‘Colour’ and ‘beautiful’ among the words most South Africans can’t spell
· Citizen
South Africa’s love-hate relationship with the English language has been laid bare by new research revealing the country’s most misspelled words of 2026. The word “colour” topped the list by a wide margin.
Word unscrambling experts at Unscramblerer.com analysed Google Trends and Ahrefs data from January 1 to June 8, 2026, tracking searches for “how do you spell” and “how to spell” across more than 120 spelling search variations.
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The research is particularly well-timed given South Africa’s recent spelling bee success. In April, South African students claimed the Africa Spelling Bee Championship title in Zimbabwe, ending Nigeria’s four-year reign as continental champions.
The team will carry that momentum to China in July for the global competition.
The words South Africans struggle with most
“Colour” generated 124 800 searches, making it the word South Africans reached for Google to spell more than any other.
“Favourite” followed with 85 200 searches, and “beautiful” came in third at 84 000.
Rounding out the top ten were “license” (72 000), “weird” (70 800), “because” (68 400), “auntie” (62 400), “birthday” (57 000), “surprise” (56 400) and “jewellery” (55 200).
The full list of 30 most misspelled words also included “definitely,” “weather,” “queue,” “business,” “tomorrow,” “neighbour,” “quite,” “received,” “bougie,” “gorgeous,” “croissant,” “necessary,” “honour,” “daughter,” “colleague,” “conscious,” “apologise,” “scissors,” “diarrhoea” and “unfortunately.”
Spokesperson for Unscramblerer.com Randoh Sallihall said the list was a window into the peculiarities of English orthography.
“Analysing South Africa’s list of most misspelled words for 2026, we found silent letters, irregular vowel sounds, tricky suffixes, difficult consonant blends, weird double letters, British spelling that uses extra letters, French loanwords that break every phonics rule,” Sallihall said.
Why English spelling is such a minefield
According to Sallihall, the research breaks down exactly what makes these words so tricky.
Silent letters alone account for a significant chunk of the most-searched words all contain letters that are written but never spoken.
Irregular vowel sounds present a separate challenge entirely.
According to Unscramblerer.com, words like “beautiful” (eau), “because” (au), “bougie” (ou), “gorgeous” (eo), “croissant” (oi), “diarrhoea” (oea), “weather” (ea), “received” (ei) and “favourite” (ou) all feature vowel combinations that defy standard phonics patterns.
“English spelling and pronunciation is often irregular,” the spokesperson noted.
Tricky suffixes also feature heavily. Words ending in constructions like -itely (“definitely”), -iful (“beautiful”), -ary (“necessary”), -eous (“gorgeous”), -ious (“conscious”), -ise (“apologise,” “surprise”), -ately (“unfortunately”) and -gue (“colleague”) are notoriously difficult to reproduce from memory alone.
Sallihall added that difficult consonant blends such as “queue,” “scissors,” “conscious,” “croissant,” “diarrhoea,” “neighbour” and “daughter” and double consonants, as seen in “business,” “tomorrow,” “necessary,” “jewellery,” “colleague,” “scissors” and “diarrhoea,” compound the confusion further.
How South Africa’s provinces spell it out differently
The research also identified the single most misspelled word in each of South Africa’s nine provinces.
Gauteng residents struggled most with “beautiful,” while those in the Western Cape most frequently searched how to spell “favourite.” KwaZulu-Natal’s most searched spelling was “quiet” and the Free State’s was “definitely.”
In the northern provinces, Limpopo residents reached for “weather” most often, while those in Mpumalanga struggled with “nervous” and North West with “tomorrow.”
The Eastern Cape’s most searched spelling was “curious,” and the Northern Cape’s was “unfortunately”.
Autocorrect and AI are making the problem worse
Beyond the quirks of English itself, Unscramblerer.com points to a growing digital dependency as a driver of spelling difficulties.
“Studies show that reliance on autocorrect and AI deteriorates the author’s spelling ability over time,” Sallihall said.
Sallihall encouraged South Africans to treat every moment of spelling doubt as a learning opportunity rather than simply accepting what autocorrect suggests.
“To combat this digital amnesia we encourage everybody to search for the correct spelling of the word when a feeling of doubt arises. This becomes an educational moment,” stated Sallihall. “As the saying goes, use it or lose it.”