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A Spelling Test for You

I am enjoying Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style. Author Benjamin Dreyer, copy chief of Random House, included a chapter titled “Notes on Easily Misspelled Words.” Thinking you will enjoy the challenge, I offer a spelling test. I chose 20 of Dreyer’s 116 easily misspelled words, plus variants, to test you.

In this list, 10 words are correct, 10 incorrect. Which 10 need correcting?

accommodation

bookkeeper

bouyant

concensus

dilemma

fourty-four

fuschia

genealogy

glamour

guttural

indispensable

momento

occurrence

perogative

poinsettia

restaurateur

supercede

suprise

threshhold

unwieldly

 

 

 

 

 

Have you found the 10 correct words yet? They appear below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

accommodation

bookkeeper

dilemma

genealogy  (This one could have fooled me.)

glamour (Glamor is also correct according to Merriam-Webster’s.)

guttural

indispensable

occurrence

poinsettia

restaurateur (This spelling was a total surprise. Restauranteur is also correct according to Merriam-Webster’s–despite Mr. Dreyer’s objection.)

 

 

 

Have you figured out how to correctly spell these items?

bouyant

concensus

fuschia

fourty-four

momento

perogative

supercede

suprise

threshhold

unwieldly

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the corrected versions:

buoyant

consensus

forty-four

fuchsia

memento

prerogative (I have to admit I couldn’t recognize what was wrong with perogative.)

supersede (I never get this one wrong because I think of supersede as “sit in the place of.”)

surprise (Such a simple word, with such potential for error.)

threshold

unwieldy

Which words fooled you?

In my writing classes, the most often misspelled word is misspelled–with a missing letter s. 

Benjamin Dreyer notes that “no one expects you to memorize the spelling of every word in the notoriously irregular, unmemorizable English language.” When you are unsure, use a dictionary. His dictionary of choice is Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

To learn much more about recognizing errors in writing, get a copy of Dreyer’s EnglishI’ll share a full review of the book in a few days.

Lynn

 

 

Posted by Lynn Gaertner Johnson
By Lynn Gaertner-Johnston

Lynn Gaertner-Johnston has helped thousands of employees and managers improve their business writing skills and confidence through her company, Syntax Training. In her corporate training career of more than 20 years, she has worked with executives, engineers, scientists, sales staff, and many other professionals, helping them get their messages across with clarity and tact.

A gifted teacher, Lynn has led writing classes at more than 100 companies and organizations such as MasterCard, Microsoft, Boeing, Nintendo, REI, AARP, Ledcor, and Kaiser Permanente. Near her home in Seattle, Washington, she has taught managerial communications in the MBA programs of the University of Washington and UW Bothell. She has created a communications course, Business Writing That Builds Relationships, and provides the curriculum at no cost to college instructors.

A recognized expert in business writing etiquette, Lynn has been quoted in "The Wall Street Journal," "The Atlantic," "Vanity Fair," and other media.

Lynn sharpened her business writing skills at the University of Notre Dame, where she earned a master's degree in communication, and at Bradley University, with a bachelor's degree in English. She grew up in suburban Chicago, Illinois.

7 comments on “A Spelling Test for You”

  • Was fun. Got 7 right. Occurrence, indispensable, poinsettia got me.
    Also with auto correct these get mostly eliminated I think. On a separate note as a writer I find myself googling for thesaurus more for the right word.

  • I also got 7. The words poinsettia, bookkeeper and genealogy got me! I love that you included “restaurateur.” I Googled this word the other day, but with the second spelling: “restauranteur.” I was hoping to find a synonym for “foodie.” Restauranteur wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. Great exercise.

  • Hi Kumar,

    Seven is good. “Occurrence” and “indispensable” are important words to know. “Poinsettia” is tricky because most people pronounce it a different way.

    Autocorrect does catch most of these if you pay attention to it. However, mine missed “fuschia” and “unwieldly.”

    Lynn

  • I easily spotted 8 mistakes and then got stuck wondering which could be the other 2. I got fooled by buoyant and unwieldy because I’ve never come across them and also don’t know their meaning.

    I love this kind of test, thank you for sharing it with us!

  • Hi Deborah and Tamara,

    Thanks for testing yourselves and commenting. I wonder how the test would have gone if I had not stated how many words were misspelled. Harder, right?

    Deborah, “buoyant” and “unwieldy” are good words to add to your vocabulary. Look up their meanings and see whether you can work them into conversations this week.

    Lynn

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