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50% Americans Can't Spell Simple Words...Can You?

by Tanya on February 12, 2009 at 11:09 AM Lifestyle News

A clear majority of America's adult population can't spell simple words like "embarrassed", "liaison" and "millennium"; a new study has found. For a nation that's known for verbal sparring, that's quite embarrassing (did I spell that right?)

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According to a study conducted by the London-based Spelling Society, 62 percent of the people find it hard to spell "embarrassed" correctly.

Almost 61 percent failed to spell liaison, while 52 percent misspelled "millennium".

Although American women emerged as better spellers, but members of both sexes struggled with words like "accommodation", "separate", "definitely" and "accidentally".

The study also showed that nearly 78 pct of the men surveyed were unable to spell "friend".

More than half of the women could not get "liaison" right.

Edward Baranowski, a linguist with California State University at Sacramento blames the nature of the English language for the decline.

"We have different spellings for the same sound, especially for vowels - silent letters, missing letters and a system which reflects how English was spoken in the 13th to 15th centuries, not how it is spoken today," The Washington Times quoted Baranowski as saying.

"So many sound changes have occurred in the language, which are not reflected in modern spelling, that we are left with a 'fossilized' system.

"Perhaps if English had had an effective language academy, such as those in France or Spain, this would have been mitigated over time," he added.

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50% Americans Can't Spell Simple Words...Can You?

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