Commonly misused/misspelled words and phrases (Part 44)

And now for even more commonly messed-up words:

Itch vs. scratch

Wrong: I spent all afternoon itching a mosquito bite.
Right: I spent all afternoon scratching a mosquito bite.

You scratch an itch, you don’t itch a bug bite.

Onwee or on-wie vs. ennui

Wrong: He suffered from a bad case of onwee.
Right: He suffered from a bad case of ennui.

It’s not surprising that so many people misspell ennui (which means weariness resulting from boredom; listlessness). It’s borrowed from French and isn’t spelled the way you’d expect an English word pronounced on-WEE to be spelled. But if you’re going to use the word, by all means spell it correctly.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for another thrilling episode, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel....

Mark.