O

occasionally
Writers occasionally tire of doubling so many consonants and omit one, usually one of the [l]s. Don"t you ever do it.

occurrence
Remember not only the occurrence of double double consonants in this word, but that the suffix is -ence, not -ance. No reason, just the English language keeping us on our toes.



P

pastime
Since a pastime is something you do to pass the time, you would expect a double [s] here. Well, there is only one. The second [s] was slipped through the cracks in English orthography long ago.

perseverance
All it takes is perseverance and you, too, can be a (near-)perfect speller. The suffix is -ance for no reason at all.

personnel
Funny Story (passed along by Bill Rudersdorf): The assistant Vice-President of Personnel notices that his superior, the VP himself, upon arriving at his desk in the morning opens a small, locked box, smiles, and locks it back again. Some years later when he advanced to that position (inheriting the key), he came to work early one morning to be assured of privacy. Expectantly, he opened the box. In it was a single piece of paper which said: "Two Ns, one L."

playwright
Those who play right are right-players, not playwrights. Well, since they write plays, they should be "play-writes," wright right? Rong Wrong. Remember that a play writer in Old English was called a "play worker" and "wright" is from an old form of "work" (wrought iron, etc.)

possession
Possession possesses more [s]s than a snake.

precede
What follows, succeeds, so what goes before should, what? No, no, no, you are using logic. Nothing confuses English spelling more than common sense. "Succeed" but "precede."

principal/principle
The spelling principle to remember here is that the school principal is a prince and a pal (despite appearances)--and the same applies to anything of foremost importance, such as a principal principle. A "principle" is a rule. (Thank you, Meghan Cope, for help on this one.)

privilege
According to the pronunciation (not "pronounciation"!) of this word, that middle vowel could be anything. Remember: two [i]s + two [e]s in that order.

pronunciation
Nouns often differ from the verbs they are derived from. This is one of those. In this case, the pronunciation is different, too, an important clue.

publicly
Let me publicly declare the rule (again): if the adverb comes from an adjective ending on -al, you include that ending in the adverb; if not, as here, you don"t.



Q

questionnaire
The French doing it to us again. Double up on the [n]s in this word and don"t forget the silent [e]. Maybe someday we will spell it the English way.



R

receive/receipt
I hope you have received the message by now: [i] before [e] except after . . . .

recommend
I would recommend you think of this word as the equivalent of commending all over again: re+commend. That would be recommendable.

referred
Final consonants are often doubled before suffixes (remit: remitted, remitting). However, this rule applies only to accented syllables ending on [l] and [r], e.g. "rebelled," "referred" but "traveled," "buffered" and not containing a diphthong, e.g. "prevailed," "coiled."

reference
Refer to the last mentioned word and also remember to add -ence to the end for the noun.

relevant
The relevant factor here is that the word is not "revelant," "revelent," or even "relevent." [l] before [v] and the suffix -ant.

restaurant
"Ey, you! Remember, these two words when you spell "restaurant." They are in the middle of it.

rhyme
Actually, "rime" was the correct spelling until 1650. After that, egg-heads began spelling it like "rhythm." Why? No rhyme nor reason other than to make it look like "rhythm."

rhythm
This one was borrowed from Greek (and conveniently never returned) so it is spelled the way we spell words borrowed from Greek and conveniently never returned.



S

schedule
If perfecting your spelling is on your schedule, remember the [sk] is spelled as in "school." (If you use British or Canadian pronunciation, why do you pronounce this word [shedyul] but "school," [skul]? That has always puzzled me.)

separate
How do you separate the [e]s from the [a]s in this word? Simple: the [e]s surround the [a]s.

sergeant
The [a] needed in both syllables of this word has been pushed to the back of the line. Remember that, and the fact that [e] is used in both syllables, and you can write your sergeant without fear of misspelling his rank.

supersede
This word supersedes all others in perversity. As if we don"t have enough to worry about, keeping words on -ceed and -cede ("succeed," "precede," etc.) straight in our minds, this one has to be different from all the rest. The good news is: this is the only English word based on this stem spelled -sede.



T

their/they"re/there
They"re all pronounced the same but spelled differently. Possessive is "their" and the contraction of "they are" is "they"re." Everywhere else, it is "there."

threshold
This one can push you over the threshold. It looks like a compound "thresh + hold" but it isn"t. Two [h]s are enough.

twelfth
Even if you omit the [f] in your pronunciation of this word (which you shouldn"t do), it is retained in the spelling.

tyranny
If you are still resisting the tyranny of English orthography at this point, you must face the problem of [y] inside this word, where it shouldn"t be. The guy is a "tyrant" and his problem is "tyranny." (Don"t forget to double up on the [n]s, too.)



U

until
I will never stop harping on this until this word is spelled with an extra [l] for the last time!



V

vacuum
If your head is not a vacuum, remember that the silent [e] on this one married the [u] and joined him inside the word where they are living happily ever since. Well, the evidence is suggestive but not conclusive. Anyway, spell this word with two [u]s and not like "volume."



WXYZ

weather
Whether you like the weather or not, you have to write the [a] after the [e] when you spell it.

weird
It is weird having to repeat this rule so many times: [i] before [e] except after...? (It isn"t [w]!)