8 Words I Can Never Spell ...

By Alison11 Comments

8 Words I Can Never Spell ...

I’ve never had a problem with spelling, generally speaking. In fact, I was that irritating kid that always got 10 out of 10 in spelling tests at school and could spell Mississippi aged 7. However, there are always exceptions … and there are some words that I just seem to find impossible to get right …

1 The

The Photo Credit: Laura Brunow Miner

Yes, one of the simplest words in the English language, and I can’t spell it. Or rather, I can’t type it. Like a lot of people, it always comes out as teh. This is OK in Word, as it auto-corrects, but not when typing in IM.

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2 Prejudice

Prejudice Photo Credit: taylorkoa22

Is it prejudice, or predujice? Okay, when written down it’s obvious, but it’s the sound of the word that confuses me. So I always have to think about it!

3 Practice

When it comes to practice/practise, can I ever remember which is the noun and which is the verb? No I can’t! No matter how many times I look it up, it refuses to stick in my brain.

4 Commitment

With this word, I have no trouble remembering that there is a double "m"; what foxes me is whether the "t" is also doubled. I think I have finally worked out a way of committing (note that the "t" IS doubled here) it to memory – it follows the noun ‘commit’, which only has one "t".

5 Separate

Whenever I’m about to type this, I always have to think for a moment first. Is it seperate or separate? (Word helpfully corrected me here, although I then had to undo the correction. That’s irony.)

6 Weird

I always used to have trouble with this. Of course, it’s one where the ‘I before E’ rule doesn’t apply. I think it’s finally sunk in though (hurrah).

7 Independent

Another one that used to cause me trouble, but which is now sorted. Is it –ant or –ent, I used to ask myself? The key with this one was repeating ‘it’s all E! It’s all E!’.

8 Jewellry

Is it jewellry, jewelry or jewellery? I think I give up on this one …

Which words cause you problems? Do you think that English spelling needs to be simplified, or that correct spelling is essential?

Top Photo Credit: Pictures by Ann

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