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Commonly Seen spelling errors/word swaps that you're itching to correct?

182 replies

Kreepture · 06/11/2025 09:59

Prefaced by the fact i'm in pain, in the aftermath of a migraine (still have a headache) and have the tolerance of dewdrop for anything today...

I was reading on social media this morning, and i noticed that there seems to be some common word swaps going on recently that i'm seeing more and more regularly.

I'm aware that some people are dyslexic, or may have only heard a word and not seen it written, or english is second language..etc, but then you feel (and look) like a twat if you correct it on the off chance one of those things is the issue.

aloud, instead of allowed
the usual there/they're/their error
towed (the line), instead of toed,
reef instead of wreath
pacific instead of specific

Any others you've noticed.. and do you just ignore or correct?

OP posts:
LilyCanna · 06/12/2025 13:32

A mistake I often see by people who aren’t obviously prone to this sort of thing - ‘have a peak at what’s behind the scenes’

CalzoneOnLegs · 06/12/2025 13:51

sunflowersintheday · 06/11/2025 10:06

Noooooooo!

I’m driving a VW at the moment and it has brakes spelled ‘breaks’ on the info screen 🤯

dailyconniptions · 06/12/2025 18:47

Curb when it should be kerb. (Pavement edge.)

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YelramBob · 06/12/2025 19:07

As Ross Geller shouted at Rachel 'And by the way, Y O U apostrophe R E means you are, Y O U R means your!'

SwirlyShirly · 06/12/2025 19:13

Women instead of woman e.g ‘she’s a funny women’.

CloudSky · 07/12/2025 08:45

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 06/12/2025 10:59

I actually like quirks like that - like an Irish friend who often said e.g. ‘I was just after (e.g.) cooking the dinner…’ - meaning that she’d just done it.

Similarly, as a teacher on my long ago TEFL course related of her elderly Scottish grandmother, ‘I should have went…’.

To me anyway, dialect related is a different thing from carelessness or just plain ignorance (lousy teaching).

Yeah, as I said, when it’s a genuine dialect thing it’s acceptable (my Irish relatives say things like “what about {name}”, meaning “how are they?” Which I find odd but it’s just dialect and with their accent it doesn’t sound out of place).

But this one has gone way beyond that and been picked up more widely and it really winds me up, because it’s just totally the wrong word! It’s not even like it’s quicker, it’s just wrong!! And sounds stupid 🤦🏻‍♀️

The ironic bit being that people saying “myself” or “yourself” do it because they think it sounds more professional, when actually they just sound daft.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 07/12/2025 08:55

Please bare with me….

And ‘worse’ when they clearly mean ‘worst’ - I’ve seen it a lot on here. Do people not actually understand the difference?

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