Spelling

[pegkerr]

I can never remember how to spell the words "silhouette" and "hors d'oeuvres" and always have to look them up.

Which words do you always have to look up?

Edited to add: Here's a list of the 100 most misspelled words in English, with some tips on remembering the correct spelling.

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Comprises. Because I always forget the precise usage: A zoo comprises animals, not animals comprise a zoo. Then I realize that if it confuses me, it'll confuse the reader, and I take it out.

I'm also shaky on "judgement".

[beadslut.livejournal.com]

weird - wierd

I never get it right with out looking it up.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

"despatch"/"dispatch" always grinds in my head until neither of them look right, which is very annoying; also, I try to avoid "no-one" because I never hyphenate it constently from one line to the next, I have some twitches about using the "ing" form of verbs like "panic" or "frolic" because of worrying about whether to put in a 'k', and I seem to always type "initiative" as "iniative".

[slashkilter.livejournal.com]

Bureaucracy is a really hard one for me - I always have to think about it and it takes me several attempts to get it right.

[dancingwriter.livejournal.com]

Last week I had to check once more on the distinction between "discrete" and "discreet." And until very recently I always had to double-check myself on "antecedent" (-ent or -ant?)--then I finally realized that it comes from the present participle of "antecedere," which is a third-conjugation verb--so of course it has to be -ent! (The logic of Latin makes its spelling so much easier to remember than English spelling!) I also have to keep reminding myself that "embarrass" has two r's but "harass" has only one; I don't know why this is such a problem for me....

[nsmom.livejournal.com]

bureaucrat - I have it marked in my dictionary with a post-it flag, because there are times when I can't even find it in the dictionary!

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

"Rhythm"

I got it, but I can't spell it.

[dancingwriter.livejournal.com]

I always remember it this way:

"i" before "e" except after "c," and also in "weird," which is weird.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

Embarrass.

[madlori.livejournal.com]

Oh, everyone has those words they can never remember how to spell.

My worst one is "rhythm." In fact I'm not sure that's how you spell it.

I also get tripped up on "accommodate." Two c's, two m's. I also have trouble with "martyr," but that's because I went to Bryn Mawr where we refer to ourselves as "Mawrters" (and yes, the irony is intentional), so I seem to have forgotten the real spelling of the word.

But you know how they say that if you ever were in competitive spelling bees, you never forget the word you went out on? Well, it's true. In the Regional Finals, Round 17, I was eliminated on the word "pronounceable." I missed that "e" in the middle, which everyone does.

For that reason, I always want to put an "e" into the middle of "believable" and make it "believeable" which is wrong. Le sigh.

Of course now I have a job in which I am regularly required to type words like "octamethoxyresorcinarene," which flow out without a problem, so perhaps remembering "accommodate" doesn't seem so urgent.

[madlori.livejournal.com]

Look down below! Me too!

We should form the inaugural chapter of "People Who Have Rhythm but Can't Spell It."

[dancingwriter.livejournal.com]

"But you know how they say that if you ever were in competitive spelling bees, you never forget the word you went out on?"

How it all comes back: New York State Spelling Bee--the finals, at the NY State Fair in Syracuse. Nearly the last round--only thirteen of us left. I went out on "unctuous." I was in eighth grade, which was a looong time ago--but you are so right, I have never forgotten that word! (I spelled it the way it sounds: unctious. Aaargh!)

[ambar.livejournal.com]

Chauffer (sp).

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"caricature."

It's rare that I type something close enough for my spelling checker to figure it out.

B

[castiron.livejournal.com]

License. Embarrass. Caribbean.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

More often than not, I use Google search as my spelling checker.

B

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

all those words that might end in -ent or might end in -ant, and their variants (-ency vs. -ancy, etc.)

[skyfading.livejournal.com]

cartelige

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Parallel. I never know where the double ls go. Also recommend-- does it have two cs or one?

[skyfading.livejournal.com]

also vacuum

[nightfalltwen.livejournal.com]

Syllable

We're doing metrical scansion in my poetry class and my notes have "syllabal/Sylaball/Syllabel/Syllable" all over them.

o.O

[mereilin.livejournal.com]

Accommodate. Acommodate. Accomodate. (Argh.)

I don't know why those double-lettered ones always need a second look. Necessary/neccessary. Commoddity/commodity.

Now I'm just confused. :)

[madlori.livejournal.com]

You mean cartilage? ;-)

[dreamcoat-mom.livejournal.com]

I always want to stick an "e" on the end of develop. There. See? I just had to look it up again to make sure I knew what I was talking about. Good grief!

[skyfading.livejournal.com]

:P!

[lapsus-0-calami.livejournal.com]

nescessary.....have I spelt it wrong?
exczema - I used to suffer from it and always spell it wrong on forms for docs and the like....

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I put it in both places, and let my spelling checker sort it out.

B

[rvrjoe775.livejournal.com]

I can spell it fine but have trouble typing priority.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

That's one I sometimes spell so badly that my spelling checker throws up its hands and is unable to suggest anything.

B

[innerslytherin]

*grin* I actually chose to use the word "crudites" instead of "hors d'oeuvres" the other day, because I was writing in a place where I had neither a dictionary nor internet access, and I could not look up the spelling of the latter.

[chance88088.livejournal.com]

recommend, tomorrow. lots of words of that pattern (never sure if the first consonent should be doubles and the second singled)

weird rhymes

[beadslut.livejournal.com]

That might do it. Thanks!

[kinetikatrue]

re: recommend - the way I remember it is thusly: when you recommend something, you are re-commending it. I always wanted it to have two cs as well, before I figured that out.

[cedarlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Occur. Or is it ocurr? Oh heck.

[lkw18.livejournal.com]

double letters, either consonants or vowels can throw me off, as noted several times above such as accommodate and vacuum. Based on this common difficulty I say change English and throw out all double letters! Vaccum looks ok to me. Accomodate looks correct to me. Argh.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Anything with interior double consonants; or which *might* have them. Meaning "disappoint" and "obsession" and so forth.

Also compound words where there is or should be an interior trailing 'e', as in "judgment", "changeable".

[lizardek.livejournal.com]

me, too! and liaison.

[markgritter.livejournal.com]

"weird" gives me lots of trouble.

Hmm... so if you were really going to compile a list of the "most often" misspelled words, would you give more weight to the ratio of correctly to incorrectly spelled instances for an individual word, or to the ratio of incorrectly spelled instances of a word to the population as a whole? (And in what population?)

[leaina.livejournal.com]

Oh, me too, about both of those. And I do prefer "judgement" to "judgment," even though the latter is preferred by my dictionary (and I think I lost points on a spelling test once for putting the "e" in, way back when). It just looks better without all those consonants kludged together.

I used to have trouble with "necessary," when I was a kid; so I trained myself to memorize N-E-C-E-S-S and say it to myself when I start writing it. I still hear it in my head.

[kishmish.livejournal.com]

I always have to think about writing, "embarrassed" and make sure I got the right number of r's and s' and I do end up with it correct but only after I think about it. Every now and then I have trouble with rhythm and liaisons. Another thing about me is that its harder for me to spell these out loud than other words, a lot of the time I have to write it down (or even trace it out in the air) to find out how to spell it because it "looks" right to me (when people ask me how to spell things).

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

I used to have trouble with "bourgeoisie" when I first started studying French revolutionary history in year 12. And "bureaucracy" in second semester when studying Russian. Learnt them eventually.

I have trouble with "immanent" versus "imminant".

It annoys me when people misuse "loathe" and "loath".

I still have trouble with "cemetery". Although I don't so much any more...got it wrong in an Editing spelling test, y'see.