notice it until later.

Not only on spelling, but on word usage too.

The word 'Barely' can be kind of ambiguous....

Is it for just enough
or almost made it?
=)

It's "by a little", which can be either just enough, or almost made it, or another word for 'sparse'
"The shot barely missed its mark", it missed by a small amount.
"He just barely made the jump", he jumped just far enough to 'get there'
"The cupboards have barely any food", the food is sparse, there isn't much in there.

And.. I typed 'it's' when it should have been 'its'. Aaha. Corrected!

[amei]

From teaching English overseas, my biggest pet peeve with my students' spelling/grammar mistakes is the mix-up of adjectives/verbs after the 'be' verb. For example, I often get students writing, "I didn't like class. I was boring." or "I like soccer. It is funny." No matter how many times I correct it, they keep making the same mistake.

[xhaan]

From teaching English overseas, my biggest pet peeve with my students' spelling/grammar mistakes is the mix-up of adjectives/verbs after the 'be' verb. For example, I often get students writing, "I didn't like class. I was boring." or "I like soccer. It is funny." No matter how many times I correct it, they keep making the same mistake.

Yeah, I don't know a lot about other languages myself, but I do know that some languages and cultures use adjectives differently, or not at all. Some (many?) people tend to be "programmed" into a certain way of thinking, and it may take a long time to understand the difference between an adjective and a verb. I've noticed people, to use one of your examples, who see 'boring' as a verb, or verb-like, i.e. to them it may be an 'act of being bored', which is especially confused by real verbs, like 'walking', 'yawning', and so on.

[INTJoe]

Blonde vs blond is another one that confuses people.

Hmmm, please explain...I'm unfamiliar with the difference.

But in the same vein, I do believe Theater can also be spelled thusly: Theatre.

I've heard "Theatre" is for this usage: "I enjoy theatre." It is an idea noun.

Whereas "Theater" is about the actual brick and mortar theater. "We're going to the theater."


I remember back in like 3rd grade I called this girl a whore, and said "You are a whore, H-O-R, whore!" (Yeah I grew up in a weird neighborhood...) And a few kids started laughing because I spelled whore wrong. These were a 4th grader and 6th grader. I didn't believe them, because I'd never seen the word in print! Looking back on it, I find it humorous that some 10 and 12 year olds had read the word in print, and knew how to spell it...

[ushop]

Blonde vs blond is another one that confuses people.Hmmm, please explain...I'm unfamiliar with the difference.

"Blonde" refers to females, and "blond" to males.

[INTJoe]

"Blonde" refers to females, and "blond" to males.


Ahhh, yeah I seem to remember hearing that.

Isn't fiance/fiancee sort of similar?

[ushop]

Yep!

[tabasco]

It's so wierd that people can't realize it's I before E except for when it isn't!