For the longest time I would put a “d” in refrigerator. After all, you call it a “fridge,” right?
I also get messed on occassionally and occurrence. I’m a pretty good speller too, but if I stop to think about it I tend to confuse myself.
My students have some of these words on their spelling list every year. For embarrass, the mnemonic device is “if you go to a BAR you R an ASS.” That helps them out.
I also have trouble with accommodate. For some reason, I have trouble remembering if it’s “calender” or “calendar.” Ditto for “lavender” and “lavendar.” I know them now, but they don’t look right with the second e to me.
Why is it so hard for people to spell the word DEFINITELY correctly? Drives me nuts.
recommend
subtley–this looks wrong to me. The adverb, but I also get the noun wrong, too.
there are more–I ahve become less apt at spelling as I have aged.
I’m sure that Alzheimer’s (sp?) is right around the corner.
nucular heheh…
Almost – hors d’oeuvres is correct. It’s easier to remember if you know that the British spelling of maneuver is manoeuvre, and/or that oeuvre is French for “work”.
floccinaucinihilipilification…
Hey I got it right!
Geneaology. It’s the order of vowels in the “neaol” part that messes me up.
:smack: Obviously, as it’s ACTUALLY spelled “genealogy.”
No doubt adding to your confusion is the number of people who mispronounce it as geneology.
I lost in the final round of a spelling bee at school by getting this one wrong. I’ve remembered the correct spelling ever since.
I always have to think about:
jewellery
the *license * (verb) / *licence * (noun) distinction
No sweat. Move the the US, they’re both “license” here.
You don’t differentiate between ‘practise’ and ‘practice’ either, do you?
Err, what I mean is that you use ‘practice’ as both noun and verb form.
Yes, in US English, ‘practise’ is never an accepted spelling (unless we’re reading British text, of course).
What I find unusual about that is that your spelling is generally more consistent than ours and I would have thought (had I not known otherwise) that it would be ‘practise’ to fit in with the ‘license’ and ‘defense’ pattern.
I can’t spell fowards. Foarwards. Forwards. It’s almost the only word I abbreviate on mesenger - ‘look fwd to it’ I’ll type, hiding my secret shame. Bourgoise is another. And as a one-time politics student, oh that used to just KILL me.