MOST COMMON IELTS
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.
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Single and double consonants
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It is common for IELTS test takers to make spelling mistakes when single or
double consonants occur nearby in a word:
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Single consonant followed by double consonant: across, process, recommend,
necessary
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Double consonant followed by single consonant: apparent, exaggerate, occasion,
parallel, immediate
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Two pairs of double consonants: address, assess, accommodation, possess,
success, occurrence
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Adding suffixes to words
It is also common for test-takers to make spelling mistakes when adding certain
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endings to words such as –ed, -ing, -er, and –est, as sometimes the last
consonant in the word is doubled. For example:
drop –> dropped, dropping
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big –> bigger, biggest
run -> running, runner
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begin -> beginning, beginner
regret -> regretted, regretting
Words changing form
A word’s spelling can also change when it changes form, and this is often
another spelling difficulty that candidates encounter:
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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
Silent letters in consonant clusters
Test takers often struggle spelling words with silent letters in consonant clusters.
For example:
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nm in environment, government
mn in autumn, column
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sc in conscious, discipline, science
xc in excited, exception
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kn in know, knee, knob
th in ordinals: eighth, twelfth
Frequently confused words
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Some spelling mistakes happen as a result of candidates confusing two words
that sound alike but have different meanings and spellings. For example:
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lose ≠ loose
affect ≠ effect
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complement ≠ compliment
its ≠ it’s
passed ≠ past
principal ≠ principle
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than ≠ then
their ≠ there ≠ they’re
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costume ≠ custom
Difficult words to spell
Some words in the English language are simply difficult to spell. Some of the
words IELTS test takers often misspell include the following:
Hierarchy, entrepreneur, definitely, foreign, grateful, perseverance, rhythm,
maintenance
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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.
Now, let’s do some practice!
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QUIZ 1
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Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
Acquire, acommodation, a lot, accidentaly, achieve, accaptable, aknowledge,
advisable, adress, across, affect, agressive, almost, annually, apparentely
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M
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QUIZ 2
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Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
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Appearence, argument, basically, beginning, believe, benefit, business, category,
changeble, chief, collegue, coming, committed, commiittee, comparison
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QUIZ 3
Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
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Completely, consious, consede, consensus, controversy, curiousity, definite,
difference, dillemma, disappear, disappoint, disaustrous, embarras, enviroment,
equipment
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QUIZ 4
Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
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Exceed, existance, experience, extrime, familiar, fascinating, finally, foreign,
foreseable, forty, forward, friend, fulfil, further, goverment
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QUIZ 5
Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
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Grateful, guarantee, guidance, happenned, hierarchy, hygiene, ignorance,
immediatelly, independent, intelligence, interrupt, knowledge, leisure, library, lose
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QUIZ 6
Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
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Maintenance, perceive, orijinal, omission, parlaiment, occurrance, occurred,
occasion, occasionally, noticeble, neighbour, necessary, misspell, mischevious,
miniature
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QUIZ 7
Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
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Protester, propaganda, promice, pronincuation, professor, privilege, principle,
preferred, precede, practise, possesion, politician, piece, personnel, persistent
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QUIZ 8
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Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
Resistance, repetition, remember, religios, relevant, reffered, reference,
recommend, recieve, really, readable, queue, questionnaire, quarantine, publicly
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QUIZ 9
Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
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Tongue, tomorrow, treshold, therefore, tendency, surprise, successfull, skilfull,
similar, separete, sense, secretary, rhytm, rhyme, restaurant
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QUIZ 10
Choose the misspelled words and write them correctly.
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Writing, withhold, which, whether, whereever, welfare, weather, vehile, usable,
until, unfortunatelly, unforeseen, underrate, twelfth, truly
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ANSWERS
QUIZ 1
Acquire, accommodation, a lot, accidentally, achieve, acceptable, acknowledge,
advisable, address, across, affect, aggressive, almost, annually, apparently
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QUIZ 2
Appearance, argument, basically, beginning, believe, benefit, business, category,
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changeable, chief, colleague, coming, committed, committee, comparison
QUIZ 3
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Completely, conscious, concede, consensus, controversy, curiosity, definite,
difference, dilemma, disappear, disappoint, disastrous, embarrass, environment,
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equipment
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QUIZ 4
Exceed, existence, experience, extreme, familiar, fascinating, finally, foreign,
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foreseeable, forty, forward, friend, fulfil, further, government
QUIZ 5
Grateful, guarantee, guidance, happenned, hierarchy, hygiene, ignorance,
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immediately, independent, intelligence, interrupt, knowledge, leisure, library, lose
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QUIZ 6
Maintenance, perceive, original, omission, parliament, occurrence, occurred,
occasion, occasionally, noticeable, neighbour, necessary, misspell, mischievous,
miniature
QUIZ 7
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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
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Tongue, tomorrow, threshold, therefore, tendency, surprise, successful, skilful,
similar, separate, sense, secretary, rhythm, rhyme, restaurant
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QUIZ 10
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Writing, withhold, which, whether, wherever, welfare, weather, vehicle, usable,
until, unfortunately, unforeseen, underrate, twelfth, truly
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A
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