10 Deliberately Misspelled Words

10 Deliberately Misspelled Words 10 Deliberately Misspelled Words 10 Deliberately Misspelled Words By Maeve Maddox If all English speakers left school having mastered English spelling conventions, the deliberate misspellings seen in movie titles and various products might not bother me as much as they do. As it is, I dread the effect of the relentless modeling of incorrect spellings in the marketplace. Here are ten of these deliberate misspellings. 1. Misspelling: Biutiful Correct: Beautiful Biutiful is the title of a 2010 movie starring Javier Bardem. The dialogue is in Spanish with English subtitles, but biutiful isn’t a correct spelling in Spanish either. 2. Misspelling: sez Correct: says Simon Sez is a 1999 comedy starring Dennis Rodman. 3. Misspelling: inglourious Correct: inglorious 4. Misspelling: basterds Correct: bastards Director Quinton Tarantino was asked more than once to explain why he decided to misspell the title of his 2009 movie as Inglourious Basterds. On one occasion, he called the misspelling â€Å"a Basquiat-esque touch.† On the David Letterman Show, he said the misspelled title â€Å"is a Quentin Tarantino spelling.† Correctly spelled, Inglorious Bastards is the English title of a 1978 Italian movie directed by Enzo G. Castellari. The Italian title is Quel maledetto treno blindato, â€Å"That Damned Armored Train.† Note: Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist who often misspelled words in his graffiti-esque drawings. 5. Misspelling: happyness Correct: happiness The Pursuit of Happyness is a 2006 movie starring Will Smith. The misspelling in the title replicates a misspelled day-care sign. This title is especially pernicious because it reinforces what is already a common misspelling. 6. Misspelling: genisys Correct: genesis The 2015 installment of the Terminator movies uses this misspelling as its title. 7. Misspelling: sematary Correct: cemetery The 1989 movie Pet Sematary is based on Stephen King’s 1983 novel of the same name. The misspelling in the title derives from a sign lettered by children. Like happiness, cemetery is a frequently misspelled word. 8. Misspelling: steemer Correct: steamer An early steam-propelled automobile manufactured by the Stanley Motor Carriage Company (1902-1924) was known as â€Å"the Stanley Steamer.† A carpet-cleaning company founded in 1947 adopted the name â€Å"Stanley Steemer† as a play on the well-known name for the car; the company cleans carpets with a process referred to as â€Å"steam cleaning.† 9. Misspelling: lite Correct: light Various companies use this spelling for products. Two examples are Miller Lite (a beer) and Lite-Brite (a light-box toy). Note: Brite is a nonstandard spelling of bright. 10. Misspelling: kreme Correct: cream Several words that begin with the sound /k/, but which are spelled with the letter c, are popular targets for misspelling. For example: Krispy Kreme, Rice Krispies. Bonus Misspelling: biskit Correct: biscuit A line of Nabisco snack crackers uses this misspelling: Chicken in a Biskit. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Rhetorical Devices for Rational WritingOne Fell SwoopPresent Participle as Adjective