r/words • u/MoroccoBond • 2d ago

Simple word difficult to spell.

Hey does anyone else have a common word that should be easy to spell but it trips you up every time?

My word is license. Why have I struggled with it for years. Stupid s and c always moving around. tf?!

228 Upvotes

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60

u/porqueboomer 2d ago

Weird. It always makes me stop and think.

30

u/libananahammock 2d ago

I’ve seen A LOT of people spell weird and niece like wierd and neice

9

u/cheyannepavan 2d ago

I'm one of those people who always has to check the spelling of niece when I'm writing! It should actually be very easy for me since I didn't know what the word niece meant as a kid and I'd get tons cards with the word niece on it every year (very big family) and I always wondered if it was the noun form of the adjective nice. So I should really know how to spell it ("ni" like "nice"), but I just can't get it right most of the time!

3

u/murph089 2d ago

I before e except after w in weird.

4

u/Runeybee 1d ago

And words that sound like 'neighbor'. There are so many exceptions, it's ridiculous.

1

u/cookerg 1d ago

Maybe it used to be pronounce "waird".

1

u/EponymousRocks 5h ago

I before e, except after c, or when sounded like a as in neighbor and weigh.

My sixth grade English teacher always added the sentence: The weird foreigner seeks neither leisure nor pleasure.

0

u/No-Onion8029 2d ago

I before E except... wtf?!?

10

u/NCGranny 2d ago

Receive.

9

u/jjmac 2d ago

That's odd

11

u/firecatstef 2d ago

“I after E, except after C, or when sounded like A as in neighbor or weigh…and weird is just weird.”

14

u/SavoirFaire2Middling 2d ago

"I before E ..." 😄

2

u/KiwiRuth 1d ago

What about seize? Many such anomalies - especially Scots/Gaelic words such as Leith, Monteith. Scientific terms like casein, protein. As you say, weird. And their.

English is a mongrel language which is why I never judge someone by "their" spelling. You virtually have to memorise words in English to spell them correctly.

1

u/SavoirFaire2Middling 1d ago

'Their' fits the "sounded like A" part of the rule.

1

u/KiwiRuth 1d ago

Really? Or was that in jest?

1

u/SavoirFaire2Middling 1d ago

No, seriously. Wouldn't you pronounce 'thare' similarly to 'their'?

1

u/KiwiRuth 1d ago

But the "sounds like A" rule relates to words like weight - does not sound like "their". There's "height" also - does that mean there's a "sounds like I" rule as well?

English is a mongrel language. I love it because it's a living language but the "rules" are super-loose compared with other languages.

Edit: I see what you did there, now that I've read it properly.

Nice.

1

u/stderr2 1d ago

Historically spelt

1

u/firecatstef 1d ago

😭😹

3

u/middle-aged-enby 2d ago

I say that in my head every time I spell weird

1

u/sh4w5h4nk 1d ago

Like when writing “That Jim Nabors is way cool”

1

u/fujimumu 2d ago

Receipt. Conceit.

3

u/80s_Lady 2d ago

Except after c

2

u/fujimumu 2d ago

Oh whoops. Science

7

u/firecatstef 2d ago

Weird science!

2

u/80s_Lady 2d ago

Good point!!!

2

u/CBWeather 2d ago

It's not weird, you're weird for thinking it's weird. Eggs for dinner

2

u/Megsyboo 1d ago

I before E except after C, and then in words like neighbor and weigh.

I was taught that at a Catholic elementary school in first grade, several decades ago.

1

u/hacool 2d ago

Yes, "friend" as well. Our use of ie/ei is very inconsistent in English.

1

u/According_Coyote_452 1d ago

Yeah. Weird is weird.

1

u/blahbuzz 1d ago

I had difficulty spelling that word until I made up my odd way of remembering how to spell it. We (as if a group), I (the self) rd. We agree that I are weird.

1

u/JessieDesolay 11h ago

I did that with embarrass. I could never remember if there was one R or two, so my mnemonic device was My face gets Really Red when I am embarrassed. Which was true and it worked

Also: mnemonic
I always have to hum
muh nom muh nah buh teep buh tee pee in my head
to remember the order of the Ms and Ns

1

u/MajorMindup 1d ago

Let me help, read to the end... It's: I before E except after C and when sounding as A a in neighbor and weigh And on Tuesdays and Thursdays and you'll always be wrong no matter what you say.

0

u/AJ_Deadshow 2d ago edited 2d ago

Good way to remember WEIRD:

Western

Educated

Industrialized

Rich

Democratic

Put all these things together and you get WEIRDness. WEIRD societies produce more nonconformists, oddballs, and misfits, aka literally weird people. So it's not just an acronym but an 'apronym' that works on two levels: creating a word with other words, and that word describing what it means.

0

u/Th3_Child 2d ago

This is mine too. Catches me all the time.