Available (at least until someone pointed out the simple trick that it’s avail + able)
Field (even when I chant “I before E” as I type, and most other ie words I am fine with)
Guarantee
Potaotoe… sorry, I was channelling Dan Quayle for a second.
Prairie
Armageddon
Millennium (I always think it’s only one “n”)
Infinitely
Congratulations (a lot of people I think should know better, still substitute the “t” with a “d”)
Dimension (I still have to pause, and remember it’s -sion, not -tion)
Jamb
Balloon
Pseudonym
Grandiose
Amateur
Warranty
Privilege (needs a d)
I’ll third millennium
The :eek: moment for me about victuals wasn’t how it was spelled, but how it was pronounced. There was no correlation in my mind between “vittles” that Grannie used to make on the Beverly Hillbillies, and victuals in the sense of provisions as it showed up in writing.
Equilateral
Miscellaneous
Potpourri
Meringue
Trepidatious
I often see the following misspelled:
Definite
Separate
Ridiculous
I always could spell by visualizing the word and just reading it off, so most of the words listed here are no problem for me. The ones I have trouble with are a few of the double-letter ones (like *okazhun) and the i-before-e rule-followers and exceptions.
I do like the speller’s crossword idea, though. Go for it, twickster!
geoduck (how do they get “gooeyduck” as a pronunciation there?)
niece
nephew
(I always want to type these as “neice” and “newphew”)
And my all-time favorite: misspell, which I often misspell as mispell.
I’m a baker, and one word I often see misspelled is
croissant
Folks want to move that i and place it after the a
mischievous (So many people want to add an extra syllable)
paraphernalia
tempurature.
:dubious:
Huh. I was so careful to stick that “a” in there that no one pronounces, I messed up the second “e.”
It really should be spelled “tempacher.”
Y’all are doing a fabulous job with these – how about a few more geographical ones? We’ve got Tuscon, Philippines, Pyrenees – I’d throw in Cincinnati and Albuqueque – any others?
And are there any names you find particularly tricky?
Cincinnati ain’t that hard. Schenectady, though, that’s a doozy.
My Boss has “i before e” so stamped on her brain that she always spells it “cieling.” She has been a real estate broker for 25 years and cannot spell it right.
Heh. Sissy stuff – I live in Philadelphia, about a half mile from the Schuylkill River.
I’ve used “work out” rather than wrestle with the spelling of exercise.
For some reason, I think it should be excersize. When that looks crazy I retype: exsercise. THAT looks nuts so I substitute “work out”.
Councilor, counciler, counsiler councillor, counciller - um… therapist.
Graffiti.
Plus you also need to be able to say “Conshohocken” without bursting into laughter. …brb to add to wiki list of “inherently funny place names”.