How to Avoid Common Spelling Mistakes when Writing a LifeGuide Hub Article

Step-by-Step Guide

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   Step 1: Watch out for homophones.

   These are words which sound the same, but are spelled differently: commonly confused on LifeGuide Hub are: allowed/aloud
   - allowed means permitted, whereas aloud has the same meaning as out loud bored/board
   - bored means to have lost interest; a board is a flat piece of wood break/brake
   - break means to damage, but brake is what you do to slow down a car or a bicycle new/knew
   - new is the opposite of old whereas knew is the past tense of to know past/passed
   - past is earlier in time; passed can mean that you did not fail a class or that you went by someone piece/peace
   - a piece is a part of something (it even has the word pie as its first three letters!); peace on the other hand means absence of noise or hostility sure/shore
   - sure means certain, but shore means the beach or coastline site/sight
   - site is the correct spelling when you mean the place where something sits
   - like a website! Sight on the other hand means something you can see. stairs/stares
   - stairs are steps; stares is a verb meaning to gaze intently steel/steal
   - steel is a metal, whereas steal means to take something that does not belong to you they're/their/there They're is a shorter way to say they are.
   
   Their is possessive
   - it's their fault.
   
   There is a place
   - over there. through/threw
   - through is a direction (as in straight through the door), but threw is the past tense of throw to/too/two
   - Two naughty boys who went too far went to jail. whether/weather
   - whether indicates a choice
   - whether or not, whereas weather means sun. rain, snow etc. which/witch
   - Which witch is the wicked witch? (apologies to all witch's!) whole/hole
   - whole means complete whereas hole means a gap or space where something is missing right/write
   - right means correct or the opposite of left, but write means to compose (words or music) your/you're
   - your is a possessive pronoun, and you're is a contraction, as in saying "You're really good at writing articles."
   
   it’s means ‘it is’ whereas its is the possessive form.
   
   Possessive pronouns his, hers and its are the only possessive forms which do NOT have an apostrophe
   - hence the confusion.
   
   The dog wagged its tail.
   
   Other than that, use an apostrophe where one or two letters have been missed out when a word has been contracted
   - eg. where is becomes where's.
   
   Plurals do NOT need an apostrophe.
   
   Plural possessives have the apostrophes after the s.
   
   The dogs' tails wagged in excitement. , So you talk about the effect of something, but affecting someone.
   
   Another easy way to remember this is affect = affection while effect = cause and effect. ,, The confusion comes from the contraction
   - would have becomes would've which sounds like ‘would of’.
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   Step 2: Use apostrophes correctly: it’s and its cause problems for many people.

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   Step 3: Be aware of noun and verb differences in words like: advice/advise advice is the noun whereas advise is the verb practice/practice practice is the noun and practice is the verb (in British English) affect/effect - affect is a verb

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   Step 4: effect is a noun.

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   Step 5: Watch out for words that look similar: dose/does of/off quiet/quite chose/choose lose/loose accept/except

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   Step 6: Take care not to write ‘of’ instead of ‘have’ after modal verbs such as would

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   Step 7: should

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   Step 8: may and might.

Detailed Guide

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