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60 Hard-To-Spell Words These People Deemed Impossible To Learn

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Every language has its tricks of the trade - the French are big on using all the letters they have in each word, only to actually spell two of them; the Germans are absolute champions in forming the longest words imaginable; while the Portuguese might make you think you weren’t born with the right set of vocal cords to correctly pronounce all of their words. As for English, well, although it might be the easiest language to learn - partly because there’s so much of it in most people’s daily lives - it does have a few tricks up its sleeve, too. Yup, we’re talking about hard words to spell, and the people on this Reddit thread (mind you, most of them are probably native speakers) have shared the English word spelling gems they cannot remember to this day.

So, what are hard words to spell that get these Redditors wishing for AutoCorrect or Grammarly every time they type? First off, there are the classics like ‘necessary,’ ‘definitely,’ and even the friggin’ ‘tomorrow.’ If they’re considered hard words for native speakers, then what about those of us for whom English is merely a secondary language? Should we be carrying a tiny little notebook with us at all times with these hard words to spell written down to check up on their spelling if need be? But wait, there’s also ‘bureaucracy,’ ‘renaissance,’ and ‘maneuvering,’ for god’s sake! Thankfully, though, commenters on this AskReddit were also kind enough to offer easy ways to remember these hard spelling words and their correct versions, so who knows, their spelling might be cracked one day after all.

Right, ready for a lesson in word spelling? Don’t worry, it’s also quite an amusing one, and if you struggle with these words, too, at least now you’ll know you’re not the only one!

This post may include affiliate links.

#1

EdgyGoose said:
"Necessary. I can never remember if it's two C's and one S or two S's and one C, or if it's two of each."

kpgirb replied:
"Somebody told me to think of this word as a T-shirt — one [C]ollar, two [S]leeves. It’s so dumb and I roll my eyes every time I spell necessary right. Ugh."

EdgyGoose Report

27points

ConstantlyJon 1 year ago

that's a spectacular word association that I will 100% use moving forward!

7points

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#2

User said:
"Diarrhea."

mikeyohh replied:
"I’m from the UK and we spell it diarrhoea (I’m not sure if it’s different in other countries).

I’ve always remembered it as ‘Dining In A Rough Restaurant, Hurry Or Expect Accidents’."

reddit.com Report

26points

Tatiya Rivendark 1 year ago

I remember working in a place with so many staff there was a "sick book". Basically, people who phoned in sick got logged in the book and the management reviewed it in the morning. There was one entry that was about four attempts to spell diarrhoea all crossed out and then just "runny poo" as the reason.

6points

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#3

Technical-Berry8471 said:
"Wensday."

clinicalneuro_nerd replied:
"I have to out loud say “Wed”, “nes”, “day” to get it right."

Technical-Berry8471 Report

23points

TheGoodBoi 1 year ago

Same with February lol

3points

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#4

User said:
"Winchester-fire sauce."

Lieb98 replied:
"Worcestershire sauce?"

reddit.com Report

22points

XenoMurph 1 year ago

Most people in UK just say Wuster Sauce. Or Wustershure if you are feeling fancy.

1point

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#5

"Naeacious... neacious... neasius...

Naw-shuss."

Abalone_Admirable Report

20points

Timothy Shallahamer 1 year ago

Nauseous, in American English, for those that don't know.

2points

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#6

First-Ad-5152 said:
"Rennasance? Renaissance?"

VarangianDreams replied:
"It's the same "re" as in "reawaken", "reapply", and "return", so no double consonants after. It's a re-naissance, not another nnaissance, which isn't a word in any language."

First-Ad-5152 Report

16points

Fat Harry 1 year ago

Easier when you realise what the word means: re-birth, re-naissance.

3points

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#7

"Entrepreneur. So many “e’s”."

Quirky_Mongoose_401 Report

16points

#8

"Conscious, sounds nothing like it's spelled."

16points

Tucker Cahooter 1 year ago

"Sounds nothing like it's spelled" sums up probably a quarter of all English words (more, if you include place names in England)

0points

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#9

"For a person who does not have English as a first language, the words wich, witch, with, though, thought, through."

nate36sat Report

15points

Donkey boi 1 year ago

As a native speaker of English, I understand. Although, you're not likely to use 'wich' unless you're heavy into your haberdashery. It's an old word for bundle of thread.

8points

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#10

"Manoeuvering.

I had to use the speech-to-text option on my keyboard to get it correctly."

