3. Common misspellings
Here’s a quick-reference guide to the top misspellings according to the Oxford English
Corpus – an electronic collection of over 2 billion words of real English that helps us to see
how people are using the language and also shows us the mistakes that are most often
made.The table gives the correct spelling of the word, handy tips on getting it right, and also
the most common misspellings that we’ve found in our research, so you can check to see if
any of the same mistakes have been tripping you up.
Correct Spelling Spelling Advice Incorrect Spelling
accommodate, two cs, two ms accomodate, accomodation
accommodation
achieve i before e acheive
apparently -ent not -ant apparantly
appearance ends with -ance appearence
basically ends with -ally basicly
beginning double n before the -ing begining
believe i before e beleive, belive
business begins with busi- buisness
calendar -ar not -er calender
colleague -ea- in the middle collegue
coming one m comming
committee double m, double t, double e commitee
completely ends with -ely completly
definitely -ite- not –ate- definately
dilemma -mm- not -mn- dilemna
disappear one s, two ps dissapear
disappoint one s, two ps dissapoint
embarrass two rs, two s’s embarass
environment n before the m enviroment
existence ends with -ence existance
familiar ends with -iar familar
finally two ls finaly
foreign e before i foriegn
foreseeable begins with fore- forseeable
forty begins with for- fourty
forward begins with for- foward
friend i before e freind
further begins with fur- futher
glamorous -mor- in the middle glamourous
government n before the m goverment
guard begins with gua- gaurd
Correct Spelling Spelling Advice Incorrect Spelling
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4. happened ends with -ened happend
harass, harassment one r, two s’s harrass, harrassment
honorary -nor- in the middle honourary
humorous -mor- in the middle humourous
immediately ends with -ely immediatly
incidentally ends with -ally incidently
independent ends with -ent independant
interrupt two rs interupt
irresistible ends with -ible irresistable
knowledge remember the d knowlege
liaise, liaison remember the second i: liais liase, liason
necessary one c, two s’s neccessary
noticeable remember the middle e noticable
occasion two cs, one s ocassion, occassion
occurred, occurring two cs, two rs occured, occuring
occurrence two cs, two rs, -ence not occurance, occurence
ance
piece i before e peice
possession two s’s in the middle and two posession
at the end
preferred, preferring two rs prefered, prefering
remember -mem- in the middle rember, remeber
separate -par- in the middle seperate
tomorrow one m, two rs tommorow, tommorrow
unfortunately ends with -ely unfortunatly
until one l at the end untill
weird e before i wierd
wherever one e in the middle whereever
which begins with wh- wich
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5. Proofreading
Many spelling errors remain in a document because it has not been properly proofread – or
not at all. It is essential that you do this before handing in any assignment but do NOT rely
on your computer’s (grammar and) spellchecker to do this for you. It is unreliable and often
wrong. It will miss some errors and occasionally suggest something is wrong when it is not.
One of the simple principles it relies on is “that word is in my dictionary, so it’s OK”, which
clearly does not always work. A typing error may not be picked up by spellcheckers since
the word does exist, such as “form” for “from”; “fiend” or “fried” for “friend”; “three” for “there”
or “apologies” for “apologise”.
You must also ensure that any document written in Word is set to English (UK), not (US).
You can make it your default setting.
Do make use of a good dictionary to check your spelling; that is one reason we have them.
Types of error
Spelling errors could be placed into one of four categories:
omissions (e.g. buton)
additions (e.g. hopefull)
substitutions (e.g. attendence)
inversions (e.g. tabel)
This might be useful to know when typing or checking spellings.
Aids to memory
Many people have spelling ‘blind spots’ – they find that there are certain words which they
always need to check or always hesitate over (is that ‘-ite’ or ‘-ate’? ‘ei’ or ‘ie’?). Try writing
each one of these on its own Post-it note and stick them in places where you will see them
during the day. Highlight the correct letter(s). Or simply compile a list of these words as you
go.
If you search the internet you will find lots of little clever ways (mnemonics) of remembering
difficult spellings e.g. separate = never separate a para from his chute.
You may also like to compile a list of your own common misspellings to aid checking,
especially to bear in mind in exams when you are writing by hand.
Commonly confused words (known as Homophones)
A homophone is a word that sounds like another word but it is spelled differently and,
importantly, also has a different meaning. Knowing which one to use often needs a
knowledge of grammar or parts of speech (e.g. if it is a noun, adjective or verb), plus use of
a dictionary. The following is a short list of such words:
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6. advice, advise aloud, allowed
accept, except affect, effect
compliment, complement
dependent, dependant discrete, discreet
enquire, inquire ensure, insure, assure
here, hear
its, it’s
licence, license
past, passed principal, principle
practice, practise
straight, strait stationary, stationery
there, their, they’re to, too, two
where, were, we’re whether, weather
whose, who’s
your, you’re
These are a few of the pairs that are often used wrongly.
Compliment or complement?
A compliment, or a complimentary remark, is something you pay someone when you
want to be nice: “What a nice dress!” “That’s very clever”. “You played very well” etc.
Sometimes complimentary means ‘free’: e.g. complimentary tickets.
A complement, or a complementary thing, is something that completes something: e.g. a
ship’s complement is her crew; her assignment has a complementary guide to
experimental techniques; yin is complementary to yang.
Principle or principal?
A principle is an underlying idea, or a moral belief, etc. A principal is either a Head (e.g. a
sort of Head-teacher); or an adjective describing the most important thing, “The principal
point in this lecture is…”
Practice or practise?
A practice is a noun – something that you do, “there is a football practice tonight”; “I did 5
hours’ piano practice yesterday”; “my usual practice is to warm up for five minutes first”; “she
is in General Practice”. (If you can say “a practice” in your sentence, then it is practice.)
To practise is a verb – to do something, e.g. “I practised my vocabulary last night”; “he
practised his speech in front of a mirror.”
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7. Affect or effect?
To affect is a verb – to do something, e.g. “she was affected deeply by the death of her
husband”; “to raise taxes affects everyone”.
An effect is a noun – a thing, or result. Cause and effect are opposites. “The effects of
the war were…”. Sometimes effects means possessions: “Carry your personal effects
with you”.
Lie or lay – or laid?
To lie is an intransitive verb – i.e. it has no object. You lie down.
To lay is a transitive verb – i.e. it has an object. You lay something down.
Plurals – a Checklist
Although nearly all nouns (=names of things) form their plurals by adding an ‘s’, the spelling
of some plural words can cause difficulty. There is often no rule to help you predict or work
out the correct form of plural. You have to learn particular words and their plurals one by
one. Below is a list of most of the irregular or other forms.
Note that this is not an exhaustive list but illustrates the plurals of those words which often
occur in academic writing.
Singular form Plural form
English words – regular plurals Most nouns in English form their plurals by
adding an ‘s’
table tables
Words ending in ‘-y’ change to ‘-ies’
party parties
melody melodies
quantity quantities
English words – irregular plurals
child children
man men
woman women
fish fish
sheep sheep
species species
series series
die dice
goose geese
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8. Some Latin plurals commonly
used in academic English
criterion criteria
phenomenon phenomena
curriculum curricula
medium media
stadium stadia
bacterium bacteria
referendum referenda
stimulus stimuli
syllabus syllabi
fungus fungi
analysis analyses
axis axes
appendix appendices
hypothesis hypotheses
thesis theses
crisis crises
emphasis emphases
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