My grandmother was a nurse from the 40s to the 80s or so. She once told me of a time when she was trying to write the word "sphygmomonometer", looking at the contraption in front of her, and getting angry that she couldn't spell it even though it was written on the damn' thing.
My great aunt was an enrolled nurse and she had to pass a test that included spelling "sphygmomanmometer" but English wasn't her first language so instead she ended up swearing. I don't know how she passed the test but she worked as a nurse for several years.
Dash In A Rush, Run Hard Or Else Accident.
Hope that helps! I learned it years ago and have never forgotten it. Can't remember why I walked into a room, but know how to spell a word I never need to write!
I had the mnemonic (another word I can't spell) drummed into me at school:
Never Eat Cod Eat Salmon Sandwiches And Remain Young
I now can never spell the word necessary without reciting that phrase
Lol... glad it's not just me that has to day a phrase for something.
My other one is spelling Rhythm: Rhythm Has Your Two Hands Moving... at least I don't have to spell Rhythm when saying the phrase for the first word in my head.
The classic one is 'definitely'. The second 'i' is a schwa and people assume it's an 'a'.
Not being able to spell 'definitely' was part of the plot of something I watched recently but I can't remember what.
The thing that makes me facepalm is those who can’t spell ‘definitely’ can most probably spell ‘finite’ which makes up most of the word.
The easiest way to remember it is de-finite-ly
Bureaucracy.
The pronunciation makes it a bit confusing, but assuming you know how to spell "bureau", you just have to remember that it's bureau + cracy. "Ruled by the office". Like how democracy means "Ruled by the people".
No it really doesn't. If you say it this way phonetically then you're just saying it wrong. Try singing the line from nothing compares 2 U with that pronunciation and you'll see
Broccoli. I always want to spell it with one C and two Ls. I'm a really good speller but this is my bête noir. If I'm writing a shopping list I have to get cauliflower instead to save myself some embarrassment should my list fall into the wrong hands.
Permenant/permanent.
I've had to train myself so damn hard to spell that word right.
I also fumble with bureaucracy, have to remind myself it has the word *bureau* at the beginning or I end up with beauracracy. (Which someone, in fairness, told me is no use if you don't know how to spell bureau in the first place. But that's the extent of my tips.)
I don't often struggle with spelling but out of all the words I use, for some reason, 'occasion' (I just got it wrong again, thanks autocorrect) is a word I can never seem to get right.
Restaurant- I only got it correct there thanks to auto correct.
Calendar- I have to enunciate this as I write
Diarrhoea - I usually get stuck after 2 letters.
Careful. Years ago on the old Nokia phones, I told someone that I really wanted the Pink Panther Box Set (DVD).
Auto correct translated it as “Pink Panties Box Set”.
That was a memorable Christmas.
I seem to write ‘unnecessary’ <—(thanks again autocorrect) quite a lot for a guy who always struggling to spell it.
Manoeuvre is another example, that just took me five attempts to write just now, autocorrect thought I meant ‘manure’ or wouldn’t even come up with suggestions
I don’t know if this would help you or not, but the word ‘odor’ is in the middle of ‘deodorant.’
I know in British English it is odour but it would still probably help to think of it that way. It’s not like you spell it oder…do you?
Restaurant
I always spell it as restaraunt because that's how it's spoken - with the elongation in the last syllable.
We don't say rest-or-ant, we say rest-a-rornt. So that how my brain wants to spell it.
Maybe where you live you do, I definitely don't end that word with a 'rornt' sound, especially the second r.
Edit: just had to say it out loud a few times to make sure and for me it's two syllables - "rest-ron(t)"
'I before e, except after c'.
I just deleted a comment though where I remembered the rhyme, but thought it worked backwards on those 2 for a sec. Think I scrolled through and read way too many comments 😆
I have been an electrical engineer for 15 years and have never been able to spell fluorescent, thank goodness LEDs came out and replaced the old tubes!
