how to spell: misspelled and misspelt
misspelled and misspelt
Do you know the difference between misspelled and misspelt?
With the end pronunciation, misspelled has a /d/ sound, and misspelt has a /t/ sound.
They're both the past tense and past participle of misspell (which means to spell a word incorrectly)
The bride's name was misspelled in the newspaper. (British and American English)
The bride's name was misspelt in the newspaper. (British English)
In British English we can use either misspelled or misspelt.
American English just use misspelled.
So which is the correct spelling in these?
a. He mispelled my name again!
b. He misspelled my name again!
Spelling rules - prefixes, suffixes and root words
Misspelled is the correct spelling. (2 s's) It's often misspelled because people leave out one s forgetting that it's built with the prefix mis- mis + spell = misspell + ed = misspelled.
We can also use misspelt: He misspelt my name again! mis + spelt = misspelt (2 s's)
In British English, spelt is the past tense and past participle of spell. I spelt it right!
We also have the -t or -ed endings for past tense verbs in learnt/learned, burnt/burned, smelt/smelled, spilt/spilled, spoilt/spoiled.
spelled and the other -ed endings are used in American English and we can also use these in British English too.
To remember that misspelled and misspelt have 2 s's you need to remember how we build the word:
The root word is spell and when we add the prefix mis we get misspell with two s's. You can hear the two s's in the two syllables “mis spell” "suh suh"
Word family
So there are two s's in misspell and its word family.
mis + spell = misspell
mis + spell + s = misspells
mis + spell + ed = misspelled
mis + spell + ing = misspelling
mis + spell + ing + s = misspellings
mis + spelt = misspelt
Sentences
The name of the town was misspelled on the map. Or The name of the town was misspelt on the map.
People often misspell misspell.
Can you spell your name because I don't want to misspell it?
So the root word misspell and its word family have two s's because of the mis- prefix plus the spell root word.
Misspelled is usually the American spelling but British spelling can also use it and also misspelt.
