Questions tagged [spelling]

This tag is for questions which a dictionary cannot answer concerning the written representation of the English language, especially spelling and word breaks (including hyphenation).

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-1 votes
0 answers
18 views

"Substorage" or "Sub Storage" or "Sub-Storage"?

As the title suggests, I'm trying to figure out the correct spelling for the word "substorage", with which I refer to a storage area (a folder in a disc) which is hiarerchically located ...
  • 271
-5 votes
2 answers
69 views

Shadowier or Shadowyer? [closed]

folks, I'm now trying to refute what dictionaries say, so I have to be either supported or disproven by you, wise owls. Okay, now I'm asking you to participate in my own presumption: dictionaries say ...
-1 votes
2 answers
63 views

How should the name "Kimia" be spelled? [closed]

My name is Kimia, but I have no idea which of the following spellings is right; Kimia or Kimya. I gotta say the last syllable of my name is pronounced like Mia. Would you tell me which one is correct?
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0 votes
2 answers
56 views

Is this usage of apostrophe grammatical: "the person with dementia’s employer"

This is from a booklet about caring for elderly people who has dementia: "requesting flexible working arrangements from your employer and the person with dementia’s employer." When I read it,...
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-2 votes
2 answers
60 views

Is there a difference between "has" and "is"?

In a English or American perspective of the difference because I sometimes have trouble making the difference is means a thing and has is owned but I sometimes have trouble making the difference For ...
2 votes
2 answers
105 views

What's the comparative and superlative of shy and dry?

What's the comparative and superlative of shy and dry? I've found you can either keep the y or change it for ier / iest. shyer - shyest or shier- shiest Dryer -dryest or drier - driest Also more shy ...
-1 votes
1 answer
43 views

Is this sentence correct grammar? [closed]

Is the following sentence good grammar and proper spelling? We are planning to organize a family dinner this weekend and you may come as well. I'm unsure whether the highlighted elements are correct ...
0 votes
1 answer
23 views

"Culture" or "Cultures" for Proper-Noun?

What is the correct spelling for the name of a place below? a) Asia Culture Museum b) Asia Cultures Museum
1 vote
1 answer
30 views

How should I spell the name of the ruling: 30%-ruling or 30% ruling?

The Dutch expat tax regime is commonly referred to as: '30%-ruling'. Or should this be spelled '30% ruling' without the dash?
0 votes
2 answers
35 views

Why do some people like use in' to symbolize ing?

In some movies or songs, "in'" is used instead of "ing". For example: "Searchin' high". The "Searchin'" is "Searching". Or "Lookin' for a place ...
-1 votes
1 answer
55 views

Correct British English Usage of Words [closed]

There are multiple words that are spelt differently in British English and American English. Which of these spellings is correct for British English? donut / doughnut aluminum / aluminium grey / gray ...
0 votes
2 answers
61 views

Is there an English word subset which can demonstrate almost all familiar pronunciation?

For example, the pronunciation of "tube" is [tjuːb]. If I learned "tube", I know how to spell "student" which is [ˈstjuːdnt], because "tube" and "student&...
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0 votes
1 answer
25 views

How is the rule of thumb to know whether to use "-or-" or "-our-"?

For years I kept struggling with differentiating between whether a particular word is using -or- or -our-. These are some examples of words that I'm often having problems with: Behaviour vs behavior ...
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2 votes
1 answer
583 views

Is there a difference between "artist" and "artiste"?

While we commonly use the word "artist" (for a person who knows any art), a lot of literary publications and even some news organisations spell the word as "artiste" - with an &...
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0 votes
1 answer
72 views

Old English versus Middle English [closed]

I am not English native and I just realized that some words are acceptable in different spellings. For example the word "amongst" often written as "among" or the word "towards&...
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0 votes
1 answer
96 views

There are many exceptions for the mnemonic rule of thumb "i before e except after c" but have any new attempts arrived at any new rule?

