Do you find yourself making the same spelling errors again and again? Spelling and grammar mistakes can cost you up to 10% of your overall mark on an academic essay, so it’s important to proofread your work.
Unfortunately, this isn’t always simple. Automatic spellcheckers, like the one used by Microsoft Word, often miss errors. As such, you need to keep an eye out for certain common mistakes.
1. ‘i’ Before ‘e’ Except After ‘c’
This rule holds for a lot of words in English, including ‘sieve’, ‘believe’ and ‘receipt’. However, there are some exceptions, such as ‘albeit’, ‘weird’, ‘beige’ and ‘seize’.
2. Necessary = One Cup, Two Sugars
This is a great way to remember how to spell the word ‘necessary’: One ‘C’ (‘cup’) and a double-‘S’ (‘sugars’).
3. Basicly or Basically?
The correct way to spell this word is ‘basically’. This spelling rule also holds for other words that can sound as if they end in just -ly (e.g. ‘generally’ and ‘incidentally’).
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4. Seperate or Separate?
This is another tricky one, as the way ‘separate’ is pronounced makes it sounds like there is an ‘e’ in the middle. However, as the previous sentence shows, this isn’t the case.
5. The Missing ‘e’
In many words, you need to take off the ‘e’ in the noun form when the word changes to an adverb. This applies to words such as ‘truly’, ‘probably’, ‘possibly’ and ‘terribly’.
It’s always tricky to make sure your work is error-free, but hopefully these examples will have helped! Good luck!