A handful of English words get misspelled over and over — and most have a simple memory trick that fixes them for good. Unlike confused words (which a spell checker misses), these are just hard to spell. Here are 30 of the most common, spelled correctly, with tricks for the trickiest.
The list (correct spellings)
Often doubled or dropped letters:
- separate (not “seperate”) — there’s a rat in separate.
- accommodate — it’s big enough for two c’s and two m’s.
- necessary — one c, two s’s: a shirt needs one Collar, two Sleeves.
- occurrence — double c, double r.
- embarrass — double r, double s.
- millennium — double l, double n.
- recommend — one c, two m’s.
- beginning — double n before -ing.
The “i before e” family:
- receive, believe, achieve, weird — “i before e except after c” works for receive/believe; weird is just weird (an exception).
-ely / -ly:
- definitely (not “definately”) — there’s no a: it’s finite with de- and -ly.
- truly (no e), argument (no e after argu).
Commonly slipped:
- definitely, separate, occasion, tomorrow, until (one l), a lot (two words), government (the n in govern), conscience, privilege, rhythm, calendar, license, restaurant, February (the first r), Wednesday, weird, foreign, neighbor, exaggerate.
Tricks that work
- Break the word into parts: gov-ern-ment keeps the silent n.
- Find a word inside it: separate has a rat; necessary; business has sin in… actually business hides busi-ness.
- Say it as it’s spelled (in your head): Wed-nes-day, Feb-ru-ary.
Why spell check isn’t enough
Spell check catches many of these — but not when you’ve typed a different real word (its/it’s), and not always in names or technical terms. After drafting, run your text through the grammar checker, which checks spelling in context, and read it aloud as a final pass (see our proofreading checklist). For words that are spelled right but used wrong, see commonly confused words.
Learn the trick once, and a word you always missed becomes one you always get right.
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