Sure, your email program comes with a built-in spell check feature. It’s standard. However, no spell check is foolproof, and they can make mistakes, especially when it comes to context. That’s why it is crucial to proofread all of your emails, even after you’ve run a spell check.
Sending clear, well-written emails is an important part of modern email etiquette.
Regardless of whether you are writing an email to a friend or an email for the company newsletter, your words matter. While a minor misspelling of a word or two may not seem like such a big deal, it can easily reflect poorly on you.
You are never going to guess some of the most common misspelled words in the English language! Familiarizing yourself with these words is going to help you to find them and to fix them while writing or proofreading.
10 Commonly Misspelled Words
We’ve compiled this list of commonly misspelled words based on the most frequently searched word spellings on the web.
So, without further ado:
How do you spell restaurant?
That place where people pay to sit and eat meals that other people cook is a restaurant, and people often ask:
Is it spelled resturant, restarant, or restaurant?
✅ restaurant
How do you spell beautiful?
The last place you want to misspell a word is in a love letter or poem to your sweetheart, so you’ll want to be sure that you are spelling the word “beautiful” correctly.
Sadly, many a Romeo has lost his Juliet by calling her butifl.
Let’s make sure we remember that it is always spelled:
✅ beautiful
How do you spell tomorrow?
Why wait until tomorrow when you can learn how to spell today?
See what we did there?
Well, we spelled tomorrow correctly. We didn’t spell it tommorow, because, contrary to what SOME folks believe, that is NOT the correct spelling. Remember, the word “tomorrow” always has two Rs, not two Ms, like so:
✅ tomorrow
How do you spell business?
Regardless of what industry you work in, you might find yourself out of a job if you spell the word “business” wrong. Don’t feel bad, though, because a significant number of people ask:
Is it spelled buisness, bisness, bizness, or business?
✅ business
How do you spell friend?
If you’re going to send a letter to someone to say thank you for being a friend, you’ll end up blowing it if you misspell the word “friend.” You wouldn’t be alone, however, as people often wonder:
Which is correct, freind, frend, or friend?
✅ friend
How do you spell receipt?
It’s not that uncommon to spell the word “receipt” wrong. Often, people will misspell the word as reciept, or recept. It’s understandable because it is a hard word for some people. It’s easy to remember, though, if you apply the spelling rule, “i before e, except after c,” you’ll always spell it correctly as:
✅ receipt
How do you spell chocolate?
No matter how you spell it, it still tastes delicious. Right?
Wrong. It ain’t choclate unless you spell the word correctly:
✅ chocolate
How do you spell Christmas?
Well, first and foremost, the word “Christmas” is ALWAYS capitalized. Quite often, people ask:
Does Christmass have two S’s?
Well, it depends on how you’re using the word. The plural of Christmas is “Christmases.” Also, Christmas’s and “Christmas’ are correct as a way of showing possession.
Let’s also not forget about the word XMAS. Technically, it IS a word, but it is an abbreviation of Christmas, and we’re not sure if Santa’s cool with it, so proceed with caution. Remember, it’s spelled:
✅ Christmas
How do you spell clothes?
The word “clothes” can be confusing, probably because there is no singular form of the word. In writing, we often talk about an article of clothing or a garment. Usually, in conversation, we call it what it is; a shirt or a sock.
Still, there are times when we are going to need to talk about our clothes in general, so let’s remember to spell it right:
✅ clothes
How do you spell congratulations?
People often ask:
Which is correct, congratulations or congradulations?
“Congratulations” is the correct spelling of this word. Congradulations is a commonly misspelled word, which is not surprising because its pronunciation SOUNDS like conGRADulations, and it’s also something you typically say when someone graduates!
The bottom line, however, is that the correct spelling is:
✅ congratulations
Why Correct Spelling Matters
A misspelling suggests that you either don’t give a darn about what you have written because you did not take the time to proofread or that you are not well versed enough in whatever topic you’re addressing. Either way, these spelling errors are sure to make your audience mistrust your authority, whether it is an audience of one or 1,000.
It’s perfectly okay not to know the right way to spell a word. If you’re unsure about the spelling of a word, you should never guess. Instead, use a dictionary or Google it to figure out the proper spelling.
