Most Common Misspelled Words in The English Language

First and foremost lets begin with who’s and whose.The word who’s is easily confused with whose.

Who’s and Whose:

‘Who’s’ is the short for who has/who is.

For example,

Who’s there? (means ‘who is there?’)

The word ‘Whose’ is used while referring to one’s belonging.

For example,

Whose pen is this? (means ‘who does this pen belong to?’)

Adapt and Adopt:

Many get confused and use these words, one in place of the other.

‘Adapt’ means to suit or adjust.

For example,

To succeed in life, one needs to adapt himself to change.

The word ‘Adopt’ means to take up or accept.

For example,

I adopted the child from the orphanage.

Affect and Effect:

‘Affect’ means to be influenced.

For example,

Her possessiveness affected me.

‘Effect’ means to bring about.

For example,

The new law had an ill effect among the people.

Cast and Caste:

‘Cast’ means to throw.

For example,

The hunter cast a net to catch birds.

‘Caste’ is a reference made to a social order on religious basis.

For example,

In cities, people often marry outside their caste.

Conscience and Conscious:

While the former means a sense of right or wrong, the latter is to be aware of something that is happening at the moment.

For example,

My conscience made me confess my guilt.

I soon became conscious about the truth.

Childish and Childlike:

To be childish refers to behaving like a child, used in a negative way.

‘Childlike’ is being like a child, used in a positive way.

For example,

Though Tom is quite grown up, his behaviour is certainly childish.

An example for being ‘childlike’ is:

He impresses all around him with his childlike simplicity.

Perquisite and Prerequisite:

‘Perquisite’ is sometimes confused with ‘Prerequisite’. ‘Perquisite’ is a privilege given in addition to wages. ‘Prerequisite’ means a thing required as a precondition.

Words pronounced with an ee’ sound the rule i before e’ is applied. Exceptions are words like sieve, species. People often confuse with the words that use the vowels ie’ and those which use ei’. 

Some words are receive, conceive, deceive which are misspelled with ie’ for ei’. Those with ie’ are belief,chief,relief,mischief, sieve, species, either, neither, heinous.

Words dying, singing, swinging shouldn’t be confused with dyeing, singeing and swingeing.

These are certain words often misspelled and confused with one another.