# Most common misspellings (on Askaboutmoney?)



## Brendan Burgess (14 Oct 2009)

Inspired by the thread on incorrectly used words , I think it would be useful to have a simple list of the most common misspellings used in Ireland or on Askaboutmoney. Ideally this should be in rough order of frequency. My own spelling has deteriorated over the years, so I would find this useful. (Or should that be usefull?) 

This thread is for education, not entertainment. Please restrict it to written errors rather than pronunciation or local peculiarities. 

*Definitely* _not definately _

I need some *advice* on this. _not I need some advise on this._
Please advise me what to do. 

Lose - I don't want to lose my house. Not "loose" 

*separate* - seperate is always incorrect.

*Independent *not independant

*mortgage* - not morgage

*Approval in principle* - not "in principal"
The principal of the school 

*benefit *not benifit 

*sense *not sence 

*receive* - not recieve 

"It's" means "It is". It's a nice colour. 
"Its" implies ownership. I like its colour.

You're a nice colour. _or_
You are a nice colour.
 I like your colour. 

There they are. 
I like their clothes. (not there, or they're) 
They are wearing nice clothes. 

*espresso* (not expresso)

*accommodation* (not accommoddation)

*tenant - *not tennent or tenent

*environment *not enviroment

*February *not Febuary

*Reckless* not Wreckless

This is affecting me badly. (not "effecting" me)

"criterion" is singular; "criteria" is plural. "that criteria" is wrong.


----------



## Brendan Burgess (14 Oct 2009)

It is better to use the Irish spelling of a word, rather than the American spelling. 

Colour -  not color.


----------



## baldyman27 (19 Oct 2009)

'Isn't' being written as 'is'nt'.

There would seem to be a grey area surrounding the proper usage of 'its' and 'it's'. As far as I can remember there is no definitive correct usage of either. I think there are only three words where the 'i before e' rule doesn't apply - weird, either and neither. I could be wrong, however, and would be interested to know of any others should they exist.

P.S. Does anyone else find themselves heavily scrutinising their posts on this thread for mistakes?!!


----------



## Brendan Burgess (19 Oct 2009)

baldyman27 said:


> 'Isn't' being written as 'is'nt'.



is'nt doesn't come up in the searches on Askaboutmoney.

Sometimes, Word does some odd things. It corrects isn't to isnt'. I am usually in a hurry and can't figure out why.


----------



## Marion (19 Oct 2009)

It is sufficient to say that neither financier shall inveigle the sheikh or his neighbour into seizing either caffeine or protein or any other species or policies of weird leisure that might weigh heavily on their conscience or fancies. Sheila and Neil do not acknowledge a deity as they are atheist but that is expected in modern society. One could argue that one is being pedantic– but one is being efficient and not deficient in drawing attention to their idiosyncrasies.

     It’s not expected to make sense. Spot the odd one!

     [FONT=&quot]Marion[/FONT]


----------



## Caveat (20 Oct 2009)

baldyman27 said:


> P.S. Does anyone else find themselves heavily scrutinising their posts on this thread for mistakes?!!


 
Maybe stating the obvious but there is always _spellcheck _on the top right.
_ 

_


----------



## sandrat (20 Oct 2009)

hugh instead of huge


----------



## Graham_07 (20 Oct 2009)

Caveat said:


> Maybe stating the obvious but there is always _spellcheck _on the top right.


 
Now why did'nt  I notcie that befo're.


----------



## Niallman (20 Oct 2009)

'Should have' or 'Should've', NOT "Should of"!


----------



## Seagull (20 Oct 2009)

Tennant seems to make a regular appearance.


----------



## michaelm (20 Oct 2009)

Brendan said:


> I had this conversation with my niece
> 
> Me: Remember, it's i before e, except after c.
> 
> ...


My nephew told me that two negatives make a positive but that two positives couldn't make a negative. Yeah right.

I sometimes, inadvertently, mix up your and you're; and to a lesser extent there, their and they're.  Spell Checker's not much help for such.


----------



## AgathaC (20 Oct 2009)

Seagull said:


> Tennant seems to make a regular appearance.


Yes, I notice 'tennant' and 'tenent' being used-I actually did put a post here about it last week but it seems to have disappeared.


----------



## baldyman27 (20 Oct 2009)

Brendan said:


> is'nt doesn't come up in the searches on Askaboutmoney.
> 
> Sometimes, Word does some odd things. It corrects isn't to isnt'. I am usually in a hurry and can't figure out why.


