Language & Grammar discussion

What are the words you constantly misspell?

Mine are legion. A few to start:

supersede, which I want to spell "supercede"

accommodate, which I want to spell "accomodate"

de rigueur, which I'm tempted to spell "de rigeuer"

Necessary , which I want to spell " nessessary"

Broccoli - which I want to spell brocolli

Judgement. - which I want to spell judgment.

Bused - which I'm convinced should be bussed.

Good ones. Although judgment is the correct spelling in the States and judgement is correct in Hail Brittainica.

Words with one double and one single consonant ARE demons, to be sure. Occasion I always wanted to spell "ocassion."

I always mix these two up: fourteen and forty. I sometimes want to spell them forteen and fourty. After I've written, I look at them, and no, they look wrong...

It is weird how the "u" comes and goes. Moody thing. Students have odd spelling demons, too. Many nowadays are spelling paid as "payed." And many, many insist on spelling "business" as buisness."

Payed; I guess people haven't paid attention to the Ablaut in English. :)
Buisness--my guess is because the 'i' is silent. But they could think of it as 'busy-ness' :)

Jane wrote: Buisness--my guess is because the 'i' is silent. But they could think of it as 'busy-ness' :)"

Which is exactly the way I taught myself to spell it when I was a kid.

Ablaut. It sounds so... official and intimidating... like it's paid its dues.

Isn't there a word "busyness" which means "the act of being busy"? This is a separate word from "business" (where people are supposed to be busy but they're checking e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and IMs....).

Newengland wrote: "Ablaut. It sounds so... official and intimidating... like it's paid its dues.

Isn't there a word "busyness" which means "the act of being busy"? This is a separate word from "business" (where peop..."

The poor word is just too technical for its own good. :(

Another word I have trouble with is siege. I can never remember if it's siege or seige. Then how come seize is not spelt sieze? [rhetorical question]

Oh, man. The i before e rule. Almost worthless, there are so many *$#*&(% exceptions!

I guess in that case, with so many blinkin' exceptions, they prove the rule. :)

Charlie Brown taught me how to spell grief!

Good grief, that's one of my favorite expressions! :)

One of my biggest spelling demons:

perennial

Lord, but I've tried to spell it a million times with an "i" after the "r."

Newengland wrote: "It is weird how the "u" comes and goes. Moody thing. Students have odd spelling demons, too. Many nowadays are spelling paid as "payed." And many, many insist on spelling "business" as buisness.""
And I take my second-language English students to task for the same mistakes.:-)
In a test we asked them to write about their experience of attending a gala music performance. We got Gala music, a special kind of music that is, gala artists, a birthday party where a friend sang a gala song etc. :-)

Did the guys bring their gals to the gala?

I spelled surprise "suprise" until adulthood and nobody ever commented or corrected me. It was a surprise to find out I was in error. Bad pronunciation (more commonly spelled "pronounciation") didn't help either.

I think of him as a British noble: Sir Prise (but then you get the error "Sir Prize" and the spelling "surprize").

Come to think of it, there are numerous spelling demons where Brits use the letter "s" and Americans use the letter "z." Blame Noah (again) (still).

Ruth wrote: "Broccoli - which I want to spell brocolli

Judgement. - which I want to spell judgment.

Bused - which I'm convinced should be bussed."

I remember by chanting "he bussed her on the cheek while being bused to school on the bus."

Such a cute word for kissing.

Many years ago I took a para-legal course from a teacher who became a good friend. We got certificates, and she mailed an extra one for me for skill in "posterior osculation." I looked it up and laughed so hard my stomach hurt. I still have it somewhere.

What did you find when you looked it up?

Well, if posterior is rear (which I knew) and osculation is kiss, I was a certifiably good ass kisser.

Ah... it was the osculation I was missing.

This is a head-scratcher: Peloponnesian

I'm never sure: 2 p's or 2 n's or 2 of each?

Spelling "The" and "War" is easier.

Well, the good thing is that it isn't likely to come up in conversation/writing too often :)

Maybe it needs a ditty, like M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I has.

Was just copying out a recipe and this is a bugaboo:
casserole Usually I spell it cassarole , scrutinize it, then change it to the correct spelling.

Assassination. I was never sure of how many s and where until an older colleague pointed out that it is 2 ass (es) followed by I nation.

I always want to spell cemetery cemetary.

Good one. I'm thrown by the double or not consonants when you add a suffix: canceled or cancelled; occured or occurred; that sort of thing.

cancelled can be either, can it not? Isn't 1 l American, and 2 l's British, as a rule of thumb? I'm American but I spell: traveller, jewellry

Yes, cancel is allowed with or without, but with the accent on the first syllable, the rule would indicate "canceled" is correct.

What about roofs vs. rooves or dwarfs vs. dwarves?

Hoofs hooves

Jane wrote: "cancelled can be either, can it not? Isn't 1 l American, and 2 l's British, as a rule of thumb? I'm American but I spell: traveller, jewellry"

To complicate things further, the British spelling of 'jewelry' is actually 'jewellery'. Some people pronounce that extra 'e' too.

One that I always have to think about (on the rare occasions that I have to write it) is 'cauliflower'. I always think it should be 'cauliflour', although of course 'cauliflower' makes much more sense. I think I transpose the 'u' from the first syllable and think it should be in the last syllable too.

Even more disturbing, it contains "caul" -- the membrane some babies are born with, covering their heads like little Davey Copperfield....

In Norwegian it's blomkol. Flower cabbage. I rather like that.

So do I. It is in the cruciferous family, just like cabbage or Brussels sprouts!!

I call it "brain food" because it looks like the brain -- or pictures thereof (I've never seen a live one).

Newengland wrote: "Even more disturbing, it contains "caul" -- the membrane some babies are born with, covering their heads like little Davey Copperfield...."

Lol - I just looked in the OED, out of curiosity to see if that is where the term came from (because a cabbage does look a a bit like a brain, as you say) but apparently it's etymology is just cabbage flower. Well, cole-flower - cole seems to be some kind of cabbage. And the caul of babies is from the French cale, meaning a small cap. I'm a bit disappointed - it would have been fun if they'd had the same etymology! :-)

When etymology doesn't fall your way, plant a new tree! (A variation of my father's dictum: "Act like you own the joint!")

Remember ALICE :)
beLIeve. reCEive

those little mnemonic tricks help, don't they?

Never saw that one, truth be told....

Yes! they do.
when I was a kid I always got the highest score in spelling.. :)

So did I. I was chosen last for a dodgeball team when I was a kid but always first for a spelling bee team. :)

Did you [the collective you] ever hear this one:
It's not sepERate = as in papER but
sePARAte as in the South American city [Suriname, I think]

South American country? PARAguay?

Well, I read that as Separet. like. certifiket.