Classic Errors and Helpful Hints

Sometimes a word sounds as though it contains another familiar word:

• There is no cocoa in a coconut.
• Bated breath has nothing to do with bait.

• Corridor is not related to door.
• Sacrilege has the i first and the e second, unlike religion.
• Abseiling is quite different from sailing.

Sometimes it is just part of another word that causes a mistake:

• Privilege has no d, unlike, e.g., knowledge.

• Attach and detach end in -ach, not -atch, unlike dispatch.

• A protuberance is something that protrudes; but it has no r after the t.

• Dissect has a double s, though bisect has only one.

• Psychedelic has an e after psych, unlike psychology.