Five of the Most Commonly Misspelled Expressions in the English Language
Not only is the English language one of the most complex languages on the planet it is also one of the most verbose, awkward, and contradictory. That being said here are the five most commonly misspelled expressions in the English Language.
Pored over texts, not poured over texts
This one probably stuck with me the longest in terms of misspelled expressions but among the public it’s also one of the most misspelled expressions as well. Want to know what “pouring” over texts has to do with water. Absolutely nothing. While it’s easy to assume that one might pore over a document the way water pours over a surface, the two have nothing in common. In this case, “pore” means “to read or study with steady attention or application“.
Just deserts, not just desserts
A lot of people think that when you say to someone they will get their just deserts, it somehow relates to a giant sundae you will get to eat and the other person won’t, but actually the expression “just deserts” relates to the way you’d spell an arid piece of sandy land. “Deserts”, however, can also mean “that which is deserved” from the Latin desiree meaning to get one’s come uppance. Don’t fall into this common trap.
Wreak havoc, not wreck havoc
When spelt “wreck” (pronounced reek) the general public believes to wreak havoc is synonymous with taking your car out on the highway and wreaking havoc on the road, and while “wreck” means to destroy or cause chaos it is used completely out of context. Havoc itself as a noun means chaos, destruction, and general disorder, but so does wreck when used as a verb. To be used beside one another would be a double negative, for example, to cause destruction to chaos, meaning in the wrong sense, to cause order. In the correct version, “wreak havoc” means “to inflict or execute (punishment, vengeance, etc.)“.
Free rein, not free reign
“Free rein” is commonly misspelled because the term “reign” brings up several connotations of authority, rule, and power and thus giving someone free reign would be to give up one’s power. However, this expression is incorrect. The correct phrase lends itself to the old horse and buggy transportation. When navigating a tricky slope drivers would give the horses “free rein” (as in the reins of a horse) to navigate the roads if the terrain were to become suddenly too treacherous, allowing the horses to circumnavigate the unwieldy paths on their own accord and not the driver’s.
Moot point, not mute point
Typically, a “moot point” is a point “of little or no practical value or meaning“, however, for many it’s become an argument raised that doesn’t go anywhere, so that it doesn’t support or go against the debate to the point where it doesn’t get heard at all, in other words, it becomes mute. However, the above is the actual correct term of the phrase.
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User Comments
Guy Hogan
On July 21, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I did not know any of this and I have an MFA degree in writing. You’re probably wondering what kind of school I went to and what was I doing when I should have been paying more attention. Actually, I went to a pretty good school, the University of Pittsburgh, and I was a good student.
But these expressions never came up. So, I appreciate the crash course.
http://www.authspot.com/Short-Stories/Girls-Gone-Wild.699307 and http://www.writinghood.com/writing/10-great-flash-fiction-ideas/ are my two most popular pieces published on Triond.
D Pearson
On July 21, 2009 at 3:08 pm
I think I knew most of these, but ‘just deserts’ is one that I try to avoid for this very reason! When people use it in speech, they often pronounce it as you would pronounce ‘desserts’, so it’s easy to see why people get confused. And after all, it’s quite nice to think that some people might get wonderful dishes of profiteroles and trifles and others might end up with a pile of dirt… a very nice image indeed!
lukrisi
On July 21, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Wow, I too majored in English but did know a couple of these. “Free rein” and “just deserts” make perfect sense to me now. Thanks!
Karen Gross
On July 21, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Thanks for the lesson. Those are all phrases that I have to look up every time. Maybe now the corrects spellings will stay in my brain.
LOVELY HONEY
On July 21, 2009 at 8:41 pm
someone wrote to me lovely honey
you POUR (POETRY)
some one said
like like i like like what another guy says
you know what
i had to ignore till i one day had a stomach ache and i had to say
NO I DONT KNOW
HE SAID IT AAGIN YOU KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW YOU DONT KNOW YOU KNOW……
I gave up laughingly
you know
like what
Uma Shankari
On July 21, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Interesting article. Liked it
However, a few spelling mistakes:
treacherous, not tracherous
unwieldy, not unweildy
poeticartifacts
On July 21, 2009 at 11:45 pm
now that is some quality info right there!
Louie Jerome
On July 22, 2009 at 6:35 am
Interesting. In British English no2 ‘desert/dessert’ have different pronunciations, so they are not easy to mix up.
No3 wreak/wreck are also pronounced differently. Perhaps it’s a case of people getting the expressions wrong rather than simply spelling incorrectly.
oldster
On July 22, 2009 at 6:47 am
Good article. I am actually English and it is a very trappy language, but such errors are rather like scratching one’s nails upon a blackboard.
Anne Lyken Garner
On July 22, 2009 at 7:06 am
Love it!
Stacey T Pollock
On July 22, 2009 at 10:17 am
Wow interesting, I knew already some of them, but not the one of just deserts. Depending on where someone came from in the world they would pronounce desert as dessert. I could see how this one could be misinterpreted. Very interesting.
Andromeda
On July 22, 2009 at 10:28 am
Nice points! Another one a lot of folks get wrong is “Nip it in the butt”. The actual phrase is “Nip it in the BUD” as in stopping the growth of the plant. P.S. Is “spelt” a word?
Lucas Dié
On July 22, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Again I’m all with Louie – if you pronounce things properly, you miss out on many a trap. And I even would excuse some of these misspellings for being on the difficult side.
