Words Often Spelled Wrong

It can be risky to study words that are often spelled wrong, because it is all too tempting and easy to remember the wrong way to spell them.

English words are spelled wrong all over Thailand in the most formal and dignified settings. They are engraved with wrong spellings at tourist sites and written in huge letters with wrong spellings on highway signs. In writing theses and academic articles, the best approach to avoid making such typical errors is to try to remember the words that many people have problems with. If you recognize a word that means trouble, you will be on your guard when you have to write it. Of course, spelling problems are not limited to users of Thai English. These words are regularly spelled incorrectly even by native-born Americans and British people. The Thammasat University Libraries own a number of guides to improving spelling. You may or may not find them useful. If you can memorize little tricks to help you to remember spellings when you do not have access to a spell check device, these could be helpful. These tricks are known as mnemonic devices, after the Ancient Greek word meaning related to memory – Mnemosyne (or remembrance) was the goddess of memory in Greek mythology.

Avoiding the problem.

Just remembering that a word is challenging to spell may inspire you to choose another word in its place. There is almost always a synonym that is easier to spell, or another way of saying the same thing that does not involve the difficult word. If there is no way to avoid such a word, then you must learn how to spell it. One approach may be to look up the word on a dictionary website such as Merriam-Webster which offers a pronunciation guide. Click on the little speaker icon repeatedly and hear how a word should be pronounced. After about a dozen times, you will start to feel sick of the word, but after staring at it for that amount of time, you will likely have a better recollection of what it should look and sound like. Some of the following words are so easy to spell wrong that they frequently appear incorrectly. The following examples appear in such public places as the TU Libraries’ Koha website:

Across

Some people think this word is spelled accross. It is not. Remember the right way to do it by telling yourself that to walk across a church, it is best to hold a cross in your hand. A cross and across.

Calendar

To avoid spelling this word wrong as calender, one little story you can tell yourself is that when you travel to the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, it is important to bring a calendar. Your calendar and Dar es Salaam go together, reminding you that the word calendar ends in dar.

Caribbean

This scenic area is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico, east of Central America, and north of South America, containing over 700 islands, islets, reefs, and cays. Yet people write it incorrectly as Carribean. A trick to remember the correct spelling might be to visualize the two b’s that are needed in the Caribb part of the word, as two friends sitting together on the beach, getting a suntan. One b by itself would be too lonely on a beach in the Caribbean. By telling yourself silly little stories such as this one about words, you increase the probability that you will recall the point behind them. Invent your own stories, whatever you find easiest to remember. Let your imagination run wild, since no one need ever know the stories but you.

Cemetery

This word should not be written cemetary. A cemetery is a place that is eerie; it is not a place to take a secretary. So remember ery as an ending to this word.

Committee

A committee is a group with lots of people, where no one is alone. Anyone who tries to spell the word commitee should realize that the lonely t, all by itself, does not suit the word committee. Instead, just like the pair of m’s and e’s, two t’s should be there to keep each other company.

Completely

This word may not even need any story to help you remember how to spell it. Just the sound of the word, with the second syllable sounding like eet, should remind you not to spell it completly.

Environment

Some people are very tempted to misspell this as enviroment. They forget that the word is associated with the English term environs, meaning the surrounding area or district.

According to the Bowring Treaty, British subjects were allowed to buy and rent property in the environs of Bangkok.

If you keep in mind environs, then it is probable you will recall the second n in environment.

Foreign

To avoid getting this word wrong as foriegn, it is essential to think about the fact that the word reign appears in it. Sometimes the two words are associated in the title of a book:

Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII.

Or you may see them in a magazine, such as Foreign Policy, which recently featured an article, Breaking Syria’s Reign of Terror.

Whatever you find easiest to remember, try to stick with that. It may be something as simple as imagining the reign of a foreign King.

Government

This basic word, familiar to all, is spelled wrong dozens of times on Koha as goverment. What can be done? Think about how in order to govern, we must have a government. No government can govern without knowing how to spell this word correctly. Realizing this, you may be less tempted then to leave out the essential first n.

Knowledge

Without knowledge, you are standing on the ledge of a building, at risk of falling off. Spelling this word incorrectly as knowlege means you have fallen off the ledge of knowledge. College is not the same as knowledge.

Liaison

Of the words mentioned so far, Thai people have the best excuse for spelling liaison wrong as liason. After all, liaison derives from the French, so its exotic appearance has something to do with its roots. It is used in serious contexts to refer to someone who maintains mutual understanding and cooperation, facilitating a close working relationship between people or organizations. So it is important to spell the word right. You might think about the central letters iai as a little person named a holding up two hands, to improve working relationships.

Millennium

The good news for everyone who spells millennium or millennia wrong is that the big opportunity to make this error was 15 years ago. These days we do not refer to the millennium year quite as much as in 1999 and 2000. Still, the words do pop up from time to time and they should never be written millenium or millenia. Perhaps the idea of the words, which convey an image of fullness and completion, will remind you to make sure that there are two n’s in addition to two l’s. Or you can tell yourself a story about a double date, where two brothers named n went out one evening with two sisters named l. Whatever helps you to keep in mind the doubled status of the letters is fine.

Necessary

An example of a word spelled wrong with too many letters is necessary, sometimes written incorrectly as neccessary. Anyone who makes this mistake is worried that not enough letters are included in the word as it is. In this case, pronunciation can give you a hint. If the word had been spelled neccessary, it would be necessary to pronounce it as Neck-assary. It is not, so stick with the correct necessary. Only one c is necessary in necessary.

Occurrence

An occurrence is not an occurance or an occurence. Paying rent is an occurrence. Four roommates, two c’s and two r’s, pay rent for their apartment. Oc-cur-rence.

Pavilion

There is only one l in a pavilion, an elegant architectural structure.   If there were two l’s and people were right in spelling it pavillion, it would be too heavy and ungainly, so keep your pavilion nice and thin with a single l.

Pharaoh

This is another foreign word, from the Egyptian language to refer to ancient rulers of that country. Although there are no more ancient Egyptians around to be irritated if you spell the name of their rulers as pharoah, try to get it right. Think of Farrah Fawcett in the costume of an ancient pharaoh, and you will probably recall where the vowels should be placed in the word.

Politician

One way not to err by spelling this politican is to think that no politician wants to end up in the garbage can. Instead, the word ends with cian, and like many words ending this way, it refers to an occupation or job. A politi-cian is someone who is busy with politics. There should be no can involved.

Portuguese

Yet another foreign word difficult to remember, but to avoid getting it wrong as Portugese, think of that odd little ugu in the middle of the word.

Relevant

My aunt is very relevant. I have an ant farm at home and my ants are also relevant. The word is not spelled relevent because my aunt and my ants do not venture far from home.

Separate

Keep your parachute separate from your parrot and never spell it seperate.

Successful

If you are successful, both the c and s should be happily paired, and not lonely, like the s in the wrong spelling succesful.

Which

The word which is not the same as wich, which is also the wrong way to spell the word witch. Do not bring witches into the discussion when you mean to use the word which.

(all images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)