Are there certain words that you just cannot seem to learn or remember how to spell correctly to save your life?

With words like “fluorescent” and “bureaucracy”, I just had to say them more phonetically in my head like “Flu-or-escent” and “bureau-cracy” and I remembered them that way.

For me, the one I can never spell is “Mediterranean”. Not sure why I always insist on two “t“s. If I just remember the Latin word “terra” hidden in there, I can spell it fine.

@DominicX Thanks. That’s kind of what I was getting at. I just think it can be different for different people. I think learning how to spell Wednesday was actually my first epiphany. I don’t know how old I was. How old are you, generally, when they start demanding or at least expecting that you know how to spell Wednesday? 2nd grade? I just realized at some point that if I just pronounced it in my head as wed-nes-day I would be able to remember how to spell it. And there are a number of words that I can spell correctly using your method; simply dividing them into their parts, but ...

I’m a fairly competent speller but I know a fair number of otherwise brilliant and talented people who couldn’t spell their way out of a paper bag. There just seem to be some words that I simply cannot master and I don’t know why. I was just wondering if other people had the same problem; some words that just seem to befuddle and vex them, no matter how many times they encounter or use them.

I never got to go to an english school, and as such had to teach my self how to spell in english correctly. I don’t know any rules about spelling, what letters before what letters except in the case of what exceptions and so on. I basically had to memorize every single word. So yes, there are many that still catch me off guard, and even using a spell checker, there are still times that I don’t know what to do.

Also, as there are differences between American english and British english, that can some times exacerbate the problem.

Some of the ones i have problems with are: which, whitch, where, wear, favorite vs favourite, and so on.

Even though the English did “invent” english, and even though I was born in the UK, I tend to favor the american version of english. The main reason for this being that there are far more Americans than there are engish people, so to me, that makes the American version the correct one. having said that, I still some times will say nappy instad of diaper, lift instead of elevator, and tap instead of faucet.

If anyone knows how i can improve my english further i would be interested.

Diao…..Diarr…...oh shit, I can never get that right! :¬(

@poisonedantidote English is a mongrel language. It can be very vexing but as far as I can tell you are doing fine. It never even crossed my mind that you might not be a native English speaker until last night, when you commented on theonlyneffie’s question about the death of her friend and mentioned that you lived in Spain. And there are certainly a lot of differences between American English and British English not to mention Australian English. There are also some regional variations in English within the U.S. and I imagine the same thing exists in all other English speaking countries. Just one example: I grew up in the Mid-Atlantic area of the U.S. There, when you go into a store or a shop and buy something the clerk might ask you if you want a “bag” to put your purchase in. I moved to the state of Oregon, on the west coast of the U.S. and there, when you go into a store they will ask you if you want a “sack” to put your purchase in. It just took me forever to get used to that one. And that’s just one example.

@ucme lol. Oh shit is right. Now that you mention it, that one definitely should have been on my list of words I couldn’t spell correctly even if someone had a gun to my head.

@lillycoyote Yeah, sure is a stinker!

Stupid ones like “cemetery” and “embarrassment.” I always want to put an “a” in cemetery and one “r” in embarrassment.

I can’t spell correlation without looking it up first.

@TheOnlyNeffie Yes, embarrassment is a troublemaker for me too. It was a contender but when I was choosing words for the list, even though I knew it was a problem word for me I kept looking at it and couldn’t understand how I could possibly have trouble with it so I left it off. And it’s the stupid ones that are so annoying. What kind of idiot gets to my age without managing to learn how to spell squirrel?

@lillycoyote I have to admit that I have seen some shocking spelling mistakes from more adults than I can count on all of my fingers and toes combined. Squirrel wouldn’t jump out at me as one of the words to be worried about. ;)

@lillycoyote Well, my case is a little strange. I am a native english speaker in a sense. but I’m not at the same time.

My parents are both english, but they moved to Spain when I was only 6 months old. I lived in Spain until I turned 19. Then I went to live in the UK for 5 years, and now I am back in Spain.

So, as a child I spoke English at home, and Spanish everywhere else. I went to a Spanish school, had Spanish friends, and more or less did everything around Spanish people. When I Speak english I sound like I’m from The London/Essex area. You would not be able to tell that I ever lived in Spain at all, and when I speak Spanish I sound like I’m from Madrid, and you would not be able to tell that I am english.

I’m just lucky i think, languages seem to be a talent of mine. I can hear a word 1 or 2 times and repeat it back perfectly. So much so that when i started learning German at about age 14, my German teacher was convinced i was just messing with his head, because I pronounced words just like him. I can read and write in english, spanish, catalan and mallorquin, and i can also speak german kind of ok, as well as knowing a few words and phrases in about a dozen other languages.

My younger brother howerver, while he does know 4 languages, his english is quite bad. saying things like “we dun got no cheese” and “driving 70 miles wastes up a lot of pretroliums”.

I would really like to improve my english though, i am interested in writing books, so would like to elevate my english to a higher level

“Caribbean” is one that gives me trouble.

I don’t use it often enough to remember whether there’s one “r” or there are two, and I have the same issue with the “b’s”.

Now I realize that if I pronounce the “a” with a long sound, then those letters follow the rule that there’s one consonant immediately following a vowel pronounced with a long sound as in “hoping”, and there are two when they immediately follow a vowel pronounced with a short sound as in “hopping”.

@TheOnlyNeffie Obviously the only thing that worries me about the word “squirrel” is that I have gotten well into middle age without being able to spell it correctly. :-)

I feel it’s worthwhile to point out the differences in English & US spelling. We say pyjamas & you say pajamas, centre/center etc. Can create confusion from time to time.

Hors’Dourves…I can’t count the times I just gave up trying!

yes, but my problem is, don’t spend enough time proofreading!

zuchinni.
Um, no, wait. Zucchhini? Zuchini? Zucchini. Yes, that’s it. :)

I use to have trouble spelling psychology – it was the first part (psych) where I would always get the letters mixed up, but somehow I managed to master it. :D

Rhythm.

@crisw That was #too on my list! ;)

@crisw You beat me to it. Fuck that word.

medieval

wrong every @#$%^&* time.