I have been seeing a lot of members writing inappropriate English during my experience in Bitcointalk community (and other forums). Unfortunately, some of those members are even Hero or Legendary members. Mostly, I tend to read more than posting, so I wanted to make this topic to help raising posting quality. You can’t say you are a top quality poster, if you make one of these mistakes. I will do my best in order to make this topic plain simple for everyone to understand.
I will be talking about spelling mistakes only in this topic, and I will try to update it as soon as I could. I won't touch grammar because grammar is... well... more complicated.
Note: Please, please, please, check the full thread. Maybe you are making a mistake and you don't know - we all do. I know it's long and boring, and you just want to post to raise your signature posting count, but this will help you in the long run.
List of most commonly used and misunderstood mistakes:(The mistakes are in an alphabetical order.)
1. 'a' and
'an': There is a massive confusion between these two - when do I put
'a', and when do I put
'an'?!
We were always taught that
'a' precedes a word starting with a consonant letter, and
'an' precedes a word starting with a vowel letter (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y). Now, can you put
'a' or
'an' professionally? Of course not.
The most important thing they don't tell us is that pronunciation is the secret ingredient to the recipe. If you want to correctly write
'a' or
'an' before a word, you have to pronounce/enunciate it. The sound of the first letter of a word will determine whether to put
'a' or
'an'. Let me explain by examples:
- A word like 'hour' begins with a consonant letter 'h', but when you pronounce it, 'h' is silent, you'll have the sound of a vowel letter 'o', hence: an hour;
- A word like 'university' begins with a vowel letter 'u', but when you pronounce it, you would have the sound of 'y', hence: a university;
- A word like 'one' begins with a vowel letter 'o', but when you pronounce it, you would have the sound of 'w', hence: a one-time offer;
- There are words which you can put 'a' or 'an' depending on your pronunciation ('a' U.S. vs. 'an' U.K.): Hotel, Historic, Horrific, Habitual, Herb, etc;
- Lastly, Acronyms: Which one to use 'a' or 'an'? An acronym like FPS – which is used in the gaming industry as a genre (First Person Shooter), or as a unit to measure a display device performance – is written as "a FPS," which is incorrect. When you pronounce 'FPS', the initial letter is 'F', its sound is 'ef' (vowel sound), hence: an FPS, an SPA, a UFO, a BB gun, an LSK coin, and so on.
2. 'allmost': Mistaken for
'almost', just like
'allways' is mistaken for
'always'. (Remember, it's only one
'l', not two.)
3. 'alot' and
'a lot':
'alot' is a very commonly used mistake, which, in fact, doesn't even belong to English. The correct word is
'a lot', and it's two words, just like
'a little',
'a bunch',
'a few', and
'a ton'.
Example(s):
- Incorrect: Alot of people are doing this. Correct: A lot of people are doing this.
- Incorrect: This is happening alot. Correct: This is happening a lot.
4. 'advice', and
'advise': People are mistaking one for the other.
'Advice' is a noun meaning a suggestion, a guidance, or an offered recommendation about what someone should do.
'Advise' is the present verb of
'advice', which means giving/offering a suggestion or a guidance to someone.
Example(s):
- Incorrect: You should give me an advise. Correct: You should give me an advice.
- Incorrect: The doctor adviced me to rest for a few days. Correct: The doctor advised me to rest for a few days.
5. 'ammount': Mistaken for
'amount'. (Remember, it's just one
'm'.)
6. 'another' and
'other':
'Another' is used before (
singular) countable nouns,
'other' is used before (
plural) uncountable nouns.
Example(s):
- Would you like another cup of coffee? Why do you want to make another shitcoin? In another 20 years, bitcoin will reach the sky!
- I have invited other people. I am currently busy with other things. Others don't understand this.
'Another' is one word, not two (
'an other' is definitely
NOT English).
7. 'atleast': Again, a common mistake just like
'alot'. The correct one is
'at least', and it consists of two words.
8. 'begining': Mistaken for
'beginning' (remember, two
'n').
Example:
Incorrect: At the
begining.
Correct: At the
beginning.
9. 'carefull',
'usefull' and the like: Are usually mistaken for
-ful adjectives, The correct words are ending in
'ful' with a single
'l', not
'full'.
Example(s):
Incorrect: Be
carefull, Do something
usefull.
Correct: Be
careful, Do something
useful.
10. 'changable': Is mistaken for
'changeable'. Unlike
'achieveable', which is mistaken for
'achievable'.
11. 'comitted' or
'commited': Mistaken for
'committed'. (Misspelled due to its present verb
'commit', and its noun
'commitment'.)
