# Could YOU win the spelling bee? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 1, 2007, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342 "2007-06-01T14:36:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lush\_Puppy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@Lush\_Puppy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lush_Puppy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/41 "2007-06-02T17:32:48Z")
10/10. Spelling bee champ of my county when I was in 6th grade. I didn’t make it to the state finals though. Boo. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/42 "2007-06-03T05:00:33Z")
10/10 I’d be pretty close even without the multiple-choice, since I almost always spell by visualization; I think of the look of a word and read it off. I’ve never seen #10, so I would have had to fall back on the roots-and-affixes method others have mentioned. (I had never seen ‘chiaroscurist’ either, but it’s a regular formation from ‘chiaroscuro’. No problem.) In any case, words based on Greek or Latin roots _look_ Greek or Latin, so many spellings just never present themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/43 "2007-06-03T06:33:49Z")
10/10. There were two words I’d never heard of, but the others were all okay. I actually use and read ‘autochthonous’ fairly regularly. I would suck at spelling bees, though, since my ability to spell is purely visual - I can write but I can’t spell out loud without writing it down first. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/44 "2007-06-03T07:01:04Z")
I did win the Spelling Bee, a few times when I was a kid. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/45 "2007-06-03T08:17:57Z")
I cnt spl wrth crp, bt hv an amazg ablty 2 spt mispelins. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/46 "2007-06-03T21:49:40Z")
10/10, but pococurante and succedaneum would definitely have tripped me up in a real bee. Won 4th grade bee with “derivative”. Eliminated in 5th grade bee with the misspelling “accellerate”. I’ve forgotten which grade this was (5th or 6th, maybe). In my spelling class, I had gotten 100% on all the year’s tests. But when I took the final test, one word was counted wrong because of my lousy handwriting. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/47 "2007-06-03T22:15:38Z")
I got ten, and knew eight of the words. Pisses me off we didn’t have spelling bees in Canada when I was a young 'un. ---
**Author:** ![Dunawake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dunawake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunawake)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/48 "2007-06-03T23:06:25Z")
10/10 first try, probably couldn’t spell most of them unassisted though. Also, I think I’ve seen 6-7 of them before in reading, so that made picking them easier. ---
**Author:** ![figure9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@figure9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/figure9)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/49 "2007-06-03T23:37:57Z")
Tu hek with all tha arkayik spelling roolz. Go fonettik! ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/50 "2007-06-03T23:46:41Z")
8/10, but I guessed on 2 of them. Fun! ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/51 "2007-06-04T00:44:50Z")
10/10, and only 3 pieces of honeycomb? But if not multiple choice I’d definitely have screwed up succedaneum. Or whatever it was. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342/52 "2007-06-04T14:26:56Z")
[QUOTE=Hilarity N. Suze] 10/10, and only 3 pieces of honeycomb? [/QUOTE] Well, it is a spelling test, and not a math test. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-win-the-spelling-bee/406342.md?page=2)