Awkward/difficult words to spell

[Linnaete]

The title says it all. Most words are easy to spell and easy to remember. Some however, just don't want to cooperate with you (well, that's what we get for borrowing from the French). They want to screw with you, make your writing experience a little awkward and to inconvenience you at every opportunity. You may think you know how to spell them, when in fact you've been doing it all wrong.

So, are there any words that you just consistently find awkward and difficult to spell, and/or are there any words that you just can't spell for the first time? Do you try and phonetically spell it out the way it sounds or do you just throw together some letters in hope that the reader will be able to interpret the word?

A few of mine:

• "manouvre" <--- manoeuvre (yes, I do try and use the English spelling rather than the American one, which is turn is actually predominantly French)
• "sacriligious" <--- "sacrilegious"
• "bourgeous" <--- bourgeois (once again, French)
• "carosel" <--- carousel
• "dalmation" <--- dalmatian
• "fluerescent" <--- fluorescent
• "Rennaissance" <--- Renaissance

(LEFT: my incorrect spelling; RIGHT: the correct spelling (UK))

I'm pretty sure a lot of you confuse the homonyms "they're" with "their" and/or "there" as well as "you're" with "your".

 

[Ayumi Hamasaki]

I'm pretty sure a lot of you confuse the homonyms "they're" with "their" and/or "there" as well as "you're" with "your".

I totally know the difference between those.

My major problem with typing on the internet is that I don't pay attention to what I actually type. Sometimes I mistake the way a word sounds for the word itself, it's weird. Like I'll type hole instead of whole if I'm not paying attention, and it's not because I don't know the difference wacky but it's more like I just type like I talk, and when you talk spelling doesn't matter.

I'm just weird all around

I hope this wasn't off topic.

 

[Raiiyokuu]

That goddamned word.

Hippopotamus - I can't ever say that damn word right, but then again, who says Hippopotamus on a daily basis lol.

 

[ribbit]

Cantaloupe always gets me Though, I've since learned to spell it correctly enough that spell check will actually give me the correct spelling instead of something preposterous like "can opener."

I'm pretty sure a lot of you confuse the homonyms "they're" with "their" and/or "there" as well as "you're" with "your".

No way. I know the difference But I know quite a few people that don't know the difference, nor will they take the time to remember. Stupid fucking shits I hate so many stupid people at my school for this reason.

 

[Steve-O]

any word that longer than six letters... i hate spelling i'm sooo rubbish and i bet you can see that in almost every post i write up on this place i'm like the worse speller ever thank god for spell checker on chrome

I'm pretty sure a lot of you confuse the homonyms "they're" with "their" and/or "there" as well as "you're" with "your".

not any of them but a and an.. always mix them two up.. an only meant to go in after a, e, i, o or u... but i always add an instead of a

i had to correct 3 words during writing this post

 

[Naoto Shirogane]

I'm going to write Does. ten times.

dose dose does dose dose dose dose dose dose

Does and Dose. I kepe thinking Dose is does and Does is Dose. It's stupid.

 

[Rey]

A few of mine:

• "manouvre" <--- manoeuvre (yes, I do try and use the English spelling rather than the American one, which is turn is actually predominantly French)
• "sacriligious" <--- "sacrilegious"
• "bourgeous" <--- bourgeois (once again, French)
• "carosel" <--- carousel
• "dalmation" <--- dalmatian
• "fluerescent" <--- fluorescent
• "Rennaissance" <--- Renaissance

(LEFT: my incorrect spelling; RIGHT: the correct spelling (UK))

I'm pretty sure a lot of you confuse the homonyms "they're" with "their" and/or "there" as well as "you're" with "your".

I can not believe it. I thought you were supposed to be smart, and the best grammar Nazi there is! I am disappointed that you have trouble spelling those words. Actually if I remember, you were always correcting people's words in the shoutbox. Congratulations on exposing your fraud side.

You know, you could have said that those misspelled words annoy you, and that you never made those errors. That would have been the easy way out.

As for that last part, I may type their as there on the internet, but I will never make that mistake in real life. I never confuse you're with your, but I know a few people in some of my classes who do. Maybe I should smack them.

As for me, I would say that I tend to misspell words on the internet because I am always using a laptop. Laptop errors are common most of the time, so you must not point them out, if you are going to misspell Renaissance as Rennaissance etc etc

I am sincerely disappoint, Miss Meyneth.

I laughed at you spelling dalmatian as dalmation.

/runs away.

 

[Kandy-Sugar]

I'm pretty sure a lot of you confuse the homonyms "they're" with "their" and/or "there" as well as "you're" with "your".

I'm awesome with those. It pisses me off when I see people use it wrong all the time! They obviously think they've got it right or are just lazy and put whatever but it really matters to me that I get it right every time. >.< Luckily I find it easy. =)

Words I constantly screw up and have to type into google to get the correct spelling are:

Blue is my spelling, white is the correct spelling

Obssessed - Obsessed - I always get confused if there are two s's at the start or just one. It's really really stupid that I always forget.

That's the only word I can think of right now but I know there are others.

