If this is your first time learning English vocabulary, you may get confused when you find the word with a slightly hard spelling or even has the same structure. However, you’re not alone, in fact, many people who are just learning English vocabulary may also find it hard.
One of the example words that make it harder for people to distinguish its spelling is ‘Receive’ or ‘Recieve’. For some people, it may be complicated to find which the correct one is, since at first glance, the word looks the same. To know which the correct one is between ‘Receive’ or ‘Receive’, you can dive into our post below.
Which is Correct, ‘Receive’ or ‘Recieve’?
You may really know that ‘Receive’ or ‘Recieve’ is often misspelled. To help you avoid errors in your writing, you definitely need to know which one is correct.
In English Vocabulary, ‘Receive’ is the correct spelling of the word. Of course, ‘Recieve’ is incorrect spelling and not a word in English. Receive in English acts as a verb that means to get something usually by delivery.
Typically, the verb ‘Receive’ means ‘Get’, ‘Be the Recipient of’ and ‘Be Given’ something. This word is actually spelled with an ‘-ei-‘ after the ‘c’, making it ‘Receive’. Of course, the same also applies for related words like ‘Receiver’ or ‘Unreceived’.
Spelling Mistake of Recieve
In English, ‘Receive’ is a very common mistake and of course, people often make spelling mistakes in English due to the position of ‘i’ and ‘e’. In this case, the ‘i’ must come after the ‘e’. Of course, there is a famous rhyme in English which goes like this: ‘i before e except after c’. However, there are so many exceptions to this rule which it shouldn’t even be a rule.
Many people know that the words like ‘receive’ can be hard to spell since most words do follow the pattern ‘ie’ in English. The reason why people make the mistake of spelling ‘receive’ become ‘recieve’ is because ‘receive’ contains a long ‘ee’ sound.
Of course, it is often spelled with an ‘-ie-, for example: believe, achieve, relieve. However, ‘recieve’ is always an error. If you use this word, make sure to keep ‘i before e except after c’ spelling rule. Even though the rule is not perfect, but it actually works for ‘receive’ where the ‘-ei- ‘ follows a ‘c’.
Some Example Sentences of ‘Receive’
Correct | Error |
John receives my pay weekly. | Diana ‘recieved’ a Christmas card from his parents. |
Mrs. Susanne received a bunch of red roses on Valentine’s Day. | Did you recieve my letter? |
They are receiving your message loud and clear. | Mischa didn’t recieve your letter yesterday. |
Sassy received a bad leg injury from the fall. | He is recieving your message clear. |
President Barack Obama received the delegates in the Oval Office. | Donna recieves a bad hand injury from the fall. |
What is the Definition of ‘Receive’?
Receive is a verb which originates from French ‘receivre’ that came from Latin ‘recipere’. For the English version, it is close in spelling to the French one. Therefore, the correct form is ‘receive’, not ‘recieve’.
According to some internet sources, there are some definitions of ‘Receive’, including;
- to get or be given something
- to meet someone at arrival or to welcome officially
- to get a radio, television, etc. signal
- to show one’s feelings as a reaction to a situation or person
How to Remember: ‘Receive’ or ‘Recieve’?
Just like those words are easy and similar to misplace, there is also a special pneumonic which can be used to remember the ideal one. Well, the special pneumonic is the use of roman numerals. Here’s how it works:
Receive: The ‘iv’ after the ‘e’ actually represents ‘4’ in the roman numeral.
The best way to remember that ‘Receive’ with the ‘e’ before the ‘i’ is the correct spelling.
Other Misspelled Words
As we’ve mentioned, there are a number of misspelled words in English. Of course, many people who are just learning English get hard to distinguish them. In this post, we’ll show you a list of misspelled words in English that make it hard for people to distinguish them.
However, we will only show you some misspelled words that are commonly found in the sentence. Here are they:
granddaughter | definitely | questionnaire | parentheses | rambunctious |
tomorrow | queue | interesting | disguise | ceiling |
savvy | sandwich | daughter | possess | crochet |
absence | occurred | tasty | essay | secretary |
icy | beginning | embarrass | vicious | emphasize |
receive | hairdo | dying | verbiage | build |
access | committee | knowledgeable | mediocre | fabulous |
privilege | occasion | receipt | inconvenience | decent |
piece | personal | gorgeous | diarrhea | legit |
business | exercise | weekend | illiterate | doable |
liaison | warranty | ornery | eccentric | healthcare |
decision | awkward | drowned | especially | censored |
curiosity | ditto | evaluation | crucial | height |
license | disgusting | absolutely | attitude | brooch |
villain | occurrence | effervescent | congratulations | nosey |
kindergarten | cemetery | abandon | equilateral | weird |
truly | queasy | acknowledgement | genius | ethnicities |
personnel | until | guard | veterinarian | advise |
grateful | excellent | therefore | coordinator | everyday |
um | apologize | restaurant | sophomore | equivalent |
Why is Learning to Spell Important?
If you are learning English, learning to spell is an important part. Of course, knowledge of spelling is actually required for the writing components (Paper 1) and in Paper 2, with regards to English assessment in primary school. Well, it is especially so for the editing and the comprehension cloze sections.
When a child sees a word and is not sure of how to spell it, of course memorising how letters and parts of words sound, being able to make a link to other words that sound similar. However, understanding some spelling rules may be helpful to provide a more accurate answer.
In fact, many children get confused about whether to spell words with a long /ee/ sound with ‘ie’ or ‘ei’, e.g. ‘theif’ or thief’. Here’s a list of word with ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’:
‘ie’ | ‘cei’ |
Thief | Receive |
Belief | Perceive |
Believe | Deceive |
Achieve | Receipt |
sieve | Ceiling |
As you can see on the table:
- ‘thief’: there is no ‘c’ before the /ee/ sound, so, it’s spelled as ‘thief’.
- ‘receive’: there is a ‘c’ before the /ee/ sound, so it’s spelled as ‘receive’.
- ‘achieve’: there is a ‘c’ but it is not right before the long /ee/ sound, so it’s still spelled with the rule, ‘i’ before ‘e’: achieve.