Commonly misused/misspelled words and phrases (Part 40)

Big surprise, here are some more commonly abused words:

Proceed vs. precede

Wrong: He proceded to cross the street.
Right: He proceeded to cross the street.
Wrong: She preceeded him across the street.
Right: She preceded him across the street.

The spelling of these two words seem to confuse many people, who spell both words as if they’re the same except for the first vowel. It’s not that difficult if you can remember “one E before and one E after” and that the O is followed by two Es.

Asterik vs. asterisk

Wrong: Be sure to footnote that point with an asterik.
Right: Be sure to footnote that point with an asterisk.

I’ve seen asterisk (rhymes with risk) misspelled (and heard it mispronounced) as asterik many times. (It seems to be mispronounced almost as often as “athalete.”) Be sure to include the second S both in your writing and in your pronunciation.

There are plenty more where these came from. Come back soon.

Mark.