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Weekly Grammar Tips

 

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Finding Typos That Spell-Checker Missed — Part II

 

The last issue of Weekly Grammar Tips received a great response, so I decided to write a sequel! This week I'll be adding to the list of common typos that spell-checker won't catch.

When we're typing at light speed, it's very easy to skip or transpose letters. Most of the time, these mistakes result in non-words that spell-checker immediately recognizes as errors. However, we sometimes leave behind legitimate words with totally different meanings than the words we intended to type. These typos are real words, so spell-checker doesn't recognize them as errors.

Here are some additional examples of these tricky typos:
 

● 

an  vs. and

● 

on vs.  one 

● 

are vs. area

● 

our vs. out

● 

bank vs. blank

● 

posed vs. posted

● 

bee vs. been

● 

provide vs. provider

● 

card vs. care

●  pubic vs. public
● 

choked vs. chocked

● 

quit vs. quite

● 

contact vs. contract

● 

rogue vs. rouge

● 

diner vs. dinner

● 

sacred vs. scared

● 

ever vs. every

● 

star vs. start

● 

feel vs. fell

● 

stated vs. started

● 

files vs. flies

● 

stop vs. stoop

● 

how vs. hot

● 

thing vs. think

● 

is vs.  it

● 

trail vs. trial

●  not vs. now ● 

who vs. how


More than anything, this list illustrates the importance of proofreading your writing—and not relying on your spell-checker! In the last issue, we discussed several proofreading techniques for spotting these types of mistakes. If you missed the last issue, you can read it here.

We're all pressed for time, which makes it difficult to re-read all the correspondence we send from our computers. However, if there's any chance that the recipient of your writing will be less than impressed with typos scattered throughout your e-mail message, it's crucial to proof every word before hitting the "Send" button.

 

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