Select the wrongly spelt words

Analyze the question: You are asked to find the word that is spelt wrongly. Check each option letter by letter.

Step-by-step check:

• A. occurrence is correct. It has a double "c" and a double "r": oc-cur-rence.
• B. surprise is correct. It is spelt with an "r" after the "su", then "prise": sur-prise.
• C. personnel is correct. It has a single "r" and a double "n": per-son-nel.
• D. posses is not the standard spelling of the word usually meant here. The verb "possess" (to own or have) needs a double "s" at the end and in the middle: pos-sess. "Posses" is a misspelling of "possess". (It does exist as a rare word, the plural of "posse", a group of people. But in this spelling-error question, it is the intended wrong spelling.)

Answer: The wrongly spelt word is D. posses.

Tip: Remember that possess has "ss" twice, so it has four s's in total: po-ss-e-ss. Similar tricky words include necessary (one collar, two sleeves: one "c", two "s"), accommodate (double "c", double "m") and occurrence (double "c", double "r"). Practise writing these out a few times and you will spot them quickly in the exam.