In this alphabetical list you will find common German spelling mistakes committed by native speakers and non-native speakers alike. They are misspelled words that I have come across in my students' writing and words pulled out of Duden's * "101 häufigsten Rechtschreibfehler." At the beginning of this list, I've also included misspelling generalities that should be heeded. Please note that this is a list that I will keep adding to from time to time.


Newly added words will be italicized to make them easier to find.
_{*Duden: Deutsche Rechtschreibung und Grammatik – leicht gemacht, Mannheim: Dudenverlag, 2007.}

Words with ss/ß:
The voiceless s will appear as ß in a word if it follows a long vowel or dipthong (double vowels). For example: außerdem, fließen, die Straße.
The voiceless s will appear as ss in a word if it follows a short vowel.
For example: bisschen, muss, nass. See more in German Spelling Reform and Double-s Words.

Das/dass (the/that):
Even native speakers of German sometimes confuse das and dass. One simple rule of thumb is to insert the words dieses and welches and see if the sentence still makes sense. If it does, then das is the word. If it doesn’t fit, then the correct form will be dass .
For example:
Können Sie mir das (dieses) geben? (Can you give me that?)
Das Briefchen, das (welches) er mir geschrieben hat, war lang. (The letter he wrote to me, was long.)

Words with ver/fer:
Any word that is related to fertig will be spelled with "f" (abfertigen, die Fertigung.

) On the other hand ver is a prefix seen often in verbs (vergeben, verlieben, versuchen, die Vergangenheit.)

Other Common German Spelling Mistakes

See page 2

Adresse Definition: Addresse Often misspelled as: Addresse	Don’t think English, think French which is written exactly like in German.
außerdem Definition: besides Often mispelled as: ausserdem	Generally the s-sound is written as ß after long vowels and diphthongs.
Ballett, das Definition: Ballet Often misspelled as: Ballet, Balett	Once again, don’t confuse with the English version.
bisschen Definition: a little Often misspelled as: bischen	The general rule is that short vowel sounds accompanied with a sound s are written with a double s
derselbe/dasselbe/dieselbe Definition: the same Often misspelled as: der selbe	Sometimes you see the word separated into der selbe, due to the separate nature of selbe with other prepositions such as zur selben, im selben.
der Drache/ der Drachen Definition: der Drache - dragon der Drachen - kite;battle-ax Often misspelled as: either way	These words get frequently mixed up with one another. One way to remember the definitions easily: Drache has six letters and so does 'dragon.'
durstig Definition: thirsty Often misspelled as: dürstig	Before the Rechtschreibreform, the word dürstig was also acceptable, but not anymore. What is still allowed with umlaut is the word blutdürstig (bloodthirsty).
E-Mail Often misspelled as: E-mail, e-mail, email	Makes a huge difference how you spell this word, since das Email has nothing to do with electronic mail in German – it means enamel. Take note also that it is correct either way to say das E-Mail or die E-Mail.
erschreckt/erschrickt (Present tense of erschrecken They are both correct, the meaning determines which one. Definition: erschreckt (transitive): to scare someone erschrickt (intransitive): to get scared	Examples: Er hat ihn erschreckt. (He scared him.) Er erschrickt bei jedem kleinen Geräusch . (He gets scared from every little sound.)
hältst Definition: du hältst - you hold/are holding Often misspelled as: hälst	The first –t is hardly audible, but it is still there! The first –t is part of the word stem halt, which is kept in all conjugated forms of this verb: er hat gehalten; du hieltst /td>
gewöhnt/gewohnt Definition: gewöhnt - to accustom; to familiarize; to adapt/adjust to something gewohnt - used to doing/experiencing something Often mispelled as: either way	These words have a similar meaning, but still do not mean the same and should not be interchanged! Gewöhnt is a past participle and stems from die Gewöhnung (acclimatization/adaption/addiction/familiarization), gewohnt is an adjective, whose related noun is die Gewohnheit (habit). One marked difference between them is that gewöhnt will always be used with the preposition an, whereas gewohnt is used in conjunction with the accusative and the genitive cases. Examples: Ich bin gewohnt früh aufzustehen - I’m used to getting up early. Ich habe mich an diese Stadt gewöhnt - I’ve grown accustomed to this city.
insbesondere Definition: in particular Often misspelled as: insbesonders	Some people combine the words besonders and insbesondere into the incorrect form of insbesonders.
Interesse, das/interessiert Definition: interest/interested Often misspelled as: Interresse	If you make the double -r- mistake in English, you will most likely do it in German as well.
Ladys Definition: lady Often misspelled as: ladies	English words that have trickled into German do not follow the same plural rules: All German words of English origin that end in -y and change to -ies when pluralized in English, simply add an -s in German. Baby ->Babys, Pony -> Ponys. Beware of words that end in -ie already in English, such as Hippie. These words then have the same plural form in both English and German: Hippie -> Hippies.
Millennium, das Definition: millennium Often misspelled as: Millenium, Milennium	The word Millennium comes from the latin words mille and annos - therefore the double consonants.