There's a word beginning with the letters H-I-N meaning something that holds you back or impedes your progress. For example, if you wanted to be a radio announcer, a severe stutter would certainly be a hin______.

So, what's the word? Did you say "hinderance"? Thank You!! So did I but apparently we're both wrong. Turns out there's no such word. The correct term is the two-syllable and highly-grating-to-the-ear (mine, anyway) "hindrance."

Now, really. If something hinders you, shouldn't it be a "hinderance"?

All my life I've been saying and writing this word incorrectly. I'm 52 years old and no one's ever called me on it until very recently (and, by way of sidenote, it was someone I was trying to dazzle with my language skills - Isn't that always the way?!) so what does this say? Is everyone as dim as I am on this particular point or have hoards and hoards of people simply been exceptionally polite to me over the years?


And, more to the point, are there other words, phrases, whatever that YOU mispronounced or misspelled for most of your adult life?

I'm only 21, but I've spelled "seperate" incorrectly pretty much my whole life. No one ever called it on me, until earlier this year I saw it on a list of commonly mispelled words. I guess Microsoft Word always auto-corrected it and I never noticed.

The problem is from my pronunciation of the word. I pronounce it like "seperate". Of course, I probably pronounce it that way because I'm used to see the incorrect spelling.

I've always heard it as 'hindrance' so have spelt it as such. I too had problems with 'separate', in that I always used to put the 'e' in first, realise it didn't look right and change it.

There's another word I really had to work at retraining myself to spell correctly, although I can't for the life remember what it was - and it's irritating the hell out of me! As I recall, I think I'd put a 'u' where there should be an 'o'.

Dammit - it almost came to me then. Can anybody put me put me out of my misery by miraculously guessing the word?

Not exactly a spelling point, as I spell it perfectly when writing, but I always seem to type 'remember' as 'remeber'. Nearly every time!

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I always seem to type 'remember' as 'remeber'.

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In a similar way I find myself typing "school" as "schhol" almost every time. Since I work for an organisation that inspects schools, that's a word I use a lot!

Quotes "... I always seem to type 'remember' as 'remeber'..."

"...Nearly every time!I find myself typing "school" as "schhol" almost every time..."

This is easy to put right in Word. Click on "tools", then on "autocorrect". Enter the word (or simply select it in your document when it will automatically appear) in the "replace" box and then enter the correct spelling in the "with" box. Word will then correct your error as you type.

Incidentally, you can use this feature to automatically reformat something as well. Say there is a word that you always want to appear in green, just enter it into the "replace" box in green and the change will happen automatically.

Nobody ever picked me up for mis-spelling fluorine until I was well into my Chemistry PhD. I was also disappointed to find it doesn't rhyme with chlorine, either.

However, I was told off quite badly for mis-spelling the word I pronounce as seprut so I always get it right now: it has something to do with the latin parare, apparently.

Richard,

I know it's a simple enough thing to put right. What annoys me is that I need to put it right in the first place!

Ditto for me for the word "separate". It's taken me a long time to break the habit of spelling it with three "e"s

For some bizarre reason, I always want to spell development with an extra "e" (developement)

And ditto for "argument," another one which has bedevilled me over the years especially since "judgement" doesn't drop the "e." I love the English language but no one ever said it was the most consistent form of communication in the world.

Which brings up "consistent/consistant" and "sentence/sentance" which are two other pairings I'm guilty of screwing up on a fairly regular basis. I searched for the incorrect "sentance" on this site and found two examples including one in which I also used the correct "sentence" in the same post.

I finally came up with the mnemonic device "It doesn't matter how beautiful she may be, for a woman to be a tEn she has to be able to spell." This works fine for these two words but it's probably screwing me up elsewhere.

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I'm guilty of screwing up on a fairly regular basis.

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Not to be critical, but curious.

Why is "on a regular basis" preferable to "regularly" ?

This is a phrase that I am seeing on an increasingly frequent basis.

Is it worthy of discussion here ?

First off, is anything not worthy of discussion here?

To me, the word "regularly" is not all that pleasing to the ear. The transition of the three vowel sounds resembles the sound (pardon the indelicacy) of a small amount of vomit rising in your throat. If humans coughed up furballs, I believe the sound of one coming up would probably pretty much resemble the word "regularly."

Also, "on a regular basis" takes the adjective "fairly" in a more smooth and easy-on-the-ear fashion than "fairly regularly."

It's been said W. C. Fields would never refer to someone as being "bumped on the head" when instead he could say (and often did) that the same unfortunate was "conked on the noggin." It's all a matter of personal preference, one ear to the next.

CJ, I see you're on. Check the private threads, please.

Back on CJ's original point, several words are not quite what you'd expect:

disastrous not disasterous
maintenance not maintainance

And, in British English:

humorous not humourous

(Also, in BE at least, judgement can be judgment. Some style guides make a distinction between the two words, one being the legal pronouncements of a judge, the other being the considered assessment of someone who is not a judge.)

And encumbrance not encumberance.

I always have trouble with "pronunciation" rather than "pronounciation."

Wasn't there a saying about "separate?" I seem to remember something about " a rat," but I am not sure.

I also get "accommodate" mixed with "accomodate." Usually one letter in a word is doubled, but not two (at least that's my rationale!).