Comments
8 CommentsI find the word "labyrinth" almost impossible to spell correctly -- usually favouring "labrynth."
My theory is that the common pronunciation of the word has changed so much. It's most often pronounced lab-rinth, whereas the correct pronunciation is lab-uh-rinth, with emphasis on the "yr" part of the word.
Maybe it's just the British, or perhaps it's more local than that even, but I rarely hear it pronounced the correct way.
Anyway, this got me wondering. What words do you find hard to spell, and why? I'm particularly interested in the discussion of why -- especially if it's more interesting than "it just sounds like that."
Another common error I see is "publically" and "publicly." ("Publicly" is correct here.) I don't fully understand that one, as pronunciation seems to work in your favour. Maybe that's another locality issue though.
Your thoughts?
JulianBH
Written May. 29, 2007 / Report /
Discussion. Disappointment.
Cas
Written May. 29, 2007 / Report /
I can't spell:
management
application
apologise
and a few others.
My boss thought I was just a bad typer till she looked over some minutes I'd hand written. I just have a blind spot with those (and some other) words. In my head I will be spelling out m-a-n-a-g-e-m-e-n-t, but on the page I invariably write/type "managment"
For my case it's not a pronunciation issue, it's a mild dyslexia issue. That, and years of relying too heavily on auto correct in Word. My spelling is now totally shot to pieces.
Rich
Written May. 29, 2007 / Report /
Speaking of Pan's Labyrinth. Ahem.
Rich
Written May. 29, 2007 / Report /
"Hesitant" is another one. I've never been quite sure why, but every time I type it, I find myself fighting the urge to include another "s" and spell it "hesistant."
You'll see that I've actually fallen prey to the urges a few times before, too.
jmathias
Written May. 29, 2007 / Report /
parallels. no idea why, just never spell it right.
hthth
Written May. 29, 2007 / Report /
I share jmathias' 'parallels' problem. Probably due to the l's both being parallel to the 'e'.
But the one I always have to spell in my head before I write it is Beauty. I think it's mainly because the 'a' seems irrelevant, Beuty would work just fine.
Can't think of any more at the moment.
Ollie
Written May. 29, 2007 / Report /
"Unfortunately" usually comes out unfortuantly, but I think because of the way I type rather than the way my brain works.
"Disappointment" usually gets 2xS and 1xP until I think about it.
For a few years, I always thought "Adventually" was correct. Now I know it is spelled "Eventually". That's probably to do with the way I say it, as Rich was talking about in the note.
I always end up saying Labby-rinth in my mind when I type that word.
ConnorWilson
Written May. 30, 2007 / Report /
Necessary gets me every time. Thank you FireFox for spell checking ;)