 
I have spellchecker on Word disabled for reasons similar to this.



Caveat said:


> Maybe stating the obvious but there is always _spellcheck _on the top right.


 
If I tried to say that I pride myself on self-correction rather than admit to a complete ignorance of the existence of that button, would you believe me? 



Marion said:


> It is sufficient to say that neither financier shall inveigle the sheikh or his neighbour into seizing either caffeine or protein or any other species or policies of weird leisure that might weigh heavily on their conscience or fancies. Sheila and Neil do not acknowledge a deity as they are atheist but that is expected in modern society. One could argue that one is being pedantic– but one is being efficient and not deficient in drawing attention to their idiosyncrasies.
> 
> It’s not expected to make sense. Spot the odd one!
> 
> [FONT=&quot]Marion[/FONT]


 
I thought I was right there, thanks for the over-the-top humiliation!


----------



## Brendan Burgess (21 Oct 2009)

AgathaC said:


> Yes, I notice 'tennant' and 'tenent' being used-I actually did put a post here about it last week but it seems to have disappeared.



My apologies. To shorten the thread, I delete posts when I incorporate or reject the suggestion. I thought I had incorporated your comment on tenant, but I had not. It is done now.


----------



## Brendan Burgess (21 Oct 2009)

The spellchecker does not work for me. 

I have opened a separate thread on it here

Brendan


----------



## Brendan Burgess (21 Oct 2009)

Marion said:


> It is sufficient to say that neither financier shall inveigle the sheikh or his neighbour into seizing either caffeine or protein or any other species or policies of weird leisure that might weigh heavily on their conscience or fancies. Sheila and Neil do not acknowledge a deity as they are atheist but that is expected in modern society. One could argue that one is being pedantic– but one is being efficient and not deficient in drawing attention to their idiosyncrasies.
> 
> It’s not expected to make sense. Spot the odd one!
> 
> [FONT=&quot]Marion[/FONT]



Hi Marion - I give up. Which is the wrong one?


----------



## NovaFlare77 (21 Oct 2009)

The most common misspelling I've seen on AAM (and on other sites), is *sence* where it should be *sense*. I've yelled at my monitor more than once when I've seen that.

The other ones that jump out at me are there/their/they're and your/you're. Perhaps contractions should not be allowed? (In which case, I'm in dire trouble!)

PS This post has passed Microsoft's Word spell check and that's good enough for me .


----------



## Marion (21 Oct 2009)

Marion said:
			
		

> It’s not expected to make sense. Spot the odd one!




Hi Brendan


  The “odd” one is the only spelling given that complies with the rule. 

  I was having a little bit of fun with the rule that you posted: "*i before e except after c" *

  The rule failed in every one of the relevant words except the last one “idiosyncrasies”


How peculiar is that!


Marion


----------



## Brendan Burgess (21 Oct 2009)

Hi Marion

I missed that completely. I thought it was a spelling error somewhere. 

A stupid rule. 

Brendan


----------



## Brendan Burgess (21 Oct 2009)

NovaFlare77 said:


> The most common misspelling I've seen on AAM (and on other sites), is *sence* where it should be *sense*. I've yelled at my monitor more than once when I've seen that.



Again, I had not noticed this, but it appears 184 times, so it's on the list.


----------



## Marion (21 Oct 2009)

_I agree. It's_* definately *a stupid rule_.

I reckon this could be high on the list_

Marion


----------



## Brendan Burgess (21 Oct 2009)

Marion said:


> _I agree. It's_* definately *a stupid rule_.
> 
> I reckon this could be high on the list_
> 
> Marion



Marion 

Wins the award for the most misspelled word on askaboutmoney

definately: 500 times

definitely: 0 times


----------



## dtlyn (21 Oct 2009)

This post is about 2 mins of my life, basicially, that I well never see again. I mean come on.


----------



## John Rambo (21 Oct 2009)

Environment/enviroment is one that pops up reasonably regularly. February/Febuary would also be quite common.


----------



## Marion (21 Oct 2009)

Yes! 

I am so pleased.


When can I pick up the award. Will it be at the Big 10  celebration or am I allowed to mention that? 

Oops if not!

Marion


----------



## Celtwytch (22 Oct 2009)

Independant instead of independent.

Is 500 the magic number for errors, or is that as high as the website can count?   Because that's how many times I found _independant_ used.


----------



## Sumatra (4 Nov 2009)

Wouldn't askaboutmoney be the most commonly misspelt word(s) or is it a punctuation scandal?

Marion I look forward to you acceptance speech.