Born-Sympathy-7625 Report

15points

Ace 1 year ago

Not helped by the fact that the American spelling leaves out the O and the noun and infinitive form in British English stick to the French ending, i.e. manouevre rather than maneuver,

7points

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#11

"I often misspell Mediterranean and Caribbean."

reddit.com Report

15points

#12

"Beutiful and nessessary, this biusiness keeps my guard up."

15points

Dead For A Bit They Them - Bio 1 year ago

For beautiful I just scream B (all the vowels I can think of) TIFUL

1point

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#13

"Hemorrhoids. Have to look it up every damn time."

matt314159 Report

15points

Fat Harry 1 year ago

Every damn time? How frequently does one write about hemmorrhoids?

5points

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#14

wheres_the_revolt said:
"Bureaucracy."

User replied:
"In German, that word sounds similar but is way easier to pronounciate. Bürokratie. F**k that eau."

wheres_the_revolt Report

14points

Brocken Blue 1 year ago

The blame for many of the stupidest spellings of English words can be laid directly on the French language’s “choose a vowel any vowel, then skip the rest” approach to pronunciation

5points

#15

"Ceiling.

Honestly, those stupid ei words get me every time."

reddit.com Report

14points

Katelyn Lynn 1 year ago

I before e except after c, except for weird, counterfeit, beige, neighbor, height, weight, etc. Sometimes I hate my language.

3points

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#16

HellYeahTinyRick said:
"Apparently, it’s “Definitely.” I swear to god no one can spell it correctly."

permacloud replied:
"Just remember it has "finite" in it. The rest spells itself."

HellYeahTinyRick Report

13points

Donkey boi 1 year ago

Spellcheck hits me up EVERY time I type it!

2points

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#17

Riq4 said:
"Onomatopoeia."

who-are-we-anyway replied:
"This is the exact word that would immediately cause me to lose in a spelling bee."

13points

Sami-Jo Ross 1 year ago

When I was in elementary school my teacher taught us to break it down into three letter segments, which made it significantly easier to spell (and I still use that method to this day).

0points

#18

ginga_balls said:
"Thorough."

Ergotnometry replied:
"I always put a u after the first o and then go back and delete it when it looks too long."

ginga_balls Report

13points

#19

"Reconnaissance.

Or destroy. I know perfectly well how to spell it but I typed "destory" twice in a row in a context where that was a very interesting mistake, and now my muscle memory won't forget it."

Cyborg_Ninja_Cat Report

13points

#20

"I often times have to double check if I'm using enough 'c's and 'm's in 'recommendation'."

Climinteedus Report

13points

Fat Harry 1 year ago

To commend something is to praise it. To re-commend something is to praise it again or to someone else.

4points

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#21

"Conciousness. Don't even know if that's spelled right. It gets even better when you negate it and make it an adverb."

Yami_Kitagawa Report

13points

Linda R 1 year ago

Left off an "s" before the 2nd "c". Consciousness.

0points

#22

uncertainusurper said:
"Excersize."

NSFAnythingAtAll replied:
"There’s definitely not a Z in it. Just remember, no sleeping in the gym."

uncertainusurper Report

12points

#23

ilovefanfictionz said:
"Nausea."

ccurlyism replied:
"You spelled it right!"

ilovefanfictionz Report

12points

#24

throwawaysadgurl69 said:
"Vacuum!"

EddieRando21 replied:
"Yes! I spell it many times a day and I can never remember if it's 2 Cs and 2 Us or 2 Cs and 1 U or 1 C and 2 Us."

throwawaysadgurl69 Report

12points

Ace 1 year ago

Helps if you enunciate the two Us separately, as is also done in continuum and a few other words, making it more like vac-you-um.

3points

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#25

"Occurred. 2 c’s, 2 r’s? Can never remember."

alilbored1 Report

12points

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#26

"Apparently, the cemetery has three e's and is not spelled cemetary."

Efficient_Heart_2760 Report

12points

Shankshaw Redeemer 1 year ago

I'm the same with this word.

0points

#27

"Sternocleidomastoid. Every time I try to vanish it from existence I fail, unlike all the other words that I have obliterated from reality."

Dystopian_Divisions Report

12points

Donkey boi 1 year ago

ctrl+c, ctrl+p. Sternocleidomastoid. See it's easy!

0points

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#28

"I can only spell "Mississippi" if I say it in Spanish in my head. No clue why."

Whisper2103 Report

11points

Brocken Blue 1 year ago

It’s all about the cadence: EM i-s-s-EYE-s-s-EYE-PEE-PEE-EYE

3points

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#29

"Approximately is the one I'm known to mess up a lot. Some countries I'm also useless at spelling, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua, Vanuatu, etc. My main problem is not spelling but typing, especially on mobile."