But definately? *shudder* And there are many more … I loved today’s mac cartoon showing a school and a sign: ‘Bewair Dezeez’; and a second one reading: ‘Closed for evir dew to swyn floo’.
Alina Beck
On July 22, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Interesting. On ‘desert’/'dessert’ – I’ve never come across anybody anywhere in the world that pronounces these two words the same if they are talking about dry sandy places and trifles etc., but in the phrase ‘just deserts’ the word ‘desert’ is related to ‘deserve’ so that’s why the emphasis comes on the second syllable giving it a similar pronunciation to ‘dessert’. Easy to get confused.
fishfry aka Elizabeth Figueroa
On July 22, 2009 at 6:30 pm
These are all new to me, but there are so many other commonly misspelled expressions in the English language. That is why many say it is the hardest to learn
Theresa Johnson
On July 23, 2009 at 12:28 am
good piece, but i agree with fishfry a few of the phrases used i never even heard before
Kiwiboi
On July 23, 2009 at 4:12 am
Thanks for sharing these common mistakes in spelling so it seems more so than the application of the meanings.
overwings
On July 23, 2009 at 6:00 am
There are lots of mistakes around and not only among foreign speakers like me. Ignoring the word fewer, using less also for the things you can count, mixing shade and shadow plus some typical mistakes depending on your language background like adding too many articles or confusing learn and study.
Nikita K
On July 23, 2009 at 8:47 am
I did know some of them before hand but the moot point one, I was never aware of. You can tell why these are commonly misspelled. Good article!
sschles
On July 23, 2009 at 2:52 pm
AGREED. I really liked the way you did this one. 5 stars
Read my article and comment it, as i am a young writer and could use the advice:
http://www.socyberty.com/Psychology/The-Stroop-Effect-Why-It-Works.834797
HelloSiti
On July 24, 2009 at 12:02 am
This is really useful and unique!
twoface1992
On July 24, 2009 at 12:24 am
I love english but didn’t know alot of these errors so it’s nice that you tell them AND explain them! =)
Susan Keeping
On July 24, 2009 at 7:50 am
Great article. These are a few things that drive me batty too.
Many people use them to sound intelligent but fail badly
DA Cournean
On July 24, 2009 at 8:49 am
How interesting. Pore-pour got me! I thought the only pore was in the skin! I think the dictionary should be the book of choice!
Gon pincha
On July 25, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Great!
Very usefull for me, since English is not my former language
Dr Curtis Barnett
On July 25, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Great post.
I have myself made a few stupid Misspelled Expressions. Such as Invoke rather then evoke.
James Dodger
On July 26, 2009 at 5:23 pm
I knew all of these. I would never confuse any of them. I can’t believe people would make these mistakes. But I do have an exceptionally high IQ.
Popider
On July 28, 2009 at 1:26 pm
A pet hate of mine is when people misinterprate ‘could’ve’ as “could of”, not “could have”. This mistake is rife throughout the books of many reputable authors! It makes me squirm…
Good article, liked it.
raptor22
On July 28, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Interesting.
James DeVere
On July 28, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Thank-you for the insights. I love expressions as well and wrote this article: -
http://socyberty.com/languages/more-hackneyed-phrases-platitudes-and-over-used-words-in-the-21st-century/
I didn’t know people were dumb enough to write, “mute point.” Also, where did you find them – in a book about English? I would love the source.
Best . j
lekhika
On July 28, 2009 at 10:11 pm
This is good.
Alex1
On July 29, 2009 at 1:48 am
nice work!
Lilen Fayee
On July 29, 2009 at 5:19 am
Sadly, i’m a terrible speller. But i liked the article. Nice job.
lalitha
On July 29, 2009 at 8:24 am
hey..i’m a newbie here..:)Well this article is quite interesting.Nice writeup.
ElGringoDiablo
On July 29, 2009 at 3:24 pm
I got 3 out of 5, I don’t know if that’s good or bad though. Very interesting article. There are a few good book’s centred around phrase’s that have mutated over the year’s.
deklin42
On July 29, 2009 at 5:38 pm
http://writinghood.com/online-writing/how-to-get-other-people-to-view-your-articles/
Some tips.
Tina Cassello
On July 29, 2009 at 6:24 pm
This was really good. I was even unsure about a couple of them and I’m better at English than many people today. When I was in school they still taught grammar and we learned the parts of speech by diagraming them which isn’t done anymore.
deklin42
On July 29, 2009 at 10:00 pm
i didn’t know what moot point meant before. Now I know. Thanks for your knowledge.
boisson
On July 30, 2009 at 3:22 am
‘Should of’ instead of ‘Should have’ is one I often see amongst youngsters (:
Bonnie T
On July 30, 2009 at 5:11 pm
There are quite a few things out there that get spelled wrong. Taking a communications class a few years ago really pointed that out. I am amazed at how bad young people are at spelling! I am a mature student going to school with teenagers and young adults. What I find really sad is the misuse of theirs, there, and they’re. Another good one my instructor pointed out was laying down and lying down.
Beautiful Waterfalls
On July 30, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Good stuff!
Brent Rogers
On August 1, 2009 at 3:23 am
Impressive. :]
ecrivan wordwizard
On August 1, 2009 at 2:42 pm
This may be impressive to some but I do not agree with your analysis on the situation. I think I’ll keep to “free reign” and “just dessert” as was learned way back before you were an idea to your parents:)
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