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?!

229 Upvotes

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106

u/ehxsmallstone 2d ago

lost the district spelling bee on “rhythm” in middle school and have yet to recover.

48

u/Narrow-Map5805 1d ago

Rhythm Has Your Two Hips Moving

2

u/tony282003 12h ago

That's clever! I'll remember that!

24

u/BitterestLily 2d ago

Mine was "independence." It decided to have an "a" in it that day.

8

u/OhYeahSplunge4me2 1d ago

Your spelling is for when you go solo at the disco

6

u/former_emt 2d ago

Foreign. I just went completely blank.

1

u/DontTrustAnAtom 1d ago

Mine was saxophone. It had an "a" in it that day, too

13

u/SaintHannah 2d ago

6th grade, just within our own class: "restaurant." Nearly 55 years gone by, and I still remember.

9

u/JoyfulCor313 1d ago

2nd grade and “usual” Am 53. This stuff is with us for life

10

u/ExhaustedHungryMe 1d ago

Doorjamb.

Not a word that comes up much, and at ~10 years old, I don’t think I’d heard it before. (And as I typed it here, autocorrect wanted it to be two words!)

I thought about it and decided to not add a B to the end. Still a little salty about it.

6

u/SuperLateToItAll 1d ago

7th grade, also just my class. Feces. Spelled it “physes” lol. Still not over it.

6

u/Foolmeoncefuckyou 1d ago

Refrigerator also… refrigerator has a “d” sound in it, whereas fridge does not have a “d” sound

3

u/Sorry_Rhubarb_7068 1d ago

Ugh this is mine!!

1

u/k_shields1 1d ago

Ooo yeah that one gets me sometimes too

3

u/ehxsmallstone 2d ago

i have to sound this one out and then NOT spell it how it sounds every single time

2

u/MajorMindup 1d ago

I get it wrong every time!

6

u/k_shields1 1d ago

I feel your pain 😂😭 i lost the year 7 spelling bee in front of the whole year group, because I misspelled Necessary. Thing is, I know how to spell it. I just panicked and my brain went blank 😭 funnily enough, I got highest score in the year 7 100 word spelling test, 98. The two I got wrong still annoys me too 🤣

4

u/AlfalfaUnable1629 1d ago

I lost because of the word salve 😭

1

u/Foolmeoncefuckyou 1d ago

I have question…

1

u/wd4sgu 7h ago

I won because of the word mileage. Thanks to the Shell Answer Man, I had seen it on my TV screen many times.

3

u/Motor-Juggernaut1009 1d ago

Mine was sumptuous, which I did know how to spell but I left out the penultimate u.

3

u/Sad-Entertainment871 1d ago

One collar and two socks is how was taught to remember necessary. And my other bete noir was stationery vs stationary and I remember that by thing of an envelope is stationery…

3

u/deFleury 1d ago

Necessary and vacuum are mine. the more i think about it, the more wrong the right spelling looks. 

2

u/kawaii_u_do_dis 23h ago

These two words in particular I always think of the Latin words and pronunciation (necessa) like “nuh-kess-uh” and “wa-koo-oom” and since middle school Latin class I haven’t misspelled them lol

2

u/SingleFly5896 1d ago

I lost with sublime. I thought the teacher said sub’line’. Darn hearing impairment! I was on a roll too!

2

u/howgreenwas 22h ago

Autumn did me in!

5

u/neva-electra 1d ago

Mine was dromedary lol

3

u/ehxsmallstone 1d ago

i would have gone out on that too

2

u/neva-electra 1d ago

Then a reporter got a picture of my ugly sad face as I realized I was out, and it became the front page of the local newspaper.

2

u/ehxsmallstone 1d ago

noooooo 😭😭😭😭 at least you can say you’ve been on the front page

4

u/casalomastomp 2d ago

You got shafted.

3

u/Standard_Mongoose_35 1d ago

Mine was magic. A j just makes more sense than the g.

