20 most commonly misspelt words in English - Teaching English with Oxford (2024)
Which words do you think are most commonly misspelt in English? Write down five words you expect to be on the list at the end of this post.
What makes some English words difficult to spell? One source of difficulty is inconsistent pronunciation; many sound out ‘definately’ when they mean definitely (2). And comparatively few outside the Royal Shakespeare Company clearly enunciate separate (1) – more typically the ‘A’ becomes an ‘E’. This problem is most glaring when (many) young people transcribe ‘could have’ as ‘could of’ or a lot (14) as ‘alot’.
In some cases it is an unexpected combination of letters containing few phonetic clues – bureaucracy (11) and manoeuvre (3) are examples here. In both these cases the spelling pattern is literally foreign; French, to be precise. Until comparatively recently a basic knowledge of French was assumed of every ‘educated’ English reader but most now would recognise the word entrepreneur (16) from business rather than the language from which it originates. The same applies to those other providers of hidden spelling rules: Latin and Greek.
An understandable uncertainty as to when ‘C’ rather than ‘S’ applies lies behind consensus (6) supersede (12) conscience (19) and unnecessary (7). There’s a similar confusion over what creates the ‘CK’ sound in liquefy (18), added to the confusion of an ‘E’ in place of the usual ‘I’.
By far the most difficult hurdle for any speller, however, is the dreaded ‘double letter’ dilemma. Two ‘N’s or one? Does two ‘C’s look right? Unnecessary causes double-trouble here to add to its ‘C’ or ‘S’ issues.
Spell-check/Spellcheck (?) will help, of course, which is why many young people delegate the job entirely to that marvellous (two ‘L’s in British English) programme (one ‘M’ and drop the ‘E’ in the US or amongst techies).
Sadly, technology has not yet produced a spell-checking pen for that handwritten application form.
Which words do you or your students have most trouble spelling?
Based on recent research into the most commonly misspelt words in the English language, Kieran McGovern considers why some words are just difficult to spell correctly.
The most commonly misspelled words are “receive”, “accommodate”, “separate”, and “definitely”. These are often cited as commonly misspelled due to reasons like silent letters, double letters, and common phonetic errors.
"What is the 11 letter word that even all Harvard graduates spell incorrectly?" "Incorrectly." "I-N-C-O-R-R-E-C-T-L-Y." The question is a trick because the word "incorrectly" is (correctly) spelled "incorrectly." This is an example of a "loose language" trick question.
Single/Double Letters. Sometimes, you may be getting confused in some words as to whether you should put a single letter or double letters in those words. ...
Some of the hard spelling bee words for kids are liaison, chauffeur, cerise, euonym, conscientious, accommodate, macerate, rapport, bourgeoisie, qualification, accommodation, implementation, education, creation, fundamentals, functionality, etc.
Sometimes this is due to the type of spelling instruction they have had. Sometimes it is because their teacher allowed creative spelling. Sometimes it is because children are struggling readers and don't have spelling competence. And, even students that are gifted can and often do have problems with spelling.
“Manoeuvre” is often considered one of the most difficult words to spell in English. The presence of silent letters, like the 'e' after 'u' and the 'v' in the middle, can confuse spellers. The word sounds different from spelt, making it harder to remember the correct arrangement of letters.
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Which words do you think are most commonly misspelt in English? Write down five words you expect to be on the list at the end of this post.