Per title, there are many exceptions for the mnemonic rule of thumb "i before e except after c". Have any new attempts arrived at any new rule? For example, compile all the cases of a ...
  • 111
32 votes
2 answers
4k views

The Ö letter in "Coördinator"

I was watching some Pink Panther episodes on YouTube, and I noticed something weird. The word COORDINATOR is written COÖRDINATOR with an Ö. I searched for it in dictionaries and etymology references ...
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0 votes
2 answers
577 views

Daily practice vs daily practise

The sentence reads: ... thorough preparation and daily practice will be essential. In British/International English, would the word used here be "practice" or "practise"? I ...
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4 votes
1 answer
92 views

Dangerously closely antonyms

We have a tag "pseudo-antonym" here ("flammable" vs. "inflammable", "get up" vs. "get down"), but I ask for the exact opposite. A classic is "He ...
0 votes
2 answers
2k views

"Pure" VS "Purer" VS "More pure" [closed]

Q.1) What's the difference between pure, purer, and more pure, and what's the correct situation to use each one? Q.2) What should I write (pure, purer, or more pure) in the following blank? Juice ...
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2 votes
1 answer
164 views

Is it breastfeeding, breast-feeding or even breast feeding?

I’ve now seen three spellings for the same term: The Wikipedia article is called Breastfeeding. The Unicode standard calls the 🤱 emoji breast-feeding. Google adds “Did you mean: breastfeeding?” to ...
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-1 votes
1 answer
63 views

Cancel(l)ed vs cancellation

cancel, vb., makes canceled and canceling in AmE. Yet, in cancellation the -l- is doubled (-ll-) because the accent falls on the third syllable. It's etymology is Can·ce(l)·la·tion Mid-16th c. Latin ...
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-2 votes
2 answers
97 views

final letter "y", following a vowel, yet representing another syllable

Is there a word in English, in which the final letter "y", while following a vowel, would represent another syllable? For example, in the words "worry", "story", "...
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0 votes
1 answer
5k views

Pre-school or preschool?

When I check my various dictionaries (Longman; Cambridge; Merriam-Webster and a bilingual dictionary), preschool is spelt without a hyphen. Still, when I google it, I get a fair number of hits for ...
  • 1,538
0 votes
1 answer
80 views

Cannonical or canonical? [closed]

I found spelling "cannonical" in this answer: https://dba.stackexchange.com/a/133641 My text editor marks it with red line as word error. Please tell me which form is correct, I have doubts.
6 votes
1 answer
2k views

Why do we have pronunciation for the word “liquorice” as ‘liquorish’?

Is there any difference in pronunciation between the American and British speakers?
8 votes
2 answers
2k views

Irreproducible, unreproducible, non-reproducible or not reproducible, which one to use?

I was going to add a tag for issues of my GitHub repository, to describe an issue that would not be able to be reproduced. Here are the four versions of this word I can think of: Irreproducible ...
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2 votes
1 answer
451 views

Which is (most) correct: "permille" or "per mille"?

The spelling "percent" (one word) is generally accepted, I think. Thus I presumed that "permille" (one word) would be correct, but the Cambridge Dictionary only mentions "per ...
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12 votes
3 answers
2k views

How do I decide if an "i" is pronounced long or short?

I am an English teacher who has never really learned the complex rules of teaching pronunciation. Many learners here in Spain have difficulties deciding whether an "i" in a word is long or ...
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1 vote
1 answer
87 views

When writing documentation for web-technologies that use American spelling, should the text also use American spelling?

As we know, English exists in many dialects. In another life, over 20 years ago, I spent a year and a half in Japan, teaching English. I was under no obligation to teach standard American English but ...
0 votes
1 answer
54 views

Demonopolise or de monopolise?

I'm preparing for academic IELTS by writing some essays and then correcting those using a grammar correction app. In the following sentence, If governments will find ways to effectively minimise ...
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1 vote
2 answers
97 views

Is ”Physical”'s IPA spelling not unique?

Could you come up with an explanation why the same adjective "physical" has two IPA renderings of the same pronunciation? Oxford Learners Dictionary: /ˈfɪzɪkl/ (that is the /ə/ is missed in ...
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12 votes
3 answers
4k views

Why are "LOse" and "LOOse" pronounced differently?

