Elite Writing Enterprises Spelling: Commonly Misspelled Words

To spell, perchance to write...

In some form or another, most of us humans strive to create a good impression in the minds of our bosses, clients, peers, friends, family, potential mates, and even strangers. It is no different in the writing world: We want our words and phrases to have a basic legibility and to reach our audience without confusion or misrepresentation. However, before we can expect our dear readers to buy our product, laugh at our joke, attend our event, answer our question, or enjoy our story, we must first focus on the basic building blocks of our document: Spelling!

This goes beyond the innocent typo that inevitably occurs when we jab the wrong letter on the keyboard; that happens to everybody and is easily caught. No, I'm talking about when you type a word that sounds like the word in your head, but has a different spelling and meaning. Those nasty little critters are a type of homonym called a homophone, and I see dozens of them on web sites every single day. It's like trying to remember the names of identical twins with completely different personalities. You look at one and say the name of the other, then they both snicker because you got them mixed up.

That's approximately what will happen when you don't check your spelling - you cause your reader to see you as less than professional. Yes, we're all human and are thus prone to error, but to make a good impression, we must not forget to double-check our spelling.

Proofread It Yourself

"But Len," you reply, "I use the Spell Checker on my word processor. I even use Grammar Checker!"

Kudos to you for doing so, but those programs can only get you so far. Consider the following sentence:

"George told his brother the tale of the Manx, a breed of cat that has no tail."

Any misspellings? No. Any bad grammar? No. Nevertheless, we have two words that sound exactly the same, but mean different things. If you're not aware of the spelling differences out there, you're setting yourself up for trouble. This next example shows three misplaced homophones:

"After pairing the fruit trees with a branch cutter, Mr. Frederickson brought an entire bushel of sweet, juicy pares back to his kitchen - he wanted to be sure there were enough to fill a pear of bowls."

See what I mean?

No Time? Look Here

"Yeah, I know all that," you continue, "but I can't check every single report or letter I write. Time is money, pal!"

More often than not, this is indeed the case; Money is invested, reports are written, books are published, announcements are displayed, and multitudes of people are striving to make progress in this crazy world. Some may give in to the temptation and forgo the editing and/or proofreading that should be all over such projects like white on rice. If you don't have time to look up your "nuisance" words in the dictionary, maybe this collection of commonly misspelled words can be just as helpful, yet more convenient. Each word is accompanied by its part-of-speech and a brief definition.

Addition	noun	The act or process of adding.
Edition	noun	The format in which a literary work is published.

Advice	noun	An opinion offered as a guide.
Advise	verb	To give advice to.

Affect	verb	To produce an effect in.
Effect	noun	Something that is produced by an agent or cause.

Aisle	noun	A passageway between sections of seats.
Isle	noun	A small island.

Altar	noun	An elevated structure at which religious rites are performed.
Alter	verb	To make different, as in size or appearance.

Base	noun	The bottom support or part.
Bass	noun	The lowest voice part in music.

Cite	verb	To mention in support or proof.
Site	noun	The location of a place.

Ensure	verb	To secure or guarantee.
Insure	verb	To issue or obtain insurance on or for.

Hear	verb	To perceive by the ear.
Here	adverb	In this place.

Incite	verb	To stimulate or prompt to action.
Insight	noun	An instance of perceiving through intuitive understanding.

Its	pronoun	The possessive form of it.
It's	-------	Contraction of it is or it has.

Moot	adjective	Subject to argument or debate.
Mute	noun	Incapable of speech.

Passed	verb	Past tense of pass. Went beyond.
Past	adjective	Gone by in time.

Peak	noun	The pointed top of a mountain or ridge.
Peek	verb	To look quickly or furtively.
Pique	noun	Irritation or resentment caused by a wound to pride.

Peal	noun	A loud, prolonged ringing of bells.
Peel	verb	To strip (something) of its skin.

Peer	noun	A person who is one's equal.
Pier	noun	A structure extending from land into the water.

Seam	noun	A line formed by sewing together pieces of cloth, leather, etc.
Seem	verb	To give the outward appearance of being.

Spade	noun	A digging tool.
Spayed	verb	Past tense of spay. Removed the ovaries of.

Their	pronoun	A possessive form of they: their home.
There	adverb	In or at that place.
They're	-------	Contraction of they are.

To	preposition	So as to reach: He came to the house.
Too	adverb	In addition.
Two	noun	A cardinal number, 1 plus 1.

Woman	noun	An adult female person.
Women	noun	Plural of woman. Many adult female people.

Yore	noun	Time past: knights of yore.
Your	pronoun	A possessive form of you.
You're	-------	Contraction of you are.

If you have a troublesome word in your vocabulary that you do not see here, I recommend that you visit Answers.com and do a search on "Commonly Confused Homonyms". You can also try the YourDictionary.com library and look under the FAQs. You'll find a much more comprehensive list at both of these sites. Also, if you'd like to see similarly mistaken words added to the meager list here, please feel free to let me know. Thanks!

DISCLAIMER: The above list is only meant to show examples of some words that sound the same, but have different spellings and meanings. Many of the definitions above (taken from The Random House Dictionary) are abridged and may not reflect the entire meaning of the related word.

Writing Tips | Resources | Links | Privacy

Apostrophe | Comma | Spelling: Top of Page | Text Formatting | Thesaurus