Commonly Misspelled Words

There are a great number of rules that apply to the correct spelling of words in American English. There are also a great number of words whose spelling does not conform to the rules. It is not surprising that correct spelling is difficult for many students.

Here are some of the words that are most commonly misspelled. For each word there is the most common misspelling of the word. You may find that you use some of these misspellings in your writing. For each word there is also a clue that will help you spell the work correctly.

Word

Common Misspelling

Clue
acquire aquire Don’t forget the c after the first letter.
argument arguement There is no e after the u.
basically basicly Ends with ally.
bizarre bizzare There is only one z, but a double r.
committee commitee There are 3 double letters; m, t, e.
definitely definately It is ite, not ate.
familiar familar It ends with iar not ar.
forty fourty There is no u here.
forward foward Don’t forget that first r.
friend freind Put the i before the e.
gist jist It begins with a g, not a j.
government goverment There is a n before the m.
grammar grammer Ends with ar, not er.
inoculate innoculate There is only one n here.
interrupt interupt Remember to double that r.
knowledge knowlege Don’t forget the d.
liaison liason Remember there is an iboth before and after the a.
occasion occassion There is a double c, but just one s.
occurrence occurence There is a double c and a double r.
pavilion pavillion No, there is no double l here.
persistent persistant That’s ent, not ant at the end.
possession posession There are a whole bunch of s’s, four to be exact.
sense sence It ends with se, not ce.
separate seperate Remember there is par in the middle, not per.
supersede supercede That’s a s after super, not a c.
surprise surprize There is a s before the last letter, not a z.
threshold threshhold There is only one h in the middle.
truly truely There is no e here.
unforeseen unforseen Don’t forget the e after for.
which wich Remember to put an h after the w.

This list is just a sample of the many words that are commonly misspelled. When you find yourself misspelling a word, come up with a clue to help you remember the correct spelling of the word.