At Sen10ce Maker, we provide you a one-stop cure for all your spelling ills. Here are the 100 words most often misspelled ('misspell' is one of them). Each word has a mnemonic pill with it and, if you swallow it, it will help you to remember how to spell the word. Master the orthography of the words on this page and reduce the time you spend searching dictionaries by 50%. (Use the time you save by reading the rest of the site) |
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pastime |
Since a pastime is something you do to pass the time, you would expect a double [s] here. Well, there is only one. The second [s] was slipped through the cracks in English orthography long ago. |
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perseverance |
All it takes is perseverance and you, too, can be a (near-)perfect speller. The suffix is -ance for no reason at all. |
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playwright |
Those who play right are right-players, not playwrights. Well, since they write plays, they should be "play-writes," wright right? Rong Wrong. Remember that a play writer in Old English was called a "play worker" and "wright" is from an old form of "work" (wrought iron, etc.) |
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possession |
Possession possesses more [s]s than a snake. |
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precede
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What follows, succeeds, so what goes before should, what? No, no, no, you are using logic. Nothing confuses English spelling more than common sense. "Succeed" but "precede." (Wait until you see "supersede.") |
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principal/principle |
The spelling principle to remember here is that the school principal is a prince and a pal (despite appearances). Everything else is "principle." |
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privilege |
According to the pronunciation (not " pronounciation"!) of this word, that middle vowel could be anything. Remember: two [i]s + two [e]s in that order. |
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pronunciation |
Nouns often differ from the verbs they are derived from. This is one of those. In this case, the pronunciation is different, too, an important clue. |
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publicly |
Let me publicly declare the rule (again): if the adverb comes from an adjective ending on -al, you include that ending in the adverb; if not, as here, you don't. |
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