GamingPredator69 Report

11points

Fussy1 1 year ago

I've been asked if I'm lacking opposable thumbs after people read my mobile typing.

0points

#30

"Beleaguered. Had to google the spelling."

Useful_Ad_165 Report

11points

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#31

BCphoton said:
"Restaurant, idk why."

First-Ad-5152 replied:
"I never know where the damn "a" goes."

BCphoton Report

10points

Robert Trebor 1 year ago

And then it gets more confusing because the person who runs a restaurant is a Restaurateur (no 'n')

0points

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#32

HumpieDouglas said:
"Banana and bananas I have to sing 'It's bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S'."

alectromantia replied:
"Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani saved many of us from learning to spell Bananas. I sing it in my head every single time."

HumpieDouglas Report

10points

Apatheist Account2 1 year ago

You need this spelling for scale.

2points

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#33

knnss1 said:
"Not sure if it's center or centre."

ccurlyism replied:
"I think it depends on where you’re from but both work. kind of like theater and theatre."

10points

Apatheist Account2 1 year ago

America - center and theater. Everywhere else in the world - centre and theatre. And metric, centigrade and ddmmyy.

4points

#34

abdel_allim said:
"Unfortunately (I'm not a native speaker)."

Extesht replied:
"That could be considered unfortunate since English is extremely difficult to learn as a second language."

abdel_allim Report

10points

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#35

"Gorgeous. I always wanna spell goregous."

worm_mom Report

10points

Robert Trebor 1 year ago

goregous sounds like a synonym for bloody

0points

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#36

"Substantiation we actually use this one somewhat often where I currently work."

Taco_ivore Report

10points

#37

"Liaison. Which used to be in my job title argh."

rotatingruhnama Report

10points

LazyStream 1 year ago

I was analyst and couldn't spell that until I started thinking "a**l- yst"

0points

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#38

"Intussusception. Can’t spell it, can’t pronounce it, no matter how many times I try. Impossible."

Ants_in_my_hair Report

10points

#39

Toastand_beans said:
"Beautiful idk why but that’s it."

kpgirb replied:
"I think of the Bruce Almighty scene whenever I try to spell this."

Toastand_beans Report

9points

Andy 1 year ago

I used to always spell it incorrectly, until someone told me in highschool to think of "Elephants Are Ugly". 20 years later, that is still the first thing that pops into my head every time I write beautiful

1point

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#40

ElSenorOwl said:
"Tomorrow."

raebz12 replied:
"Grandpa taught me to look at it like a name. Tom Orrow."

ElSenorOwl Report

9points

Fat Harry 1 year ago

Or just to remember that "morrow" itself is a word, as in "on the morrow", and just as to-day used to be hyphenated, so was to-morrow.

3points

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#41

yParticle said:
"✓ four.
✗ fourty.
✗ forteen.

What the hell, man?"

_jamesbaxter replied:
"Is it, not fourteen??? Maybe in the US, it’s different? I’m in the US and my autocorrect says fourteen."

yParticle Report

9points

Fat Harry 1 year ago

I think the point the OP was making is the inconsistency. Four and fourteen, yet forty.

5points

#42

"Volcano. For some reason I always spell Vulcano."

JunkyJunooo Report

9points

Sami-Jo Ross 1 year ago

Lava long and prosper.

5points

#43

91NA8 said:
"Guarantee?"

User replied:
"My answer. I always remember it's spelled weirdly, but then forget if it's because there is a U or isn't a U. I hate it."

8points

Paul Pienkowski 1 year ago

Guaranteed. It looks weird even spelled right. Ugh.

1point

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#44

"Inconvenience...

which is honestly quite the inconvenience whenever I need to write out that stumping word."

smallemochick Report

8points

#45

"That town in Wales called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch."

reddit.com Report

8points

Never Snarky 1 year ago

Why would I want to spell it?

0points

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#46

Tonto811 said:
"A person that flies an airplane. I always struggle to spell that word for some reason."

ccurlyism replied:
"Pilot?"

Tonto811 replied:
"Yes, a pielot."

Tonto811 Report

8points

Ace 1 year ago

ITYM an aeroplane.

2points

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#47

"Medieval sounds so much like midevil to me."

reddit.com Report

8points

Huddo's sister 1 year ago

That's what it sound like when I hear Americans saying it on tv. I sometimes put in an extra i because it sounds like medi-evil

0points

#48

GobanToba said:
"Quite and quiet, not super hard to spell but I have to think about it every single time."

