Three shocking spelling errors spotted this month

A glaring spelling error can botch anything, and it seems like some marketers, broadcasters and other decision-makers might have been at the Christmas sherry a little bit early this year, with some extremely poor spelling slip-ups having made the recent news.

Here are three of the most cringe-worthy Christmas cock-ups we’ve seen this month:

1. Loose Women have a night-myrrh

Last week, I listed ‘myrrh’ as a Christmas-related word that’s often spelled wrongly. As if proving this point, there was some confusion on ITV daytime show Loose Women yesterday about the spelling of the word.

Co-presenter Janet Street-Porter, who was taking part in a festive spelling bee, was asked to spell the name of the incense. She did this correctly, but it appeared on the screen as ‘myrhh’ and she was told her effort was wrong. It was only later in the show that the mistake was cleared up.

2. Football club misspells its own name

Spelling errors can befall anyone, but it’s very important to get your own name right. Championship side Sheffield United are enjoying a decent season on the pitch, but they scored a bit of an own goal last week by not proofreading their official 2018 calendar.

Wen yor offishul calindar isn't pruferead #swfc pic.twitter.com/6dp1thxrxM

— SWFC Supporters Club 💙 (@swfcsc) December 8, 2017

Not surprisingly, it was fans of rival club Sheffield (two ‘f’s) Wednesday who led the mickey-taking.

3. B flies away in African plaque

Recent events in Zimbabwe have seen the African country feature heavily in the news, but one thing you might not expect of the proud nation is for it to get its own name wrong.

When looking at a newly unveiled plaque in his honour, new president of ‘Zimbawe’ Emmerson Mnangagwa was reportedly not impressed.

Daytime TV viewers, football fans and Zimbabwean presidents are a particularly bad set of people to annoy, but a spelling mistake impresses nobody. Why not shore up your spelling and grammar with our Freelance Writing for Businesses course?