With 25% of IELTS Writing scores determined by vocabulary, spelling is clearly a real concern for IELTS candidates. While a few spelling errors will be overlooked, too many will bring down the score for Lexical Resource. Spelling mistakes can also seriously affect IELTS Listening scores.

As it’s not possible to memorise the spelling of every English word, it makes more sense to identify the words most likely to be (a) used in IELTS and (b) misspelled.

There are already many lists of common spelling errors online, but here I’ve selected words likely to occur in the Academic modules of IELTS. Rather than simply list the most common mistakes, I’ve attempted to highlight errors by type, so you can pay more attention to the underlying rules.

Single and double consonants

Spelling mistakes are common when single or double consonants occur nearby in a word.

A single consonant is followed by a double consonant:
Across, Process, Harass, Disappoint, Recommend, Tomorrow, Professor, Necessary

A double consonant is followed by a single consonant:
Parallel, Apparent, Exaggerate, Occasion, Occur (but Occurred), Commit (but Committed)

Some common words with two pairs of consonants:
Success, Possess, Access, Assess, Address, Accommodation, Embarrass, Millennium

Weak vowel sounds

Some words are difficult to spell because they contain the schwa or [ə], a weak vowel sound. It is almost impossible to know how to spell such words from their sound alone.

Examples of words containing more than one schwa include:
Separate (adj.), Definite, Desperate, Temperature, Literature, General, Relevant, Category

Other problematic schwa words include:
Describe, Decline, Despite; but Dispute, Discrete, Display
Capable, Achievable, Understandable; but Possible, Visible, Accessible
Performance, Attendance, Ignorance; but Independence, Sentence, Existence

Sometimes the schwa sound conceals a barely-pronounced [r]:
Opportunity, Pursue, Persuade, Surprise

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