Commonly Misspelled Words for IELTS

Commonly Misspelled Words for IELTS: One of the most important fact an IELTS learner should know is that the spelling mistakes you make in the writing section will most definitely affect their scores. It might even affect your scores in the listening section. So, it is better to find the common mistakes made by IELTS learners and work on avoiding them during the initial period of your preparation itself. This article will discuss various circumstances in the language where a new learner or even a seasoned speaker might face confusion in spelling.

Commonly Misspelled Words for IELTS

Not having a Spelling Bee or vocabulary test section doesn’t mean that your spelling skills won’t get assessed in an IELTS exam. Spelling mistakes you might make while attempting any test section will be marked as incorrect. Different cases in which you will find the spelling of words to be confusing are listed below.

Single and Double Consonants

Words having single consonants followed by double consonants, double consonants followed by single consonants and two pairs of double consonants are often easy to get wrong. A few Examples are listed below.

• curriculum
• attraction
• immense
• hurricane
• parallel
• process
• pottery
• cotton
• accommodation
• pepper
• narrow
• business
• questionnaire
• collection
• embarrassment
• classroom
• assistant
• passport
• assessment
• attendant
• affordable
• jet-skiing
• cliff
• pessimistic
• football
• satellite
• address
• sufficient
• passenger
• annual
• village
• different
• volleyball
• fulfillment
• copper
• blackcurrant
• swimming
• misspell
• rubber
• traffic
• possess
• farewell
• paddle steamer
• shopping
• mammals
• account
• soccer
• apparel
• millennium
• illiteracy
• cottage
• basketball
• pepper
• unnecessary
• umbrella
• assumption
• success
• cassette
• attendance
• tomorrow
• immigrate
• arrange
• recommend
• midday
• current
• dissertation
• billiards
• waterfall
• opportunity
• employee
• antenna
• discuss
• balloon
• attitude
• welfare
• commencement
• commerce
• reference
• pizza

Words with Suffixes

It is very common to make mistakes while adding suffixes to a word as the spelling of the root part of the word might undergo a change when the suffix is added. For example, drop become dropped, regret becomes regretted, big becomes bigger etc.

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Silent Letters Occurring in Consonant Clusters

People often make mistakes when silent letters occur in consonant clusters. Some examples of such words are listed below.

• column
• plumber
• psychologist
• reliable
• environment
• knowledgeable
• science
• government
• castle
• knowledge
• drought
• autumn
• discipline
• confidence
• comb
• lamb
• climbing
• conscious
• insurance
• renewable
• memorable
• sculpture
• fortnight
• glue
• dangerous
• whistle
• catastrophe
• exciting
• Wednesday
• foreign
• catalogue
• colleague
• kitchen
• breeze

Words that Change the Form

Some words change their spelling when they change their form from noun to adjective or noun to ver etc. A few examples are listed here.

• frolic – frolicking
• unity – unify
• refer – referring
• influence – influential
• pronunciation – pronounce
• violent – violence
• argue – argument
• occur – occurred
• significant – signify
• maintain – maintenance
• benefit – beneficial
• justice – justify
• circumstance – circumstantial
• decide – decision

Homophones

Homophones are words that sound the same i.e. have the same pronunciation. It is very easy to mistake one for another as they often sound similar but have different spellings and meanings. A few homophones are given below.

• sauce – source
• steal – steel
• flue – flew -flu
• scene – seen
• for – four – fore
• chili – chilly
• loose – lose
• capital – capitol
• whose – who’s
• accept – except
• choral – coral
• cite – site – sight
• council – counsel
• peace – piece
• hole – whole
• genes – jeans
• affect – effect
• principle – principal
• hour – our
• stationary – stationery
• band – banned
• you’re – your
• plain – plane
• marshal – martial
• their – there – they’re
• weather – whether
• daft – daught
• die -dye
• sore – soar
• discreet – discrete

Words With i and e Together

When you write a word with an ‘ie’ or an ‘ei’ letter combination, you get confused very often. to avoid this they can remember the rule ‘i before e, except after c’. This rule holds for most situations.  A few examples are here:

• receipt
• perceive
• relieve
• niece
• friend
• believe
• field
• receive
• hygiene
• brief
• ceiling
• thief
• priest
• conceive
• die
• experience

Nouns Ending in ‘er’ and ‘or’

Some nouns end in these word combinations and often get confused with each other. Some such words are listed here.

Words Ending with ‘or’

• mediator
• tutor
• contributor
• decorator
• protector
• radiator
• investigator
• editor
• author
• generator
• senior
• conductor
• junior
• separator
• commentator
• governor
• dictator
• spectator
• director
• actor
• visitor
• sculptor
• narrator
• survivor
• operator
• refrigerator
• educator
• counsellor
• inventor
• professor
• bachelor
• advisor
• collector
• doctor
• supervisor
• translator

Words Ending with ‘er’

• jeweller
• traveller
• builder
• fertilizer
• lecturer
• commander
• prisoner
• computer
• driver
• register
• runner

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Difficult Words to Spell

Some words are just difficult to spell. A few of them are listed below.

• foreign
• hierarchy
• definitely
• grateful
• entrepreneur
• rhythm
• perseverance

British and American English

Some words might have variations in their spellings in British English and American English. Both are accepted. But make sure that you chose a variation and stick to it for consistency. Some are listed below.

• Cosy – Cozy
• Speciality – Specialty
• Oestrogen – Estrogen
• Plough – Plow
• Mum – Mom
• Draught – Draft
• Practice – Practise
• Cheque -Check
• Colour – Color
• Pyjamas – Pajamas
• Grey – Gray
• Analyse – Analyze
• Pretence – Pretense
• Offence – Offense
• Leukaemia – Leukemia
• Learnt – Learned
• Ageing – Aging
• Whisky – Whiskey
• Mould – Mold
• Mediaeval – Medieval
• Analogue – Analog
• Dialogue – Dialog
• Aeroplane – Airplane
• Fulfil – Fulfill
• Sulphur – Sulfur
• Realise – Reallize
• Jewellry – Jewelry
• Skilful – Skillful
• Catalogue – Catalog
• Labour – Labor
• Encyclopaedia – Encyclopedia
• Theatre – Theater
• Enrolment -Enrollment
• Caesium – Cesium
• Paediatric – Pediatric
• Judgement – Judgment
• Instalment -Installment
• Favourite – Favorite
• Dreamt – Dreamed
• Moustache – Mustache
• Anaemia – Anemia
• Tyre – Tire
• Defence – Defense
• Programme – Program
• Modelling – Modeling
• Burnt – Burned
• Licence – License

Spelling mistakes can always result in getting scores much below your desired bandwidth. So the only thing to do is to carefully learn and to avoid as many mistakes as possible. The words given in this article will certainly help you avoid future confusion.

Commonly Misspelled Words for IELTS FAQs

1. Which is correct, rythm or rhythm?

Rhythm

2. Which is correct, theif or thief?

Thief