Even those thought to be better placed not to make spelling mistakes due to the nature of their profession, have once in a while been left with an egg on their face after it comes to their attention that they have spelt a word wrongly.
Without further ado, the following is a list of words, and names, which are commonly misspelt by Kenyans.
1. Embarrassment
- As you will notice in the course of reading this article, most words that get a red underline after being typed are those which have a double letter. Embarrass(ment) is one of such words and it is not rare to see the word spelt as embarassment, embarrasment or embarasment. There are people who are so confident in the wrong spelling of the word that they add the wrong spelling to their dictionary to get rid of the red underline.
2. Accommodate
- Most Kenyans write this word without a double "M" and many hotels and restaurants are party to this mistake. Even event planners make that mistake when they make banners reading "food and accomodation will be provided."
3. Occasion
- Some write it without a double "C" where others write it with a double "S".
4. Tomorrow
- Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is said to have had a problem writing the word and he is in very good company as there are thousands of Kenyans who write the word as "tommorow" or "tommorrow". Once again there are some confident chaps who add the wrong spelling to their dictionary.
5. Boinnet and Nkaissery
- The two Josephs not only have the challenging and demanding task of keeping the country safe and how they scratch their heads on how to go about their work, Kenyans are also massaging their skulls as they try to figure how to write their names correctly. Most people write Boinnet's name with a single "N" with a double "T" or a single "N" and a single "T" whereas Nkaissery sees most writes with a single "S" and double "R".
6. Wojciech Szczesny
- His move to Roma on loan from Arsenal will definitely make life easier for the nation's Premier League fans who, after years of struggling to get his name right, baptised him "Wooi Shika Shenzi".
7. Their and there
- If we were to review our Primary School compositions, we would not miss a red circle on either, or both, of those words. It is not rare to receive a text saying, "I will call you when I get their" or "I will send you there contact in a few minutes." The similar pronunciation is definitely what leads Kenyans to misspell the two words.
8. Privilege
- Whereas some spelling mistakes involve omission of words, there are some words that Kenyans add a letter to and privilege is one of such words. Most Kenyans write the word with a letter "D" whereas some would even go as far as writing it as "priveledged" (or may be we have stretched that too far).
9. Success/Successful
- Every Kenyan wants to be successful and those who have got to the top, write "succes" and "succesful" when drumming about their achievements.
10. Manoeuvre
- Even the above spelling evokes doubt in the author's mind on whether it is correct because that is how it saved in the spell-check dictionary. Anyway jokes aside, the word is of French origin and its alternate anglicized spelling, for American English, is "maneuver".
11. Liaison
- Another word of French origin which wrecks havoc among Kenyans. Even pronouncing it is a problem for many Kenyans who write the word as "liason" or "liasion".
12. Perseverance
- As with the word privilege, Kenyans tend to add another letter by writing it as "perserverance".
13. Grammar
- Shocking but true. There are some Kenyans who spell the word as "grammer".
14. Government
- The "N" is silent but it does not mean that it should be omitted.
15. Interesting
- Most people tend to omit the first "E" when writing the word.
16. Surprise
- People omit the first "R" and then wrongly use it in the word "perserverance".
17. Cemetery
- Yet another deadly spelling mistake by Kenyans is to write the above word as "cemetry".
18. Receipt/Receive
- Remember that golden spelling rule, "I before E unless after C"? Well, there are some Kenyans who flaunt it and write things like "recieve", "beleive" "freind" etc.
19. Dilemma
- Many people try to sound cool by using the word in writing only to be left with an egg on their when they get notified that they wrote it as "dillema".
20. Beginning
- Hopefully, after reading this, there will be fewer people who will be writing the word as "begining".