Professional Documents
Culture Documents
MISSPELLED WORDS
Arzu Mammadova
Correct spelling in the IELTS is one of the most crucial factors every student
has to be worried about. If you misspell a word, even with one small mistake, it
will be counted as the wrong answer. Therefore, learning the right way to write
words is of paramount of importance.
Let’s have a look at the most common spelling mistakes and then practice in
order to prevent this kind of accident.
D
Single and double consonants
A
It is common for IELTS test takers to make spelling mistakes when single or
double consonants occur nearby in a word:
M
Single consonant followed by double consonant: across, process, recommend,
necessary
M
Double consonant followed by single consonant: apparent, exaggerate, occasion,
parallel, immediate
A
Two pairs of double consonants: address, assess, accommodation, possess,
success, occurrence
M
endings to words such as –ed, -ing, -er, and –est, as sometimes the last
consonant in the word is doubled. For example:
1
Changing adjectives to nouns: absent -> absence, different -> difference
Changing nouns to adjectives: benefit -> beneficial, influence -> influential
Changing verbs to nouns: maintain -> maintenance, pronounce -> pronunciation
Changing nouns to verbs: excess -> exceed, success -> succeed
D
nm in environment, government
mn in autumn, column
A
sc in conscious, discipline, science
xc in excited, exception
M
kn in know, knee, knob
th in ordinals: eighth, twelfth
lose ≠ loose
affect ≠ effect
ZU
complement ≠ compliment
its ≠ it’s
passed ≠ past
principal ≠ principle
R
than ≠ then
their ≠ there ≠ they’re
A
costume ≠ custom
2
British vs. American spelling
Both British and American spellings are accepted in IELTS. However, it is
important that you remain consistent and stick to one or the other.
D
A
M
M
A
M
ZU
R
A
3
D
A
M
M
A
M
ZU
R
QUIZ 1
A
4
D
A
M
M
A
M
ZU
QUIZ 2
R
5
D
A
M
M
A
M
ZU
R
QUIZ 3
Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
A
6
D
A
M
M
A
M
ZU
R
QUIZ 4
Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
A
7
D
A
M
M
A
M
ZU
R
QUIZ 5
Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
A
8
D
A
M
M
A
M
ZU
R
QUIZ 6
Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
A
9
D
A
M
M
A
M
ZU
R
QUIZ 7
Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
A
10
D
A
M
M
A
M
ZU
R
QUIZ 8
A
11
D
A
M
M
A
M
ZU
R
QUIZ 9
Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
A
12
D
A
M
M
A
M
ZU
R
QUIZ 10
Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
A
13
ANSWERS
QUIZ 1
Acquire, accommodation, a lot, accidentally, achieve, acceptable, acknowledge,
advisable, address, across, affect, aggressive, almost, annually, apparently
D
A
QUIZ 2
Appearance, argument, basically, beginning, believe, benefit, business, category,
M
changeable, chief, colleague, coming, committed, committee, comparison
QUIZ 3
M
Completely, conscious, concede, consensus, controversy, curiosity, definite,
difference, dilemma, disappear, disappoint, disastrous, embarrass, environment,
A
equipment
M
QUIZ 4
Exceed, existence, experience, extreme, familiar, fascinating, finally, foreign,
ZU
QUIZ 5
Grateful, guarantee, guidance, happenned, hierarchy, hygiene, ignorance,
R
QUIZ 6
Maintenance, perceive, original, omission, parliament, occurrence, occurred,
occasion, occasionally, noticeable, neighbour, necessary, misspell, mischievous,
miniature
QUIZ 7
14
Protester, propaganda, promise, pronunciation, professor, privilege, principle,
preferred, precede, practise, possession, politician, piece, personnel, persistent
QUIZ 8
Resistance, repetition, remember, religious, relevant, referred, reference,
recommend, receive, really, readable, queue, questionnaire, quarantine, publicly
QUIZ 9
D
Tongue, tomorrow, threshold, therefore, tendency, surprise, successful, skilful,
similar, separate, sense, secretary, rhythm, rhyme, restaurant
A
QUIZ 10
M
Writing, withhold, which, whether, wherever, welfare, weather, vehicle, usable,
until, unfortunately, unforeseen, underrate, twelfth, truly
M
A
M
ZU
R
A
15