27 most common English words people always misspell
"For me it's 'necessary'. Two c’s? Two s’s? I never know."
Woman confused about how to spell a word.
There's a reason spelling bees remain an impressive feat of knowledge--spelling is not easy. And certain words in English are harder to spell than others. That's because English is an amalgam of different languages.
According to the University of Florida Literacy Institute, "English spellings seem particularly challenging to learn because English words have origins in multiple languages—mostly Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and Greek. This makes English orthography opaque, or difficult to understand or 'see through'," they note. "This is in contrast to languages such as Spanish, where words are mostly from Latin, which makes the orthography transparent or clear."
Logophiles on Reddit shared the words that always trip them up when it comes to spelling. These are 27 words that are commonly misspelled.
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"For me it's 'necessary'. Two c’s? Two s’s? I never know." - isaacturner_12
"Definitely. I just misspelled it but autocorrect made it right. 😆" - jes_537
"Privilege. I always wanna spell it 'privelege' at first." - affectionateanarchy8
"Vacum? Vaccum? Vacuum? Vaccum?" - frightenedscared
"'Restaurant' will always be hard for me." - Last_City5746
"Embarrassimg. Edit: Embarrassing." - IamTroyOfTroy
"Cemetery. Stephen King said he remembers it because the e’s are spaced evenly like tombstones." jintana, shinofonan
"Bureaucracy. I struggled until I realized that I have no problems with just the word bureau. So now it’s not “bureaucracy”… it’s a bureau with a cracy. 🤷🏻♀️ it works for me." - _incredigirl_, benjaminhayes12
"Gaurantee [guarantee]." - duckweedlagoon
@english.with.lucy Can you spell these SUPER HARD words? #spellingtest #spelling #spellingbee #englishchallenge
"Ceiling (the i before e rule is actually not true in most cases, it just works with the most popular words. It works here but my head can't grasp it)." - duckweedlagoon
Maintainance [Maintenance]." - duckweedlagoon
"License. My answer for this is and always will be lisence licence license." - Winter_drivE1
"That red-purple color. Fuschia? Fuchsia? Fucshia?" - AllHailSeizure
"Tomorrow. Tomaro... tomarro... towmaro... towmorro..." - kenerling
"Privilege. Privelige previleige privelige prievlige previlegie. Autocorrect doesn’t even help me anymore." "- froderenfelemus
"Rhythm. I was going to say that I thought I finally had “rhythm” down but then spellchecker told me it was incorrect. The word looks wrong however I spell it. Rhythm? Rhythym? Argh!" - elt0p0, Pedantic_Girl
"Awkward. I had to look it up. Again." - Studio_T3
"My common misspelling is: Acceptable – acceptible." - RainbowWarrior73
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"Calendar. Autocorrect fixed it for me just now." - hangry_hangry_hippie
"Maintenance. I think I finally have it down now, but took 30 years 😂 I always wanted to spell it maintainance." - whineANDcheese_
"Also, lackadaisical. Usually I mess that one up so bad that autocorrect can’t even get it. I always feel like it’s some for of lacks or lax not lack." - whineANDcheese_
"Pharmascutical Pharmacutical Pharmaceuticul Pharmacetical Pharmacuticall Pharmaceutical." - discombobubolated
"sacrilegious -- really? Not sacreligious? Go figure." - jomabu23
"Broccoli. I'm also pretty sure I lost a chance at a best paper award because of 'guage' instead of gauge in a headline." - 1369ic
"Occassion...occasion...occasion. now none of them look right!" - i_do_me
"When ever I type thorough or throughout, I seem to try to spell both at the same time: Throroughout." - ColoradoScoop