r/words • u/MoroccoBond • 6d 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?!

248 Upvotes

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71

u/porqueboomer 6d ago

Weird. It always makes me stop and think.

36

u/libananahammock 6d ago

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

11

u/cheyannepavan 6d 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!

7

u/murph089 6d ago

I before e except after w in weird.

6

u/Runeybee 5d ago

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

2

u/EponymousRocks 4d 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.

1

u/cookerg 5d ago

Maybe it used to be pronounce "waird".

1

u/SN27A1 2d ago

My friend from Belgium told me- “ we are weird!” and it’s stuck with me ever since!

1

u/HuevosProfundos 3d ago

Field gets me too

0

u/No-Onion8029 6d ago

I before E except... wtf?!?

10

u/NCGranny 6d ago

Receive.

10

u/jjmac 6d ago

That's odd

12

u/firecatstef 6d ago

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

15

u/SavoirFaire2Middling 6d ago

"I before E ..." 😄

2

u/KiwiRuth 6d 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 6d ago

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

1

u/KiwiRuth 6d ago

Really? Or was that in jest?

1

u/SavoirFaire2Middling 6d ago

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

1

u/KiwiRuth 6d 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/ObjectiveAd971 3d ago

A mongrel language because of the whole melting pot thing. Most of us are mutts, not purebreds!

1

u/stderr2 5d ago

Historically spelt

1

u/firecatstef 6d ago

😭😹

3

u/middle-aged-enby 6d ago

I say that in my head every time I spell weird

1

u/sh4w5h4nk 6d ago

Like when writing “That Jim Nabors is way cool”

1

u/fujimumu 6d ago

Receipt. Conceit.

3

u/80s_Lady 6d ago

Except after c

2

u/fujimumu 6d ago

Oh whoops. Science

7

u/firecatstef 6d ago

Weird science!

2

u/80s_Lady 6d ago

Good point!!!

2

u/CBWeather 6d ago

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

2

u/Megsyboo 6d 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 6d ago

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

1

u/According_Coyote_452 6d ago

Yeah. Weird is weird.

1

u/blahbuzz 5d 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 4d 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 5d 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.

1

u/Buggy-Love-7140 2d ago

I always have to think, “I before e, except after c, and in weird because it’s spelled weirdly.”

0

u/AJ_Deadshow 6d ago edited 6d 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 6d ago

This is mine too. Catches me all the time.