Editing Spelling
Editing Spelling
The English language is a hodgepodge of many linguistic influences. As a result, there are a lot of tricky spelling rules and exceptions that can make spelling difficult to master. Whether a word is misspelled sometimes depends on context, as is the case with American vs. British distinctions. Misspelling can also be a matter of opinion when different spellings are accepted by some and not by others. However, it is just a simple fact that some words are easy to spell and some aren't; some words are spelled like they sound and some aren't. If you want to be taken seriously, you must ensure your spelling is correct.
There are a number of reasons for misspelled words, including mispronunciation, poor enunciation, typographical errors, and confusing words that are pronounced alike but have different meanings (homophones). Many of the most commonly misspelled words have one of four things in common: double letter combinations, confusion between c and s, misuse of - able and -ible, and misuse of -ance and -ence.
Double letter combinations. Many words with double letters are misspelled with single letters. For example, people quite often spell words such as accommodate, possess, committee, and occurrence with single letters. Other times, double letter combinations are used where they shouldn't be. For example, the word harass is often written as harrass, and the word fulfill is often written as fullfill.
Confusion between c and s. When c and s appear in the same word, they often cause confusion, leading people to use the wrong letter. The words absence, descend, license, and discipline are often misspelled. If you have trouble with words containing both c and s, you might want to create a mnemonic device for those words.
Misuse of -able / -ible. Since these suffixes are pronounced alike, it can be difficult to remember which words are spelled with -able and which with -ible. Keep in mind that -able is most often added to words with roots that can stand alone, such as regrettable, manageable, or noticeable (regret, manage, and notice). The suffix -ible, on the other hand, is added to roots that cannot stand alone, such as eligible or susceptible.
Misuse of -ance / -ence. Here again, you can't rely on pronunciation to help you decide whether to use -ance or -ence. What you can do is determine which words ending in -ance or - ence you have trouble with, and then exaggerate the a or e sound in the endings. For example, you would stress the a in -ance in the words resemblance, abundance, maintenance, and acquaintance, and the e in -ence in the words independence, persistence, coincidence, and correspondence.
Below is a brief list of some commonly misspelled words:
absence
accommodate
apparent
believe
broccoli
changeable
colonel
committee
conscious
definitely
discipline
embarrass
exceed
feasible
inoculate
jewelry
judgment
laboratory
license
lightning
manageable
miscellaneous
misspell
permanent
prescription
privilege
proceed
quarantine
sergeant
siege
subtle
supersede
their/they're/there
unnecessary
weird
withdrawal
English can be a tricky language! Some words are often used incorrectly; they may sound exactly alike, but are spelled differently and mean two different things. Following are a few examples of commonly confused nouns.
addition / edition
aisle / isle
allusion / illusion
ant / aunt
assistance / assistants
assumption / presumption
beau / bow / bough
boar / bore / boor
border / boarder
boy / buoy
carat / caret / carrot / karat
cash / cache
cast / caste
core / corps / corpse
councilor / counselor
creak / creek
cue / queue
currant / current
desert / dessert
draft / draught
emigrant / immigrant
fare / fair
faze / phase
flare / flair
gorilla / guerrilla
kernel / colonel
principal / principle
key / cay /quay
manner / manor
mantle / mantel
moat / mote
piece / peace
pier / peer
rain / rein
roll / role
site / sight
sole / soul
tenet / tenant
vain / vane
yolk / yoke
Various differences exist between American and British spelling, including simple changes that can affect the meaning, pronunciation, and use of words. Here are several examples of common British spelling differences and their American counterparts:
Past participles and simple past verbs are often spelled differently. The British spelling typically includes a –t ending for words like smelt, spelt, dreamt, and leant, while American spelling uses the –ed form for smelled, spelled, dreamed, and leaned.
British spelling uses –re endings, while American spelling uses –er. For example, is it the centre of the theatre or the center of the theater? Some other British –re words include metre and litre.
A u can be found in the British spelling of many words, including favour, flavour, labour, neighbour, glamour, colour, and vigour. The ou combination is also found in the middle of words like mould or moustache. Words like analogue, catalogue, and dialogue use – ue endings instead of the –log ending used in American English.
The last letter in words ending with an -l is doubled before the ending when following British spelling. Words that follow this rule include signalling, equalling, counsellor, and traveller.
The American spelling of many words uses –ize as an ending, while British spelling uses –ise for words like organise, prioritise, memorise, utilise, and similar sounding words, such as analyse.
An extra –e is frequently added or retained in British spellings. To avoid common misspellings, remember the French influence in words like cheque and programme. Other words, like ageing, retain the last –e in British spelling.
Some words, like tyre, don't follow a specific rule. It's important to remember that tire is typically used as a verb in British English. In general, auto-related vocabulary varies greatly between American and British English.
Aluminum is another tricky word. When using British spelling, remember that an extra syllable is added to aluminium because an extra i is added to the word.
Grey and gray are also commonly confused. The easiest way to remember this one is Americans use an a while the British use an e.
The c and s switch can be an issue. British spelling uses a c in words like defence and an s in verbs like practise and license.
English words, particularly adjectives and nouns, are often combined into compound structures in a variety of ways. A compound word consists of two or more words that when put together express a single idea. There are three types of compound words:
An open compound is when the words of the compound are written separately (e.g., New Year’s Eve, credit card, sea salt, distance learning, player piano).