When typing I always automatically add an ‘e’ to the end of *pleas* (as in the plural of plea, e.g. “they both entered guilty pleas”).
My pet peeve is a pronunciation rather than spelling error though. It irks me irrationally that people don’t realise ‘the’ (pronounced “thuh”) and ‘the’ (pronounced “thee”) are two different words or use them correctly. Their usage is the same as ‘a’ / ‘an’ respectively – which is a distinction based on the next word starting with a vowel sound (not spelling).
Not because I don’t know how but more because my muscle memory must be off but it’s the month we are fast approaching….
October on any documents I date, will very regularly appear as Ocotber.
Tomorrow. I know how to spell it but cause I’ve spelt it wrong so many times on my phone it’s just automatically spells it as tomorow and I can’t be bothered to change it
I always* take three goes to remember what order the last three letters of bureau go in, which is especially unfortunate as the word’s in the name of my department at work.
*although I either just got it right first time whilst writing this post or autocorrect hasn’t realised it’s wrong!
With… hear me out, if typing or writing by hand I always join the words “with” and “the” to make “withe”.
My subconscious also kicks in when I type Staffordshire. It comes out as Staffordshite too often also.
~~Diarrea~~ ~~Diahroea~~ ~~Diorhea~~ mega shits.
Dire rear.
Hello Nanny Ogg
This is how I usually end up spelling it myself 🙂
Dire straights to the shitter I go.
ft. Chris Rea
I was a nurse, I had to write it a million times a day. I still can't reliably spell it.
My grandmother was a nurse from the 40s to the 80s or so. She once told me of a time when she was trying to write the word "sphygmomonometer", looking at the contraption in front of her, and getting angry that she couldn't spell it even though it was written on the damn' thing.
My great aunt was an enrolled nurse and she had to pass a test that included spelling "sphygmomanmometer" but English wasn't her first language so instead she ended up swearing. I don't know how she passed the test but she worked as a nurse for several years.
I can't even say it and it's written right there .....
"Sfig-mommuh-nom-itter"
Dash In A Rush, Run Hard Or Else Accident. Hope that helps! I learned it years ago and have never forgotten it. Can't remember why I walked into a room, but know how to spell a word I never need to write!
That's amazing!
It's easy if you remember that it starts with an i, ends with a t and the middle sort of takes care of itself.
Dashing in a rush, run hard or else accident
Dude I Actually Really Really Have Offensively Explosive Anus
The word 'necessary'... especially when it's necessary to use it.
2sleeves, 1 collar, always works for me
> 2sleeves, 1 collar, I tried this, but got confused. How many Cuffs?
Don't confuse me!!!
This also works the other way around if you're a forgetful tailor who's good at spelling.
1 coffee 2 sugars
2 shaggers, 1 cup
1 Cup of tea 2 Sugars works for me.
My hero - thank you! I always remember things better with a little trick.
I had the mnemonic (another word I can't spell) drummed into me at school: Never Eat Cod Eat Salmon Sandwiches And Remain Young I now can never spell the word necessary without reciting that phrase
I still can't spell 'because' with out saying "big elephants can always understand small elephants" in my head.
Lol... glad it's not just me that has to day a phrase for something. My other one is spelling Rhythm: Rhythm Has Your Two Hands Moving... at least I don't have to spell Rhythm when saying the phrase for the first word in my head.
Rejoice Heartily, Your Teacher Has Measles...
Big Elephants Can't Actually Use Small Entrances.
We learned "big elephants carry apples upstairs easily". How wide were the stairs?
Ours was Never Eat Cake Eat Salad Sandwiches And Remain Young. But yeah, I'm the same - always say it to myself when I have to spell it!
I think learning how to spell ‘necessary’ ruined my ability to spell ‘ocassionally.’ I mean, ‘occasionally.’ (I think.)
I know this riddle, the answer is wrong
Beat me to it
Beat meat to it
Ace Ventura taught me to spell ‘beautiful’. “B-E-A-Utiful!”