I know that both the words are pronounced and used differently. I also found another question on this site: "Use of loose and lose [closed]", but that is about the usage of the word. My ...
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
184 views

Pronunciation of adjectives ending with "-ate" [closed]

Legitimate How should I pronounce it? It's confusing me. There are so many vocabularies of adjectives ending with "ate" as in meet or as in "it" : like "tim -it" as in ...
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4 votes
2 answers
4k views

Why does "wind" have two different pronunciations?

The word "wind" seems to be problematic (with almost all other English words that behave strangely). When it is used as a noun to mean the movement of air, it is pronounced to rhyme with &...
user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
49 views

Visualize and Visualise national recognition? [duplicate]

Which spelling is recognized more as the proper spelling globally?
12 votes
2 answers
3k views

Why is the <th> in "posthumous" pronounced as <ch> (/tʃ/)?

I have always pronounced the th in "posthumous" as if it was the "th" in think (/θ/), but when I searched itd it was actually the ch /tʃ/: UK: /ˈpɒs.tʃə.məs/ US: /ˈpɑːs.tʃə.məs/ ...
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30 votes
1 answer
6k views

Was "twelve" pronounced as "TPELF"?

I came across this piece of text and I for the life of me can't understand why "twelve" is written tpelf. I have encircled other numbers that are strange. My friend who lives in New York ...
user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
159 views

Any there other pairs similar to "advise/advice" and "devise/device"?

I was wondering if there are other similar pairs for "advise/advice" and "devise/device"? Updarte: I found this useful tip here (b) remember that 'ice' is a noun and therefore the ...
9 votes
3 answers
4k views

"Backyard" vs "Front yard" - same but different

Not really a serious English question, more like a curiosity. I am wondering, why "backyard" is written as one word but "front yard" is written as two separate words. Equivalently, ...
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0 votes
1 answer
94 views

Why does "don't be" sometimes sound like "dombe"?

Why does "don't be" sometimes become "DOMBE"? There is no M in the spelling then why?
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4 votes
3 answers
1k views

Why the K is silent in "know" and "knowledge"? [duplicate]

Why is the K silent in "knowledge" and "know"? I have heard many non-natives pronounce the K but not natives. In dictionaries there is no K in the pronunciation but there is a K in ...
user avatar
26 votes
2 answers
3k views

Why is there a 'p' in "assumption" but not in "assume"?

I know a little bit about the suffix -tion. It is usually added to verbs. Examples: -domination (from dominate), -admiration (admire), -deviation (deviate), -ejection (eject). "Exemption (...
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-2 votes
2 answers
182 views

Reason or rule for pronunciations [closed]

I am not a native English speaker and I am learning English. Sometimes I will get baffled by the pronunciations used in English. It is very difficult to pronounce something just by looking at it. ...
0 votes
0 answers
63 views

Why "admit" with T but "admissible" with SS?

I just noticed that when the suffix -ible is added to "admit", it becomes "admissible" rather than "admittible". There are few other examples: "omit" = "...
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32 votes
1 answer
13k views

Why is the W silent in "sword" but not in "swore"?

The word "sword" is pronounced /sɔːd/ (AmE: /sɔrd/) while "swore" is pronounced /swɔː/ (AmE: /swɔr/). The W in "sword" is silent because of the following round vowel; the ...
user avatar
42 votes
3 answers
29k views

Why is "iron" pronounced "EYE-URN" but not "EYE-RUN"?

I just noticed that the word iron is pronounced EYE-URN in standard Englishes instead of what the spelling suggests. I have always been pronouncing it "EYE-RUN" but I just checked its ...
user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
1k views

Is it "glowed" or "glown" when conjugating "glow"?

I want to say he's glown with brilliance but the spell checker barks at me for misspelling, like if it prefers glowed. This resource commands the latter, while this one the exact opposite. I've also ...
2 votes
1 answer
12k views

Is 'resetted' a word?

Link 1 Link 2 I entered "resetted" and for the spell check, I searched and got the first link. I thought it is correct because (I thought all words are not included in a spell checker)1 and ...
0 votes
1 answer
732 views

Capitalization and hyphenation in words like 'southeastern' [closed]

Is it South-Eastern Ukraine, Southeastern Ukraine, or South Eastern Ukraine ? What about capitalization? I saw various spellings. Which one is the most advisable? Don't close the question.

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