Microsoft Word Longman-Common Errors docx

List of common misspellings 
 
 
Spelling Error 
 
Correction 
 
Spelling Error 
 
Correction 
 
absent (for noun) 
absence 
fourty 
forty 
accomodation 
accommodation 
freind 
friend 
acheive 
achieve 
futur 
future 
acheivement 
achievement 
garantee 
guarantee 
adress 
address 
goverment 
government 
advance (for ad) 
advanced 
greatful 
grateful 
advertisment 
advertisement 
habitant 
inhabitant 
air port/air-port 
airport 
influencial 
influential 
allready 
already 
immediatly 
immediately 
all ready 
all ready 
independant 
independent 
allways 
always 
independance 
independence 
anymore 
any more 
laught 
laughed 
anytime 
any time 
license (n, AmE) 
licence (n, BrE) 
apologise (for noun) 
apologies 
lightening 
lightning 
appartment 
apartment 
mathematic 
mathematics 
appearence 
appearance 
mean 
means (method) 
approch 
approach 
medecine 
medicine 
approximatly 
approximately 
misterious 
mysterious 
begining 
beginning 
mistery 
mystery 
beleive 
believe 
neclear 
nuclear 
cancell 
cancel 
nowaday 
nowadays 
carreer 
career 
nowdays 
nowadays 
carrer 
career 
occured 
occurred 
comittee 
committee 
offerred 
offered 
completly 
completely 
old fashion 
old-fashioned 
curiousity 
curiosity 
old fashioned 
old-fashioned 
definitly 
definitely 
oposite 
opposite 
dependant (for adj) 
dependent 
ourself/s 
ourselves 
descendent 
descendant 
payed 
paid 
desperatly 
desperately 
physic 
physics 
develope 
develop 
prefered 
preferred 
diner (for meal) 
dinner 
principle 
principal (college) 
dinning room 
dining room 
pronounciation 
pronunciation 
disapear 
disappear 
promblem 
problem 
disapointed 
disappointed 
proplem 
problem 
discribe 
describe 
realy 
really 
downstair 
downstairs 
recieve 
receive 
ect 
etc 
refered 
referred 

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346 
embarass/-ed/-ing 
embarrass/-ed/-ing 
responsability 
responsibility 
exite 
excite 
responsable 
responsible 
exited 
excited 
resturant 
restaurant 
exiting 
exciting 
seperate 
separate 
exitment 
excitement 
shinning 
shining 
fondamental 
fundamental 
sincerly 
sincerely 
forsee 
foresee 
sometime 
sometimes 
forth 
fourth 
specialy 
specially 
fortunately 
fortunately 
stoped 
stopped 
strenght 
strength 
all ready 
all ready 
succesful 
successful 
allright 
all right 
surprise 
surprised (adj) 
an other 
another 
teaher 
teacher 
any body 
anybody 
technic 
technique 
anymore 
any more 
thelf 
thief 
anytime 
any time 
theirself/s 
themselves 
back ground 
background 
themself 
themselves 
base ball 
baseball 
thier/ther 
their 
basket ball 
basketball 
ther 
there 
boy friend 
boyfriend 
therefor 
therefore 
boy-friend 
boyfriend 
throught 
through 
business man 
businessman 
tittle 
title 
business woman 
businesswoman 
transfered 
transferred 
can not 
cannot, can’t 
truely 
truly 
country side 
countryside 
tryed 
tried 
eventhough 
even though 
uncurable 
incurable 
foot-ball 
football 
undoubtly 
undoubtedly 
further more 
furthermore 
unfortunatly 
unfortunately 
girl friend 
girlfriend 
unpolite 
impolite 
girl-friend 
girlfriend 
untill 
until 
grand father 
grandfather 
weeding 
wedding 
grand-father 
grandfather 
well come 
welcome 
grand mother 
grandmother 
wether 
weather 
grand-mother 
grandmother 
wether 
whether 
grand parent 
grandparent 
wich 
which 
grand-parent 
grandparent 
wifes 
wives 
head quarters 
headquarters 
wolfs 
wolves 
home land 
homeland 
wonderfull 
wonderful 
home sick 
homesick 
writting 
writing 
infact 
in fact 
yourselfs 
yourselves 
inspite of 
in spite of 
more over 
moreover 
no body 
nobody 
rain coat 
raincoat 
soft ball 
softball 
some body 
somebody 

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347 
some thing 
something 
some times 
sometimes 
thankyou 
thank you 
there fore 
therefore 
under ground 
underground 
under stand 
understand 
where as 
whereas 
wild life 
wildlife 
work force 
workforce 
worth while 
worthwhile 
 

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348 
GLOSSARY 
 
 
abstract noun 
a word used to refer to an idea or feeling (not something that you can actually see or touch): 
e.g. danger, jealousy, luck, peace, success.
 
active 
See
 PASSIVE 
adjective 
a word which describes someone or something: ‘In his new grey suit, he looked very smart.’
 
adverb 
1 
a word which tells us ‘how’, ‘when’, ‘how often’, ‘where’, etc:’ Drink it slowly.’ ‘She usually 
arrives late.’
 
