50+ Common Spelling Mistakes in IELTS Listening (and How to Avoid Them)
The words IELTS candidates misspell most often in the Listening test, grouped by pattern, with simple tricks to remember the correct spelling.
By BandListen · 12 October 2026 · 3 min read
In IELTS Listening, a word you heard correctly but spelled wrongly is marked wrong. Both British and American spellings are accepted (colour or color), but the word must be spelled correctly in one of them.
The good news: the same words come up again and again. Learn the ones below and you'll protect marks you've already earned.
Days and months
These appear in almost every Part 1 recording:
| Correct | Common mistake |
|---|---|
| Wednesday | Wensday, Wednesdey |
| Thursday | Thrusday |
| Saturday | Saterday |
| February | Febuary |
| August | Agust |
| September | Septembar |
Tip: say Wed-nes-day and Feb-ru-ary slowly in your head as you write.
Numbers written as words
If you write numbers as words, these are the risky ones. The easiest fix is to write numbers as digits.
| Correct | Common mistake |
|---|---|
| forty | fourty |
| ninety | ninty |
| eighth | eigth |
| twelfth | twelth |
| hundred | hundered |
Double letters
| Correct | Common mistake |
|---|---|
| accommodation | accomodation |
| address | adress |
| apartment | appartment |
| necessary | neccessary |
| committee | comittee |
| recommend | reccomend |
| embarrassed | embarassed |
| occurred | occured |
| beginning | begining |
| different | diffrent |
Tip: accommodation is big enough to hold two Cs and two Ms.
Silent letters
| Correct | Common mistake |
|---|---|
| environment | enviroment |
| government | goverment |
| Wednesday | Wensday |
| knowledge | knowlege |
| foreign | foriegn |
| receipt | reciept |
| guarantee | garantee |
| library | libary |
-ible / -able, -ance / -ence
| Correct | Common mistake |
|---|---|
| available | availible |
| responsible | responsable |
| suitable | suitible |
| convenient | convinient |
| independent | independant |
| attendance | attendence |
| reference | referance |
| maintenance | maintainance |
Words often heard in Part 1
These come up in bookings, enquiries and forms:
| Correct | Common mistake |
|---|---|
| restaurant | restaraunt |
| breakfast | brekfast |
| vegetarian | vegeterian |
| insurance | insurence |
| licence (UK) / license (US) | lisence |
| colleague | collegue |
| schedule | shedule |
| equipment | equiptment |
| parking | parcking |
| questionnaire | questionaire |
Words often heard in Parts 3 and 4
| Correct | Common mistake |
|---|---|
| research | reserch |
| experiment | experement |
| analysis | analisys |
| temperature | temprature |
| atmosphere | atmosfere |
| population | popullation |
| psychology | phsychology |
| technology | tecnology |
Don't forget plurals
A missing s is one of the most common reasons for losing marks. If the question says "The centre offers free ______" and you hear "free classes", writing class is wrong.
Before the recording, check whether the gap needs a singular or plural noun. Look for clues like a, an, many and several.
How to fix spelling mistakes for good
- Keep a personal list. Write down every word you misspell in practice and review it weekly.
- Practise dictation. Writing down whole sentences from audio trains your spelling and your listening at the same time.
- Practise with numbers, names and places, the words most likely to appear as answers.
BandListen does the first two for you: every lesson checks your spelling word by word, and the My progress page keeps a list of the words you missed so you can review them. Start a free lesson.