3/10/2015

Common misspellings - Oxford Dictionaries

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Common misspellings
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Common misspellings
Heres 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.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/common-misspellings

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Common misspellings - Oxford Dictionaries

The table gives the correct spelling of the word, handy tips on getting it right, and also the most common misspellings
that weve 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

accommodate, accommodation two cs, two ms

achieve
i before e
across
one c

Common misspelling
accomodate, accomodation
acheive
accross

aggressive, aggression

two gs

agressive, agression

apparently

-ent not -ant

apparantly

appearance
argument

ends with -ance

no e after the u

appearence
arguement

assassination
basically
beginning

two double ss
ends with -ally
double n before the -ing

assasination
basicly
begining

believe
bizarre
business

i before e
one z, double -r
begins with busi-

beleive, belive
bizzare
buisness

calendar
Caribbean
cemetery
chauffeur

-ar not -er

one r, two bs
ends with -ery
ends with -eur

calender
Carribean
cemetary
chauffer

colleague
coming

-ea- in the middle

one m

collegue
comming

committee
completely
conscious

double m, double t, double e

ends with -ely
-sc- in the middle

commitee
completly
concious

curiosity
definitely
dilemma
disappear
disappoint
ecstasy

-os- in the middle

-ite- not ate-mm- not -mnone s, two ps
one s, two ps
ends with sy

curiousity
definately
dilemna
dissapear
dissapoint
ecstacy

embarrass
environment
existence
Fahrenheit

two rs, two ss

n before the m
ends with -ence
begins with Fahr-

embarass
enviroment
existance
Farenheit

familiar

ends with -iar

familar

finally
fluorescent

two ls
begins with fluor-

finaly
florescent

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Common misspellings - Oxford Dictionaries

foreign
foreseeable
forty
forward

e before i
begins with forebegins with forbegins with for-

foriegn
forseeable
fourty
foward

friend
further
gist
glamorous
government
guard

i before e
begins with furbegins with g-mor- in the middle
n before the m
begins with gua-

freind
futher
jist
glamourous
goverment
gaurd

happened
harass, harassment
honorary
humorous

ends with -ened

one r, two ss
-nor- in the middle
-mor- in the middle

happend
harrass, harrassment
honourary
humourous

idiosyncrasy
immediately
incidentally
independent
interrupt
irresistible

ends with -asy

ends with -ely
ends with -ally
ends with -ent
two rs
ends with -ible

idiosyncracy
immediatly
incidently
independant
interupt
irresistable

knowledge
liaise, liaison
lollipop
millennium, millennia

remember the d
remember the second i: liaisi in the middle
double l, double n

knowlege
liase, liason
lollypop
millenium, millenia

Neanderthal
necessary

ends with -thal

one c, two ss

Neandertal
neccessary

noticeable
occasion
occurred, occurring

remember the middle e

two cs, one s
two cs, two rs

noticable
ocassion, occassion
occured, occuring

occurrence
pavilion
persistent
pharaoh
piece
politician

two cs, two rs, -ence not -ance

one l
ends with -ent
ends with -aoh
i before e
ends with -cian

occurance, occurence
pavillion
persistant
pharoah
peice
politican

Portuguese
possession
preferred, preferring
propaganda
publicly

ends with guese

Portugese
two ss in the middle and two at the end posession
two rs
prefered, prefering
begins with propapropoganda
ends with cly
publically

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/common-misspellings

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Common misspellings - Oxford Dictionaries

really
receive
referred, referring
religious
remember

two ls
e before i
two rs
ends with -gious
-mem- in the middle

realy
recieve
refered, refering
religous
rember, remeber

resistance
sense
separate

ends with -ance

ends with -se
-par- in the middle

resistence
sence
seperate

siege

i before e

seige

successful

two cs, two ss

succesful

supersede
surprise
tattoo
tendency
therefore
threshold

ends with -sede

begins with surtwo ts, two os
ends with -ency
ends with -fore
one h in the middle

supercede
suprise
tatoo
tendancy
therefor
threshhold

tomorrow
tongue
truly
unforeseen
unfortunately
until
weird

one m, two rs
begins with ton-, ends with -gue
no e
remember the e after the r
ends with -ely
one l at the end
e before i

tommorow, tommorrow
tounge
truely
unforseen
unfortunatly
untill
wierd

wherever

one e in the middle

whereever

which

begins with wh-

wich

Back to spelling.

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Spelling rules and tips
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Common misspellings - Oxford Dictionaries

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Check your spelling!

1. 1) Which of the following is correct?

