Spellcheck Archives - Kris Spisak

Writing Tip 130: “To” vs. “Two” vs. “Too”

For the love of grammar, please get this one right, folks!

When we type quickly, our fingers sometimes get spelling amnesia. That’s my theory, and I’m sticking two too to it.

Take the time to edit yourself, and remember the spellings you learned a long, long time ago:

To – most commonly a preposition (e.g., from here to there; east to west; pedal to the metal)
Two – a noun or an adjective, what one plus one equals
Too – an adverb, meaning “also” or “extremely”

Are there more subtleties to these words? Sure. But we’re not getting into those here. Just remember the basics, and please don’t just rely on spell-check. Spell-check isn’t always your friend.

Writing Tip 54: Wreath vs. Wreathe

Some like to add ye olde character to the holidays – caroling, wassailing, and putting the yule log on the fire. I’m guessing that it’s in this spirit that people seem to misspell “wreath” as “”wreathe.” But this isn’t a word like “olde,” where you can add an “e” to create a pseudo-colonial, god-bless-ye-merry-gentlemen-of-yore vibe.

“Wreathe” isn’t just a quaint spelling of the holiday decoration or the floral headdress in your flower girl’s hair; rather, it’s the verb form meaning either to encircle or to decorate with a wreath. But you knew that already, right? I thought so. Just checking.

Writing Tip 27

Don’t overly rely on spell-check. For example, “manger” is a word. You might have meant “manager” on your resume, but spell-check isn’t going to save you. Sometimes you have to save yourself.