Hardest word in the English language to spell?

bagge72

I feel like after being on MFP for 5 years that lose is literally the hardest word in the English language to spell! Also my wife's name is Carolyn and that must be just as hard to spell, because I've never been to a single place where my wife has had to giver her name and they have gotten it correct. IT'S NOT CAROLINE! Lyn vs Line it's not that hard people!

RoxieDawn

hard to spell words for me at one point, Caribbean, convalesce, millennium

there is more than 8 ways to spell my real first name.

singingflutelady

Yup lose/loose. I feel the misspelt name. Both my first and last name more than one common spelling and people always misspell one or the other or both. My first name is Jayne

TR0berts

Lose/Loose
Then/Than

Pick one. Or is that, "pic won?"

cee134

embarrass (embarass, embaress)

bagge72

On the other hand, I don't think I've seen nose/noose. Why is that one so easy to remember?

subcounter

I always mess up on the words; bureaucracy, and liaison. Probably some others but these two are in my *kitten* list.

Lounmoun

I'm fairly good at spelling but always pause at zucchini and vacuum.

bagge72

I'm terrible at spelling. If it's something important, I copy and paste it into my email first for the spellcheck haha.

Timshel_

Ughhh, Onomatopoeia. Hate that word!

michael1976_ca

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
[soo-per-kal-uh-fraj-uh-lis-tik-ek-spee-al-i-doh-shuh s]
Spell Syllables
adjective
1.
(used as a nonsense word by children to express approval or to represent the longest word in English.)

CorneliusPhoton

Breath / breathe

when I breathe, I take a breath.

Jimb376mfp

Can we petition the Oxford English Dictionary to change Lose to loose due to the popularity of it on social media?

synchkat

I find it weird when people spell theatre with an er at the end or favourite with no u. And I pay bills with a cheque...not check. Language is interesting isn't it?

Now for names...I gave up on getting mine spelled correctly. I can spell it and they'll still get it wrong

Carbkiller1970

Cutaway_Collar wrote: »

When I go to Starbucks and the barista asks for my name, I tell her palaniappakounderponnuchamithevarlingaperumalappanesan.

That name is actually pretty popular o In India

deluxmary2000

I'm not sure, but I give serious side-eye to anyone that spells "Voila" as "Walla" or "Wala". The fact that I've seen this MULTIPLE times makes me weep.

NorthCascades

To remember how, or to spell out if someone said it?

Cle Elum? Methow? Last one is pronounced "meh tao" and if I didn't spend time there regularly, I'd never guess.

melmelw03

Calendar always messes me up.

kwph

Banana ...I always think I'm an "n" & an "a" short

DeficitDuchess

Well my, name's: Annette & people'll call me Anette, Ahnette, Antoinette or Jeanette!

DeficitDuchess

I notice that, a lot of people spell; does as dose but I am not, complaining because of, my grammar! Although I wish that people that complain about my grammar'd realize that, reading comprehension was also taught in school so; I don't need to be grammatically correct to be understood!

descene

I get similarly aggravated with such spelling mistakes, but I've learned to ignore them because people are more sensitive than myself, and spelling doesn't come as easily to everyone as it does to me. Or maybe people got tired of me telling the story about my third grade spelling challenge word every time they say spelling is hard, lol. That part is a joke, but I did in fact spell that word correctly. Unfortunately, the only people who seem to care if I can communicate with them textually without getting a headache are people who already know how to spell. Most native English speakers who can't already spell aren't eager to learn. They see correction as offensive instead of constructive and I don't know why that is. I wonder if I'm more comfortable with corrections because I learned a second language?

Gimsteinn

michael1976_ca wrote: »

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
[soo-per-kal-uh-fraj-uh-lis-tik-ek-spee-al-i-doh-shuh s]
Spell Syllables
adjective
1.
(used as a nonsense word by children to express approval or to represent the longest word in English.)

I can actually spell that one right..

Gimsteinn

Oh I don't mind making a spelling or grammar mistakes... What I cant stand about English is the different spelling/pronounceation of the words..

Lets take the word Colonel... Why in the name of everything that's holy do you guys pronounce it with an R? There's no bloody R in it.... It's an

And don't get me started on the word Wednesday..

But as a person who's third language I find to/too and which/witch the hardest

LittleLionHeart1

My grammar is bad. My spelling isn't that great.
I like math. But even I know that I'm here to LOSE weight, so my pants will get LOOSE.
Supercallafragalisticexpeealidoeschuss.
Thats the hardest word. See I can't spell that one.

CyberTone

Gimsteinn wrote: »

Oh I don't mind making a spelling or grammar mistakes... What I cant stand about English is the different spelling/pronounceation of the words..

This is a bit off-topic, but by coincidence I shared this poem to my FB page four years ago today - it popped up in FB "on this day" reminder. It must be a sign that I should share it here today.

"English Pronunciation" by G. Nolst Trenité

Dearest creature in creation.
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, brass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

LittleLionHeart1

Woah. Trying to make me learn something.

distinctlybeautiful

@NorthCascades Don't forget Puyallup if we're going down that road..

Gimsteinn

CyberTone wrote: »

Gimsteinn wrote: »

Oh I don't mind making a spelling or grammar mistakes... What I cant stand about English is the different spelling/pronounceation of the words..

This is a bit off-topic, but by coincidence I shared this poem to my FB page four years ago today - it popped up in FB "on this day" reminder. It must be a sign that I should share it here today.

"English Pronunciation" by G. Nolst Trenité

Dearest creature in creation.
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, brass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

Yeah I can't pronounce most of these words...