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100 most common misspellings...Miscelleny
So, love, are you making it the 101st? [broad grin e]
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Pooh-Bah
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Nice one1 It includes all of my bętes noires - which include most words with double let[t]ers in them.
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So many words we have discussed here are on the "100 Most Often Mispronounced Words and Phrases in English". Maybe its a moot point to mention that I say the "t" in often but isn't that a woman's prerogative? And I, for one, was surprised to learn that the phrase is correctly spit and image rather than the spitting image! And Connie, do you wanna pronounce Tijuana for us?
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veteran
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My most common mistakes are just not thinking. I always mix up there, and their and they're.
It's not that I don't know the difference. I just get a little screenblock and I can't see the most obvious things.
Next to that my most commonly misspelled word is desiccated. I think I saw it spelled incorrectly on a Chinese food label once and it just stuck in my head. (Yea, dat's da ticket.)
cacographically yours,
k
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enthusiast
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Interesting lists, Hev.
A couple that I would have included, probably on both lists:
ophthalmologist
genealogy
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Carpal Tunnel
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In the late nineteenth century the full cliché developed: He’s the very spit and image of his father, followed by the folk etymology that replaced spit and with spitting (or spittin’ or spitten) image.[E.A.] http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
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Genealogy I get right most of the time. But for years I systematically misspelled it because I never knew the correct spelling.
k
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old hand
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Thanks for this, hev - I enjoyed browsing the list. However, I noticed they got two things wrong: license and principal/principle. License is the verb; licence is the noun. (Hence "This restaurant is licensed to sell liquor," but "I need to renew my driver's licence next month.") Principal is both a noun (as in the case of a high school principal) and an adjective (the principal actor in a production, for example). You could even have a principal principle..... 
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Carpal Tunnel
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"I need to renew my driver's licence next month."not in my state! licence is listed as a (chiefly British) variant in US dictionaries -- and that is a U.S. list. http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
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old hand
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Then I beg to humbly point out that your state is WRONG!
But this is how language evolves.
Advice/advise is another pairing like licence/license and practice/practise. You can take someone's advice when he advises you, or you can ignore it.
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License is the verb; licence is the noun.
My trusty, never dusty, Webster's says: license n. 1. A legal permit to do something. 2. A written or printed certificate of a legal permit. 3. Unrestrained liberty of action; disregard of propriety. 4. Allowable deviation from an established rule, form, or standard: poetic license.
v.t. To grant a license to or for; authorize.
It does not list licence what-so-ever, and I have never seen this spelling before today!
Even our own wonderful spell check turned licence into license.
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Carpal Tunnel
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In the late nineteenth century the full cliché developed: He’s the very spit and image of his father, followed by the folk etymology that replaced spit and with spitting (or spittin’ or spitten) image.
[wanting to learn -e]
tsuwm, are you saying that the phrase originated in error, or that it is deemed erroneous in usage today?
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Miscelleny
So, love, are you making it the 101st?
And the prize goes to ... Jackie, in a record time of only 6 hrs 5 mins and 11 seconds. [loud cheering-e] 
Hev
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ycliu by plugging 'folk etymology' into OneLook to see the slightly different takes on the phrase. here is the OED reading: usually, the popular perversion of the form of words in order to render it apparently significant.http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
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old hand
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My trusty, never dusty, Webster's
O God. Why do so many people use Webster's? Get thee to an Oxford!
I'd love to hear from the Antipodeans on this one. Is it licence/license down under, or always license?
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Carpal Tunnel
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>O God. Why do so many people use Webster's? 'cuz Webster set us down the road of codifying American English, which is what we speak here, doncha know. http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
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H.L. Mencken (1880–1956). The American Language. 1921. VIII. American Spelling 1. The Two Orthographies http://www.bartleby.com/185/31.html
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It does not list licence what-so-ever, and I have never seen this spelling before today!
Dear Angel (whoops, that almost came out "Angle"), modestgoddess is giving you the correct Canadian spelling (which is where we both are): in Canada it is, in fact, a driver's licence. (I just checked mine.)
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Carpal Tunnel
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[[Why do so many people use Webster's? Get thee to an Oxford!
Also, the Associated Press Style Book recommends using the Webster's definition, spelling, usage, etc. if a word is not defined, or usage clarified, in the AP stylebook itself.
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changeable
The verb "change" keeps its [e] here to indicate that the [g] is soft, not hard. (That is also why "judgement" is the correct spelling of this word, no matter what anyone says.)
Well? Which is it to be? Do we sposed to spell changeable cee aitch ay en gee ee ay bee ell ee or jay you dee gee ee em ee en tee?
I mean, these guys are really looking out through their eyeballs.
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aitch ay aitch ay aitch ay!!! good one, Faldage!
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Also, the Associated Press Style Book recommends using the Webster's definition, spelling, usage, etc. if a word is not defined, or usage clarified, in the AP stylebook itself.Sorry, Wow, but the AP stylebook ceases to cut ice at the beaches of your fair land ... as does Websters. Most non-US newspaper stylebooks are based on The Times stylebook. I should know ... I was involved in revising our newspaper's style book many moons ago! We did crib a couple of things USn from the AP stylebook, but that was just so we didn't offend you when we were writing about you. We don't really worry about that any more!  And ... Licence/License Practice/Practise etc. are used, still. The proofreaders may not be well-enough educated to understand the subtleties, however!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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O Capital, my Capital! Thanks for this - I couldn't have put it better myself and was thinking of putting it worse!  So glad you saved me from myself....
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Carpal Tunnel
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I am really having a hard time understanding the diffuglety (or issue) here. have we not all agreed that US spelling is different to UK/Canadian/Oz/NZ spelling and that arguing these differences gets us nowhere? what is the special issue with license (or any of these others)? I will refer you to W3, which is the ne plus ultra of US references, and which prefers license for all forms (although licence rates an or for the noun and only an also for the verb). http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
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Carpal Tunnel
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Every once in a little while, someone has to state the obvious, ron. Glad you were the one to do it.
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I am really having a hard time understanding the diffuglety (or issue) here. have we not all agreed that US spelling is different to UK/Canadian/Oz/NZ spelling and that arguing these differences gets us nowhere?and that's where ya shooda ended yer post - because when you go on to refer us non-USns to W3 you just continue the squabble. I could agree with the above, but not with being referred to W3. I don't WANT to refer to your dictionary! There may be fewer of us (UK/Canuck/Antipodean spellers), but we're everywhere, we're everywhere!
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Carpal Tunnel
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>when you go on to refer... to W3 you just continue the squabble. on the contrary, I just want everyone to understand clearly the US version, which has been somewhat occluded herein. http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
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Every once in a little while, someone has to state the obvious, ron. Glad you were the one to do it.
Who the heck is Ron?
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Carpal Tunnel
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When tsuwm must state the obvious, he usually refers to his own seff as "ron obvious."
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ah, but of course! thanks for the 'splanation
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Carpal Tunnel
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Seems mostly to be agreement to disagree: it's more a regionalism (BIG regions, granted) than a question of wrongness.
Once again the correct answer is "whichever the writer has in his upper right-hand desk drawer."
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