Double Letter Jeopardy
I’ve been getting a bit confused over words recently. My I before E except after C rule found itself offended this morning by ‘science’ – not that I misspelt (or is that misspelled?) it, but I just sat there, and noticed its shiny defiance. Then I remembered that other bit of the chanted spelling rhyme – “I before E, except after C, when the sound goes gagaga, and in all of the exceptions, where you just have to know it”.
And then the double letters started cropping up. All day. They cropped up just now when I tried to type misspelt with a single internal ‘s’. Ever since I was repeatedly told to Never Eat Cakes Eat Salmon Sandwiches And Remain Young (Necessary) I’ve remembered to keep from that untidy looking double ‘c’. But these two threw me completely: Rec(c)ommendation, and Instal(l)ment. I mean – if you install something, surely it’s an installment? Garh!
And it goes the other way…who’d have thought “aggrieved” would need that double g? Odd, odd, odd.
The worst thing is, after all of this, all I want to reach for is a Diction(n)ary.