Spelling Bee

Do you regularly get "they're," "their," and "there" mixed up? Or forget how many double letters are in words like "accommodate" and "necessary"? You're not alone. Spelling can be tricky, especially when words sound alike or aren't spelled the way they're pronounced. Here are five of the most common spelling mistakes people make.

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1. Accommodate

"Accommodate" is one of those words where, if you misspell it and forget one "c" or "m," the word immediately looks wrong. And yet, it's still one of the most commonly misspelled words. A trick that might help you remember is to think of two Cats and two Mice.

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2. Their/They're/There

"They're having their wedding at that venue over there." Does that sentence confuse you? You're not alone. In fact, homophones in English regularly trip people up, just like "your/you're," "were/we're," "bare/bear," "faze/phase," and many others. For a quick refresher: "there" is a location, "they're" is a contraction of "they are," and "their" is a possessive.

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3. Separate

Since "separate" is often read as "seperate," a lot of people often misspell it. An easy way that might help you remember it is that there's "a rat" in separate. The opposite mistake happens for words like "desperate," where people often accidentally add an "a" in place of the "e" ("desparate").

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4. Unnecessary

"Necessary" and "unnecessary" are also commonly misspelled. People usually find them confusing because they're unsure how many letters are doubled, which ends up making them write the words with one more "c" than needed or only one "s." A trick that might help is to think of it this way: it's necessary for a shirt to have one Collar and two Sleeves.

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5. Pronunciation

It might be "pronounce," but when that verb turns into a noun, the "o" is omitted from the word, becoming "pronunciation." It's very common for people to write (and say) the word as if it's "pronounciation," but this is a misspelling.

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