(KDVR/NEXSTAR) – Is the American-English version of the word spelled “canceled” or “cancelled”? Is Washington D.C. the “capitol” of the United States, or is it the “capital”?
Spelling is not always easy, some people might find themselves running to a search engine a few times a day to make sure the word they’re thinking of is actually spelled “aesthetic,” or if the “i” goes before the “e” in a word like “field.”
Google put together a map of which words each state had the most trouble spelling over the last year, with some surprising results.
What words are states searching for the most
Nine states were found searching for words with 11 or more letters, with the word “strawberries” being the longest misspelled word on the list in Idaho.
Two states — Wisconsin and Virginia — had trending searches for words with just four letters, with Wisconsinites asking Google how to spell “ally” and Virginians checking in to see how the word “said” is spelled, according to Google.
Texas and Arkansas seemed to be on a similar wavelength, searching for “physique” and “exercise” respectively.
A few states seemed to be confused about how to spell the names of their fellow states. Namely, Maryland got caught up on how to spell their neighbor to the north, “Pennsylvania.” Nebraska was unsure about “California,” and Utah struggled with “Mississippi.”
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania needed to know how to spell “mountain,” California searched the most for how to spell “pretty” and Mississippi asked about the word “nervous.”
Hawaii struggled the most with spelling the name of another country: “Philippines.”
When it came to military ranks, America was particularly confused about how to spell “colonel,” with that word trending in both North Carolina and Arizona.
It was also unclear if New Hampshire searched for the word “tortured” the most over the last year because of the pop star Taylor Swift’s newest album “The Tortured Poets Department” or for another reason.
Other spelling searches
Americans had a few questions about which spelling of a word is the right one, like “color,” which is more popular in the U.S., and “colour,” which is the standard spelling in countries like the United Kingdom and Canada.
Another highly searched-for comparison was “capital” vs. “capitol.”
“Capital” is a city or town where the seat of government is, while a “capitol” is the building that the government meets in. For example, Washington, D.C. is the capital of the United States, while the U.S. Capitol is in Washington, D.C.