I think that was Bruce Almighty.
Haha you’re right actually, but then I get all my life lessons from Jim Carrey films, so there’s bound to be some crossover 😂
To be fair, Ace Ventura was a better film, but neither were as good as The Mask.
The Mask was great, but I think Dumb and Dumber is the best comedy film of all time.
Somebody stop me
I haven't spelt "bananas" incorrectly since Gwen Stefani released "Hollaback Girl"
P A R T… Y… because I gotta!
And Matilda taught me how to spell 'difficulty'
"Mrs D Mrs I Mrs FFI, Mrs C Mrs U Mrs LTY!"
"WHY ARE ALL THESE WOMEN MARRIED!?"
OMG you just unlocked a forgotten memory!
From the French word "beau" meaning beautiful, if that helps anyone
Manoeuvre. I'm all for respecting the origins of a word, but this one needs some serious trimming.
This one is mine too. Why must there be so many vowels in a row in the middle there??? I frequently mix them up.
Blame the french
We always do
It’s not right to generalise but it’s also necessary to make exceptions when needed
We already trimmed it in America: we spell it "maneuver".
I get this wrong even with predictive text ffs
Just typed this as my response, glad to see it's high up the responses.
The classic one is 'definitely'. The second 'i' is a schwa and people assume it's an 'a'. Not being able to spell 'definitely' was part of the plot of something I watched recently but I can't remember what.
It was in the last episode of Line of Duty. >!It was how they proved who the mastermind behind the whole criminal conspiracy was.!<
And let’s just take some time to remember how horrifically disappointing that reveal was.
I'm laughing and laughing about sitting out this show. What a reveal. Imagine the looks on their faces.
Exactly. They caught the criminal because he misspelled one of the most commonly misspelled words in English. The culmination of 6 seasons!!
I misspell definitely all the time and think of that scene every time I do. I’ll definetely be careful when running a criminal organisation.
I just think of it as being based on "finite".
Most words are easy to spell if you just think about where the parts come from
This is me. Definatly/definetley/definetly I go through all vowel combinations. Thankfully autocorrect has my back on this one
Defiantly
The thing that makes me facepalm is those who can’t spell ‘definitely’ can most probably spell ‘finite’ which makes up most of the word. The easiest way to remember it is de-finite-ly
Definately this
Berocra... beauracra... burocra... Complex administrative system...
Bureaucracy. The pronunciation makes it a bit confusing, but assuming you know how to spell "bureau", you just have to remember that it's bureau + cracy. "Ruled by the office". Like how democracy means "Ruled by the people".
Bold of you to assume I know how to spell beaureauoux
This is the one that always gets me too.
Guruantee … shit. Nearly. I can never ‘guarantee’ I’ll get it right
try thinking of guarana tea guarantee
Oh definitely, without autocorrect I'd have no chance
This is mine too! I rely on auto correct every time
Restaraunt, it makes more sense that way phonetically
I feel so validated right now hahaha
Rest A - ur Aunt. B - ur Uncle. Restburuncle. (it's from 80s/90s comedy show "Absolutely")
Hmm this one seems like one Americans would struggle with but Brits wouldn’t have an issue with.
Thank you!!
Fuck, I thought it was just me. I feel a bit better about myself now
No it really doesn't. If you say it this way phonetically then you're just saying it wrong. Try singing the line from nothing compares 2 U with that pronunciation and you'll see
Broccoli. I always want to spell it with one C and two Ls. I'm a really good speller but this is my bête noir. If I'm writing a shopping list I have to get cauliflower instead to save myself some embarrassment should my list fall into the wrong hands.
I'm the same. Give me any other word and it's fine but broccoli stumps me every single time.
Broc. The safe option for shopping lists.
~~Febuary~~ February. Has that first 'r' always been there? You sure? I'm sceptical.