12. 'concensus': A widespread mistake on the internet. The correct word is
'consensus', which means
a general agreement.
13. 'disasterous': Mistaken for
'disastrous' because of its form (
disaster–ous).
14. 'dissapear': Mistaken for
'disappear'. (Only one
's', and two
'p'.)
15. 'excede': Mistaken for
'exceed'. (Misspelled due to its pronunciation.)
16. 'exilerate': Mistaken for
'exhilarate'. (Misspelled due to its pronunciation.)
17. 'existance' and
'experiance': Most people are mistaking these words because of their pronunciation (especially if you hear them in American English). The correct ones are
'existence' and
'experience'.
18. 'facinating': Mistaken for
'fascinating'. (Remember,
's' before
'c'.)
19. 'fullfil',
'fullfill', and the like: Again, a very mistaken word, people think it consists of (
full-fill). The correct one is
'fulfill' (U.S. English) or
'fulfil' (U.K. English).
20. 'gaurantee' or
'gurantee': Mistaken for
'guarantee'. (Remember,
'u' before
'a'.)
21. 'heirarchy': Mistaken for
'hierarchy'. (It follows the
'i before e except after c' spelling rule, which doesn't apply all the time)
22. 'i': The most vastly used mistake. This is simply the lowercase letter
'i', and it means nothing else other than that. While most of Non-English people are using it as the pronoun referring to
'me' or
'myself', the correct one is
'I'.
Example:
Incorrect:
i think
i should go.
Correct:
I think
I should go.
23. 'immitate': Mistaken for
'imitate'.
24. 'independant': Mistaken for
'independent' (misspelled due to American English, but in U.K. English it's accepted as a noun).
25. 'inteligence' or
'intelligance': Mistaken for
'intelligence'.
26. 'intelecutal' or
'intelectual': Mistaken for
'intellectual'.
27. 'its' and
'it's': I am not talking about people who are too lazy to put an apostrophe, I am talking about people who unintentionally mistake one for the other.
'its' is the possessive of the pronoun
'it', while
'it's' is a contraction of
'it is' or
'it has'. If you aren't sure which one to use, simply put
'it is' or
'it has' instead of
'it's'.
Example(s):
- Incorrect: It's true that its annoying. Correct: It's true that it's (it is) annoying.
- Incorrect: Its known that Bitcoin is an open source, it's whitepaper is available for anyone to read. Correct: It's known that Bitcoin is an open source, its whitepaper is available for anyone to read.
28. 'kernal': Mistaken for
'kernel'.
29. 'lisense': Mistaken for
'license' (
U.S. English, and
U.K. verb) or
'licence' (
U.K. English noun).
30. 'lose',
'lost',
'loss' and
'loose': People are confused which one is correct.
'Lose' is a verb, which means
being unable to find or keep something,
'lost' is the past form of the verb, and
'loss' is the noun, while
'loose' can be a verb, an adjective, and a noun - it has nothing to do with
'lose'.
Example(s):
- Incorrect: When someone wins in gambling, others loose. Correct: When someone wins in gambling, others lose.
- Incorrect: They set the lion lose. Correct: They set the lion loose.
- Incorrect: One lose hurts us all. Correct: One loss hurts us all.
31. 'maintainance': A mistake that one sees every single day on forums, websites, games, etc. The correct word is
'maintenance', which means
the process of maintaining or preserving a condition or a situation (which I think the reason for the misspelling).
32. 'millenium': Mistaken for
'millennium'.
33. 'miniscule': Mistaken for
'minuscule', which means
extremely small.
34. 'mispell': Mistaken for
'misspell'. (Ironic, isn't it? Misspelling 'misspell'.)
35. 'neccessary': Mistaken for
'necessary'. (One
'c', two
's'.)
36. 'not to' and
'to not': A massive argument about which one comes first is issued every now and then. Personally, I prefer the first one, as it makes a comforting tone to my ears (and to any native speaker's). But last year, a few well-known newspapers (like NYT) have published articles that include
'to not', and American Dictionaries state that both are correct. But still, English teachers prefer
'not to', and they wish
"not to" see
'to not' in any formal document.
37. 'noticable': Mistaken for
'noticeable'.
38. 'occassion': Mistaken for
'occasion'.
39. 'occurance',
'occurence' or
'occurrance': Mistaken for
'occurrence'. (
-ance and
-ence misspelling.)
40. 'orignal': Mistaken for
'original'.
41. 'outragous': Mistaken for
'outrageous'.
42. 'personel': Mistaken for
'personnel'.
