Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006

Spelled.

misspelled

Teddy Roosevelt lead a spelling reform movement.  One
of the changes was substituting "t" for "ed" in many verb
forms.  The reform failed.

GFH

I don't say I'm "right" but I use "misspelled" as a past tense verb and
"misspelt" as an adjective.

Same for loaned and lent, passed and past...

Reminds me of a classic sign in Brisbane, Australia. I like to collect
photos of stupid spelling mistakes. Not typos, we all do those. But
examples of where a professional signwriter has been called in, paid,
and screwed up.

A painted sign advertising some shop "You've just past xxx shop"

My favorite, however, was "Aboregional Services Commission" in
beautiful gold leaf on an office window.

(For non-Aussies, what the guy meant to paint was "Aboriginal")

By far my biggest collection comes from Brisbane. We used to joke that
the sun rots the brain there. People down south in Sydney and
Melbourne, call people in Brisbane "banana-benders" as in "they put the
bend in the bananas for a living".

At what?  Scrabble?

The difference is that between Past Participle and Simple Past ("I have
misspelt it"; "I misspelled it").

As has already been pointed out, the Past Participle can be used
adjectivally ( <-- there's a word that is often misspelt).

... But lots of people misspell both, so don't worry about it.

It used to be that BrE used misspelt and AmE used misspelled.  But
those BrE irregular verbs have been invading here for 15 or 20 years,
replacing what were perfectly good regular verbs.

Others: leant (used to be leaned), learnt, and I can't think of the
others right now.

I never use misspelt; the correct American past tense, past participle,
and adjective is misspelled.

Cece

David