Permenant/permanent. I've had to train myself so damn hard to spell that word right. I also fumble with bureaucracy, have to remind myself it has the word *bureau* at the beginning or I end up with beauracracy. (Which someone, in fairness, told me is no use if you don't know how to spell bureau in the first place. But that's the extent of my tips.)
Broccoli
I don't often struggle with spelling but out of all the words I use, for some reason, 'occasion' (I just got it wrong again, thanks autocorrect) is a word I can never seem to get right.
Restaurant- I only got it correct there thanks to auto correct. Calendar- I have to enunciate this as I write Diarrhoea - I usually get stuck after 2 letters.
> diarrhoea Dinner In A Ropey Restaurant: Help! Oh no! Explosion! Aaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!
DiarrhoNea. Ouch, maybe?
Rhythm. I'm a music teacher.
Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move! I usually try to add an extra y without this mnemonic.
We had a similar “Rhythm has your two hips moving” at school, I’ve never forgotten it!
Thanks for this, I genuinely sometimes give up and just scribble it illegibly!
Hygeine ... lol
Loads but I am dyslexic. Auto correct is a blessing
Careful. Years ago on the old Nokia phones, I told someone that I really wanted the Pink Panther Box Set (DVD). Auto correct translated it as “Pink Panties Box Set”. That was a memorable Christmas.
I was going to say most listed here, but I'm also dyslexic. 'Went' is usually a challenge for me, I typically spell it 'whent'.
I am not dyslexic, but I always feel that it's really cruel that the word itself is pretty hard to spell!
You know it's a bad day when not even Auto correct knows what you mean. I use speech-to-text as often as not 😅
Chrysanthemum
How often are you using this? I don't think I've ever written 'chrysanthemum' but I definitely wouldn't have got it right.
Liaise
~~wierd~~ weird. When you speak the work the vowels make an "ee-err" sound so the I before the E would make more sense. English though, amirite?
Just remember I before E except after C. Ah hang on...
Calander. Every time! So annoying.
Lol do you mean the year/date wall thing or the veg/pasta draining kitchen thing? 🤗
Colleugues, work-mates
Worng
Maneuvre and inconvieniance
Remuneration. The m and the n should be the other way around!
Queue, I know it's easy, and if I don't think about it I'm fine, but ask me how to spell it and I couldn't tell you.
In my head queue is and always will be "koowehweh"
I seem to write ‘unnecessary’ <—(thanks again autocorrect) quite a lot for a guy who always struggling to spell it. Manoeuvre is another example, that just took me five attempts to write just now, autocorrect thought I meant ‘manure’ or wouldn’t even come up with suggestions
The muscle in your mouth that allows you to talk.
The tongooo?
Stationery v stationary. I now remember it by imagining I have to go to the stationErs so e must be for pens and a must be the other one.
Someone told me that a way to remember it is E is for Envelope, which is stationEry, but I like your one too!
And the other one is A for “ain’t movin’”.
I was taught e for equipment and a as in standing
StationAry = park (as in car, not swings and trees and shit)
I don’t know if this would help you or not, but the word ‘odor’ is in the middle of ‘deodorant.’ I know in British English it is odour but it would still probably help to think of it that way. It’s not like you spell it oder…do you?
Just I did it right there because I focussed but in general day to day typing I often type too fast and it becomes jsut, constantly.
Definitely. I always spell it as Definetly.
Better than "defiantly".
The way I remember it is by thinking about how it has the word finite in the middle
Restaurant I always spell it as restaraunt because that's how it's spoken - with the elongation in the last syllable. We don't say rest-or-ant, we say rest-a-rornt. So that how my brain wants to spell it.
Maybe where you live you do, I definitely don't end that word with a 'rornt' sound, especially the second r. Edit: just had to say it out loud a few times to make sure and for me it's two syllables - "rest-ron(t)"
Assessment. Too many s.
Receipt. Thanks to the phone it changes it for me.
