What words catch you out where you have to check? I have a problem remembering 'manoeuvre' and 'rhythm'  for two.

Diarrhoea (I had to copy and paste that from t'Internet) is about the only one that causes a problem for me. Luckily, I don't have to write it very often.

In terms of "most often misspelled", I think it's "the".

1 minute ago, Strange said:

Diarrhoea (I had to copy and paste that from t'Internet) is about the only one that causes a problem for me. Luckily, I don't have to write it very often.

Yeah, that's a pain.

Just now, John Cuthber said:

In terms of "most often misspelled", I think it's "the".

What are the alternatives?

teh

 

What's a pain ?
The diarrhea or the spelling ?

3 minutes ago, MigL said:

What's a pain ?
The diarrhea or the spelling ?

See, even you can't spell it.   (I know, you do it the American way)

covfefe(had to copy and paste)

 

All heil the covfefe.....

Edited January 13, 20188 yr by geordief

Cancelled. Or, is it canceled?

12 hours ago, StringJunky said:

and 'rhythm’

Me, too. 

I'm embarassed that I can never seem to remember how to spell embarrassed. 

Unnecessary 

On 1/13/2018 at 4:26 AM, Strange said:

Diarrhoea (I had to copy and paste that from t'Internet) is about the only one that causes a problem for me. Luckily, I don't have to write it very often.

On 1/13/2018 at 4:28 AM, StringJunky said:

Yeah, that's a pain.

On 1/13/2018 at 4:58 AM, MigL said:

What's a pain ?
The diarrhea or the spelling ?

On 1/13/2018 at 5:03 AM, StringJunky said:

See, even you can't spell it.   (I know, you do it the American way)

The British way looks more painfully spelled, which seems unnecessarily embarrassing. 

 

1 minute ago, Phi for All said:

The British way looks more painfully spelled, which seems unnecessarily embarrassing. 

 

I think most people would spell it, "the runs".

27 minutes ago, Strange said:

I think most people would spell it, "the runs".

Not "the trots"? That's what I call it, and I've ALWAYS used a posh accent to juxtapose the vulgarity of the subject. "The runs" sounds more American to me. 

 

 

Many years ago, computer spellcheck cured me of a weird tendency to misspell "guard". Somehow my fingers learned to type it as gaurd, and eventually that looked right to me. I remember being embarrassingly adamant about how WRONG spellcheck was.

8 hours ago, Phi for All said:

Not "the trots"?

I don't think I have ever heard that used. The squits is another popular alternative.

8 hours ago, Phi for All said:

Many years ago, computer spellcheck cured me of a weird tendency to misspell "guard".

I seem to remember being surprised when spellcheck corrected "separately" for me, so presumably I had been misspelling it as "seperately" for years.

maintenance 

12 minutes ago, iNow said:

maintenance 

Yep, I usually start off with Maintainance before correcting.  

2 hours ago, iNow said:

maintenance 

Weird, this is one of the easiest words to spell for me in English. I struggle with words with double l’s and double r’s in them for some reason but believe me, English is a joy to spell, I struggle far more with Polish, try: Dżdżownica (earthworm), Chrząszcz (beetle), rzeczywiście (really) or essencially any other word - its a nightmare.

1 hour ago, koti said:

I struggle far more with Polish, try: Dżdżownica (earthworm), Chrząszcz (beetle), rzeczywiście (really)

Vowels are like breaths of air, so you struggle with suffocation when there are too few. I'd be gasping in a Polish spelling bee.

1 hour ago, koti said:

or essencially any other word - its a nightmare.

Essentially. 

6 hours ago, Phi for All said:

 

Essentially. 

Oh yes, these are a problem for as well, thanks.

Neighbour - which is often spelt missing the "u" - always had me struggling. I use "it's" when I'm informed it's supposed to have no apostrophe - ("it's apostrophe being both wrong and superfluous"). I dig my heels in and use it anyway, in line with apostrophe as indicator of belonging to; perhaps common usage - and I'm not the only one - will end up making it correct.

Edited January 17, 20188 yr by Ken Fabian

13 minutes ago, Ken Fabian said:

I dig my heels in and use it anyway, in line with apostrophe as indicator of belonging to; perhaps common usage - and I'm not the only one - will end up making it correct.

No (other) possessive pronouns have an apostrophe. So good luck with that!

 

37 minutes ago, Strange said:

No (other) possessive pronouns have an apostrophe. So good luck with that!

 

Why the exception for pronouns? Anyway, usage is the final arbiter.

 

Edited January 17, 20188 yr by Ken Fabian

16 minutes ago, Ken Fabian said:

Why the exception for pronouns?

Interesting question. Because of the complex history of pronouns, I guess. Most didn't start off with an -s ending (and most still don't have one: mine, your, their, etc.). So I think "its" was a later invention and modelled on "his". 

There was a period when both -n and -s were being used as the possessive ending (as in mine, thine and non-standard yourn). And sometimes in combination (hisn).

Apparently, I didn't know how to spell lasso ... having just written it for the first time in my life, I guess.