Grace Mitchell

If you’ve ever typed busing or bussing and stopped to wonder which spelling belongs in your sentence, you’re not alone. The two forms look almost identical. Both are found in dictionaries. Both can be grammatically correct. The tricky part is that English uses them differently across regions and contexts. For most American writing about transporting … Read more

If you have ever stopped at attornies or attorneys while writing about lawyers you are not alone. The two forms look close enough to cause a quick spelling doubt. However the correct plural spelling is attorneys. The spelling attornies is incorrect in standard modern English. The reason is simple once you see the spelling pattern. … Read more

If you’ve ever typed using or useing and stopped to wonder which spelling looks right, you’re not alone. The two forms look almost identical, but only one is standard English. The correct spelling is using. Useing is a misspelling. The confusion comes from a common English spelling rule involving verbs that end in silent e. … Read more

If you’re unsure about bellies vs bellys you’re dealing with a very common English spelling pattern. The correct plural of belly is bellies. The spelling bellys is not the standard plural form of the noun. The confusion comes from the final y. Many English nouns simply take s when they become plural. For example, toy … Read more

If you’re unsure about shakey or shaky you’re not alone. The two forms look almost identical and sound the same in ordinary speech. That makes the extra e easy to overlook when you’re typing quickly. However, standard English uses shaky when you mean something that trembles, feels unstable, or seems uncertain. For example, you can … Read more

If you’ve ever stopped while typing and wondered if offered vs offerred is correct, you’re not alone. The two forms look almost identical, so the extra r can seem harmless. However, only one spelling belongs in standard English. The correct form is offered. It is the past tense and past participle of the verb offer. … Read more

If you’re wondering about puddy or putty you’re probably trying to describe a soft material used for repairs or filling small holes. In that case the correct word is putty. It’s the standard English spelling for a soft substance traditionally made with materials such as chalk and linseed oil and used to secure window glass … Read more

If you’re wondering about pricy or pricey you’re not alone. Both spellings appear in English writing and both are used to describe something that costs a lot of money. That makes this pair different from a simple correct versus incorrect spelling question. The key point is that pricey is the more common and widely recognized … Read more

If you’ve ever stopped while writing the word centre and wondered if center is the correct spelling instead, you’re not alone. Centre and center are both correct spellings. The difference comes mainly from regional English. Centre is the standard spelling in British English while center is the standard spelling in American English. The two forms … Read more

If you’re searching for dutchess vs duchess, the answer depends on what you’re trying to name. Duchess is the standard English word for a woman who holds the rank of duke or is traditionally the wife or widow of a duke. Dutchess is not the standard spelling of that title. However, Dutchess is a real … Read more