Spelling Can Be Confusing

I noticed a typo in the title of yesterday’s post. I didn’t catch it when I proofread as I only checked the body, not the title. In my draft on my phone, the full title does not show. One demerit for me!

A typo is one reason for spelling words incorrectly. I don’t have my Grammarly program on my phone so was not alerted. It makes me realize the benefit of using it. Smart phones will show choices on some words, but you still need to be aware. 

Another reason people spell words incorrectly is that they mispronounce the word, then spell what they hear. As we speak fast, we tend to blur the distinct syllables and even do it in our minds. One example is the word ‘realize.’ Many say it as ‘re-lize’ which makes spelling it more difficult.  

Do you remember those spelling lists we all had in grade school? 10 or 20 words that we had to memorize. Then the teacher tested us by saying the word and often gave a sentence using that word.  

Did you know that the most misspelled word is ‘accommodate?’ That people have trouble with ‘ence’ and ‘ance’ endings? That you should remember that ‘embarrass’ has 2 r and 2 s letters? 

A few of the most commonly misspelled words are:

embarrass

environment

existence

Some words sound alike but have different spellings as well as meanings.  Many people confuse them. Words like:

to, too, two

lose, loose

there, their, they’re

your, you’re

Learning the difference is important. 

Notice one word I have used in this post several times—misspelled. Many forget to use the double ‘s’. Think of it as prefix and root word or mis-spell with ed added to create past tense.  

Much of learning to spell correctly comes down to memorizing. Personally, I believe that children who learn to read phonetically are usually better at spelling than those who learned sight reading.