43. 'posession' or
'possesion': Mistaken for
'possession'.
44. 'principal' and
'principle':
'Principal' is a noun and adjective referring to someone in a high rank or a position of authority.
'Principle' is only a noun that refers to a natural, moral, legal rule or standard.
45. 'privelge' or
'privelege': Mistaken for
'privilege'.
46. 'promiss': Mistaken for
'promise'.
47. 'publicly' and
'publically': Although some dictionaries recognize both as correct,
'publicly' is far more common than
'publically'.
'Publicly' is considered the only adverb ending in
"-icly" formed from an adjective that ends in
"-ic."48. 'readible': Mistaken for
'readable'.
49. 'realy': Mistaken for
'really'.
50. 'refered' or
'reffered': Mistaken for
'referred'.
51. 'referance': Mistaken for
'reference'. (
-ance and
-ence misspelling.)
52. 'religous': Mistaken for
'religious'. (Formed from the noun
religion.)
53. 'speach': Mistaken for
'speech'.
54. 'sucessful' or
'succesfull': Mistaken for
'successful'. (The noun is
success.)
55. 'suprise': Mistaken for
'surprise'. (People mistake it because of the American pronunciation.)
56. 'than' and
'then': Another very misunderstood mistake. Most people (even English people known to myself) are confused with the usage of these two words. to be simply put,
'then' always refers to a sense of time (i.e., what is going to happen next), while
'than' is always used in comparisons between two things.
Example(s):
- Incorrect: I am better then before. Correct: I am better than before.
- Incorrect: Do your homework first than you can play. Correct: Do your homework first then you can play.
- Incorrect: It's more then enough. Correct: It's more than enough.
57. 'their',
'there' and
'they're': To be simple enough about this,
'their' is the possessive of the pronoun
'they',
'they're' is the contraction of
'they are', and
'there' mostly indicates to/in/at a place.
Example(s):
- Incorrect: There doing this now. Correct: They're (they are) doing this now.
- Incorrect: What were you doing their? Correct: What were you doing there?
- Incorrect: They're a lot of people using bitcoin nowadays. Correct: There are a lot of people using bitcoin nowadays.
58. 'themself': Mistaken for
'themselves', just like
'ourselves' and
'yourselves' (plural).
59. 'to' and
'too': Although the famous meme that we have here
"it's too good to be true" makes it clear enough, people still mistake one for the other.
'To' is a preposition that means
toward,
reaching as far as, and
until.
'Too' is an adverb that means
additionally,
very,
extremely, or
as well. If you have a doubt about which one to use, put any of
"too synonyms" and see if it fits.
Example(s):
- Incorrect: The devs are to afraid to try. Correct: The devs are too afraid to try.
- Incorrect: I agree with you to. Correct: I agree with you, too.
- Incorrect: Higher fees are to annoying. Correct: Higher fees are too annoying.
- Incorrect: It's taking to long. Correct: It's taking too long.
60. 'tomorow',
'tommorow' or
'tommorrow': Mistaken for
'tomorrow'. (Just one
'm', two
'r'.)
61. 'treshold': Mistaken for
'threshold'. (The
'thre' in
'threshold' is pronounced like three, not tree.)
62. 'tyrany' or
'tyrent': Mistaken for
'tyranny' and
'tyrant'.
63. 'underate': Mistaken for
'underrate'. (Formed from
'under-rate'.)
64. 'untill': Another very common mistake that they even write it as
'till (
abbreviated). The correct ones are
'until',
'till', or
''til'.
65. 'vise versa': Although it's a matter of debate,
'vice versa' is the correct one.
66. 'wellfare' or
'welfear': Mistaken for
'welfare'. (People think it's formed from
'well-fare'.)
67. 'wether': Very mistaken for
'whether'. (Again, pronunciation is the common culprit.)
68. 'wierd': Mistaken for
'weird'. (One of many exceptions to the
'i before e except after c' spelling rule.)
69. 'withold': Mistaken for
'withhold'. (Yes, don't look at it like that
, it's two
'h'.)
70. 'writting': Mistaken for
'writing' (not like written).
71. 'your' and
'you're': A very common mistake made by English and Non-English people alike.
'Your' is the possessive of the pronoun
'you', and it's usually followed by a noun or gerund.
'You're' is the contraction of
'you are'. Simply if you aren't sure which one is correct, put
'you are' in its place, and see if the sentence still makes sense. (American pronunciation has a role in this confusion.)
Mistakes like hope
your (
you're) okay, or
your (
you're) welcome are used everyday, and they should be corrected.
