l0l Words That College-bound Students Should Be Able to Spell

Parent Cafe
1

<p>CC helps me appreciate and understand college-bound students, but…</p>

<p>can we parents make a list of high-frequency misspells, often seen on CC.</p>

<p>List the common words YOU think should be correct by the time one enters college! PLEASE let’s NOT RANT about why people misspell. Just make a useful list for kids to look at, to help kids. </p>

<pre><code> Here’s my hit-list:
</code></pre>

<p>definitely, not definately</p>

<p>competitive, not competative (espec. if you want to go to one)</p>

<p>ridiculous, not rediculous</p>

2

<p>principal (as in high school principal), not principle</p>

<p>their, not there (and vice-versa)</p>

<p>its, not it’s (for the possessive)</p>

<p>admissible, not admissable.</p>

<p>permissible, not permissable.</p>

3

<p>no one, not noone</p>

<p>I’ve also got my list of common usage problems:</p>

<p>duress is not synonymous with “pressure”</p>

<p>reticent is not synonymous with “reluctant”</p>

<p>decimated does not mean “badly beaten” or any number of other false synonyms</p>

<p>transpired does not mean “happened”</p>

4

<p>No matter how many times I look it up, I still have trouble with seperate, Did you mean: separate ? and across</p>

5

<p>[crash]</p>

<p>You forgot one:</p>

<p>Your for You’re and vice versa</p>

<p>[/crash]</p>

6

<p>affect and effect
misspell, not mis-spell
occasionally, not occassionally
prestige, not prestege
athlete, not athelete
apparent, not apparant
a lot, not alot
receive, not recieve
Juilliard, not Julliard
Johns Hopkins, not John Hopkins
St John’s, not St Johns
sophomore, not sophmore
attendance, not attendence</p>

<p>Finally, an adcom is a group, not a person</p>

7

<p>Boy, TheDad, you’re tough. According to my dictionary, reticent does mean reluctant (as in, to speak), duress means force, which is pretty close to pressure and transpired IS synonymous with happened (though “still regarded by some as a loose usage”). Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 1988. I got it for my son when he was little because he loved to know word origins. I’m sure OED would have been better, but this was relatively compact.</p>

<p>I think affect and effect are difficult. And in psychology affect (with an emphasis on the first syllable) is used to mean a display of emotion, as in flat affect or animated affect.</p>

8

<p>Safeties, not safties
Ivies, not IVY’s</p>

9

<p>DILEMMA, not dilemna</p>

<p>SHOO-IN, not shoe-in</p>

<p>VOILA!, not viola!</p>

10

<p>It’s also important to avoid:</p>

<p>Accidentally substituting “casual” for “causal,” particularly in contexts such as “there was a causal relationship between the two variables.”</p>

<p>Writing “manger” when you mean “manager.” This is only funny in December.</p>

<p>Omitting the letter L in “public.” </p>

<p>Spellcheckers will not detect any of these sources of embarrassment.</p>

<p>My pet peeve is the invented word “alright.” It does not exist. Use two words: “all right.”</p>

11

<p>I never noticed there were two i’s in Juiliard!</p>

12

<p>that’s because performers often keep one closed when playing the voln</p>

13

<p>When my husband (then boyfriend) and I were driving across the country 20 years ago, we had a languaged-based disagreement about the words insipidity and annoyment. I said the first was a word (Jane Austen used it, after all) and he said the second was. We went to a library in Witchita Kansas and looked for them both. That dictionary said he was right. My Webster’s says I’m right. The English language is fearfully and wonderfully fluid.</p>

14

<p>It’s a moot point, not a mute point.</p>

<p>You lose a game - loose is for change.</p>

<p>Affect and effect are different words.</p>

<p>Voila is also not vwahla.</p>

15

<p>I was just going to post about LOSE and LOOSE. You beat me to it mathmom :slight_smile: I always cringe when I see that mistake.</p>

<p>grammar not grammer</p>

16

<p>Judgment, not judgement</p>

<p>But:</p>

<p>Acknowledgement, not acknowledgment</p>

<p>(Rorosen: LOL!!!)</p>

17

<p>patsmom- I see no issue with either ;)</p>

<p>in the circles my son travels, violin = vilein</p>

18

<p>Lend-Old Testament
Lent-New Testament</p>

19

<p>remuneration/renumeration
I hear these two words confused frequently.</p>

20

<p>weird, not wierd</p>

<p>all right, not alright</p>