Misspelling

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A misspelling of purchased on a service station sign
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A misspelling of purchased on a service station sign

Misspelling refers to spelling a word incorrectly. Misspelling is distinguished from other errors in writing, such as grammatical errors, incorrect capitalization or misuse of punctuation. A misspelled word can be a series of letters that represents no correctly spelled word at all (such as "liek" for "like") or a correct spelling of another word (such as writing "here" when one means "hear", or "now" when one means "know"). Misspellings of the latter type can easily make their way into printed material because they are not caught by simple computerized spell checkers.

Misspellings may be due to either typos (e.g. typing teh for the), or lack of knowledge of the correct spelling. Whether or not a word is misspelled may depend on context. For example, in British English center would be a misspelling of centre, whereas in American English it would not. Misspelling can also be a matter of opinion when variant spellings are accepted by some and not by others. For example "miniscule" (for "minuscule") is a misspelling to many, and yet it is listed as a legitimate variant in a number of dictionaries. Ironically, the word "misspell" and various forms there of are often misspelled.

Contents

[edit] English

[edit] Commonly confused words

affect: a verb - i.e. X affects Y
effect: a noun denoting the result of something (the bad weather had an adverse effect on sales), or a verb meaning to bring about or cause to happen (several changes were effected by the new management).

are: plural of is (I am, he/she is, you are, we are, they are) /ɑɹ/
our: belonging to us /aʊɹ/ (unstressed /ɑɹ/)

Multiple misspellings outside a public house Weymouth, Dorset
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Multiple misspellings outside a public house Weymouth, Dorset

barley: the grain used to make beer /ˈbɑɹli/ (rhymes with "Harley")
barely: hardly /ˈbɛɹli/ (rhymes with "rarely")

breath: the noun /bɹɛθ/ (rhymes with "death")
breathe: the verb /bɹið/ (rhymes with "seethe")

collage: something made from a variety of magazine cut-outs mounted on paper /kəˈlɑʒ/ (rhymes, for some people, with "barrage")
college: university /ˈkɒlɪdʒ/ (rhymes with "knowledge")

corpse: dead body /kɔɹps/ (rhymes with "warps")
corps: army or similar organization /kɔɹ/ (rhymes with "four"); also the plural of "corp" when it's short for "corporation"

coup: act of overthrowing a government /ku/ (rhymes with "too")
coupe: vehicle /kup/ (rhymes with "group" in U.S. English. Elsewhere, however, the word is in fact French, and has an accented 'e' - coupé, /kupˈeɪ/ (pronounced "koop-ay."))

everyday: routine, commonplace /ˈevɹideɪ/ ; often used instead of:
every day: daily, once per day /ˈevɹi ˈdeɪ/

fair: evenhandedness; a market or gathering; light in hair or skin; etc /fɛɹ/
fare: food or drink as part of a diet; a transportation charge (e.g., "At the movies, we had the typical fare: popcorn, candy, and cola") /fɛɹ/

Misspelling of Occasion (Occassion) and Confectionery (Confectionary) on a shop front
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Misspelling of Occasion (Occassion) and Confectionery (Confectionary) on a shop front

its: possessive form of the word "it" (e.g., "Its quality is unsurpassed") /ɪts/
it's: contraction of the phrase, "it is" (e.g., "It's getting dark out") or "it has" (e.g., "It's been a while") /ɪts/

loose: opposite of tight (rhymes with "goose") /lus/
lose: opposite of win, gain or find (rhymes with "choose") /luz/

now: at the present time /naʊ/ (rhymes with "how")
know: be familiar with the facts; be acquainted with; be aware /noʊ/ (rhymes with "go")

of: belonging to or somehow connected with; associated with; forming a part of; a certain amount of /ʌv/ (rhymes with "love") (unstressed /əv/)
off: opposite of on /ɒf/ (rhymes with "cough")
've: This is the word "have" as part of a contraction. This sounds like "of" after some words like "could" and "might", but is actually a contraction for "have" (could have, might have). You write: should've, might've, would've, etc. /əv/

physics: the laws that govern objects moving in space; related to physical, physiology, physicist, physician /ˈfɪzɪks/ (the first syllable sounds like "fizz")
psychic: having ESP; pertaining to the soul; related to psychology, psychiatrist, psyche, psycho, psychedelic, psychopath, psyched (psychic scars) /ˈsaɪkɪk/ (the first syllable sounds like "sigh")

pore: to study carefully or intently; a small opening in the skin (e.g., "He spent the evening poring over his Chemistry textbook") /pɔɹ/
pour: to angle a receptacle filled with something such that whatever is in the receptacle falls out /pɔɹ/

principle: a rule, standard, law, or assumption /ˈpɹɪnsɪpl̩/
principal: the head of an elementary or high school /ˈpɹɪnsɪpl̩/

quite: rather, to an impressive degree /kwaɪt/(rhymes with "night")
quiet: not very loud; to hush /ˈkwaɪ.ɪt/ (rhymes with "riot")

than: conjunction to introduce second member of comparison /ðæn/ (unstressed /ðən/)
then: at that time, after that, etc. /ðɛn/

their: possessive pronoun (They will pack their belongings)
there: adverb describing a relatively far location (Can you see the horned toad over there?
they're: contraction of the words "they" and "are" (They're doing great!)

