Commonly Misspelled Words in English — A Quick Guide

Commonly misspelled words in English are more common than most people think. The most commonly misspelled words are also in everyday vocabulary.

5 Commonly Misspelled Words In English

There are many commonly misspelled words in English. Misspelled words are words that have letters left out, letters mixed up, or letters switched. Here are some of the most regularly misspelled words in American English.

Accommodate

We see acommodate or accmodate all the time. To correctly spell this, recall that there are two sets of double loetters: “cc” and “mm.”

Acknowledgment

It is usually spelled with an “e.” It is essential to state that even if you put an “e” between the “g” and the “m,” the spelling is still valid! The spelling with the “e” is generally British, while the spelling without the “e” is American. It is good to know the difference so that you use it accordingly.

Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

Acquire

People often forget to include the “c.” There’s an old memory trick to get around that oversight: “I c that you want to acquire that.”

Apparent

It is common to see it spelled like this: apparant, aparent, apparrent, and aparrent. Apparent appears to be a hard word for many people to spell.

Consider developing an app (spelled with two “p” letters) to assist you in becoming a better parent.

Calendar

Most people spell it as calender. Most people think that “ar” as an ending looks strange, so they write it as “er.” What is the significance of the “ar”? Calendar is derived from the Latin term kalendarium, from which we English speakers dropped the “ium.”

Colleague

So many wrong spellings like collaegue, collegue, and coleague occur daily.

Consider yourself a significant league speller if you correctly spell “colleague” — and note, it’s with two “l’s.”

To Wrap Up

To conclude, commonly misspelled words in English can come from numerous sources. For example, it can come from confusion of letters, letter combinations, or from ignorance around the language.

To make it easier for those who are learning to spell words, it is a good idea to use a dictionary to find the correct spelling. You may also want to practice those words in everyday writing.

Pam is an expert grammarian with years of experience teaching English, writing and ESL Grammar courses at the university level. She is enamored with all things language and fascinated with how we use words to shape our world.

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