10 Words Nigerians Commonly Misspell

1. “Goodluck.”This is probably the most misspelled
word in Nigeria today. The reason is obvious: it’s the
first name of Nigeria’s current president, Goodluck
Jonathan. But there is no word like “goodluck”–or, its
other variant,badluck– in the English language; there is
only “good luck”–and “bad luck.” Good luck denotes an
auspicious state resulting from favorable outcomes, a
stroke of luck, or an unexpected piece of good
fortune. That someone would be named “Good
Luck” (which has now been rendered “Goodluck” in
error) is itself evidence of insufficient familiarity with
the rules and idiomatic rhythm of the English
language.
2. “Defination.”There is no letter “a” in the spelling of
that word. Replace the “a” with an “i” to
have“definItion.”Related misspelled words
are“definAtely”instead of “definitely,”“definAte,”
instead of “definIte,” etc.
3. “Alot.”That is not an English word. The closest
resemblance to that word in the English language is
the phrase “a lot.” Since no one writes “alittle,” “afew,”
“abit,” etc, it is indefensible that people write “alot.”
But this is a universal spelling error in the English-
speaking world; it is not limited to Nigerians. Other
cousins of this spelling error are“Infact”instead of “in
fact” and“inspite”instead of “in spite.”
4. “Loose/lose.”Many Nigerians use the word “loose”
when they actually mean to write “lose.” Loose is
commonly used as an adjective to denote the state of
not being tight (as in: loose clothes). Other popular
uses include the sense of being casual and
unrestrained in sexual behavior (as in: loose women),
lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility (as in:
“Goodluck Jonathan’s loose tongue”). Although “loose”
can sometimes be used as a verb, “loosen” is the
preferred word to express the sense of making
something less tight or strict. “Lose,” on the hand, is to
cease to have, or to fail to win, or suffer the loss of a
person through death, etc. A safe bet is to choose to
err on the side of “lose” when you want to express an
action.
5. “Priviledge.”There is no “d” in the spelling of that
word. It’s spelled “privilege.”
6. “Nonchallant.”It’s actually spelled with only one
“l.” Unfortunately, even news reports in Nigerian
newspapers habitually spell the word with double “l.” I
wonder if they’ve disabled their spell check.
7. “Grammer.”There is no “e” in the word. Replace
the pesky “e” with an “a” to have “grammAr.” I’ve read
posts on Nigerian Internet discussion forums and on
Facebook railing against “bad grammer”! Well, if you
feel sufficiently concerned about bad grammar to
write about it, you’d better damn well know how to
spell grammar! To be fair, this misspelling isn’t
exclusively Nigerian, but its regularity in popular
writing in Nigeria qualifies it as a candidate for this list.
The people I have a hard time forgiving are those who
attend or attended secondary schools with “grammar
school” as part of their names (such as my old
secondary school, which is called Baptist Grammar
School) but spell “grammar” with an “e.” I see that a lot
on Facebook. Such people deserve to be stripped of
the certificates they got from their high schools!
8. “Proffessor.”The name for the highest ranking
position for a university academic (in British usage)
and any full-time or part-time member of the teaching
staff of a university (in American usage) is never
spelled with double “f.” It’s correctly spelled
“professor.” So if “proffessor” is wrong,“proff”is
equally wrong. The British and Canadian colloquial
abbreviation for “professor” is “prof.”
9. “Pronounciation.” Although the verb form of this
word is “pronounce,” it changes to “pronunciation”
when it nominalizes, that is, when it changes into a
noun. Note that there is no “o” after the first “n” in the
word.
10. “Emanciated.”It should correctly be spelled
“emaciated.” There is no “n” in the word. This
widespread spelling error in Nigerian written English is
the direct result of the way we (mis)pronounce the
word. An “n” sound almost always intrudes on our
pronunciation of the word, much like it does in our
pronunciation of “attorney,” so that most Nigerians
say “antoni-general” of the federation. A related
misspelling is“expantiate.”It should be “expatiate.”
There is no “n” after the first “a.”


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words-nigerians-commonly.html