11 — Spelling & typos developers get wrong

What this fixes for you: the small misspellings that slip into commits, PRs, and Slack — “grammer”, “reaseach”, dropped or doubled letters — plus the texting habits (“u”, “ur”, “plz”) that make professional writing look rushed.

The rule in 30 seconds

• A few words get misspelled by almost everyone: separate, definitely, recommend, occurred, necessary, receive, environment, parameter, maintenance. Learn these as fixed shapes — don’t sound them out.
• i before e, except after c (recieve → receive, beleive → believe).
• Doubling rule: short stressed words double the final consonant before -ing/-ed (run → running, occur → occurred) — but open → opening (not stressed on the last part).
• Spell-check is not cheating. Turn it on in your editor and your PR/Slack box; let the machine catch what your eyes skim past.

Why this trips you up

You write fast all day — commits, standups, review comments — and the same slips repeat: “grammer” for grammar, “reaseach” for research, plus texting shortcuts (“u”, “ur”) leaking from your phone into work. Typing speed is good; the fix is a 2-second re-read and spell-check, not slowing down. None of these mean you don’t know the word — they’re muscle-memory typos, and muscle memory is easy to retrain.

See it / fix it

❌ What you tend to write	✅ Correct	Why
can u do reaseach on grammer for me	can you do research on grammar for me	”grammar” ends in -ar; “research” is re-search; spell out you
ur branch is out of date	your branch is out of date	”ur” is texting; write your
plz review thx	please review, thanks	”plz/thx” are chat shortcuts, not PR English
this seperate module	this separate module	there’s a rat in sep-a-ra-te
definately a bug	definitely a bug	it’s finite inside: de-finite-ly
recieve the webhook payload	receive the webhook payload	i before e except after c
the error occured on retry	the error occurred on retry	double the r: oc-curr-ed
recomend merging	recommend merging	one c, two m: re-comm-end
set the enviroment variable	set the environment variable	don’t drop the n: environ-ment
missing paramter in the call	missing parameter in the call	para-meter, like a measuring meter
this is depricated, dont use it	this is deprecated, don’t use it	depre-cated (not “depri”); add the apostrophe in don’t
async call is asyncronous	the call is asynchronous	a-syn-chro-nous (has “chron”, like chronology)
db dependancy needs updating	db dependency needs updating	ends in -ency: depend-ency

Patterns to remember

The dev-writing “always misspelled” wall. Pin these where you can see them:

Word	Hook to remember it
separate	”there’s a rat in separate”
definitely	hidden word finite
recommend	one c, two m
occurred / occurring	double c, double r
necessary	one c, two s — “one collar, two sleeves”
environment	keep the n before -ment
parameter	a “meter” measures a parameter
length / strength	-ength, not -enght
succeed	two c, two e (but “success”, “successful”)
beginning	double the n before -ing
until	one l at the end (not “untill”)
maintenance	-enance, not “-ainance”

i before e:

• Yes: believe, achieve, retrieve, field.
• After c, flip: receive, deceive, ceiling.
• (Real-world exceptions exist — “weird”, “seize” — but the rule covers the words you type most.)

Doubling before -ing / -ed (one short stressed syllable → double):

• run → running, set → setting, commit → committed, refer → referred.
• But NOT when stress isn’t on that syllable: open → opening, offer → offered, enter → entered.

Words that sound alike — don’t swap them:

Word	Means	Dev example
which	the relational one	”the branch which broke CI”
witch	Halloween	(never in a PR)
parameter	a function input	”pass the timeout parameter”
perimeter	a boundary length	(geometry, not your API)
a lot	two words, “many"	"fixed a lot of typos”
alot	not a word	✗

In your daily writing

• Commits: “fix: handle null parameter in webhook receive handler” — re-read the subject line once; a typo there is permanent in history.
• PR titles/descriptions: turn on your editor’s spell-check for Markdown. “Separate the environment config” reads as careful; “Seperate the enviroment config” reads as rushed.
• Slack standups: write you, your, please, thanks in full. “plz check ur PR thx” is fine with a friend, not in a team channel.
• Code comments: // receive the response, then retry if it occurred to fail — comments live in the codebase forever; spell them like docs.
• Tickets/bug reports: “Definitely reproducible — the error occurred after the asynchronous call.” Clear spelling makes the report trustworthy.

Drills

Fix the spelling/word issue in each (some have more than one). Don’t peek at the key.

1. Fix this Slack message: “can u do reaseach on grammer for me”
2. Fix: “this needs a seperate enviroment for testing”
3. Fill the blank: “I before E except after ” — and spell the verb for “to get a payload”: re_.
4. Choose A or B: The error (A) occured (B) occurred during the async retry.
5. Fix: “I definately recomend we merge this”
6. Fill the blank: commit → commi____ (add the -ed form).
7. Choose A or B: We need to pass the (A) parameter (B) perimeter to the function.
8. Fix the texting style: “plz review ur branch thx”
9. Fill the blank: open → ____ing; run → ____ing (mind the doubling rule).
10. Fix: “this api is depricated and the dependancy is old”
11. Choose A or B: The branch (A) witch (B) which broke CI.
12. Fix all the typos: “the maintainance window will continue untill the migration succeds”

---

Answer key

1. “Can you do research on grammar for me?” — spell out you; research (re-search); grammar ends in -ar; capitalize the first word and add a question mark.
2. “this needs a separate environment for testing” — separate (“a rat”); environment keeps the n.
3. except after C; receive — i before e, but flip after c.
4. B — occurred — double the c and r before -ed.
5. “I definitely recommend we merge this” — definitely (hidden “finite”); recommend (one c, two m).
6. committed — short stressed syllable doubles the t before -ed.
7. A — parameter — a function input; “perimeter” is a boundary length.
8. “Please review your branch. Thanks!” — full words, capital first letter, full stop.
9. opening; running — “open” isn’t stressed on the last part, so no doubling; “run” is, so double the n.
10. “this API is deprecated and the dependency is old” — deprecated (not “depri-”); dependency ends in -ency; “API” is uppercase.
11. B — which — relational word; “witch” is Halloween.
12. “the maintenance window will continue until the migration succeeds” — maintenance (-enance); until (one l); succeeds (two c, two e, plus the -s).

---

Part of the Developer English course — see 00-index.md.