A solid compound is when two words are written as one word. Solid compounds typically consist of short, monosyllabic units that are long established in the English language (e.g., wallpaper, typewriter, housewife, breakfast, lawsuit).
A hyphenated compound is when the words are connected by a hyphen(s). Compounds that contain affixes (e.g., house-build(er), single-mind(ed)(ness)) as well as adjective-adjective compounds and verb-verb compounds (e.g., blue-green, freeze-dried) are often hyphenated. Compounds that contain articles, prepositions, or conjunctions (e.g., rent-a-cop, mother-of-pearl, salt-and-pepper) are also often hyphenated.
Words modified by an adjective (e.g., a little boy, the yellow bus) are different from compound words (e.g., a credit card, the player piano). The difference has to do with the degree to which the preceding word changes the essential character of the noun, the degree to which the modifier and the noun are inseparable.
In order to avoid confusion, modifying compounds are often hyphenated. For example, an old-furniture salesman clearly sells old furniture, but an old furniture salesman would be an old man. When compounded modifiers come before a noun, they are often hyphenated (e.g., part-time artist, fire-resistant paint, high-speed connection). However, when those same modifying words follow the noun, they are not hyphenated (e.g., an artist who is part time, paint that is fire resistant).
Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives are often hyphenated when compounded with other modifiers (e.g., the highest-priced camera, the shorter-term deal). However, this is not always so (e.g., the most talented player). Adverbs, words ending in -ly, are not hyphenated when compounded with other modifiers (e.g., a highly rated restaurant, a partially refunded ticket).
Hyphenated modifiers sometimes lose their hyphens when they become compound nouns (e.g., "A clear decision-making process was evident in their decision making" and "The bluish gray was slowly disappearing from the bluish-gray sky"). But again, this is not always so (e.g., a high-rise apartment building is also known as a high-rise, not a high rise).
When modifying a person with his or her age, the compounded phrase is hyphenated (e.g., my seven-year-old nephew). However, when the age comes after the person, a hyphen is not used (e.g., "My nephew is seven years old," but "He is, however, a seven-year-old.").
Most dictionaries will give variant spellings of compound plurals. When there is more than one truck filled with sand, are there several truckfuls or trucksful? The dictionary will give you both, with the first spelling usually preferred. The same is true of teaspoonfuls, cupfuls, etc. The dictionary will reveal that only one spelling is acceptable for some compounds (e.g., passersby).
For hyphenated forms, the pluralizing -s is typically attached to the element that is actually being pluralized (e.g., sons-in-law, semi-circles, mayors-elect). According to The Chicago Manual of Style, "hyphenated and open compounds are regularly made plural by the addition of the plural inflection to the element that is subject to the change in number." It then provides as examples fathers-in-law, sergeants-in-arms, and doctors of philosophy. The basic idea is that the most significant word, which is usually the noun, is pluralized. This word may appear at the beginning, middle, or end of the term. Other examples are terms such as attorneys at law, bills of fare, chiefs of staff, notaries public, higher-ups, and go-betweens. As a general rule, the plural form of an element in a hierarchical term belongs to the base element in the term, regardless of the base element's placement (e.g., sergeants major, lieutenant generals, lieutenant colonels, master mechanics, deputy librarians, and deputy assistant secretaries of state).
The possessive of a hyphenated compound is created by adding an apostrophe + s to the end of the compound itself (e.g., my son-in-law's father, a friend of mine's house). To create the possessive of pluralized and compounded forms, it is wise to avoid the apostrophe + s form and use an "of" phrase instead (e.g., the meeting of the sons-in-law), otherwise, the possessive form becomes downright weird (e.g., the sons-in-law's meeting).
One of the most difficult decisions to make regarding possessives and plurals of compound words occurs when one is trying to decide whether the first noun in a compound structure is acting as a noun that should be showing possession or as what is called an attributive noun (which is essentially an adjective). In other words, do we write "I am going to a writers conference" or "I am going to a writers' conference"? The Chicago Manual of Style suggests that if singular nouns can act as attributive nouns (city government, tax relief) then plural nouns should be able to act as attributive nouns (e.g., consumers group, teachers union). However, this principle is not universally endorsed and writers must remember to be consistent within a document.
With just a few exceptions, compounds formed by the addition of a prefix are not hyphenated, e.g., anteroom, antisocial, binomial, biochemistry, coordinate, counterclockwise, extraordinary, infrastructure, interrelated, midtown, multicultural, nonviolent, overanxious, postwar, reunify, semiconductor, socioeconomic, subpar, transatlantic, unnatural, and underdeveloped. Exceptions include the following:
compounds in which the second element is capitalized or a number (e.g., anti-Semitic, pre-1990, post-Freudian)
compounds that need hyphens to avoid confusion (e.g., un-ionized, as distinguished from unionized)
compounds in which a vowel would be repeated, especially to avoid confusion (e.g., co-op, semiindependent, anti-intellectual—but reestablish, reedit)
compounds consisting of more than one word (e.g., non-English-speaking, pre-Civil War)
compounds that would be difficult to read without a hyphen (e.g., pro-life, pro-choice, co-edited)
Also, when we combine compound nouns, we would use a hyphen with the first, but not the last (e.g., under- and overdeveloped states).
With a series of nearly identical compounds, we sometimes delay the final term in a series until the last instance, allowing the hyphen to act as a kind of place holder (e.g., third- and fourth-grade teachers, full- and part-time employees, and three-, four-, and five-year-olds).
Last Updated: 09/29/2022