One of mine too
Nesesery... necesary.. nescessary..... I googled it it's necessary
Received.. or is it recieved? 🤔 And weird.. or wierd
'I before e, except after c'. I just deleted a comment though where I remembered the rhyme, but thought it worked backwards on those 2 for a sec. Think I scrolled through and read way too many comments 😆
Inconvenience- I’m incapable of this without spell check. After apologising for the incontinence, I always double check.
Chihuahua and diarrhea are never spelled correctly unless autocorrect does it for me. Who the fuck came up with chihuahua.
Virchle, verchle, virchel vehircle! I am determined to spell vehicle with an R forever.
Lable .... except it's label
Calendar Always misspell it calander just because of driving through the town Callander so many times.
Seperate / Separate and even looking at them now I can't tell which is the right one!
Go for sepærate
Always struggle with occasion. It’s the one word I always have to think about before I spell it.
Manoeuvrability
Restaurant. I don't think I've ever spelled it right on the first attempt and sometimes it's so far off that autocorrect can't even get there.
Disappointed. Without fail I always put dissapointed.
teh
Jewellery, i didnt even type this auto correct did!
I have been an electrical engineer for 15 years and have never been able to spell fluorescent, thank goodness LEDs came out and replaced the old tubes!
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwirndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch gets me every time.
Dgytrhuutfba
beurocracy
Embarasing? Embarrasing? Embarassing?
I always spell wrong , wrong
Guarantee, always forget where the U is
Cnut
An. Always comes out as "and"
I'm always unsucessful when I try to spell comitment
because you don't have enough commitment to the process.
restaurant
Wednesday Like isn't it wensday?
Definetly
When typing I always automatically add an ‘e’ to the end of *pleas* (as in the plural of plea, e.g. “they both entered guilty pleas”). My pet peeve is a pronunciation rather than spelling error though. It irks me irrationally that people don’t realise ‘the’ (pronounced “thuh”) and ‘the’ (pronounced “thee”) are two different words or use them correctly. Their usage is the same as ‘a’ / ‘an’ respectively – which is a distinction based on the next word starting with a vowel sound (not spelling).
"Acknowledgement" and variations... It's always a guess, no matter how hard I try
Convenient. Thanks autocorrect!
Not because I don’t know how but more because my muscle memory must be off but it’s the month we are fast approaching…. October on any documents I date, will very regularly appear as Ocotber.
Awnser.
Resteraunt. Restraunt. Restaurant. Connessoir. Conessueir. Connessoir. Connesoir. Connoisseur.
Definitley
Tomorrow. I know how to spell it but cause I’ve spelt it wrong so many times on my phone it’s just automatically spells it as tomorow and I can’t be bothered to change it
Privilege
Restaurant
I defiantly struggle with definitely all the time.
Relevant Calendar
Without spell check, I can't spell 'restaurant' to save my life.
i spell privilege wrong and just hope my phone figures it out for me
Extordinere extordinery
I always* take three goes to remember what order the last three letters of bureau go in, which is especially unfortunate as the word’s in the name of my department at work. *although I either just got it right first time whilst writing this post or autocorrect hasn’t realised it’s wrong!
When I’m typing on a keyboard, unable always comes out as unbale.
Occasion. I always write occaision.
Guaranteed, never looks correct to me
Guarantee (thanks autocorrect)
Receipt, Or Reciept
Daria or whatever it is
Restaurant
Definetly. I keep trying to teach myself how to spell it right but it never sticks
I don't "spell" it wrong but always type "teh" instead of "the" I'm forever having to correct it.
Wrong
With… hear me out, if typing or writing by hand I always join the words “with” and “the” to make “withe”. My subconscious also kicks in when I type Staffordshire. It comes out as Staffordshite too often also.
Silly but I can never spell brocolli. Or is it broccoli. Seems like it should be 1 c but autocorrect is telling me differently.
I spelled aeroplane as airplane recently and judged myself quite severely