240 Common Spelling Mistakes in English

English spelling can be tricky, even for English speakers! That’s because English is not 100% phonetic and also because there are so many exceptions. Study the 240 most commonly misspelled words below.

Jump to a letter: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

• absence
• acceptable
• accessible
• accommodation
• accomplish
• achievement
• acquire
• address
• advertisement
• advice (noun)
• advise (verb)
• amateur
• apartment
• appearance
• argument
• athletic
• attendance

B

• basically
• beginning
• belief (noun)
• believe (verb)
• beneficial
• business

C

• calendar
• campaign
• category
• cemetery
• challenge
• characteristic
• cigarette
• clothes
• column
• committee
• commitment
• completely
• condemn
• conscience
• conscientious
• conscious
• controversy
• convenient
• correspondence
• criticism

D

• deceive
• definitely
• definition
• department
• describe
• despair
• desperate
• development
• difference
• difficult
• disappointed
• discipline
• disease

E

• easily
• effect
• eighth
• either
• embarrass
• encouragement
• enemy
• entirely
• environment
• especially
• exaggerate
• excellent
• existence
• experience
• experiment

F

• familiar
• February
• finally
• financial
• foreign
• foreigner
• formerly
• forty
• fourth

G

• general
• generally
• genius
• government
• grammar
• grateful
• guarantee
• guidance

H

• happily
• height
• heroes
• humorous
• hypocrite

I

• ideally
• imaginary
• immediate
• incredible
• independent
• influential
• insurance
• intelligent
• interference
• interrupt
• introduce
• island
• its (for possession)
• it’s (for “it is” or “it has”)

J

• jealous
• jealousy

K

• kneel
• knowledge

L

• later
• legitimate
• length
• library
• lightning
• likely
• loneliness
• lose (verb)
• loose (adjective)
• lovely
• luxurious

M

• maintain
• maintenance
• manageable
• management
• manufacture
• marriage
• married
• millionaire
• misspell
• mischievous
• money
• mortgage
• muscle
• mysterious

N

• naturally
• necessary
• neighbor/neighbour
• ninety
• noticeable
• nowadays

O

• obedient
• obstacle
• occasional
• occurred
• official
• opinion
• opportunity
• opposition
• ordinary
• originally

P

• particular
• peculiar
• perceive
• performance
• permanent
• personal
• personnel
• physical
• physician
• piece
• pleasant
• possession
• possible
• possibility
• potatoes
• practically
• prefer
• privilege
• professor
• professional
• pronounce/pronunciation
• psychology
• psychological

Q

• quantity
• quality
• questionnaire
• queue
• quizzes

R

• realistic
• realize
• really
• receipt
• receive
• recognize
• recommend
• religion
• religious
• remember
• representative
• restaurant
• rhythm
• ridiculous
• roommate

S

• sacrifice
• safety
• scared
• scenery
• schedule
• secretary
• sentence
• separate
• similar
• sincerely
• strength
• surprise
• suspicious
• success
• successful

T

• technical
• technique
• temperature
• temporary
• their (possessed by them)
• there (not here)
• they’re (contraction of “they are”)
• themselves (not “themself”)

U

• undoubtedly
• unforgettable
• unique
• until

V

• valuable
• village
• violence
• violent
• vision
• volume

W

• weather (for climate)
• Wednesday
• weird
• whether (indicating if)
• which
• woman (singular)
• women (plural)
• worthwhile
• width
• writing

X Y Z

• yacht
• young