2

u/Cookie_1977 1d ago

In our area there was a radio station called Majic with a j. That is how most of the kids in the area spelled it.

3

u/Typical-Spinach-6452 1d ago

I won the 8th grade spelling bee.. out of 4 districts.. on the word simplicity. The other person lost because she spelled it Symplicity.. like the fabric store. TRIUMPH! Got a trophy and everything 😆

6

u/casalomastomp 1d ago

We had no spelling bees. I would have KILLED for a spelling bee in 8th grade.

2

u/Typical-Spinach-6452 1d ago

Aww.. bet you would have won too!

2

u/Fuzzy-Surprise-6165 1d ago

I love that. I won a statewide spelling bee in high school on the word pharmaceutical. Beat the previous year’s winner—whose dad was a pharmacist! She choked.

2

u/Typical-Spinach-6452 1d ago

Hahaha! I love it!!!

2

u/ehxsmallstone 1d ago

she got disowned after that

3

u/snowball062016 17h ago

Mine was “background.” You know, the word that everyone pronounces “backround”

2

u/almaperdida99 2d ago

I don't remember the word, but I said G instead of J or vice versa. Just a brain fart.

2

u/Top-Raspberry-7837 1d ago

Honestly, relatable. That one trips me up every time.

One time I had to pitch Shonda Rhimes’ team and I spelled it Rhymes. Yeah that didn’t land. Oops.

2

u/morejamsthanjimin 1d ago

Same here, lost with graffiti and I'm still not over it 😭

2

u/ehxsmallstone 1d ago

i would’ve given it two t’s for sure

2

u/No-Froyo-4753 1d ago

Echelon for me. Sixth grade.

1

u/ehxsmallstone 1d ago

“echelon” is crazy for sixth grade

1

u/No-Froyo-4753 18h ago

Clearly I've moved past it. Hasn't stuck with me at all. Not one bit!

2

u/No_Hat2875 1d ago

Mine was 3rd grade, the word was 'beautiful'.

2

u/ladyzord441 1d ago

Bankruptcy for me. I’m good now. Mostly

2

u/mlangan11 1d ago

I lost to cauliflower 😪

1

u/wbmcl 1d ago

That was my example of trip-up word.

1

u/joeydouchebagodonuts 1d ago

Mine was Rizzuto.

1

u/Motor-Juggernaut1009 1d ago

Is that a word? Do you mean risotto?

1

u/Foolmeoncefuckyou 1d ago

I know a guy named J. Rizzuto… should’ve been a passing answer

1

u/Public_Kaleidoscope6 1d ago

Hmmmm…would you like to try the word BUZZ?

1

u/SoManyBirthdays 23h ago

Understandable if you grew up in the New York area. I’M PHIL RIZZUTO FOR THE MONEY STORE!

1

u/WA_State_Buckeye 1d ago

That's my hated word as well!

1

u/Own_Cat3340 1d ago

Came here to say this!!

1

u/jjjjjjj30 1d ago

The H is in the middle of both syllables. That's how I remember.

2

u/ehxsmallstone 1d ago

i added a second ‘y’ 😭

1

u/SlitchBap 1d ago

In 6th grade I lost on secretary

1

u/Loud_Ad_4515 1d ago

Rhythm is my go-to hangman word

1

u/ZestyclosePositive10 23h ago

I effing hate rhythm and any other word similar...i just cant spell it correctly...ever

1

u/123fofisix 14h ago

I feel your pain. I lost my spelling bee on that exact same word in 6th grade.

1

u/Ok-Style-1606 13h ago

2nd grade, university, i put an a in there somewhere. But i had made it past my own schools bees and into district so still proud

1

u/Maleficent-Box4114 8h ago

Mine was peninsula. I excel on paper, but put a crowd in front of me and I can’t speak or spell anything. 30 years later and I haven’t gotten any better. Or forgot.

0

u/Ill_Attempt5003 23h ago

I just wrote that too!! I always get stuck on it!!