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Common misspellings - Oxford Dictionaries

gaurd
guard

Next Score: 0/0

Grammar and usage

Grammar
Grammar tips
Compound subjects
Double negatives
Dangling participles
Ending sentences with prepositions
Matching subjects and verbs
Matching verbs to collective nouns
Personal pronouns
Plurals of English nouns taken from Latin or Greek
Singular nouns treated as plural
Split infinitives
The comma splice
Verbs from nouns
Verbs with two different past tense forms
Grammar A-Z
Word classes (or parts of speech)
Adjectives
Comparative and superlative adjectives
Gradable and non-gradable adjectives
Qualitative and classifying adjectives
Adverbs
Sentence adverbs
Adverbials and adjuncts
Conjunctions
Determiners
Exclamations
Nouns
Countable and uncountable nouns
Prepositions
Pronouns
Verbs
Verb tenses
Regular and irregular verbs
Subjects and objects
Transitive and intransitive verbs
Participles
Active and passive verbs
Moods
Phrasal verbs
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Common misspellings - Oxford Dictionaries

Auxiliary verbs
Sentences, clauses, and phrases
Sentences
Clauses
Relative clauses
Phrases
Spelling
Adding endings to words that end in -our
Adding endings to words that end in -y
Adding endings to words that end in a double l
Abbreviations
Acronyms
Contractions
Initialisms
Shortenings
Adding -ful or -fully
Adding -ly
Ante- or anti-?
Common misspellings
Endings beginning with vowels
Words ending in -ance and -ence
Words ending in -ancy and -ency
Words spelled with -ae/-oe
Words ending in -ary, -ory, and -ery
Words ending in -ant and -ent
Words ending in -efy and -ify
Words ending in -ence/-ense
Nouns ending in -er, -or, and -ar
Words ending in -ious and -eous
Words ending in -ogue/-og
-ize, -ise, or -yse?
Words ending in -able or -ible
Nouns ending in -acy and -asy
English spelling changes
fore- or for-?
Forming adverbs
Forming comparative and superlative adjectives
How words are built
i before e except after c
Plurals of nouns
Prefixes and suffixes
Spelling differences and changes
Minuscule or miniscule?
Currying favour
Old and new forms
One word or two?
British and American spelling
Spelling rules and tips
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Common misspellings - Oxford Dictionaries

Tracking the changes

Using capital letters
Verb tenses: adding -ed and -ing
Words containing the letter q
Words ending in a vowel plus l
Words ending in -cede, -ceed, and -sede
Words ending in -ch and -tch
Words ending in -re/-er
Words ending in -sion, -tion, and -cion
Words with misleading beginnings
Punctuation
Full stop (.)
Comma (,)
Semicolon (;)
Colon (:)
Apostrophe ()
Hyphen (-)
Dash ()
Brackets ( ) [ ]
Inverted commas
Exclamation mark (!)
Question mark (?)
Bullet points
Punctuation in direct speech
Punctuation in lists
Punctuation in abbreviations
Writing help
Top writing tips
Top tips for better writing
Top tips for word choice
Top tips for CV writing
Top tips for writing a cover letter
Top tips for better business writing
Top tips for writing better essays
Top tips for writing a personal statement
Top tips for online writing
Top tips for creative writing
Top tips for writing a successful speech
Top tips for writing a review
Building a piece of writing
Structure
Cohesion
Clichs and redundant expressions
Avoiding clichs
Avoiding redundant expressions
Applying for a job
Writing a CV/rsum
Writing job applications
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Common misspellings - Oxford Dictionaries

Letters and invitations

How to lay out a letter
Letter formats: block, modified block, and semi-block
Choose the right greeting and sign off
Invitations and RSVPs
Insurance claims
Letters of complaint
Letters of condolence
Business letters
Writing a business email
Business email dos and don'ts
Email mistakes to avoid
Writing reports
The language of gender
The language of mental or physical disability
Usage
A historic event or an historic event?
Adverse or averse?
Affect or effect?
All right or alright?
Allude or elude?
Alternate or alternative?
Among or amongst?
Amoral or immoral?
Assume or presume?
Appraise or apprise?
Bare or bear?
Between you and me
Bored by, of, or with?
Bring or take?
British and American terms
Can or may?
Cannot or can not?
Censure or censor?
Cite, site, or sight?
Climactic or climatic?
Commonly confused words
Complement or compliment?
Continual or continuous?
Could of or could have?
Denote or connote?
Dialect
Different from, than, or to?
Diffuse or defuse?
Discreet or discrete?
Disinterested or uninterested?
Elicit or illicit?
Enquire or inquire?
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Common misspellings - Oxford Dictionaries

Ensure or insure?
Especially or specially?
Farther or further?
Flair or flare?
Flaunt or flout?
Formal language
Grizzly or grisly?
He or she versus they
Historic or historical?
Hopefully
I or me?
i.e. or e.g.?
Imply or infer?
Informal language
Irregardless
Its or its?
Laid or lain?
Learnt or learned?
Less or fewer?
Like
Literally
Literary language
Loose or lose?
May or might?
Neither and nor
Old-fashioned language
Onto or on to?
Phenomenon or phenomena?
Principal or principle?
Shall or will?
Slang
Standard English
Thankfully
That or which?
Themselves or 'themself?
These or those?
To or too?
Who or whom?
Tortuous or torturous?

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