----------



## Brendan Burgess (4 Nov 2009)

Hi Sumatra

I understand that the rules of grammar are relaxed for titles. 

So, for example, Jobseekers Benefit and not Jobseekers' Benefit.

So, I think Askaboutmoney is ok. Would you like me to rename it ask_about_money.com ?


----------



## Darthvadar (4 Nov 2009)

And don't forget the regular use of 'Loan' parent instead of 'Lone' parent!...


----------



## Havana (5 Nov 2009)

Brendan said:


> Marion
> 
> Wins the award for the most misspelled word on askaboutmoney
> 
> ...



I'd say most of them were me! It's the one word I cannot get my head around!


----------



## deadlyduck (6 Nov 2009)

One I spotted today: "genious"- as in "that was a genious investment decision"


----------



## baldyman27 (7 Nov 2009)

*Marraige* is another. Only a measly 151 instances of it on AAM thus far, nowhere near the lofty 500 that Marion and Cav have discovered.


----------



## Millix (7 Nov 2009)

demoivre said:


> Hmmmm !


 
just goes to show, should have downloaded ispell... 

Interestingly the word "occurences" occurs 10 times in Askaboutmoney, and the correctly spelled word "occurrences" occurs 7 times. 

This was before I wrote this post.

I feel a flood of "get a life" posts coming on ...


----------



## Caveat (7 Nov 2009)

Just as an aside, although it is always independent (and not independant), both depend*e*nt (as in dependent on circumstances etc) and depend*a*nt (as in form filling: _please list dependants_) are correctly spelled words.  

Confusion often arises over this.

_Depend*e*nt_ is an adjective, _depend*a*nt_ a noun.


----------



## pansyflower (8 Nov 2009)

I don't know whether these can be considered as spelling mistakes?
incase instead of in case
aswell instead of as well

Another pet gripe...lense instead of lens


----------



## Celtwytch (9 Nov 2009)

_Withdrawl_ instead of *withdrawal*

_Explaination_ instead of *explanation*


----------



## mathepac (9 Nov 2009)

Celtwytch said:


> _Withdrawl_ instead of *withdrawal* ...


The former describes how the late John Wayne spoke English and the latter describes the transaction banks no longer allow customers to make.


----------



## Chocks away (9 Nov 2009)

mathepac said:


> The former describes how the late John Wayne spoke English and the latter describes the transaction banks no longer allow customers to make.


Mathepac, is the cart not before the horse here?


----------



## mathepac (9 Nov 2009)

mathepac said:


> The former [_withdrawl_ which is my horse] describes how the late John Wayne spoke English ...





mathepac said:


> ... the latter [_withdrawal_ which is my cart] describes the transaction banks no longer allow customers to make.


Zo, AFAIK, mein capall precedes mein cart. Verstehen Sie?


----------



## gipimann (16 Nov 2009)

A late entry for the list

teh instead of the  

I know it's a typo rather than a deliberate mis-spelling  - I'm guilty of "dyslexic typing" from time to time myself!!


----------



## Brendan Burgess (17 Nov 2009)

Folks

This is about the most common misspellings on Askaboutmoney!

It is not for a general discussioin of grammar and pronunciation. Please stay on topic. 

I have delted lots of posts. Head off to Letting Off Steam if you wish.

Brendan


----------



## S.L.F (17 Nov 2009)

Brendan said:


> Folks
> 
> This is about the most common misspellings on Askaboutmoney!
> 
> ...


 
Too good not to share


----------



## Brendan Burgess (17 Nov 2009)

I was focusing on the spelling of pronunciation.  

Brendan


----------



## Celtwytch (23 Nov 2009)

Anyways, getting back to the matter at hand ...

Over 400 mentions of _appartment_ instead of *apartment*


----------



## snowdaze (20 Dec 2009)

license instead of licence

verb spelling when the noun is intended

This is so widespread now it is seen as acceptable with much public signage and printing if the word incorrectly spelt...


----------



## SparkRite (20 Dec 2009)

A pet hate..........
Noone instead of no one.


----------



## pansyflower (20 Dec 2009)

A pet hate of mine is no one instead of no-one.


----------



## SparkRite (20 Dec 2009)

pansyflower said:


> A pet hate of mine is no one instead of no-one.


 
Another pet hate of mine is pedanticalness.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/no+one
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/no%20one
http://www.yourdictionary.com/no-one

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/no one

Both are "correct" but generally, as you will see, "no one" is the form that is more often used.


