New research has revealed the most commonly made grammatical errors as well as the words most likely to be misspelled in the English language.
The study carried out by writing service Edubirdie analysed more than 500,000 words from essays submitted in each quarter of 2020.
Incorrect spelling took the crown for the most common mistake, averaging at 4.2 spelling mistakes every 1000 words.
Steve Finan, The Courier’s English language expert and Oh My Word columnist, says the rise of social media has seen a reciprocal plummeting of English language standards.
“People no longer see English mistakes as embarrassing in the way they once did.
“We’re communicating in the written word more than ever before in history.
“Yet standards have dropped to the point where much of this written communication is in the form of little yellow plooks!
“Emojis are taking the place of proper words. Punctuation is a lost cause.
“Language has to evolve but it is not at the moment. It is devolving down the way. It is changing for the worse.”
Among the top 10 words most likely to be spelled incorrectly were receive (recieve), successful (succesful), definitely (definately), tomorrow (tommorow) and even which (wich).
The survey also revealed incorrect apostrophe use and comma splice as common errors.
Can you spell? Take our quick test
Then check your answers below the image to see how you did.
Question 1: somewhere to live
a) accomodation b) accommodation c) acommodation
Question 2: having ambition to win
a) competitive b) competetive c) competiteve
Question 3: bright pink
a) fuschia b) fuchsia c) fucshia
Question 4: one thousand years
a) millenium b) millennium c) milennium
Question 5: very very small
a) miniscule b) minniscule c) minuscule
Question 6: strip of solid material for construction
a) baton b) batten c) batton
Question 7: treat with a vaccine
a) innoculate b) inoculate c) inocullate
Answers
1. b 2. a 3. b 4. b 5. c 6. b 7. b