Definitely Not Definately
Sorry to go off on a rant here, but I’m so tired of seeing the word “definitely” misspelled. There is no “A” in the word. I can’t believe how many people misspell the word. I find it funny when spell checkers suggest “defiantly” and the author accepts. Anyway, if I can help just one person to start spelling “definitely” correctly with this post, I’ll be happy.
February 6th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Hi Matt. You’re definately right. Can’t believe people can’t spell definately. People like that should definately invest in a spellchecker.
February 11th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
You know I don’t see that one misspelled as much… the one that bothers me the most is “calendar”. I seem to find it spelled “calender” way too often.
March 27th, 2008 at 11:39 am
it really annoys me when i see misspelled words that are easy and commonly used. i see “definately” OFTEN. calendar is one, also occurrence, absence, acceptable, whether, February, weird…the list goes on. sadly, i see these misspelled words in novels, too.
May 10th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
i don’t know who you are but i just discovered that it’s spelt definitely and am completely shocked, i always thought it was definately!
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:29 am
I have always been really good at spelling, but this is the ONE word in the English language that I have consistently spelled wrong for years without even realizing it, and so now the correct spelling just looks wrong and weird to me. I actually prefer the spelling definately, even tho I now know it’s wrong (by the way, I spelled “though” wrong on purpose. I am an advocate of at least limited spelling reform, starting with the dropping of “gh” where it is not pronounced). I guess I’ll just have to start getting used to spelling it definitely.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I’m generally an excellent speller, but this one trips me up every so often. My guess to the reason people mix it up has to do with mispronunciation, or maybe they mix it up with defiantly.
July 30th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
this bothers me too.
along with effect/affect, accept/except, there/their/they’re, and most of all the idiots to type K-N-O-W for “no”
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:30 am
Amen, Matt. This gets on my nerves like nothing else, and even some of my educated friends make the “definately” mistake, as well as the errors Josh mentioned. Did everyone but us sleep through English classes?
When in doubt, always look for the root word – anyone ever heard of “finate?” ;oD
September 6th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Definitely..remember the word FINITE is in definitely and it won’t be so difficult to remember how to spell it correctly. I find that learning the root and the origin (fin) of many words aids me in remembering the correct spelling.
I also hate when people spell congratulations “congradulations”. Again..learn the root and the origin and you’ll get the spelling right.
September 28th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
me and my girlfriend are the most stubborn people you can find. I constantly tell her that it’s spelled definitely. but she insisted its spelled definately. the worst part is most of her friends think its spelled definately also. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA
November 12th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
hi there, thank you for clearing this up because i always thought it was written as “definately”, even though i know that one spells the origin as “finite” – i thought it might be one of those cases where english has a certain rule with so many exceptions. and with everything that i have written here, i hope everything has been spelled correctly.
keep well
November 20th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
i thought is was spelt ”definetly”, did’nt know it was ”definitely”…ok, thanks for the knowledge…
November 21st, 2008 at 11:54 pm
As the daughter of two overeducated grammarians and grand daughter of four overeducated grammarians, I literally convulse when I see the word spelled incorrectly.
March 17th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
ive been spelling it as “Definately” my whole life and only started questioning it 5 mins ago….i simply used to think that there are two spellings for it but after checking a couple of websites (sad, i know but im a spelling nazi) turns out that it’s actually definitely
i feel like such a fool coz ive actually been correcting ppl when they spell it as definitely lol
March 17th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Definitely being spelled incorrectly is one of my biggest pet peeves. Also it’s surprising how many people spell tomorrow wrong.
April 2nd, 2009 at 3:51 am
Definately is the English spelling. And seen as you lot speak English, maybe you should use it?
April 25th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Your write. I cant beleive people are sew stupide!
Ha.
I have a t-shirt that says ‘Good grammar turns me on’
April 30th, 2009 at 6:09 am
I always thought it was the ‘a’ version, I guess it’s never too late to learn something new, huh? as well as the there/they’re/their mistakes, I hate the your/you’re mistakes. eg – “Your awesome!”. I’m always like “My awesome what??” haha.
May 5th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I just finished writing a comment to another site, read my comment and I had this funny feeling about the word definately… So I thought: “let’s ask google.” And that’s how I ended up reading this blog…
I cannot ‘undo’ the other post but I’ll definitely never forget this mistake.
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
I believe the common error is due to the word being pronounced with a subtle hint of the following phonetic:
“De-fi-nut-lee”
If you haven’t had it drilled into you, or were asleep in English lessons, then it’s just natural to feel uncomfortable with the second letter “i”. “Definutely” looks awful, but “Definately” (”De-fi-nat-lee”) is more plausible.
The random placement of apostrophes always amuses me, but I admit I do have that strange (yet mild) gut feeling of unease when I see misuse of effect/affect and the less common accept/except. And yes, “definately” is just plain annoying. I’ve seen it so often that I found this page while checking to see whether it was deemed an acceptAble spelling in America!
July 15th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Wow… none of my teachers ever even corrected me
I’ve been spelling it ‘definately’ my whole life!
This is shocking
July 29th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
‘Definitely’ is the most commonly misspelt word in the English language according to the Daily Telegraph. I’m overwhelmed by how frequently I see it misspelled. I don’t understand how people can go through their lives misspelling such a common word. Quite apart from English lessons at school, don’t people read books and newspapers as adults and come to realise they’re spelling it wrongly?
In addition to some people’s confusion between ‘their’, ‘there’ and ‘they’re’ and ‘your’ and ‘you’re’, already commented upon above, another common mistake which annoys me is the misspelling of pique, as in ‘piqued my interest’, as peak or peek. Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh.
But the mistake that really gets my goat is that more and more people seem to be saying ‘I could care less’ when they mean ‘I couldn’t care less’ or ‘I could not care less’. It’s simply wrong; they don’t seem to realise they’re saying the opposite of what they think they’re saying.
August 17th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Google gives 116 million hits for “definitely”, with “definately” way behind at 13.4 million. There’s still hope!
By the way, can you imagine anyone spelling “infinaty”. No, most people are completely unconscious of their language.
September 6th, 2009 at 6:50 am
Your, You’re
Break, Brake
Steak, Stake
To, Two, Too
No, Know
Receipt, Reciept
Weird, Wierd
They all annoy me.
October 27th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Let’s look up the definaytion. “realise”? Glass eyes.
November 19th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
you realize people like to spell words based off how you pronounce something, so definately stop complaining, it’s hardly something to get a hardon about
November 28th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
I too make the same mistake. I often do when i text message, t9 entry spells it out both ways which made me wonder and then of course…. google it. Now I am here writing this.
December 28th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Heyy All,
My hubby claims to be a ” SPELLING EXPERT” , he keeps correcting my spellings and pronounciation ( which obviously annoys me to death!!!) I am so happy I caught this | definately | mistake of his and could show him this blog as a proof
thanks all