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If you’ve ever paused mid-text and spent far too long trying to remember how to spell a word, you are not alone.
New research by word experts at Unscramblerer.com has revealed SA’s most commonly misspelt words of 2026.
While many South Africans continue to struggle with words such as “beautiful”, “weather” and “definitely”, Eastern Cape residents appear to be grappling most with the word “curious”.
The findings were based on Google search data between January and June this year, analysing searches beginning with phrases such as “How do you spell” and “How to spell”.
According to Unscramblerer.com spokesperson Randoh Sallihall, the data reflects several recurring features in English spelling that contribute to widespread errors.
“Analysing SA’s list of most misspelt words for 2026 we found silent letters, irregular vowel sounds, tricky suffixes, difficult consonant blends, weird double letters, British spelling that uses extra letters, French loan words that break every phonics rule.
“English spelling and pronunciation [are] often irregular,” Sallihall said.
Nationally, the word which caused the most confusion was “colour”, generating 124,800 online searches.
It was followed by “favourite”, with 85,200 searches, “beautiful” with 84,000 searches, and “license” with 72,000 searches.
At a provincial level, the Eastern Cape was the only region where “curious” topped spelling-related searches.
In Gauteng, the most frequently searched word was “beautiful”.
KwaZulu-Natal residents struggled with “quiet”, while their peers in the Western Cape often checked “favourite”.
Sallihall warned that growing reliance on autocorrect and AI might be weakening everyday spelling recall.
“Studies show that reliance on autocorrect and AI deteriorates the author’s spelling ability over time.
“To combat this digital amnesia, we encourage everybody to search for the correct spelling of the word when a feeling of doubt arises.
“This becomes an educational moment. As the saying goes, ‘use it or lose it’,” he said.
Language experts noted that many commonly misspelt words shared similar traits, including silent letters, unusual vowel combinations, confusing suffixes and double consonants that often tripped up even the most confident writers.
Other frequently searched words on the national list include diarrhoea, because, surprise, received, neighbour, business, jewellery and tomorrow.
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