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For me common spelling mistakes include confusing some of these word pairs.

  • loose vs. lose
  • then vs. than
  • were vs. where
top 42 comments
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[–] Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 55 minutes ago

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

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 1 points 3 hours ago

Illegitimate/legitimate. Always struggled with that one until I got a phone that could tell me how to spell it.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

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 🤷‍♂️

[–] rowinxavier@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

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?)

[–] rowinxavier@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

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.

Their vs there vs they're.

I know the difference but my fingers clearly do not.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 points 7 hours ago

One thing I'm realizing more and more as I type in a game in PC is that I'm only good at spelling the first half of words. I've gotten used to auto correct on phones and spell check in other programs. My errors are typically on the end.

Necessary and apparently are two common words I get wrong fairly often.

[–] Nusm@peachpie.theatl.social 2 points 10 hours ago

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!)

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 5 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Viscous vs vicious.

It’s a viscous cycle.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Drusas@fedia.io 1 points 3 hours ago

I used to do this with nauseous versus noxious.

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 7 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] greenbelt@lemy.lol 6 points 14 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 4 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

I will cry if this becomes the evolution of emoji usage lol

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 hours ago

We have kids saying U R . Emoji taking the place of words is just natural devolution.

[–] i_dont_want_to@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 13 hours ago

Think of all of the interesting things you can do with regional dialects!

[–] MightyLordJason@lemmy.world 7 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

I always ALWAYS have to check separate / separation / separator. I want to put a third e in there so much.

[–] greenbelt@lemy.lol 2 points 14 hours ago

uhm ... separate is an adjective and separation is a noun I guess?

[–] cRazi_man@europe.pub 1 points 14 hours ago

So few comments.... Yet mine is already taken. I get this wrong constantly too.

[–] Canopyflyer@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

ageing vs aging

The former is the way I learned it in school way back in the 70's... Apparently that is the way the British spell it and it sends US citizens into an aneurysm.

One that bothers me the most when people do it is brake vs break. Your car will break if you do not apply the brake in a timely fashion.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 1 points 3 hours ago

I'm an American and the former looks much more natural.

[–] grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

I fuck up "insure/ensure" and "effect/affect" a lot.

[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Misspellings effect a terrible affect from pedants.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 hours ago

"effect/affect"

There are three meanings to each. Good luck.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)
  • 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.)
[–] kbal@fedia.io 2 points 12 hours ago

I habitually throw random spelling and grammatical mistakes into my posts and comments all the time, to make it less likely that anyone can fingerprint my writing style and thereby dox me. That is the only reason for any such errors.

[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Nice try, FBI stylometric profiler.

[–] greenbelt@lemy.lol 4 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

you got me. But fuck I revealed my own spelling mistakes. Find me!

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 points 7 hours ago

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.

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

It's only very recently that I learned I've been using the wrong then/than and effect/affect most of the time.

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 2 points 14 hours ago

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.

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 14 hours ago

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.

[–] JTskulk@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

"effecient" instead of "efficient". The funny thing is as I get older I find myself typing homonyms of words instead of the word I meant. My fingers are barely listening to my brain lol

[–] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)
[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

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".

[–] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

Interesting, so I could make the argument that I was right all along

[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

I used to have trouble with necessary. I have pages of notes with neccesary/neseccary/necesary/necessary scribbled in the margins to see which one looked right.

[–] paulzy@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

More a typo than a spelling mistake but if a word ends in ‘th’, my brain cannot stop adding an ‘e’.

  • withe
  • bothe
  • mythe
[–] Perspectivist@feddit.uk 1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

I say wether, not whether, and anyways, not anyway. I also never remember how to write thorought.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 1 points 12 hours ago

Thorought I think would be pronounced thor-uft.