I think words are out to get us. Sometimes, I imagine them pairing up and playing tricks on us like a set of identical twins. Take practice and practise, for example. They’re perfectly normal words, with two very different meanings, designed to confused the hell out of all of us.
Then there are other, seemingly innocent words that none of us can wrap our heads around, no matter how many tricks we use or jingles we sing. These are some of the most common words you’re definitely spelling wrong; you’ll see the incorrect spelling is on the left, and the correct spelling on the right. Consider printing them out and carrying them with you AT ALL TIMES!!!
*A quick disclaimer before an angry mob chases us with flaming objects: please remember we live in Australia and some of our spelling is a bit weird down here. There are also a few words that are up for debate (judgement, yoghurt) but *technically* we’ve provided the correct Australian spelling. 🙂
A
Absense – Absence
Accomodate – Accommodate
Arguement – Argument
Apparantly – Apparently
B
Beleieve – Believe
Bizzare – Bizarre
C
Calender – Calendar
Carribean – Caribbean
D
Deductable – Deductible
Definately – Definitely
Desparate – Desperate
E
Embarassing – Embarrassing
Existance – Existence
F
Facinating – Fascinating
Florescent – Fluorescent
G
Garantee – Guarantee
Glamourous – Glamorous
Goverment – Government
H
Harrass – Harass
Humourous – Humorous
Hankerchief – Handkerchief
I
Immediatly – Immediately
Independant – Independent
J
Judgment – Judgement
Jewelery – Jewellery
K
Knowlege – Knowledge
L
Liase – Liaise
License – Licence (Driver’s licence)
M
Maintainance – Maintenance
Millenium – Millennium
Mispell – Misspell
Mischevious – Mischievous
N
Neccessary – Necessary
Neice – Niece
O
Occured – Occurred
Ommission – Omission
P
Passtime – Pastime
Posession – Possession
Pharoah – Pharaoh
Presense – Presence
Persistant – Persistent
Practise – Practice (Doctor’s practice)
Publically – Publicly
Q
Questionaire – Questionnaire
Que – Queue
R
Recieve – Receive
Resistence – Resistance
Reccommend – Recommend
Relevent – Relevant
S
Seperate – Separate
Sucessful – Successful
Suprise – Surprise
T
Tounge – Tongue
Truley – Truly
U
Untill – Until
Unforseen – Unforeseen
V
Vaccuum – Vacuum
W
Withold – Withhold
X
Xenodocheionology (Only because literally no one can spell it)
Y
Yogurt – Yoghurt
Z
Zelous – Zealous
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