English, with its vast vocabulary and quirky spellings, can be quite a challenge even for the seasoned scribe. Whether you're penning your first novel, drafting an important email, or just trying to leave an error-free comment on social media, a few words might trip you up more than others.
Some of these may surprise you, while others will have you nodding in agreement, recalling the number of times autocorrect had to step in.
Here they are, in alphabetical order:
- Accommodate - Remember, it has room for two 'm's and two 'o's!
- Acquire
- Amateur
- Apparent
- Argument - Only one 'e' is needed.
- Atheist
- Believe - As the old saying goes, “i before e, except after c.”
- Calendar
- Cemetery - No 'a' here.
- Collectible
- Column - Silent 'n' at the end.
- Conscience - Not to be confused with "conscious."
- Consensus
- Definitely - There's no 'a' in definite.
- Dilemma
- Disappear - Double 'p' and one 's'.
- Discipline
- Drunkenness
- Embarrass - Two 'r's and two 's's.
- Environment
- Existence
- Fierce
- Fluorescent
- Foreign - It’s "e before i" in this case.
- Gauge
- Grateful - Not to be mistaken with "greatful."
- Harass
- Height - It ends with 'ht', not 'th'.
- Humorous
- Ignorance
- Immediately
- Independent
- Indispensable
- Innocent
- Intelligence
- Jewelry - In the U.S., it's "jewelry." In the U.K., it's "jewellery."
- Judgment - No 'e' after the 'g'.
- Leisure
- Liaison
- Library - Not "liberry."
- License
- Lightning - Not to be confused with "lightening."
- Maintenance
- Millennium - Double 'l' and double 'n'.
- Miniature
- Minuscule - Starts with "minus," not "mini."
- Mischievous - The 'i' comes before 'e'.
- Misspell - Ironically, one of the easiest words to misspell.
- Neighbor
- Noticeable - Keep the 'e' when adding -able.
Bookmark this list or print it out, and the next time you're in doubt about the spelling of a word, refer back. Remember, even the best of us can get tripped up by English spelling from time to time. Practice makes perfect!
Source: 247WALLST
Photo: Getty Images