Monday, October 15, 2007

Words I occasionally have trouble spelling

license
exercise
separate
conscious
some -ible word that I can't recall at present

I usually catch myself, but my first instinct is to misspell these words. Also, more often than not, I type to when I mean too and you when I mean your.

That is all.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I once had trouble spelling "sarcasm." I kept wanting to put an "i" in there somewhere.

Thankfully, someone cured me of this by politely pointing out my mistake to me.

Leah said...

Gosh, that person is helpful.

Steve said...

I do have trouble with "exercise". I want to spell it "exce--". There a certainly a few more, but I can't think of them at present.

Gothic gives me fits though. And it's really not that difficult. A lot more regular than English, but not as phonetic as Greek or Latin.

Anonymous said...

True, that person is quite helpful.

However, I have it on good authority that this individual has difficulty spelling the word "license."

I know, right? Madness.

Leah said...

Oh, Steve, stop showing out. Gothic! :o)

Elena, bless her heart, told me she wasn't a good speller in any of her three languages.

Of course, one of my favorite English profs was a bad speller, and he also couldn't pronounce "specificity." He always said "specicifity." Of course, it then became one of my favorite words.

Karen said...

I occasionally have trouble spelling occasion. And broccoli. Cinnamon, Cinncinnati (did I get those correct?...I think I should have lost one of the n letters in the first pair of n letters in that city name!). Exercise has never been a problem for me, however. One of my bosses had a real problem with the word separate, favoring seperate. I have a problem deciding whether to use conscious or conscience. But the trigger for me is -- if it has to do with decency, it's con (Spanish for with)science; it it's if you are awake or aware, it's conscious. Thanks for introducing this stimulating word work, Leah!

Anonymous said...

I've always been pretty good at spelling. I almost won a class spelling bee once but I got too cocky.

Most everyone had already sat down and it was me and a few others. I was unstoppable. Then I got the word "cathedral". I spelled it too fast and left one of the letters out or something. So I had to sit down.

Steve said...

Showing out? Whatever, Miss "I only mispell five words - ever." :D

But yeah, I suppose I was. Duly chastised.

Leah said...

Oh, I'm sure there are more, Steve. Those are just easy ones that I thought everyone would enjoy poking fun at. I meant "that is all" as an "over-and-out" statement, but I realized its possible implications.

And I was okay with that ambiguity. :o)

Steve said...

Hey, what do I know? Until quite recently I held much mistaken opinions on what "serendipity" means and how "archipelago" is pronounced!

I did just think of an example of words that I have trouble with: -ize versus -ise. The Brits use both, but -ize is the only version accepted by American authorities for the verbal suffix meaning "to cause to be or conform to, etc.". Yet even cases in which the original prefix is unrelated to the -ize/-ise suffix, such as in "exercise" or "excise", I overgeneralize -ize.

Steve said...

Judgment. Gets me every time.