Explore Resources to help correct commonly misspelled and misused words
By Alissa Dedic
We’ve all been there. Autocorrect auto filled a word in an email or text message. We’re left wondering which word is the word we meant. We’re left wondering if maybe we’ve been spelling a word wrong. Or maybe we know autocorrect is wrong. We’ve struggled to get it to stop auto filling the wrong word.
In this day and age of autocorrect and AI, how do we know if we used the correct word or spelled the word right? What if, we are so bad at spelling a word or keep misspelling the same word that we are always second guessing ourselves?
Thankfully, there are dictionaries and resources for commonly misused words and commonly misspelled words. It is a challenge to look up a word in the dictionary when we don’t know how to spell it right. It gets confusing when we discover the dictionary has these different words that all sound the same but mean different things. These are called homophones. Which one do we use?
Commonly Misspelled Words
Why are they commonly misspelled?
There are two reasons some words are commonly misspelled. English has borrowed words from other languages. The English language is inconsistent with how to treat these words.
Borrowed words don’t follow the phonetic rules for English. That is to say the letters make sounds they would not make in English. Sometimes we have changed them to follow the rules for spelling in English. Other times, we have chosen to keep the letter sounds and spelling from the original language. It might not be that a person is a bad speller. It might be more that the English language is difficult.
Resources to help with commonly misspelled words
It would be nice to just look up the word. Sometimes we are so wrong about how to spell the word that we can’t find it. This is where lists of commonly misspelled words come in handy. When I was growing up, my parents bought a book of commonly misspelled words. Fortunately our minds all work similarly when it comes to misspelling words. We all try to use English phonetics to sound out the word. There are only a few ways the words are misspelled. These books and lists will list the common misspellings and then offer the accurate spelling.
Resources to help with commonly misspelled words
Suggested resource: How to Spell It: A handbook of Commonly Misspelled Words. This is the book I grew up with. When I looked up commonly misspelled words on Amazon, I found all kinds of resources like posters, commonly misspelled words by grade level, workbooks, word searches… Whether a person needs help with spelling for themselves, for students or their own children, there is a wide range of helpful resources out there.
When I searched it on Google, I got a long list of results. My favorite was the Merriam-Webster resource. It gave the example of how to spell the word and listed the common misspellings. Here’s the link: merriam-webster.com/grammar/commonly-misspelled-words
Commonly Misused Words
Why are words commonly misused
We’ve all been typing a long and needed to type lose or loose. Which one is it? Is it there, their or there? Is it effect or affect? Thankfully, there are resources to help sort this out too. Editing features like autocorrect don’t always get it right. The information in the autocorrect program was filled in by a person. If that person assumed they knew the correct word but didn’t look it up, then we’re all stuck with the struggle of not knowing why certain words are constantly corrected.
There are a couple possible reasons words are commonly misused. First many words sound the same but mean different things. These are called homophones. Some examples are there, their and there.
Second some words are misunderstood from our earliest experiences with English. We misunderstand them when we are growing up or learning the English language. We don’t hear words properly. Often the people around us don’t know they are misusing words. We don’t remember all the rules and meanings. English is a difficult language.
Resources to help with commonly misused words
The dictionary can be a good place to start. It will offer a definition for the word. It will provide information about which part of speech—noun, verb, adverb, adjective, idiom, etc.—the word is. This helps us know we have used the appropriated word based on how it is used.
I don’t actually own a copy of a book about commonly misused words. I did find a several options on Amazon. There were books for writers, students and people learning English as a second language.
I normally use an online source to double check my word choices. Again, I turn to Merriam-Webster for help with this issue. Here’s the link: merriam-webster.com/grammar/commonly-confused-words-list.
Resources correct commonly misspelled and misused words
As an editor, I see commonly misspelled and misused words often. Sometimes it is because the autocorrect function wasn’t programmed properly. Other times, it’s because we all have little quirks in how we write and talk. Part of my onboarding process is to learn what little quirks or struggles the writer has. I share mine too.
I have studied the English language for decades. It has not cured my confusion with when to use affect or effect. I definitely still can’t spell separate. It’s right in this post because Word autocorrected it, and then I looked it up.
Don’t be discouraged by bad spelling or misusing words. We all struggle with these issues. I hope the resources in this post equip writers for correcting commonly misspelled words and commonly misused words.
Please share this with your writing friends. Click the like button if this post helped you. I would love to hear from you in the comments about your go to resources for help with spelling and word usage.
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