100 Most Often Mispelled Misspelled Words

Dictionary.com provides a list of the 100 most often misspelled words (’misspell’ is one of them). I have always blamed my lack of spelling ability on the fact that English spelling rules are not logical. It must be genetic because my dear wife says my boys have inherited the condition from me.

Each word has a mnemonic pill with it and, if you swallow it, it will help you to remember how to spell the word. Master the orthography of the words on this page and reduce the time you spend searching dictionaries by 50%.

• accidentally: It is no accident that the test for adverbs for -ly is whether they come from an adjective ending in -al (”accidental” in this case). If so, the -al has to be in the spelling. No publical, then publicly.

• believe: You must believe that [i] usually comes before [e] except after [c] or when it is pronounced like “a” as “neighbor” and “weigh” or “e” as in “their” and “heir.” Also take a look at “foreign” below. (The “i-before-e” rule has more exceptions than words it applies to.)

• changeable: The verb “change” keeps its [e] here to indicate that the [g] is soft, not hard. (That is also why “judgement” is the correct spelling of this word, no matter what anyone says.)

• judgement: “Judgement” is governed by one of the rare rules of English orthography, so why not enjoy it? After [c] and [g], [e] is retained to indicate the letter is “soft,” i.e. pronounced like [s] or [j], respectively. Omitting it indicates it is “hard,” i.e. pronounced [k] or [g], as in “fragment,” “pigment”. If we write “management,” “arrangement,” we should write “judgement,” “acknowledgement,” “abridgement.” The presence of the [d] is of no significance to English orthography.

• maintenance: The main tenants of this word are “main” and “tenance” even though it comes from the verb “maintain.” English orthography at its most spiteful.

• neighbor: No wonder many speaking Black English say “hood” for “neighborhood”—it avoids the i-before-e rule and the silent “gh”. If you use British spelling, it will cost you another [u]: “neighbour.”

• personnel: Funny Story (passed along by Bill Rudersdorf): The assistant Vice-President of Personnel notices that his superior, the VP himself, upon arriving at his desk in the morning opens a small, locked box, smiles, and locks it back again. Some years later when he advanced to that position (inheriting the key), he came to work early one morning to be assured of privacy. Expectantly, he opened the box. In it was a single piece of paper which said: “Two Ns, one L.”

• precede: What follows, succeeds, so what goes before should, what? No, no, no, you are using logic. Nothing confuses English spelling more than common sense. “Succeed” but “precede.” (Wait until you see “supersede.”)

• principal/principle: The spelling principle to remember here is that the school principal is a prince and a pal (despite appearances)–and the same applies to anything of foremost importance, such as a principal principle. A “principle” is a rule.

• separate: How do you separate the [e]s from the [a]s in this word? Simple: the [e]s surround the [a]s.

• supersede: This word supersedes all others in perversity. As if we don’t have enough to worry about, keeping words on -ceed and -cede (”succeed,” “precede,” etc.) straight in our minds, this one has to be different from all the rest. The good news is: this is the only English word based on this stem spelled -sede.

• weird: It is weird having to repeat this rule so many times: [i] before [e] except after…? (It isn’t [w]!)

Hat-Tip to Lifehack.org for this list.