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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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!
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.
Viscous vs vicious.
It’s a viscous cycle.
A vicious liquid!
I used to do this with nauseous versus noxious.
Sounds like a sticky situation.
Or slippery situation, depends on how viscous.
- 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!
Pronounce and pronunciation seem like they should have the same root, but one of them has an extra ‘o’ for some perfectly logical reason. I know the difference and don’t consistently misspell it, but if I edit a sentence to switch from one to the other without noticing that it’s a danger inflection …
Also maintain vs. maintenance for the same reason.
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.
Diahhrheoea
Or whatever it is.
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.
Nice try, FBI stylometric profiler.
you got me. But fu*k I revealed my own spelling mistakes. Find me!
Can’t recall them, but there are some words in which I keep typing double letters even though they aren’t supposed to be there.
- centennial, millennial, embarrassed, etc. (Where are the double-letters and where are they not? Who fucking knows.)
- backward(s), forward(s), leftward(s), etc. (Do words like this have an S or not? Who fucking knows.)
- reconnaissance (Just fuck this word.)
Travelling vs traveling
The former is British, the latter is American. Noah Webster eliminated letter doubles in words where he thought the extra one didn’t add anything useful. Another word that did the same thing is “level(l)ing”.
Interesting, so I could make the argument that I was right all along
Licence / license, and practice / practise. I have to look them up every single time because I forget which of each is the noun and which is the verb, and even then, there are situations where using the noun as a verb might actually be the right thing to do and I hate the whole thing. So I probably still get those wrong whenever I use them.
Barring brain farts (increasingly common) and muscle memory leading me astray on the keyboard, my spelling is otherwise fairly good, but those pairings I could do without.
Regarding license and licence, in American English it’s just always license. So when in doubt pick that and claim to be an expat lol.
embarrassed to admit I mix up which and witch, and have misspelled both as wich on occasion
Nothing to be embarrassed about. I can assure you I am worse at spelling.
More a typo than a spelling mistake but if a word ends in ‘th’, my brain cannot stop adding an ‘e’.
- withe
- bothe
- mythe
So you’re just a time traveler from the 1200s. NBD.
