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In today’s English class, we will be learning about Spellings
Spellings
Spelling words correctly can be an underappreciated skill because it is considered necessary for strong writing. However, spelling accurately is not always as straightforward as it seems.
It’s a common mistake to have people misspell words, but one that is best you avoid. The first step to spelling correctly is being aware of commonly misspelled words and learning how to get their spelling right.
Certain words in English give themselves to misspellings. They may cause confusion about whether to use a single letter or double letters—like “cc,” “ss,” or “pp”—or how a prefix or suffix affects a root word, or they may be words that look different from how they sound.
Mastering your spelling is important in all types of writing, especially in your English class.
Let’s take a look at 10 commonly misspelled words
- Apparent
Misspelled forms: apparant, aparent, apparrent, aparrent
There’s often confusion about whether to use one or two “p” and “r” letters, as well as whether the word ends in “-ent” or “-ant.”
- Believe
Misspelled forms: belive, beleive
The uncertainty of using “-ie” or “-ei” in the word “believe” and other words with the same pairing (“relieve,” “deceive,” etc.) led to the creation of the following mnemonic device: “‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ or when sounded as ‘a’ as in ‘neighbor’ and ‘weigh.’”
- Entrepreneur
Misspelled forms: entrepenur, entrepeneur, entreperneur, entreprenur
The French origins of “entrepreneur” make this word a tricky one to spell. It has a list of misspellings, some of which include dropping or misplacing the “r” in “-pren-”; other common misspellings have issues with the “-eu” at the end of the word.
- License
Misspelled forms: licence, lisence, lisense
Having different letters in a word that produce the same sound can lead to incorrect spellings. In “license” the “c” and “s” are often swapped, or an extra “c” or “s” is used to form the word.
Although “licence” is not considered an incorrect spelling in the rest of the English-speaking world, when writing in American English, you should replace the second “c” with an “s.”
- Privilege
Misspelled forms: priviledge, privelege
The last part of the word “privilege” sounds similar to how you might say “ledge,” but in the correct spelling of “privilege” there’s no “d.” The “i” before “-lege” is also tricky since some might pronounce it similarly to the short “e” sound and incorrectly spell the word as “privelege.”
- Pronunciation
Misspelled form: pronounciation
The spelling of “pronounce” is what leads writers to spell “pronunciation” incorrectly. They use “-noun-” instead of the correct form—“-nun-”—which drops the “o.”
- Separate
Misspelled forms: seperate, seprate
Speaking of pronunciation: How you say the word “separate” could lead you to misspell it. Depending on your pronunciation, you might exchange the first “a” for an “e” or drop the first “a” altogether.
- Tendency
Misspelled form: tendancy
It is common for some people to replace the second “e” with an “a.”
- Weird
Misspelled form: wierd
The mnemonic device “i before e . . .” mentioned above makes this word particularly confusing. If you steadfastly follow this device, you’d expect to spell the word using “-ie,” as in “wierd.” But it’s, well, weird.
- Weather
Misspelled forms: wether, waether, whether
The “-ea” in weather can cause a spelling mix-up. Since the “a” is silent, it’s sometimes dropped, or the letters are reversed as “-ae.”
Additionally, “whether” is a real word and not an incorrect spelling in itself, but when used in a climate-related context, it becomes a common misspelling of “weather.”
Evaluation
Identify the common words given to misspelling in English.
Reading Assignment
What are the methods you should take to avoid spelling words wrongly?
Weekend Assignment
List 10 words that are commonly misspelled apart from those identified in today’s class.
We hope you enjoyed today’s class. In our next class, we will be learning about Differences Between Pair of Sentences.
Let us know your thoughts and questions in the comment section, and we will attend to them as fast as we can.
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