# Are there words that your fingers want to spell wrong?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 16, 2005, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521 "2005-06-16T11:51:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/1 "2005-06-16T11:51:38Z")
There are a number of words that I keep finding my fingers typing wrong (only when typing, not if I hand write the words) - the error is consistent and it isn’t just sloppy spelling - I _know_ how to spell them, but when I look at what my hands have typed, it’s wrong.
There are more, but the first two that spring to mind are:
_Confusion_ - I even had to correct it when I typed it here - I know what I wanted to type, but my hands just wanted to spell it _confuction_.
_Soul_ - again, even though I was really concentrating this time, it came out _Sould_, as usual.
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/2 "2005-06-16T11:53:47Z")
My index fingers seem to race to get ahead of each other…Manchetser, Shcool, Cotnract, etc.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/3 "2005-06-16T11:57:02Z")
Consistently, the main one is “damn,” which almost inevitably comes out “dman.”
I’m guessing it’s a combination of two factors – one, I use it mostly in IM, so I don’t have as much practice with it as other words; and two, the “man” ending is pretty common, esp. since my last name ends in those three letters.
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/4 "2005-06-16T13:35:31Z")
That Michigan city where the cars used to come from: **Detriot**.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/5 "2005-06-16T13:40:24Z")
I jsut cannot get my fingers to get the letters in the word jsut to be in the right order.
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### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/6 "2005-06-16T13:40:36Z")
My #1 most frequent typo is ‘form’ when I mean ‘from.’
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### Author:  [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/7 "2005-06-16T13:57:55Z")
Sometimes when I go to type a word that starts with the same couple of letters as my name, my fingers automatically just finish my name.
a lot of times, I just “space bar” wrong. E.g., instead of writing “in the” I’ll write “int he”.
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/8 "2005-06-16T14:06:14Z")
On a UNIX workstation I’m constantly doing a “more” on files but a quarter of the time type “mroe”, so much so that I’ve aliased the typo.
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### Author:  [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/9 "2005-06-16T14:09:00Z")
> [@Trunk](#):
>
> Sometimes when I go to type a word that starts with the same couple of letters as my name, my fingers automatically just finish my name.
>
> a lot of times, I just “space bar” wrong. E.g., instead of writing “in the” I’ll write “int he”.
I do thes ame thing sometimes.
Last night I finally realized why I catch myself typing “play” when I mean “okay”. I wondered why on earth I’d confuse the two in my mind but I saw how close the keys were.
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### Author:  [@OldBroad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldBroad)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/10 "2005-06-16T14:19:51Z")
A couple come to mind immediately: univeristy and wroth (worth)
There’s one word I consistently screw up when hand writing checks: thrity. I’ll write a check for thrity three dollars.
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### Author:  [@Cemetery\_Savior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cemetery_Savior)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/11 "2005-06-16T15:05:29Z")
I have several:
[ul]
[li]Woudl and Shoudl instead of would and should. This happens EVERY time I type them.[/li][li]I also do “form” instead of from[/li][li]My own name (!): I type Toyn instead of Tony[/li][/ul]
the worst of it is when I have my auto-spell check review my emails and I mis-type in a way that reflects another real word (see “form”).
Y’know…instead of that AP Physics class in HS, I really should have taken typing. I also wish I would have taken Autos 1 instead of the Psych 2 class. Both would have been more useful.
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### Author:  [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/12 "2005-06-16T15:19:24Z")
For me it’s csutomer. A real pain in the kiester, considering i work in Tech Support and have to type that word a hundred times a day.
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### Author:  [@Magret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magret)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/13 "2005-06-16T15:59:40Z")
I do univeristy too, which is bad since I work at one, and often mail things to other univeristies, and I spell it wrong in the address labels. I even spelled it wrong when I first set up the AutoCorrect (I just type U now in Word)
And I thought I’d be the first to say “my own name”, which my fingers think is Vcotria.
and lucnh. Every time.
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/14 "2005-06-16T16:15:04Z")
I almost cannot type “star” without typing “start” and erasing the last t.
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### Author:  [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/15 "2005-06-16T16:18:44Z")
\*\*Are there words that your fingers want to spell wrong? \*\*
Why, _yes_. Too many to name.
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### Author:  [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/16 "2005-06-16T16:20:18Z")
charector, I mean, character
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/17 "2005-06-16T16:58:21Z")
> [@Mycroft Holmes](#):
>
> For me it’s csutomer. A real pain in the kiester, considering i work in Tech Support and have to type that word a hundred times a day.
Will they allow you to use “client” instead? Or “nimrod”?
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/18 "2005-06-16T17:37:07Z")
> [@Cemetery Savior](#):
>
> [li]My own name (!): I type Toyn instead of Tony[/li]
I often sign things “Gweb” (bot my real name 😉 )
Washingotn when I lived in DC and had to type that a lot
Lebabon (bot the real name of a MidEast country 😉 )
overwhleming
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### Author:  [@Detonation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Detonation)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/19 "2005-06-16T17:38:15Z")
I do this too. “our” and “your” are always swapped.
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### Author:  [@Thirty-Nine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thirty-Nine)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2005, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-words-that-your-fingers-want-to-spell-wrong/308521/20 "2005-06-16T17:49:06Z")
I’m always muddling up the short, similarly sounding words; be and me, an & and are the worst offenders.
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