through: from one end to the other; finished /θɹu/ (rhymes with "too")
thorough: complete, exhaustive /ˈθʌɹoʊ/, /ˈθɝoʊ/(rhymes with "burro")

were: past tense of the verb to be (I was, you were) /wɝ/(rhymes with "fur")
where: at what place? /wɛɹ/, /ʍɛɹ/ (rhymes with "share")
wear: have clothes on; break something down eventually through use (wear out, wear thin, wear and tear) /wɛɹ/ (rhymes with "share")

whet: to sharpen or hone /wɛt/, /ʍɛt/ (e.g., "Whet your appetite")
wet: saturated with moisture or water /wɛt/

which: what one; that (He kicked against my leg, which bothered me) -- a question word like what, when, where or why, it should begin with WH (homophonous with "witch" in some dialects, but in others it begins with a /ʍ/ sound, as do "whale", "where", "white", and "wheat") /wɪtʃ/, /ʍɪtʃ/
witch: a female sorcerer (always pronounced with a simple /w/ sound at the beginning) /wɪtʃ/

you're: you are
your: belonging to you

[edit] List of notable misspellings

[edit] Intentional or derived misspellings

  • Cleveland, Ohio - The leader of the crew that surveyed the town's territory was Gen. Moses Cleaveland, and the region was named in his honor; reportedly the town's first newspaper could not fit the town's name in its masthead without removing the first "a" from the name.
  • Cocoa - from cacao (misspelling also influenced by cocoa). Many foreign languages and foreigners speaking English still use "cacao".
  • Montezuma - erroneous spelling of the Aztec emperor's name, Moctezuma. The commonly used name is easier to pronounce in English.
  • Odelay - title of an album by Beck. He had dictated the title he had chosen to the person writing down the name of his next album, originally to be titled Órale (Mexican Spanish for "wow!"). See also: Becktionary and the Futurama parody
  • Oprah Winfrey's name was originally Orpah, after a character in the Bible, but relatives found it too difficult to say.
  • Pago Pago, American Samoa - The region's traditional name is "Pango Pango". The first letters United States Navy officers wrote from the island territory to Washington were written in a typewriter whose "N" key was defective.
  • United States Declaration of Independence - An extra "t" in the original document forms the line "Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren"
  • Antawn Jamison - NBA athlete. Name spelled "An-tawn" but pronounced "An-twan"

[edit] Accidental misspellings

  • Camel-and-needle-eye proverb - Translators from Hebrew into Greek may have confused kamêlos (cable) with kamilos (camel).
  • Google - accidental misspelling of googol. According to Google's Vice President, as quoted on a BBC The Money Programme documentary, January 2006, the founders - noted for their poor spelling - registered Google as a trademark and web address before someone pointed out that it was not correct.
  • Hoodlum - first appeared as a pseudonym in a newspaper article, whose editor had misread "Noodlum" (the author's reversal of this wrongdoer's real surname, Muldoon). [This popular account of the derivation is discredited by many sources.]
  • Middlesbrough, a town in the north-east of England. It is apocryphally suggested that it is missing a second 'o' due to a clerk typing the town's registration form incorrectly (making it Middlesborough).
  • Nome, a town in western Alaska. A British cartographer wrote "Name ?" in a map, as a request to clarify the region's name. The maps' transcribers mistook the side note as the name of the cape adjacent to the region and misinterpreted "name" as "Nome".
  • Ovaltine, a popular bedtime drink in the UK, came about because someone misspelled the original name Ovomaltine on the trademark documentation.
  • Potatoe - famous misspelling of "potato", a question from a classroom spelling bee hosted by then US Vice President, Dan Quayle.
  • Quartzsite, a mining town in Arizona, had its name spelt incorrectly. It should be Quartzite, after the mineral.
  • William Holman Hunt's middle name was originally "Hobman", which he disliked intensely. He later discovered that his middle name had been misspelled by a clerical error and used that instead.
  • Zenith - Arabic zamt was misread... in Latin letters, at the time, the i was never dotted, so "m" looked like "ni".

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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