For me common spelling mistakes include confusing some of these word pairs.

  • loose vs. lose
  • then vs. than
  • were vs. where
  • Asafum@feddit.nl
    8·
    4 months ago

    For some reason unfortunately gave me trouble until I broke it down and remembered to have tuna in there lol

    So I just think: unfor tuna tely

  • rowinxavier@lemmy.world
    4·
    4 months ago

    Australian English is based off British English but is not identical. Both are different to US English and have a lot of words that are spelled with a bit more historical contingency. That said, knowing which words have which version of suffix can be difficult.

    For example, authorise or authorize. Practice or practise. Gaol or jail. English is a pain but it does make a good common language.

      • rowinxavier@lemmy.world
        1·
        4 months ago

        Yeah, and also the Oxford comma is in my mind much clearer. I think if you are understood you are using the language correctly. If you are not understood at first but become understood after a bit of back and forth then you are using the language and also pushing the limits a little, making changes along the way. It is an evolutionary process, not design, so it is messy.

  • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world
    3·
    4 months ago

    It’s only very recently that I learned I’ve been using the wrong then/than and effect/affect most of the time.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
      2·
      4 months ago

      What kinda helped me was thinking of then as relative to time and than was associated with math so it helped recognize how it related to concepts differently lol

      Effect I just think of “special effects” and so I know the other is the one related to an impact.

  • Goldholz @lemmy.blahaj.zone
    2·
    4 months ago

    In english a lot. Not just because i am dislexic, but also french stemming words are a nightmare

    “Litterly” is one i have still no idea how to spell. Or wether, not meaning the weather as in sun and run but the one for implying choice

  • Nusm@peachpie.theatl.socialEnglish
    2·
    4 months ago

    I can never figure out where that pesky u goes in restaurant. (Thank goodness for autocorrect, or I couldn’t have spelled it for this post!)

    • palordrolap@fedia.io
      1·
      4 months ago

      The former is British, the latter is American. Noah Webster eliminated letter doubles in words where he thought the extra one didn’t add anything useful. Another word that did the same thing is “level(l)ing”.

  • paulzy@lemmy.world
    2·
    4 months ago

    More a typo than a spelling mistake but if a word ends in ‘th’, my brain cannot stop adding an ‘e’.

    • withe
    • bothe
    • mythe
  • palordrolap@fedia.io
    2·
    4 months ago

    Licence / license, and practice / practise. I have to look them up every single time because I forget which of each is the noun and which is the verb, and even then, there are situations where using the noun as a verb might actually be the right thing to do and I hate the whole thing. So I probably still get those wrong whenever I use them.

    Barring brain farts (increasingly common) and muscle memory leading me astray on the keyboard, my spelling is otherwise fairly good, but those pairings I could do without.

    • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      Regarding license and licence, in American English it’s just always license. So when in doubt pick that and claim to be an expat lol.

  • Canopyflyer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    4 months ago

    ageing vs aging

    The former is the way I learned it in school way back in the 70’s… Apparently that is the way the British spell it and it sends US citizens into an aneurysm.

    One that bothers me the most when people do it is brake vs break. Your car will break if you do not apply the brake in a timely fashion.