Mispronunciation Mispronunciation is known to be one of the most common causes of misspelling. Hence,
phonetic misspelling is common, once a word is mispronounced. For example, the word
realise may be misspelled as "".
Typing errors Some spelling errors are introduced because the typing of certain people is not perfect, such as • letters are doubled, or more frequently double letters tripled, such as "" and "" • letters are singled, such as "" • keys are transposed, so "because" becomes "".
(see Teh) Some of the errors listed may be due to mistyping rather than ignorance, for example "solider" for "soldier", although these forms of errors rarely happen in handwritten text.
Homophones Two (or more) differently spelled words with different meanings are
homophones if they are nonetheless pronounced the same; e.g., "right", "rite", "wright", and "write"; "read" (most
tenses of verb) and "reed"; "read" (
past,
past participle) and "red". This list includes only a few homophones although incorrect use of homophones is a very common error; the following words from the list are all correct English words, though often incorrectly used in place of their homophones: • advice – advise • affect – effect • artic – arctic (colloquial UK usage for "
articulated lorry") • aweful – awful • breath – breathe • calender – calendar • capital – capitol • dose – doze • hart – heart • its – it's • lightening – lightning • loose – lose • loosing – losing • planing – planning • principal – principle • reign – rain • rime – rhyme • sight – site • stomping – stamping • they're – their • wether – weather • you're – your
Spell checkers do not detect incorrect use of homophones.
Personal names Personal names and
surnames may be pronounced like a standard English word, but with different spelling: "balance" and ""; "war" and "Evelyn Waugh" (if spoken with a
non-rhotic accent); "marshal" and "George Marshall"; "chaplain" and "Charlie Chaplin". Personal names do, of course, generally start with a capital letter. Furthermore, personal names themselves have spelling variations, e.g. "Catherine", "Katharine" and "Kathryn", or "Stewart" and "Stuart", and sometimes a writer may be unaware of the correct spelling of a given individual's name.
Foreign writers A misspelling in English might be made by someone used to a different spelling in another language; for example, "address" is translated "" in French and German. Many Spanish words are similar or identical to English words, but with an "n" inserted, or replacing an "m", leading to errors: "" from "", "" from "", "" instead of "comfortable". The English word 'lose' reasonably looks like it should be pronounced as 'lose' to Germans, as in German the lone 's' often has the sound of an English 'z', and a lone 'o' in English very seldom has the 'oo' sound.
Apostrophes There can be confusion over a plural possessive form. If the singular is "book's title" and the plural "books' titles", the latter can appear as "book's", or even "books's". The plural can be written with an erroneous apostrophe ("
grocer's apostrophe" in Britain): "apple's and pear's".
Elision can lead to misspelling: "doesn't", where the apostrophe represents the elided "o", can be misspelled "". == See also ==