----------



## TheRebelRam (13 Jan 2010)

Deos the selplnig ralley metatr? Ocne we all unsterdnad waht the mssegae was? 


Thier (Their) seems to be a common mistake too. i before e exception too..........


----------



## mathepac (13 Jan 2010)

TheRebelRam said:


> Deos the selplnig ralley metatr?  ...


IMHO, yes spelling does matter. A visitor looking for help on a topic may not find relevant posts if keywords are misspelled.


----------



## Seagull (24 Feb 2010)

How often does gaurd come up?


----------



## mathepac (24 Feb 2010)

253 (approximately)


----------



## AgathaC (14 Mar 2010)

Negociate instead of negotiate.


----------



## G123 (24 Jun 2010)

I've noticed:
- to many people... (for overcrowded)
- I don't no...
- right down your details...

Thought I was a *loan* Grumpy Old Man for noticing this type of stuff.


----------



## Brendan Burgess (24 Jun 2010)

I had assumed that "I don't no" was textspeak?


----------



## Welfarite (24 Jun 2010)

loose instead of lose


----------



## levelpar (25 Jun 2010)

> It is better to use the Irish spelling of a word, rather than the American spelling.
> 
> Colour - not color.


 
It might also be better to use the English spelling of a word, rather than the American spelling


----------



## Protocol (25 Jun 2010)

Many landlords on AAM are looking for _*tennants*_ or even _*tennents*_ instead of *tenants*.

Mind you, these days perhaps some landlords would need some Tennents!!


----------



## Subtitle (25 Jun 2010)

Collage, when it's meant to be college.


----------



## Joe Nonety (6 Jul 2010)

It's "similar" and "familiar" not "similiar" and "familar".


----------



## Brendan Burgess (15 Aug 2010)

hastle 105 times.


----------



## Complainer (16 Aug 2010)

Are we allowed point out basic maths mistakes too?

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=141882


----------



## Caveat (16 Aug 2010)

Ahem, do you mean "allowed *to* point out" ?


----------



## SparkRite (19 Jan 2011)

This one is really starting to get to me..........

EG. "I don't want to end up *loosing* too much....."

I can only assume they mean "losing".

Its all over the place.


----------



## PetPal (19 Jan 2011)

SparkRite said:


> This one is really starting to get to me..........
> 
> EG. "I don't want to end up *loosing* too much....."
> 
> ...


 
Yes, that's an irritating one, as is "it's very quite" ... when I can only assume they mean "quiet".  I see it all the time in business to be honest ... from people who really should know better.  The trouble is that nobody corrects people any more, for fear (I believe) of being ridiculed for being a perfectionist of some kind.


----------



## SparkRite (19 Jan 2011)

Agreed, but while "quite" and "quiet" sound quite (  ) similar when spoken, I can somewhat understand the confusion, but "loosing" and "losing" sound nothing like each other.
Anyway I suppose we can't all be perfect. ;-)


----------



## PetPal (19 Jan 2011)

SparkRite said:


> Agreed, but while "quite" and "quiet" sound quite (  ) similar when spoken, I can somewhat understand the confusion, but "loosing" and "losing" sound nothing like each other.
> Anyway I suppose we can't all be perfect. ;-)


 No, just you and I SparkRite!!


----------



## SparkRite (19 Jan 2011)

petpal said:


> no, just you and i sparkrite!!




:d


----------



## Seagull (19 Jan 2011)

Advice and advise seem to be confused on a regular basis.


----------



## khairabar (9 May 2011)

The most commonly misspelt word in Ireland today is undoubtedly "*panini*" - it is everywhere! Blackboards, menus, tv/radio, everywhere "...paninis" ! Everywhere "...a panini" !

"Panini" is a plural (Italian) word meaning "sandwiches" . "There are panini on sale", for example. The word is not singular, and you can not add an "s" onto it. You can not say "there are paninis ..." .

The singular of the word is "*panino*", ("a sandwich"). "A panino & soft drink", for example. You can not say "panini" for the singular - you can't say "a panini ...". Aaaaaaagh !!


Adding an "s" to a plural word is like adding "s" to "children" or "women" - many women*s *have children*s *who eat panini*s *.... a women who has a children should buy a panini ....


----------



## horusd (14 May 2011)

A funny one lately is a bank draught instead of a bank draft. I would have assumed it was just plain wrong, but maybe not. According to dictionary.com: 

"Draught is a variant spelling of _draft _and is normally pronounced the same way."


----------



## ajapale (14 May 2011)

I cant spell treshold.


----------

