South Africa’s top 10 most misspelled words in 2026
· The South African
When it comes to South Africans, there are just some words that trip us up. Or rather, we tend to trip over the spelling of these words.
Much like they do with the latest slang words, Mzansinites turn to good ol’ Google for spelling assistance with certain terms and phrases.
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SOUTH AFRICA’S MOST MISSPELLED WORDS SPELLED OUT
According to the research experts at Unscramblerer.com, the fine folks of South Africa sought spelling help for 10 common words between 1 January 2026 and 8 June 2026.
To narrow this list down, the experts combed through search queries containing phrases such as “How do you spell” and “How to spell.”
Let’s spell out the top 10 words that South Africans needed the most help putting together in 2026, along with their search counts:
- Colour (124 800 searches)
- Favourite (85 200 searches)
- Beautiful (84 000 searches)
- License (72 000 searches)
- Weird (70 800 searches)
- Because (68 400 searches)
- Auntie (62 400 searches)
- Birthday (57 000 searches)
- Surprise (56 400 searches)
- Jewellery (55 200 searches)
THE SILENT ‘U’
The word ‘colour’ ranks high as a misspelled word in SA. Image: PexelsAs you can see, the top three culprits are “Colour”, “Favourite” and “Beautiful”.
In terms of the first two words being said out loud, the letter “u” is silent. Hence, it’s understandable that many opt for writing out the Americanised spelling, “Color”.
Irregular vowel sounds, says Randoh Sallihall, a spokesperson for Unscramblerer.com, also complicate matters. That’s the case for words like “Beautiful”, where a vowel or a set of vowels doesn’t follow the standard pronunciation rules.
MISSPELLED WORDS BY PROVINCE
The Unscrambler.com team’s findings also showed which words each province in South Africa seemed to struggle spelling, per Independent on Saturday.
Observe:
- Eastern Cape – Curious
- Free State – Definitely
- Gauteng – Beautiful
- KwaZulu-Natal – Quiet
- Limpopo – Weather
- Mpumalanga – Nervous
- North West – Tomorrow
- Northern Cape – Unfortunately
- Western Cape – Favourite
Well, we wouldn’t be surprised if the Western Cape and Gauteng were the ones drumming up the high search counts for “Beautiful” and “Favourite” in the first list.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Cape, KZN and Mpumalanga went for adjectives that also contain a silent “u”.
In the case of Limpopo, the word “weather” – with its equally silent letter “a” – showed up frequently. Though, given all the rain that has been occurring there recently, it’s no wonder why they’d be typing it out and probably in a hurry as well.
Do any of the commonly misspelled words that appear on these lists surprise you? Or do you feel like you need the aid of Google or an old-fashioned dictionary to spell them out? Sound off in the comments below!