bad speller

Meaning

1. 1nouncountable

   a person who often makes mistakes when writing words

   Grammar: Countable: use 'a bad speller' for one person and 'bad spellers' for more than one.

   Patterns

   • be a bad speller
   • a bad speller at something

   I'm a terrible speller, so I always use spell-check before sending an email.

   Teachers sometimes mistake bad spellers for careless students, but the problem is often just memory for letter patterns.

   She's a bad speller in English but spells perfectly in Spanish.

Word forms

Common combinations

a terrible/hopeless speller

He's a hopeless speller and avoids writing by hand.

be a bad speller

Don't worry if you're a bad speller; practice helps.

bad spellers and good spellers

The class mixed bad spellers with good spellers for peer review.

a poor speller

As a poor speller, she relies on her phone's autocorrect.

Synonyms and how they differ

poor speller

A softer, less judgmental way to say the same thing; 'bad speller' sounds more critical.

weak speller

Used mostly in schools to describe a skill level rather than a personal fault.

Opposites

Word family

spell verb

To write or say the letters of a word in the correct order.

spelling noun

The way letters are arranged to form a word, or the ability to do this.

misspell verb

To write a word with the wrong letters.

Commonly confused: bad speller or bad spelling?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “bad speller”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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