8 Spelling Mistakes Even Smart People Make

By Desktop Diva via DivineCaroline

English is a screwy language. There’s just no logic to it. Why is daughter pronounced daw-ter, but laughter not law-ter? How can though, through, and tough look so similar and yet sound so different? Why does I come before E except after C? What’s so effing SPECIAL about C?

This is the reason that people who speak more sensible languages approach English with stumbling trepidation. English is insane. It has the capacity to confuse even the smartest of its native speakers—including scientists, engineers, and company presidents—especially when it has to be put down on paper.

This I know from experience. As a copywriter, a large part of my job is to translate pages upon pages of “writing written by non-writers” into copy that is short, persuasive, easy-to-read, and yes—perfectly spelt and grammatically (or at least colloquially) correct.

Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen.

For the most part, each person is unique in terms of writing disability (myself included). But there are some crimes of confusion—particularly when it comes to spelling—that I come across on an almost daily basis. And like overstaying guests, they’ve begun to grate on my nerves, becoming more and more unforgivable with each unwelcome appearance. Such as:

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Gina D.

7:28PM PST on Feb 23, 2012

The extra R in DRAWING is my pet bugbear. Drawring room...., I am drawring a picture. I wonder if they keep their drawring materials in a drawrer or a drawer lolol...

send a green star

David W.

3:17AM PST on Feb 22, 2012

Denise. Thanks for posting. It's too bad that standards are being allowed to fall, though the US is not alone. When they fall, dropped standards OF ANY SORT never get back up.

Denise C.

9:53AM PST on Feb 21, 2012

David, spellchecker is only one of the culprits here. It should include British spellings as well as viable alternative spellings of words. What can I say but that I agree with you! However, some other things that add to the problem are: laziness, poor educational standards, the lack of desire to have to remember anything that is read {due to being able to "Google" anything}, and even texting. We Americans have become lazy in a number of areas, which is why our educational ratings keep falling in comparison with the other countries of the world. The administrations are now removing even learning cursive writing in favor of "keyboard skills" in our elementary schools. Students are now allowed to use calculators and other such devices when taking academic achievement tests and college entrance exams.

11:47PM PST on Feb 20, 2012

Spellchecker is the culprit... discuss. My own two penny worth of opinion is that Spellchecker was conceived, developed and continues to be administered only by Americans. We all know that American English is nothing more than a bastardised version of English [you see, even 'bastardised' has been highlighted as incorrect. Wrong! There is no z in any word ending with 'ised. Bring it on!

1:18PM PST on Feb 20, 2012

There are numerous exceptions and special cases in English. However, there were certain things we were all supposed to be taught in the first few years of grade school. For what it's worth, I've even found mistakes in the "spellchecker"! For example, the plural of potato is spelled "potatos", not "potatoes"; it is an exception in the spelling rules. Spellchecker also seems to insist that only one "L" should be used in other forms of words such as "counsel" and "ravel". I was taught to double the "L" in second grade. The dictionary lists my spelling as also correct. Another thing that has been forgotten is the "past perfect" tense...words such as "spelt", "dreamt", "burnt" and the like. People now think of these as incorrect simply because they are not used very often.

Coleen W.

11:56AM PST on Feb 20, 2012

It's funny how I spelled so well in the past and, now, not so much. The brain is a terrible thing to waste.

Heather A.

5:47PM PST on Feb 15, 2012

I take it "spelt" can be used as a verb, then? My spell checker has never underlined "spelled", so I always assumed spelt was the grain and people who used it as a verb were mistaken.

7:02AM PST on Feb 4, 2012

To pronounce potatoes as potatos would be to say 'pot ay toss'. If a word doesn't sound right...usually it isn't right. The spell checker, with potatoes, is right.

12:41PM PST on Jan 30, 2012

Unfortunately, even the spell checkers have mistakes in them. When I was in grade school, I learned that the plural of potato was an exception to the rule, and was spelled "potatos" vs. "potatoes". Spell checkers now have the latter as the proper spelling. In addition, those who depend too heavily on the spellchecker will find that homonym mistakes that have completely different meanings will not be caught. An example of this is "whether" cf. to "weather".

Stephanne M.

7:25PM PST on Jan 29, 2012

I just noticed Lillian's post re. "should of" vs. "should have." That's another one that drives me up a wall!! And "drive safe" instead of "drive safely". There are actually too many to list in one sitting!!