Spelling shouldn’t really be a problem, should it? You can look words
up in a dictionary or online, after all. But what if you really think
you know how to spell a word, and you don’t actually know how to spell
it? I learnt this lesson early in journalism, when the night news
editor looked at me wearily and said: “There are two i’s in liaise.”
Now, I had Bachelors and Honours degrees in English at that point and
I would have sworn liase was spelled like that, not liaise. Over the
years, I have observed that there are some words that a lot of people
think they know how to spell – but they don’t. Here are five to think
about:
separate… NOT seperate (think of a paring knife, which cuts things
into pieces)
stationery or stationary? Stationary means standing still, stationery
means pens and pencils and envelopes (use the “e” in envelope to help
you remember)
weird – i before e except after c… and in the word weird. It’s just
the way it is.
glamourous or glamorous? The second one, darling.
irrelevant… not irelevant, or irrelevent, or any of the other permutations.
