Misspellings

“OUR CONDOLANCES TO THE DEBAKEY FAMILY”

Misspellings, Nouns

I saw this yesterday on a flower-shop sign.

Problem:
The first noun is misspelled.

Explanation:
The flower-shop sign appeared yesterday in a Channel-11 local news report about the death of Michael DeBakey, M.D., a Houston medical legend.

C-O-N-D-O-L-A-N-C-E-S was on the sign in large, all-capital letters.

This noun is correctly spelled C-O-N-D-O-L-E-N-C-E-S.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following words (without the quotation marks) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “condolences” — 6,320,000 matches
  • “condolances” — 91,400 matches

This tells me that Web authors have written the word correctly vs. incorrectly by a ratio of 69.1:1, which is not too bad, especially given the fewer than one hundred thousand instances of the misspelling.

Solution:
“OUR CONDOLENCES TO THE DEBAKEY FAMILY”

“Surpress”

Common English Blunders, Mispronunciations, Misspellings, Verbs

I see this occasionally and hear this more often.

Problem:
This is a misspelling or mispronunciation of a verb.

Explanation:
“Surpress” — spelled S-U-R-P-R-E-S-S — is a mispelling or mispronunciation of the verb “suppress”, which is spelled S-U-P-P-R-E-S-S.

Given that the first “p” in “suppress” is not usually pronounced, I believe that many American English speakers do not realize that “suppress” is spelled with two “p”s.

However, given the tendency by some speakers to add an “r” to “uh” sounds — as in “idea” pronounced “idear”, or as in “Usher” pronounced “Ursher” — it is not surprising to me that “suppress” can become “supress” instead.

The verb “surprise” is yet another source of interference.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following words (without the quotation marks) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “suppress” — 18,400,000 matches
  • “surpress” — 121,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors have written the word correctly vs. incorrectly by a ratio of 152:1, which is very good but not excellent.

Solution:
“Suppress”

“Bouillon” vs. “Bullion”

Common English Blunders, Mispronunciations, Misspellings, Nouns, Versus

I saw each of these words in the past week and wondered about their origins.

Problem:
These two nouns are not synonyms but look so similar that some people will mistakenly use one of the nouns when they should use the other noun.

Explanation:
The noun “bouillon” — spelled B-O-U-I-L-L-O-N — means a clear broth made from straining water in which meat has been cooked. This noun dates back to the mid-sixteen-hundreds and is derived from the French verb that means to boil.

The noun “bullion” — spelled B-U-L-L-I-O-N — means silver or gold considered in mass (for example, in bars) instead of in value. This noun dates back to the mid-thirteen-hundreds and also can trace its origin to the word for boiling or bubbling — as in a melted mass of silver or gold.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following mistaken phrases (with the quotation marks) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “chicken bullion” — 18,300 matches
  • “beef bullion” — 14,700 matches
  • “gold bouillon” — 3,510 matches
  • “silver bouillon” — 1,280 matches

I call these “mistaken phrases” because I combined two words that should not go together based on the definitions of bullion and bouillon. These results tell me that Web authors are worse at properly naming their broths than they are at properly naming their masses of gold and silver.

Solution:
Use “bouillon” when referring to broth. Use “bullion” when referring to gold or silver.