If you can't say something nice ...

At least say it correctly.

1. Definitely (not “definately” or the uber-egregious “defiantly”)
2. Personnel (personel, personell, personal, personnal … Please don’t.)
3. Truly (not truely)
4. Noticeable (not “noticable”)
5. Probably (not Probly or prolly)
6. Mischievous (not “mischievious”—the root is “mischief,” so I don’t want to hear you saying “mis-CHEE-vee-us)
7. Apparently (not “apparantly”)
8. a lot. (See the way I put a space between the two words? Now you try it.)
9. Memento (not “momento.”)
10. Library. Li•brar•y. Librrrrrrrrary. Rrrrrrrrrr. If you’re going to say “libary,” please punch me in the face first. Hopefully the dizziness will overshadow the auditory trauma.
11. Misspell (Oh, the irony.)

While we’re here, I’d like to state publicly that I am SO MAD at Merriam-Webster.com. The paper dictionary has always listed common variances of words. The online version does a far better job of keeping up with modern society, so these “variances” are added more frequently. These days, many of the words listed as variances are simply mispronunciations and misspellings of actual words. Take “espresso,” for example. I will probably never recover from the shock of seeing “expresso” listed as a variance. Yeah, it’s a variance. It’s a variance from the correct way to say the word.