For me common spelling mistakes include confusing some of these word pairs.
- loose vs. lose
- then vs. than
- were vs. where
Diahhrheoea
Or whatever it is.
recieve vs. receive
This one’s easy, remember reecee, so it’s rEcEive.
I just try to keep the mnemonic “I before E except after C” [1] in my brain.
References
- Type: Definition (Webpage). Title: “receive”. Publisher: “Merriam-Webster”. Accessed: 2025-09-19T07:04Z. URI: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/receive.
Don’t follow those stupid rules, there are so many exceptions not even sure how that shit got coined. Welcome to English
In english a lot. Not just because i am dislexic, but also french stemming words are a nightmare
“Litterly” is one i have still no idea how to spell. Or wether, not meaning the weather as in sun and run but the one for implying choice
Literally and whether.
Illegitimate/legitimate. Always struggled with that one until I got a phone that could tell me how to spell it.
Australian English is based off British English but is not identical. Both are different to US English and have a lot of words that are spelled with a bit more historical contingency. That said, knowing which words have which version of suffix can be difficult.
For example, authorise or authorize. Practice or practise. Gaol or jail. English is a pain but it does make a good common language.
At this point I just accept the various spellings as common. I feel like I stick to one particular style but I honestly couldn’t tell you if certain words are UK English, US English, or specific to somewhere else.
As long as meaning is clear, I don’t think it matters which is used. Alternate vocabulary is probably more significant points of confusion (e.g. what is a biscuit to you?)
Their vs there vs they’re.
I know the difference but my fingers clearly do not.
One thing I’m realizing more and more as I type in a game in PC is that I’m only good at spelling the first half of words. I’ve gotten used to auto correct on phones and spell check in other programs. My errors are typically on the end.
Necessary and apparently are two common words I get wrong fairly often.
I fuck up “insure/ensure” and “effect/affect” a lot.
Misspellings effect a terrible affect from pedants.
“effect/affect”
There are three meanings to each. Good luck.
I can never figure out where that pesky u goes in restaurant. (Thank goodness for autocorrect, or I couldn’t have spelled it for this post!)
ageing vs aging
The former is the way I learned it in school way back in the 70’s… Apparently that is the way the British spell it and it sends US citizens into an aneurysm.
One that bothers me the most when people do it is brake vs break. Your car will break if you do not apply the brake in a timely fashion.
I’m an American and the former looks much more natural.
- centennial, millennial, embarrassed, etc. (Where are the double-letters and where are they not? Who fucking knows.)
- backward(s), forward(s), leftward(s), etc. (Do words like this have an S or not? Who fucking knows.)
- reconnaissance (Just fuck this word.)
I habitually throw random spelling and grammatical mistakes into my posts and comments all the time, to make it less likely that anyone can fingerprint my writing style and thereby dox me. That is the only reason for any such errors.
Viscous vs vicious.
It’s a viscous cycle.
Sounds like a sticky situation.
Or slippery situation, depends on how viscous.
A vicious liquid!
Licence / license, and practice / practise. I have to look them up every single time because I forget which of each is the noun and which is the verb, and even then, there are situations where using the noun as a verb might actually be the right thing to do and I hate the whole thing. So I probably still get those wrong whenever I use them.
Barring brain farts (increasingly common) and muscle memory leading me astray on the keyboard, my spelling is otherwise fairly good, but those pairings I could do without.
Regarding license and licence, in American English it’s just always license. So when in doubt pick that and claim to be an expat lol.
I say wether, not whether, and anyways, not anyway. I also never remember how to write thorought.