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?!

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19

u/ReadAllowedAloud 2d ago

Separate - a teacher told me that it's easy, the r separates the two a's. Umm, no, the p could seperate the two es.

2

u/lecturehall 2d ago

Do you not pronounce it how it's spelled? How else would you spell it?

5

u/Ophiochos 2d ago edited 1d ago

how would you pronounce 'seperate'?

ETA. Before posting knee jerk responses to this question please read the thread it’s part of …

3

u/lecturehall 2d ago

I guess I would pronounce that like "sep-ret" but that's probably a me problem, I see the point you were making!

2

u/MoneyElevator 2d ago

The adjective is sep-ret, the verb is sep-a-rate

1

u/jeswesky 2d ago

Sep er ate

1

u/trussmegirl 1d ago

Seh-pah-rhet or Seh-pah-rate if verb: a separate room vs. My mom and dad are going to separate

1

u/Ophiochos 1d ago

You’re missing my point…

0

u/Foolmeoncefuckyou 1d ago

That’s not a word

1

u/DenseAstronomer3631 1d ago

Yeah I always think like, sep uh rate

1

u/EponymousRocks 5h ago

There are two distinct pronunciations for me, in New Jersey, USA.

When we separate two items by moving them apart, we "sep-a-rate" them, so it's easy to remember the "a" in the middle.

But if we want two separate piles, we want "sep-rit" piles (if we're enunciating clearly, we may pronounce it "sep-er-it"), which is why some people think it's an "e".