 
2 
a word like very, quite, too, slightly, which says something about degree or extent: ‘very cold’, 
‘rather suddenly’, ‘completely destroyed’ .
 
 
3 
a word like probably, definitely, fortunately, surprisingly, which says something about the 
speaker’s attitude or degree of certainty: ‘Perhaps she’s changed her mind.’ ‘Unfortunately, 
the car wouldn’t start.’
 
 
4 
word like however, therefore, also, furthermore, which shows how two points or ideas are 
related: ‘Both hotels are very expensive. Also, they are a long way from the city centre.’
 
affirmative 
See
 NEGATIVE 
agree 
See
 NUMBER 
auxiliary verb 
See
 MAIN VERB 
bare infinitive 
See
 INFINITIVE 
clause 
a string of words, usually with a subject and verb, which forms either a sentence by itself 
(‘We’re going out tonight.’) or a major part of a sentence (‘if it doesn’t rain’). See also MAIN 
CLAUSE, SUBORDINATE CLAUSE 
colloquial 
A colloquial word or expression is used mainly in everyday conversation, and is not appropriate 
in formal styles.
 
comparative 
the form of an adjective or adverb that is used to express a greater or smaller degree. Most 
comparatives end in -
er
or begin with more/less: ‘The new cameras are easier to use but the 
old ones are more reliable.’ See also SUPERLATIVE 
compound 
a word which is made up of two or more parts: e.g. boyfriend, headache, washing machine, air 
travel, ‘a five-minute wait’.
 
conditional 
1 
a clause beginning with a word such as if or unless, or a sentence containing such a clause
 
 
2 
verb form beginning with would/should: ‘They would like to see a copy of the report.’ ‘Would 
you like a drink?’
 
conjunction 
a word like and, but, because, since, when, as soon as, if, which joins two points or ideas 
together or shows how they are related to each other: ‘We had some cheese and a few 
biscuits.’ ‘I’ll phone you when I get back.’ ‘Although he was late, he made no attempt to 
apologize.’
 
context 
1 
the word or words which come immediately before and/or after a particular word or phrase
 
 
2 
the social situation in which language is used
 

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349 
countable 
countable noun (also ‘count noun’) is one which has both singular and plural forms: e.g. ‘apple’ 
- ‘apples’, ‘child’ - ‘children’. See also UNCOUNTABLE 
direct object 
See
 OBJECT 
direct speech 
speech that is written down in the exact words of the original speaker. The words are usually 
enclosed within inverted commas: "My purse has been stolen." Indirect speech (also called 
‘reported speech’) is speech that is written down in the words of the reporter, with changes to 
tenses, pronouns, adverbs etc: She said that her purse had been stolen. the incorrect use of 
two negative words instead of one,
 
double negative 
the incorrect use of two negative words instead of one, e.g. ‘Nobody never ...’ instead of 
‘Nobody ever ...’
 
emphasis 
the special force that is sometimes given to a word or phrase to draw it to the listener’s or 
reader’s attention: ‘I do hope you feel better soon.’ ‘They themselves have never been to 
Italy.’
 
finite 
A finite verb is one which has a subject and a tense: e.g. ‘takes’, ‘took’, ‘has taken’, ‘was being 
taken’.
 
first person 
See
 PERSON 
fixed phrase 
two or more words which are always used together and cannot be changed in any way: e.g. ‘as 
a matter of fact’, ‘on the contrary’ (NOT ‘
on a contrary’
, ‘
on the contraries’
, etc)
 
formal 
Formal styles are those in which words and structures are chosen with care, as in business 
letters, official reports, academic textbooks, news broadcasts, public ceremonies, etc.
See
 also INFORMAL 
identifying 
relative clause 
See
 RELATIVE CLAUSE 
indirect object 
See
 OBJECT 
indirect speech 
See
 DIERCT SPEECH 
infinitive 
the form of a verb that you look up in a dictionary. There are two types of infinitive, the ‘bare 
infinitive’ (e.g. ‘come’, ‘take’, ‘send’) and the ‘to-infinitive’ (e.g. ‘to come’, ‘to take’, ‘to send’), 
sometimes shown in this book as ‘to-v’,
 
informal 
Informal styles are those in which language is used in a casual, spontaneous way, as in 
everyday conversation and letters to friends. See also FORMAL the form of a verb which 
-ing form 
the form of a verb which ends in ‘-ing’, e.g. ‘coming’, ‘taking’, ‘sending’, sometimes shown in 
this book as ‘v-ing’.
When an -ing form is used as a noun, it is sometimes called a ‘gerund’: e.g. ‘I like reading.’
When an -ing form is used as a verb’; it is sometimes called a present participle: ‘I saw her 
talking to Dr Edwards this morning.’