When you misspell a word it’s usually easy to catch, whether you use a spell-check program or not. However, there are some sets of words that are so close in spelling – though far apart in meaning – that your eye might not spot the problem, and a spell-check program certainly won’t mark the word as incorrect if it’s the right spelling, but the wrong word. Here are five sets of words that are frequently confused, and explanations of what each of them mean. Practice using the words and spelling them correctly in context, and you won’t make these mistakes in the future.

stationary/stationery
If something is stationary it’s not moving, but staying in one position. Stationery is the term used to refer to paper and envelopes, often in decorative or matched sets, that are used for writing letters. You can remember this spelling by remembering that you send a letter in an envelope.

discreet/discrete
Discreet means “subtle, unobtrusive.” Remember this spelling by keeping in mind that if you meet someone on a crowded street your meeting won’t be very discreet. The word discrete describes things that are separate, unique, or not connected to anything else.

principle/principal
A principle is a belief, law, or code that governs people’s actions. The principal reason to not confuse the spelling of these two words (or any of these word pairs) is that it may make people believe that you don’t know your topic very well. Principal means “first, primary” – remember this spelling by remembering that the letter a is the first letter of the English alphabet.

cite/site/sight
If you cite someone, it means you’re repeating what they’ve said or written. Remember that the word site (a place or location) starts with the letter s by thinking of the word sight, which also begins with s, and that you can go sight-seeing at historic sites all over the world.

perquisite/prerequisite
A perquisite (often abbreviated in the plural as “perks”) is a privilege or special access allowed to only a select group of people. For example, if you belong to an airline’s frequent flyer group, one perquisite might be the ability to wait for your flight in a separate comfortable lounge at the airport. However, the prerequisite – something that’s required in order for something else to happen – might be that you have to accumulate 100,000 airline miles before you’re allowed in the door. Remember this spelling by remembering the prefix pre- means “before,” and a prerequisite is something that comes before something else.

Although much of our modern-day communication is done using computers or mobile devices, it’s important that you learn how to pronounce words correctly as well as spell them correctly. While our word processing applications and phones are smart enough to tell us when we’re misspelling a word, that’s only useful when we’re writing to people rather than talking to them. Both writing and speech make an impact on people, and if you want to leave a good impression of your knowledge of a topic and your general level of education and ability, you need to practice the pronunciation of a word along with its spelling.

In many ways, knowing how a word is spelled will help you with its pronunciation, and knowing how to pronounce a word correctly will help you remember how it’s spelled. A good example of the connection between the two is the problem of metathesis, the transposing (switching of position) of letters in a word. Here are some examples of words that are often both misspelled and mispronounced due to this phenomenon:

cavalry (CAH-vuhl-ree)
Many people think that this word is pronounced CAL-vah-ree, and so tend to also misspell the word with the v and l transposed (incorrectly as calvary). Cavalry refers to troops of soldiers mounted on horses; Mount Calvary is a place mentioned in the Bible.

jewelry (JEW-el-ree)
Again, the tendency is to pronounce this word JEWL-er-ee, and spell it accordingly.

nuclear (NEW-klee-uhr)
A recent American president became notorious for his pronunciation of this word as NEW-kyu-luhr – it’s possible he tried to spell the word as nucular as well.

From the examples above, you can easily see that the right spelling will help you with the right pronunciation of a word. While most people will understand what you’re trying to say even when you do mispronounce a word, there are times when your meaning will be unclear, and this will lead both to misunderstandings and the impression that you’re not as capable or knowledgeable as you really are.

On the other hand, an occasional mispronunciation happens to everyone – there’s even a word to describe it: spoonerism. Named after a 19th-century English church leader named William Spooner, this word refers to a metathesis between two words rather than within one word, and only when spoken. Two famous examples of spoonerisms are from television broadcasts in the early 20th century, one where an announcer mentioned a “hypodeemic nerdle” (rather than a hypodermic needle), and another with an announcer’s statement that “All the world was thrilled by the marriage of the Duck and Doochess (Duke and Duchess) of Windsor.”