_daithi replied:
"Just remember that you drink (T)ea in silence."

GobanToba Report

8points

Robert Trebor 1 year ago

Quite.

0points

#49

"Fortunately.

I butcher this word so much that the autocorrect struggles to find the correct word so I have to google it lol."

toysoldier96 Report

8points

Stardust she/her 1 year ago

When autocorrect gives up on you

2points

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#50

"For some reason, I cannot spell phantom. Like every time I try to spell phantom I mess up. Let me try Fatom… factom… fantum… pantom… phatum.

GOD DAMMIT I JUST WON'T SPELL PHANTOM."

Euphoric-Gene-2188 Report

8points

CyanideCircus 1 year ago

That is my cats name 🐈

0points

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#51

"Michael. I usually transpose the “a” and “e” in my first attempt."

brettschip Report

8points

Zaddra 1 year ago

In Hebrew, El means God, so I just remember to put God at the end.

0points

#52

"Cinnamon. For some reason, I always type it with one n and an extra I where the A is. It’s not a hard word. My brain just never gets it."

scooterbaby46 Report

8points

#53

"Eichhörnchenscheiße.

Good luck with that to all non-natives."

ohneHonig Report

7points

BakedKahuna 1 year ago

Squirrelpoop

1point

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#54

"I would say neighborhood (even then I had to write it 5 times to get it right)."

Wazzapolo Report

7points

#55

"Gullible. I am usually good at spelling but can almost never remember how to spell this one. It should be easy but I try to put extra vowels in."

A_Salty_Moon Report

7points

Apatheist Account2 1 year ago

Apparently "gullible" isn't in the official dictionary...look it up...

1point

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#56

Criz_Chan06 said:
"Receive. For God's sake, I get it wrong 85% of the time."

_daithi replied:
"I before E except after C."

Criz_Chan06 Report

7points

#57

"Environment. I always get it to "environement"."

Common-Wish-2227 Report

7points

Apatheist Account2 1 year ago

Sorry, but that's just being lazy or uneducated.

-1point

#58

"Woolly. Always 100% of the time will write 'wolly'. And yes, I surprise myself with how much I use the word."

gainington Report

7points

#59

"Privilege. I want to put an I where an e goes and vice versa every time."

Imaginary_Attempt_82 Report

6points

Ace 1 year ago

Yes, I always have to remember its Latin roots, privi and lege for private law.

2points

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#60

"Psycho. Every damn time I see "physco". Like please for the love of God sound out what you just wrote."

"Just realized I'm more ranting about a word that's hard for other people. For me the first word that pops into my mind is occurrence. Sometimes I forget an r, sometimes I spell it with ance."

SirUntouchable Report

5points

leendadll 1 year ago

And while we're here, it's Psych!! Not "sike".

0points

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Aivaras Kaziukonis

Aivaras is a SEO listicles curator. Aivaras is a student trying to pave the way to his career in Marketing and advertisment creation. Also Aivaras like's to watch and play sports, especially football.

Aivaras is a SEO listicles curator. Aivaras is a student trying to pave the way to his career in Marketing and advertisment creation. Also Aivaras like's to watch and play sports, especially football.

Justė Kairytė - Barkauskienė

Justė is a copywriter here at Bored Panda, and though her studies at the Veterinary Academy seemingly have nothing to do with writing, the passion for animals and nature helps in creating the most interesting and engaging posts. She also works with Search Engine Optimization, so you could find Bored Panda's articles easier. Justė's not only an avid equestrian, but she's also a walking encyclopedia. Ask her anything!

Justė is a copywriter here at Bored Panda, and though her studies at the Veterinary Academy seemingly have nothing to do with writing, the passion for animals and nature helps in creating the most interesting and engaging posts. She also works with Search Engine Optimization, so you could find Bored Panda's articles easier. Justė's not only an avid equestrian, but she's also a walking encyclopedia. Ask her anything!

What do you think ?

Ace 1 year ago

Happenned. Damn, it's happened again.

2points

whineygingercat 1 year ago

Masquerade. The ONLY reason I can spell this correctly is because of The Phantom Of The Opera

1point

Sweet Taurus 1 year ago

Ornery. It's spelt nothing like it sounds in my head!

0points

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Ace 1 year ago

Happenned. Damn, it's happened again.

2points

whineygingercat 1 year ago

Masquerade. The ONLY reason I can spell this correctly is because of The Phantom Of The Opera

1point

Sweet Taurus 1 year ago

Ornery. It's spelt nothing like it sounds in my head!

0points

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