Potrezebie! Nov schmoz ka pop ... :P And 'snooze' is spelt 'snooze', all right.

I always thought pepsi just looked strange...

I've always thought spicy should have an E

Twelfth - vowel/consonant ratio is all wrong. It looks more like a welsh word to me.

vacuum. weird. friend. English is a very weird language, because of those damned Normans who brought their Middle French to the British Isles in 1066!

And brought what little bit of culture and civilization to these savage lands they could. ;)

Tattoo - Why a double t?

Plenty of weird words in English, with "weird" being one of them. What happened to I before E except after C?

Try Featherstonehaigh... pronounced entirely differently!

Liaison. Always looks like it has one too many 'i's to me.

Dominic: Tatoo would be pronounced differently (excuse the informal pronunciation key), tuh-TOO. Also I vote that placenames from the British Isles be disqualified, they're just so bizarre.

Sword looks off if you stare at it long enough

The one I like is "eighth"... It has the hard "t" from "eight", but also the "th", it's as though it needs an extra "t": "eightth".

lieutenant, particularly given the pronunciation amount the less barbarous nations.

I always think separate looks wrong. I want to spell it seperate.

Using the example of Lieutenant, how about Colonel? Where's the R?

dialetheism

good words folks!

but i am surprised no one has said floccinaucinihilipilification

Always found Leigh annoying (pronounced Lee). Threw me for a loop when I first read Dan Brown, lol.

On the subject of throwing, why does "threw" and "through" sound the same? Hahaha. But if we remove the 'hr' from through, suddenly we have a ff sound.

I always spell immdeiately admediately, because that's how everyone pronounces it!

@DominicHJ

"Tattoo - Why a double t?"

Double consonants can be one of the hardest conventions for students to grasp and probably causes more errors than anything.

The way I remember how to spell words like 'Tattoo' is to double the consonant if the first vowel doesn't say its name (ie it is a long vowel)

Examples are:
Diner (long vowel, single consonant)
Dinner (short vowel, double consonant)
Coma (long vowel, single consonant)
Comma (short vowel, double consonant)

As with all rules, there are exceptions, but this one serves me quite well.

How about the name "Sean"?

@Alderian

Recent UK government guidance on spelling has stated that the 'i' before 'e' except after 'c' rule shouldn't be taught as there are so many exceptions. What they fail to realise is that many parents and grandparents can only remember this rule because it is so easy to remember. The rule still works well if you remember the exceptions, I put the exceptions to music [to the tune of 'we didn't start the fire'.

Eighteen, foreign, sovereign, heirs
Caffeine, protein, ancient, theirs
Reign, Rein, eight, weight
neither, either, weird, freight
vein, veil, beige, species
Forfeit, science, leisure, seige
neighbouring, glaciers, weigh
What else do I have to say?

I couldn't squeeze height into the rhyme, but I can remember that one. There are other exceptions, but all the required spellings for Key Stage 2 children are included in the peom/song.

There's a video on youtube if anyone wants to see it?

@Draugnar

"Liaison. Always looks like it has one too many 'i's to me."

This word always caught me out - fortunately I know a girl called Lia, so I now use the mnemonic 'Lia is on' when I need to spell Liaison.

@Cyrano: "I always spell immediately admediately, because that's how everyone pronounces it! "

Wow, these people you hang around with are morons that can't pronounce words!

@wydend

'I always think separate looks wrong. I want to spell it seperate.'

Just remember, there is 'A RAT' in separate.

@Lord Stark

'why does "threw" and "through" sound the same?'

Homophones are another area that cause students difficulty and there are no easy ways to learn some of them. As I understand it some homophone spellings were 'designed' to prevent confusion.

For example the words 'Place' and 'Plaice' existed in the aural sense long before they were written down.

The sentance 'I've got myself a nice plaice' would cause confusion if the spelling of 'place' and 'plaice' were interchangeable. But you know I was talking about a fish because of the spelling I used.

"sean" is Gaelic, the female name Siobhan is similar.
Twelve/twelfth is a real bugger, especially teaching it to 12 year old non native speakers

We used "FRI my friend to the very END" to remember how to spell FRIEND