Malapropism happens when completely different word is used, often one that has similar pronunciation but not the same meaning, so that the sentence makes no sense. Shakespeare used malapropisms for comic effect; a good example comes from the lines spoken by the character Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, when he says that he and the other watchmen have captured “two auspicious persons.” Naturally, he didn’t mean that these persons would bring good fortune (the definition of auspicious) but rather that they were suspicious; that is, suspected of doing something wrong.

Watch your words, and your pronunciation, and no one will be suspicious that you don’t have a good command of your topic, and the English language.

Cross-posted on The Vocabulary Builder’s Blog.

When we’re talking about words that end in the letter combinations -cede, -sede, and -ceed, one fact should supersede all the others: the word supersede is currently the only English word that ends with -sede. This word is a verb meaning “to take the place of” – and it’s possible that over time the spelling supercede may supersede the current spelling (some dictionaries now show both versions). However, for now we recommend that you use the correct spelling, and use -cede for words such as precede, secede, concede, recede, etc.

Why is there this difference in spelling? The answer is in the history of the words (their etymology). Supersede comes from the Latin prefix super- (“above”) and root word sedere (“to sit”). Traditionally, someone who “sits above” someone else replaces them in authority or position. All of the other words that end in -cede derive from the Latin root word cedere instead, which means “to go.” Therefore, adding prefixes to this root we get “to go before” (pre-), “to go apart” (se-), “to go back” (re-), and so on. In general, other than the word supersede as discussed above, any word that ends in the sound SEED is spelled with -cede.

Of course, since this is the English language there are exceptions to this rule. These three words are spelled -ceed instead:
– proceed
– exceed
– succeed

Although these three words also come from the Latin root word cedere (proceed = “to go forward” / exceed = “to go above” / succeed = “to go after”) their spellings are different. This is due to the fact that they became part of the English language at about the same time, in the 14th century, and so were all governed by the rules of spelling in Old French. Words such as precede were later added to the English language from Middle French, which had different spelling rules.

We hope we’ve planted a few “seeds” of curiosity in you about word origins and their connection to spelling!

Doubled letters in a word cause spelling problems, in part because there’s usually no difference in the word’s pronunciation from the duplication. With many of these words, you need to simply memorize the correct spelling, writing out the words several times until you’ve locked the word firmly in your mind and fingers. Here are some of the words that are frequently misspelled due to their doubled letters – or lack thereof. Test yourself and see if you can identify which of these words are misspelled:

1. comittee
2. fullfil
3. neccessary
4. occassionally
5. occured
6. personel
7. possesion
8. sherrif
9. travelling
10. vaccuum
11. withold

As a matter of fact, all of these words are spelled incorrectly; either a letter that should be doubled isn’t, or one that shouldn’t be is. Here are the correctly-spelled words, and some tips on how to remember the right way to spell them:

committee (kuh-MIH-tee)
With two Ms and two Ts, you’ll spell “committee” with ease.

fulfill (full-FILL)
You don’t need to be filled full to be fulfilled – only double the second L.

necessary (NEH-seh-sair-ee)
It’s not necessary to double the C when you’re spelling “necessary.”

occasionally (uh-KAY-zhun-uh-lee / oh-KAY-zhun-uh-lee)
Sadly, no: you don’t double the S or the N in this word.

occurred (uh-KURD / oh-KURD)
Both the C and the R occur twice in the word “occurred.”

personnel (PER-suhn-ELL)
Each PERSON on the New Employee List is part of the company’s PERSONNEL.

possession (puh-ZEH-shun / poh-ZEH-shun)
”Possession” possesses two double Ss.

sheriff (SHEH-riff)
Bar the second R, or the sheriff will put you behind bars.

traveling (TRAH-vuh-ling)
Pack light when traveling, and don’t double any of the letters in this word.

vacuum (VAH-kyum)
When you think of empty space, remember it’s an Unlimited Universe out there!

withhold (with-HOLD)
You pronounce both halves of this word as if they’re separate words, so they both need their letter H.

What words make you see double? Tell us in the comments.

Cross-posted at The Vocabulary Builder’s Blog.