For me common spelling mistakes include confusing some of these word pairs.
- loose vs. lose
- then vs. than
- were vs. where
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Diahhrheoea
Or whatever it is.
recieve vs. receive
embarrassed to admit I mix up which and witch, and have misspelled both as wich on occasion
In english a lot. Not just because i am dislexic, but also french stemming words are a nightmare
“Litterly” is one i have still no idea how to spell. Or wether, not meaning the weather as in sun and run but the one for implying choice
Literally and whether.
For some reason unfortunately gave me trouble until I broke it down and remembered to have tuna in there lol
So I just think: unfor tuna tely
unfor🐟tely
I will cry if this becomes the evolution of emoji usage lol
We have kids saying U R . Emoji taking the place of words is just natural devolution.
Think of all of the interesting things you can do with regional dialects!
Viscous vs vicious.
It’s a viscous cycle.
Sounds like a sticky situation.
A vicious liquid!
I used to do this with nauseous versus noxious.
Australian English is based off British English but is not identical. Both are different to US English and have a lot of words that are spelled with a bit more historical contingency. That said, knowing which words have which version of suffix can be difficult.
For example, authorise or authorize. Practice or practise. Gaol or jail. English is a pain but it does make a good common language.
At this point I just accept the various spellings as common. I feel like I stick to one particular style but I honestly couldn’t tell you if certain words are UK English, US English, or specific to somewhere else.
As long as meaning is clear, I don’t think it matters which is used. Alternate vocabulary is probably more significant points of confusion (e.g. what is a biscuit to you?)
Yeah, and also the Oxford comma is in my mind much clearer. I think if you are understood you are using the language correctly. If you are not understood at first but become understood after a bit of back and forth then you are using the language and also pushing the limits a little, making changes along the way. It is an evolutionary process, not design, so it is messy.
english instructors, were so anal with the words “act and acts” in writing a paper. or cellular and celluar.
I always ALWAYS have to check separate / separation / separator. I want to put a third e in there so much.
uhm … separate is an adjective and separation is a noun I guess?
I think they were referring more to a tendency of writing seperat(e, ion, or).
Unfortunately the classification of single words is not so cut and dry:
- The separator machine uses separation algorithms to separate separate appropriately.
- separator is an adjective
- separation is an adjective
- 1st separate is a verb
- 2nd separate is a noun
- The separator machine uses separation algorithms to separate separate appropriately.
So few comments… Yet mine is already taken. I get this wrong constantly too.
- Guarantee
- it(')s
For the pairs you mentioned this might help:
- “loose” is a loose word, it’s extra “o” makes it lanky, but “lose” lost an “o”
- “then” is a reply to “when” and is spelt similarly rather “than” the comparison word
- “where” is a question answered by “here;” “was” has no “h” and neither does “were”
It’s and its annoy me because they both make sense for possessive. The only thing that really made me feel better is thinking of it’s like his and hers. His and hers doesn’t have an apostrophe.
thank you for the tips!
Somehow I am constantly mistyping “because” as “becsause.” I know damn well I am hitting the a before the s but I type really fast (average 120wpm) and on a touchscreen it might be laggy 🤷♂️
I fuck up “insure/ensure” and “effect/affect” a lot.
Misspellings effect a terrible affect from pedants.
“effect/affect”
There are three meanings to each. Good luck.
I can never figure out where that pesky u goes in restaurant. (Thank goodness for autocorrect, or I couldn’t have spelled it for this post!)
Nice try, FBI stylometric profiler.
you got me. But fuck I revealed my own spelling mistakes. Find me!
It’s only very recently that I learned I’ve been using the wrong then/than and effect/affect most of the time.
- “When?” > “Then!”
- Rather than the alternative
- Cause and effect
- When deciding which to use for a verb:
- Effect causes an entire result; “A discarded cigarette effected the forest fire”
- Affect alters part of the result; “Human behaviors affect climate change.”
- When deciding which to use for a verb:
- “When?” > “Then!”
What kinda helped me was thinking of then as relative to time and than was associated with math so it helped recognize how it related to concepts differently lol
Effect I just think of “special effects” and so I know the other is the one related to an impact.
