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I read a lot what people write in forums and stuff like that and I often come across mistakes made by natives. I’m not referring to grammar mistakes or using the wrong verb, which would be more understandable but rather wrong spelling.
Below some of them:
1 -Than/then
The error that tops the list by far is "then" for "than" or vice versa.
It is quite obvious when one reads things like "I have more support then I ever thought possible", that the correct should be "than" instead of "then".
2 - Complement/ compliment
Another frequent error is "complement" for "compliment" or vice versa. If you're aware of the pronunciation, you’ll understand why.
3 - South instead of sour
Another common mistake. Although I'm not totally sure that it is. In my opinion "sour" has a total different meaning than "south", but I don’t know if people use it that way on purpose.
4 - Masturbation
This sensitive word, unlike the ones above, doesn't confuse it with other but with itself. It is very common to find it wrongly written.
5- Effect/affect
Another error is one that pops up often enough.
Other words don’t come to mind right now, but I'm sure there're more. Please, feel free to add to the list with your contribution.
There is a whole thread about this on the Writing forum.
There Their They're. Effect Affect.
Some things I see on City-Data long puzzled me until I realized it had to do with accents. For example, people confuse "sense" and "since". That one I couldn't understand, because they don't sound alike, but then I realized that to some people, they DO. A large number of people in this country have lost the "short e" sound and use the "short i" sound in its place. It is called the pin/pen merger.
There is also the cot/caught merger, wherein some people started pronouncing those two words the same way (they lose the "aw" sound that should be in "caught"). I remember speaking with a person in (I think) the midwest, and they told me I need to speak to Don, and when I asked, "what's his last name", they said, "Don is a woman". Because her name was really DAWN.
Oddly, though, even though they pronounce them the same way, people don't seem to WRITE pin and pen the same way.
Oh, another one that gets confused a lot is conscious and conscience.
No, I think he was confused by the coexistence of the phrases "to go south" and "to go sour" and assumed that one was a mistake for the other.
Yes, I thought it might be a mistake because of similar pronunciation. It hadn't occurred to me that "going south" was related to going down.
BTW, I said yesterday that might be true for those who live in the Northern Hemisphere.
Another mistake. Even here, at the southern tip of South America, the south is still down. Of course, assuming that the world has one side up and one side down. Since the universe is infinite, assuming that one side is up and the other down is totally arbitrary and man-made. Don't you think?
I don't think anyone has mentioned they're and their.
drives me nuts.
Might be a local thing but something can go either south or sour, the same thing meaning on the rocks
Yes, and you're and your.
Btw, one thing that I do more times than I can count is typing 'then' instead of 'than' and vice versa! Yes, I do know the difference, so it drives me bonkers when I see that I have typed the word wrong!
Most of the mistakes mentioned could be the result of using voice dictation or an autocorrect - which sometimes has the mind of its own
Yes, the fact of the English feature also contributes. Several words are pronounced the same and spelled differently. In Spanish, this problem is not so noticeable because we have a little clearer pronunciation and writing rules. But our verb conjugation is hell. That's where even natives fail the most.
I read a lot what people write in forums and stuff like that and I often come across mistakes made by natives. I’m not referring to grammar mistakes or using the wrong verb, which would be more understandable but rather wrong spelling.
Below some of them:
1 -Than/then
The error that tops the list by far is "then" for "than" or vice versa.
It is quite obvious when one reads things like "I have more support then I ever thought possible", that the correct should be "than" instead of "then".
2 - Complement/ compliment
Another frequent error is "complement" for "compliment" or vice versa. If you're aware of the pronunciation, you’ll understand why.
3 - South instead of sour
Another common mistake. Although I'm not totally sure that it is. In my opinion "sour" has a total different meaning than "south", but I don’t know if people use it that way on purpose.
4 - Masturbation
This sensitive word, unlike the ones above, doesn't confuse it with other but with itself. It is very common to find it wrongly written.
5- Effect/affect
Another error is one that pops up often enough.
Other words don’t come to mind right now, but I'm sure there're more. Please, feel free to add to the list with your contribution.
Yep, some common mistakes irregardless of who you are.
News flash: Native speakers/writers of English make errors in spelling, grammar, and usage!
Film at 10!
Got any other earthshaking revelations?
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