100 Commonly Misspelled Words in English

YouTube video

Your DEFINATELY spelling these words wrong!

Today you’ll learn words that most people misspell. In fact, two of them are in that sentence!

1. The word definitely does NOT have an “A.” Some people even write “defiantly” which is a completely different word. But it’s definitely, not definately.

2. And the other mistake is your, y-o-u-r. In the title of the video it should be you’re, which is short for “you are.” The version spelled y-o-u-r is for possession – your house, your dog, your backpack. Learn more about your vs. you’re.

3. 4. Our next word that many people misspell is knowledge (not knowlege). But when it comes to the word privilege, that one does end in e-g-e (not priviledge).

5. Watch out for the word weird (not wierd). “Weird” is an exception to the “i before e except after c” guideline for spelling.

6. 7. The adjective true is spelled t-r-u-e, but the adverb truly does not have an e (not truely). It’s similar to how the number four is spelled f-o-u-r, but the number forty does NOT have a “u,” it’s not fourty.

8. Another common spelling mistake is forgetting the “n” before the “m” in the word government. When we say it, we don’t really pronounce the “n” – but make sure to write governmentnot goverment.

9. 10. Speaking of forgetting letters, don’t forget the first R in surprise or February. Again, when we say them, you can’t really hear it – they sound like suprise and Febuary – but they’re spelled s-u-r-p-r-i-s-e, and F-e-b-r-u-a-r-y.

11. 12. Words with double letters can be challenging – don’t put two “m”s in tomorrow. The correct spelling is one M, two Rs. And don’t put two “C”s in recommend. The correct way is one “c,” and two “m”s.

13. 14. A lot of people misspell independent and independence by putting an A in the ending (independant / independance), but these should end in -ent and -ence.

15. The word calendar sounds like it should be spelled calender, but the correct ending is -AR. Same with the word grammar; it ends with -AR, not grammer. (Learn more words with -AR, -ER, and -OR endings)

16. A lot spelled alot is ALWAYS wrong. It should be a lot – two words. I study a lot. There is a verb spelled allot, but that means something totally different.

17. Our next mistake is spelling the word category like catagory. I know it sort of sounds like that when spoken, but it should be spelled c-a-t-e-g-o-r-y

18. The next one actually got me a few times – the word minuscule, meaning very tiny, should start with m-i-n-u, not m-i-n-i. This is so confusing because we do use the word mini to describe things that are small, and it sounds like “miniscule” – but the correct spelling is minu.

19. The word successful can be misspelled a lot of different ways – successfull, sucessful, succesful. The right way is s-u-c-c-e-s-s-f-u-l. Two Cs, two Ss, one L.

20. And finally, there’s the word finally. It needs to have two Ls, not just one (not finaly).


More commonly misspelled words in English:

INCORRECT CORRECT
absense absence
accidently accidentally
aquire acquire
aparent apparent
arguement argument
athiest atheist
akward awkward
basicly basically
begginning beginning
beleive believe
bizzare bizarre
buisness business
Carribean Caribbean
cemetary cemetery
cheif chief
collegue colleague
concience conscience
concensus consensus
copywrite copyright
dilemna dilemma
dissapoint disappoint
disasterous disastrous
embarassed embarrassed
enterpreneur entrepreneur
enviroment environment
equiptment equipment
excede exceed
exilarating exhilarating
familar familiar
facinate fascinate
foriegn foreign
foward forward
freind friend
greatful grateful
guaranty guarantee
harrass harass
hieght height
imediately immediately
indite indict
inteligent intelligent
jewellery jewelry
judgement judgment
lisense license
lollypop lollipop
maintainance maintenance
medecine medicine
mispell misspell
neccesary necessary
nieghbor neighbor
noticable noticeable
paralel parallel
pasttime pastime
perserverance perseverance
Phillipines Philippines
playwrite playwright
Portugese Portuguese
posession possession
pronounciation pronunciation
propoganda propaganda
questionaire questionnaire
realy really
recieve receive
relevent relevant
religous religious
restarant restaurant
seperate separate
strenght strength
supercede supersede
tendancy tendency
therefor therefore
thourough thorough
threshhold threshold
tolerence tolerance
tounge tongue
tyrany tyranny
unforseen unforeseen
unfortunatly unfortunately
untill until
vaccuum vacuum
viscious vicious

Now you know how to spell these 100 words corectly!

Oops, did you catch that? There should be two Rs in correctly.

Make sure to download the PDF of 100 commonly misspelled words, and join my 200 common errors in English course to fix your English mistakes fast.

If you’re learning English as a second language and you want to avoid common mistakes like these, come join my 200 common errors in English course. I’ll help you fix errors in grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling, and more.