by Atholl Simpson
The British and the Americans cannot spell basic everyday words such as “definitely" or "calendar", according to a recent survey.
Of the 2,500 native English speakers questioned from both countries, almost a third spelt “liaison” wrong and a further 40% misspelt “questionnaire”.
The survey was commissioned by the software firm WhiteSmoke - specialised in English grammar and writing software - and despite the alarming results, almost a third still believed their spelling was “excellent” whilst just under half claimed it was of a “good standard”.
Mobile phone predictive text-style writing was cited by over two-thirds of the participants as a reason for explaining their poor spelling.
“The poll shows that people are still making fundamental errors,” Ranbir Sahota, spokesperson for WhiteSmoke, told SquareOne. “A lot of them said they still needed another person or a dictionary to check their spelling,” she said. “It shows that people just can't spell. Spelling standards are getting more lax and are deteriorating.”
Sahota said that although their latest spell check software had been specifically designed for non-native English speakers, there had more demand for the product from people that have English as their mother tongue, in other words people like us.
The survey also showed that poor spelling skills are having a direct effect on people's lives, with one in five admitting that they avoided handwriting documents because their spelling is so bad. Almost 60% confessed to relying heavily on spell check programs to avoid mistakes.
The participants were also invited to give little anecdotes involving bad spelling they had come across in their daily life.
One of them mentioned a press advertisement that appeared in their local newspaper for a private school in which they stated that they prided themselves on their “accademic excelence” (for those of who are directly affected by this “bad spelling epidemic”, it should read academic excellence).
Another example, involved a recruitment officer in a large company, who admitted that he had refused applicants job interviews, even if they fitted the job description, because there were spelling mistakes in their CV’s.
Now, what you have all been waiting for, the top 20 most misspelt words:
1. Questionnaire
2. Accommodate
3. Definitely
4. Liaison
5. Existence
6. Occurrence
7. Referring
8. Occurred
9. Millennium
10. Embarrass
11. Calendar
12. Receive
13. Necessary
14. Separate
15. Cemetery
16. Library
17. Accidentally
18. Independent
19. Occasionally
20. Receipt
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