How good is your spelling? I am a real stickler for spelling (obviously my blog title is farcical). I’m pretty sure I can spell every single word I know the meaning of. As I grade my students’ papers, however, I find that the ability to spell well is a lost art. This, despite the availability of automatic spell-checkers in word processors! Or perhaps because of the availability of spell-checkers!
So, let me give you a quiz of what I’ve noticed to be the most commonly misspelled words. How many of these can you get right?
1) The military launched a guided _____.
a. missle
b. missile
c. missule
d. missel
e. missil
2) The year 2001 was the start of the new _____.
a. milennium
b. millenium
c. milenniumm
d. milleniumm
e. millennium
3) The _____ of the court still stands.
a. judgment
b. judgement
c. judgemint
d. jujment
e. judgmant
4) His mind is always _____.
a. changable
b. changeable
c. chanjable
d. chanjeable
e. changeabul
5) They buried him in the _____.
a. cemetary
b. cematery
c. cemetery
d. cematary
e. seminary
6) Be sure to _____ the whites from the colors when you do laundry.
a. sepirate
b. separate
c. seperate
d. separite
e. seperite
7) That was essentially the _____ of my talk.
a. gist
b. jist
c. jest
d. gest
e. jiste
8 ) I hate to _____ anybody; it’s just awkward.
a. embarass
b. embaress
c. embarras
d. embarrass
e. embarres
9) My sister is the _____ sitting over there.
a. blond
b. blonde
c. blondie
d. blondd
e. blondee
10) This is my _____; isn’t she lovely?
a. fiancé
b. fiancée
c. fiencé
d. fiencée
e. finance
11) I love it when they serve _____ before meals.
a. hors derves
b. hors d’ovres
c. hors d’oevres
d. hors d’oeuvres
e. hors d’oeauvres
12) I find some forms of modern art to be downright _____.
a. wierd
b. weird
c. weerd
d. weirde
e. weerde
13) The oracle tried to _____ about the future.
a. profecy
b. profesy
c. prophesie
d. prophecy
e. prophesy
14) The university lives off the interest of their endowment; they never touch the _____.
a. princaple
b. principul
c. principal
d. principle
e. principel
15) In Washington, D.C., the Senate and the House of Representatives both meet in the _____ building.
a. Capitle
b. Capital
c. Capitol
d. Capatal
e. Capatle
16) Your point isn’t even _____ to the argument at hand.
a. relivent
b. relavent
c. relevant
d. relavint
e. relevunt
17) You’re all dressed up tonight—what’s the _____?
a. occasion
b. ocassion
c. ocasion
d. occassion
e. occasiun
18) I’m so _____ in the outcome!
a. disapointed
b. disappointed
c. dissapointed
d. dissappointed
e. dissuppointed
19) He’s a _____ little kid.
a. mischivous
b. mischievous
c. mischeivous
d. mischievious
e. mischeivious
20) Celebrities live a life of _____.
a. privelige
b. privalige
c. privilage
d. privilege
e. privalege
Scroll to the bottom for the answers…
Here’s an explanation for some of the tricky ones:
3) There is no “e” in “judgment.”
4) There is, however, an “e” in “changeable” because otherwise it would be pronounced with a hard “g” sound.
5) Though e may be an acceptable answer to some people with goofy senses of humor, what I was actually getting at was c.
9) “Blond” is an adjective and “blonde” is a noun. However, the latter can only be used in reference to a woman, much like “brunette.” So a man can be “blond” but he can’t be “a blonde.”
10) This is another one of those gender things. Fiancé is in reference to a man; fiancée is for a woman. Yes, it’s French, and yes we don’t have noun genders in English, but we still have to follow this convention!
11) OK, I know, it’s unfair to throw another French word at you. But since this is commonly used in daily speech (and oh so yummy, so it’s high in importance!), it counts as “English”!
12) “I before E except after C”—most of the time. “Weird” is one of those exceptions. It’s just weird! (another one is “seize” vs. “sieze”—the former is correct)
13) “Prophecy” is a noun while “prophesy” is a verb. Another example that follows this pattern is “advice” (noun) vs. “advise” (verb)
14) “Principal” can be either a noun or an adjective. It can mean the chief, head, or primary person/thing. “Principle,” however, can only be a noun, and it means the guiding rules of conduct by which someone abides.
15) “Capital,” like “principal,” can be a noun or an adjective referring to the best or most important thing (often used for cities). “Capitol” is only ever used for a congressional building and derives its name from Capitoline Hill in Rome.
If you got at least 19/20, congratulations—you’re a great speller! Even 15/20 is not too shabby. However, I’ll bet most people get under 15 right (not just college students, but people in general), which I think shows the spelling malaise in our society!
Answers:
1b; 2e; 3a; 4b; 5c; 6b; 7a; 8d; 9b; 10b; 11d; 12b; 13e; 14c; 15c; 16c; 17a; 18b; 19b; 20d