I'll just have to wait until I need to use one and so I can remember what they are. XD

 

[Lirael]

The title says it all. Most words are easy to spell and easy to remember. Some however, just don't want to cooperate with you (well, that's what we get for borrowing from the French). They want to screw with you, make your writing experience a little awkward and to inconvenience you at every opportunity. You may think you know how to spell them, when in fact you've been doing it all wrong.

So, are there any words that you just consistently find awkward and difficult to spell, and/or are there any words that you just can't spell for the first time? Do you try and phonetically spell it out the way it sounds or do you just throw together some letters in hope that the reader will be able to interpret the word?

A few of mine:

• "manouvre" <--- manoeuvre (yes, I do try and use the English spelling rather than the American one, which is turn is actually predominantly French)
• "sacriligious" <--- "sacrilegious"
• "bourgeous" <--- bourgeois (once again, French)
• "carosel" <--- carousel
• "dalmation" <--- dalmatian
• "fluerescent" <--- fluorescent
• "Rennaissance" <--- Renaissance

(LEFT: my incorrect spelling; RIGHT: the correct spelling (UK))

I'm pretty sure a lot of you confuse the homonyms "they're" with "their" and/or "there" as well as "you're" with "your".

'Dalmatian' and 'Renaissance' are two words I find awkward... though 'Rennaissance' doesn't look right, so I'd probably have a feeling if I did spell it that way.

I've never tried to spell 'sacrilegious' before... but would probably have spelt it 'sacreligious' had I been asked before seeing this thread.

And I never confuse 'they're,' with 'their' or 'there,' though I know a lot of people who do make mistakes when using these. Same goes for 'which' and 'witch,' and 'your' and 'you're.'

I've worked on my spelling a lot over the years, though, and I had excellent teachers at school who helped me improve dramatically.

 

[Sexy Beast]

Onomatopoeia

I really don't have one for awkward spelling, which would include a version of a word I use, but eh whatever. The one above is one that always gets me. I always spell it "onomonapea", but as you can see the spelling I thought it was is not even remotely close.

I just find it very hard to spell without spellcheck.

 

[Lirael]

Onomatopoeia

I really don't have one for awkward spelling, which would include a version of a word I use, but eh whatever. The one above is one that always gets me. I always spell it "onomonapea", but as you can see the spelling I thought it was is not even remotely close.

I just find it very hard to spell without spellcheck.

To remember this, I think of it as 'on-oh-mat-oh-poe ee a.'

Why onomoNapea?

 

[Squid]

this is like a thread for people to show off all the fancy big words they know HAHA, I have not even heard of half the words anyone has mentioned let alone know how to spell them.

Well, I am not very clever when it comes to words, I confuse a lot of letters up in easy words that normal people wouldn't, most of the time i manage to correct my mistakes though.

One simple word I always get confused is receive. For some reason I will always spell it as recieve even though I am well aware of the 'I before E except after C' thing.

There are many other words I fail at spelling, but I can't think of any others right now.

 

[Donald Trump]

Renaissance is quite easy if you know/remember that it's re as in again and naissance which is basically nascent. There's no too many English words that start with the same double letter, especially consonants.
I don't have much trouble spelling words, except the names of people or places that are used in my Classics course, there's quite often two ways, neither of which comes very naturally to someone whose first language is English.

 

[ribbit]

I have trouble with the words desperately and separately. I always mix up the second "e" and the first "a" in each word respectively They're so similar in sound that I assume they're spelt the same, then when the word check function pops up and says it's not, I'm stuck fixing them and making it worse

 

[Bambi]

Spell check is a godsend when it comes to words like recieved or anything thats got all those i's and e's in there, i know the diffences with there their were where weather and whether and all that shit, just the majority of the time, im not really thinking before i type so do i occassionally type the wrong one. Shock horror, Im not thick, the wrong one just gets typed out sometimes. i get shit like recieved wrong almost every time though. With the internet, im not arsed. with work shit il cross check it. it annoys me when people correct what others have wrote, as long as we know what they are getting at and its a simple error, who gives a fuck? since when did we ask to be corrected? its not school or work, so fuck off

/rant

i had no idea until recently that there was stationery and stationary as well, i thought the 'e' one was a miss spelling... apparently not...

 

[Kandy-Sugar]

There's another couple of words I always have trouble with. I can spell them, I just have a hard time trying to differentiate between the two for some reason.

I always have to have a good long think about which one is the right spelling before I write it in a sentence.

It is affect and effect.

It really is quite annoying.

 

[Lirael]

There's another couple of words I always have trouble with. I can spell them, I just have a hard time trying to differentiate between the two for some reason.

I always have to have a good long think about which one is the right spelling before I write it in a sentence.

It is affect and effect.

It really is quite annoying.

Affect is the verb.
e.g. The rain affects the road, I was affected by his words, he is affecting our reputation.

Effect is the noun.
e.g. It was a nice effect, there was a lasting effect...It was an effective piece of work <- ok, that's an adjective, so I guess they use 'e' too.

My Chemistry teacher was having trouble with that when I was in year 9 and one student knew the answer, so we had a short lesson on it.