Words that have caused me the most trouble, here in their proper forms (mostly according to the Oxford dictionary):
- adviser
- Afghans
- Aids
- Al Jazeera
- Al Qaeda
- almost – not ‘most.
- always
- Antichrist
- any more – always two words.
- anyone – one word when it means the same as anybody.
- anyway
- archaeology
- as, like – Use like to compare nouns, as to begin a clause.
- ASEAN
- Ashkenazic
- atom bomb
- Authorized Version
- Benetton
- Berne
- between you and me – me always follows prepositions.
- BlackBerrys
- blacks – the dark-skinned people from Africa and Australia.
- Bombay
- bookshop – not bookstore.
- bottom – not butt, bum, ass, arse or rear end.
- burka
- Burma
- Calcutta
- Caltech
- Caribbean
- cinema – not movie theater.
- Colombia
- communist
- Condoleezza Rice
- defence – not defense.
- dependant – one who is dependent.
- dependent – depending on something else.
- dialog box – when talking about computers, otherwise dialogue.
- disc – like a compact disc.
- disk – like a hard disk.
- DJ
- Dostoevsky
- dot-com
- East Timor
- embarrass
- encyclopedia
- estate car – not station wagon.
- film – not movie.
- first-hand
- first lady
- forever – one word
- full-time
- gender, sex – sex is physical, gender social or grammatical.
- ghettos
- gram – an ounce is 28.35 grams.
- guerrilla
- hairdos
- halfway
- harass
- hare-brained – not hairbrained.
- hectare – equals 2.47 acres.
- heroes
- Hezbollah
- hip hop
- Hispanics
- home-grown
- home page
- Internet
- Ivory Coast
- jewellery
- kilogram – a pound is 0.4536 kilograms.
- kilometre – a mile is 1.609344 kilometres.
- kilowatt – a horsepower is 0.7457 kilowatts.
- Koran
- Kyrgyzstan
- Lao-tzu
- licence – noun
- license – verb
- lie, lay – In the present you lie down or lay yourself down. In the past you lay down or laid yourself down.
- lifetime
- litre – a gallon is 3.785 litres.
- Mac OS X
- Maccabees
- Madras
- madrasa
- maize – not corn.
- make-up – what women put on their face.
- may, might – see style guide on the subjunctive.
- Maya – noun, meaning the language or people
- Mayan – adjective
- medieval
- Mediterranean
- metre – a foot is 0.3048 metres.
- Michelangelo
- millennium
- millilitre – one fluid ounce is 29.57 millilitres.
- misspell
- mobile phone – not cellphone or handphone.
- Moguls – once ruled India.
- Muhammad
- Musharraf
- Muslim
- NASA
- Native Americans
- NATO
- Neoplatonism
- New Year’s Eve
- New York Times – “the” is not part of its name.
- north-east
- north-west
- occurred
- oestrogen
- off – not off of.
- offered
- outgun
- part-time
- Pashtuns – they speak Pashto.
- perform
- Philippines
- preferred
- principle – a guiding idea
- privilege
- proceed
- program – on a computer; otherwise it is programme.
- prostitute – not hooker
- R & B
- recognize
- referred
- Romania
- saditty
- Samarkand
- sceptic
- Second World War
- shall – no hard and fast rules. Use it where it sounds natural.
- Shia – refers to a sect of Islam.
- Shiite – a believer of Shia Islam.
- short cut
- soft drink – not soda, pop, coke or even fizzy drink.
- south-east
- south-west
- sprang – is the past tense, but it is have sprung.
- supersede
- Tajikistan
- Taliban
- Tao-te-Ching
- Tatars
- taxi – not taxicab or cab.
- telephone – not phone.
- television – not TV or telly.
- the Gambia
- T.I. – the rapper
- towards
- tsar
- Turkestan
- Turkmens
- Tutankhamen
- UNESCO
- Unix
- up to date
- URL
- VH1
- video game
- Vietnam
- Virgil
- Wahhabi
- Wal-Mart
- Web, the
- web page
- website
- whom – The uses of this word are changing. Use it only where it sounds natural.
- Wi-Fi
- yogurt
– Abagond, 2007.
See also:
Abagond 
why is ivory coast a troublesome word for you?
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Because some write it as Côte d’Ivoire.
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