Below are the correct and incorrect versions of some of the most commonly misspelt words. Can you unmask the criminal mistakes? They’ll get away with it if not for you meddling kids.
Go on, let your inner geek out to play. Share this link and challenge your colleagues to a spell-off. You know you want to …
Once you have your score, why not leave us a message in the comments section below to let us know how you got on? And if you have any spelling tips you’d like to share, such as mnemonics, we’d love to hear them.
Join over 13,000 subscribers and get business-writing news and tips straight to your inbox. Fill in your email address below and we'll send you our 60-page book
ooops
I got 6 wrong
one slipped past, and with a bit less hurry, I’d have picked the right one.
‘I know a man that can’ translates, for me, into always having a dictionary on my desk.
Which means I can spell dictionary correctly! And I use the spellcheck functions on Outlook & Word – but mainly that reflects my inabaility to click the right leters in the right order!
Necessary is always ‘never eat cress, eat salad sandwiches and remain young’ to me!
I really like that one, thanks for sharing!
I still remember learning that necessary was 1 collar 2 shoes (1c and 2 s’s) It is amazing that primary school grammar is the only thing that still sticks with me now
I learned it was one collar, two socks! Of course, if anyone raises the point that you need two shoes as well as two socks, the word could end up spelled with four s’s. So maybe ‘shoes’ is better!
One minuscule mistake!!
I often think of necessary as ‘one collar and two sleeves’ !
Same score, same error!
Strangely, though my visual memory is far from exceptional, it’s the only ‘trick’ I rely on for spelling — and it usually delivers.
Lynne and Pat, a word of comfort: ‘miniscule’ is slowly working its way towards being accepted as a variant spelling. So give yourselves a minuscule boost and call it 19.5.
From Oxford Dictionaries Online:
“The standard spelling is minuscule rather than miniscule. The latter form is a very common one (accounting for almost half of citations for the term in the Oxford English Corpus), and has been recorded since the late 19th century. It arose by analogy with other words beginning with mini-, where the meaning is similarly ‘very small’. It is now so widely used that it can be considered as an acceptable variant, although it should be avoided in formal contexts.”
oxforddictionaries.com/definition/minuscule
Thank goodness for spell-checkers!
20/20. Spelling geek!
Queen geek, I think. Well done!
Hadn’t heard the ‘never eat cress …’ one before and I suppose, as long as you can remember those first 3 words, that would at least help folk to catch the ‘one c and two s’s’ rule for this word.
I’m of a certain age when spelling was deemed to be far more important to perfect at an early age at school. They seem to turn a blind eye to this until a child reaches 8 or 9 these days …
13 out of 20. I was hoping to do better, I guess I’m just too reliant on my spellchecker – its on everything including my mac at home, email at work and on my phone.
To be a good proof reader though, you need to be able to pick up on these things without electronic help!
Absolutely, Kim. It never hurts to have one of those old-fashioned papery dictionaries at your elbow, either!
My junior school teacher taught me this for ‘necessary’ and I’ve never forgotten it:
Never Eat Cheese, Eat Sausage Sandwiches And Remain Young
But don’t leave us in suspense, HH. Does it work?
I was thrown by:
1. occurred
2. prejudice
3. minuscule
4. occurrence
5. embarrass
6. connoisseur
The word occasion is a word that I type quite a lot, but try as I may, I can never get it right. It was therefore a miracle that I got it correct in the quiz.
The result shows that I actually got 17 out of 20 and not 16. However, I’m embarrassed that I didn’t get the minuscule error in occurrence.
Twenty out of twenty. It makes a change to do something right!
I think of minuscule as deriving from minute.
Blimey, congrats! What a satisfying way to finish a work day.
20!
[...] And if that’s put you in a quizzing mood, why not pit yourself against our fiendish spelling test? [...]
19/20 just messed up on cemetery – I put an “a” at the end – doh
Enjoyed the test and I like what the company are trying to achieve – too much jargon in this world, especially in my world of finance
Jamie Young
Whoa! I scored 18/20. And mind you, I am a Malayalee (India)..thanks for the quiz.
Hurrah, well done!
One minuscule mistake on my part – but one I probably won’t make again!