Thursday, November 13, 2008

Thursday Thirteen: Spelling!



Thirteen words I routinely misspell
aka Thank God for spell check


(I'm reminded of a joke from comedian, Gallagher, when talking about the craziness of the English language and he said something to the effect of - "one" sounds like it has a "wa-wa" at the beginning but it doesn't, then "two" has a "wa-wa" you don't even need!!)

13. Foreign - an exception to the i before e rule... argh.

12. Embarrass -- I always want to use only one "r" in the middle.

11. Marriage / carriage - that dang "ai" or is it "ia"??

10. Psycho-anything (I want to add ph)

9. Anything that ends with "in" because I always, always add a "g" to make in -ing

8. Of... yes really. When I'm tired I totally forget how it's spelled.

7. Acknowledge (I always want to write it like awkward - awknowledge)

6. Its -- drives me nuts that it's possessive, and doesn't have an apostrophe!

5. Success -- if Rick Springfield hadn't named an album "Success Hasn't Spoiled me Yet", I'd never be able to spell the stupid thing. Why so many double letters? Do we really need them??

4. Business -- What the heck do we need that "i" for anyway?

3. Sheriff -- I recently wrote a story with a sheriff as hero, and I wrote "sherrif" every single time.

2. Rapport -- in my head, I know it's French, so I try to spell it with an "oir" (like reservoir, etc): repoire

1. Vicious -- Just today I was talking to Jenny about my dog and I called her viscous! ROFL. Every time I try to type vicious, it comes out wrong.

What about you? What words do you commonly misspell?

12 comments:

Moondancer said...

I have to admit as a writer myself these and more mess me up. Thankfully there's spellchecker. I'd be lost without it.

Happy TT

http://moondancerdrake.livejournal.com/91746.html

Mia Celeste said...

Exhilarate and gauge come to mind. Sigh, I'm grateful for spell check. Happy TT!

Paige Tyler said...

Great TT!

*hugs*
Paige

My TT is at http://paigetylertheauthor.blogspot.com

Kayelle Allen said...

Receipt is my huge downfall. I always have to do the i before e thing and then almost always forget the p. When I mentioned to my husband that I do this, he said, "Just remember, it's like the silent P in sardines."

I responded there was no P in sardines, and he turned and gave me a smile with that "Hah! Gotcha expression" on his face. I'd been had. >_<

The other word I consistently spell wrong is auto. I always write it autho and catch myself right before I put the r at the end.

I found a great trick in Word's spell check. When I run it and it finds one of my usual typos, instead of clicking "change" I click "auto correct" and when I make the mistake the next time, it changes it the moment I finish typing the word and use a space or punctuation mark.

Then I got the idea to go into the Tools menu and pick Auto Correct Options. I have one character whose last name is Saint-Cyr. So that I won't mess it up, I told the auto correct system that when I type stcy it changes it to Saint-Cyr. I've done that with words that are often repeated. The trick is not to use it for a real word. Like don't say when you write "use" it changes it to "usable". Usb probably isn't a good idea either.

I'm so glad I'm not the only spelling klutz out there. Thanks for posting this!

Kealie Shay said...

Ha, I love it. So... this is how we ended up with CARP, yanno. LOL

I do the vicious one all the time.

April Vine said...

Hi Mysti
Everything you mentioned and the usual extra. And I insist it is a misspelling. My heroine starts off as Heather and changes to Amber half way through.
And seriously, the word ‘WHO’ -it stumps me so often it’s worrying. I wreck my brain trying to figure out what it starts with so I can at least look it up in my dictionary. Thank God for my grade fiver, or five grader
Kayelle,that was so funny about the p

Shelley Munro said...

LOL - sometimes I even challenge my spellchecker because I make such a mess of the spelling!!

Nicholas said...

I never used to remember which was stationAry and which was stationEry.

re #8, you really must be tired!

Cheryl Pitt said...

Great TT, mine are beleive(?) and recommend (does it have 2 c's) I don't know why they get me, I'm great at spelling!

Lifecruiser said...

I have many, since English is not my language. But my most wrongspelled word is actually Lifecruiser. Ha ha ha, my own blog name! Yes. I tend to spell it either Lfiecruiser or Lifecruser or Lifecurser... silly me.

My Thursday Thirteen post:
I challenge you to help to save a kids life

~Just Me Miranda~ said...

I always manage to spell consult wrong I mix up the 'ul'. And account, I seem to forget the 'o'

Helen Hardt said...

Vicious and sheriff get me every time!

Helen