Your First Semester Abroad: English Words Students Write Every Week

The exam is behind you. You got the score, the offer letter arrived, and the visa came through. Then the first week begins, and the English you need is not the English you practiced. Nobody asks you to describe a graph. Instead, an email asks you to complete your enrollment, confirm your accommodation, pay your tuition installment and submit your first assignment before the deadline.

These are small, practical words, and you will write them again and again: in emails to staff, on forms, in messages to classmates, in the first lines of your essays. They are also words that many confident English speakers misspell, because several of them hide a doubled letter or a vowel you cannot hear. Some of them even change spelling depending on where you study.

This guide is for anyone starting a degree in English, whether that means a university in Toronto, Manchester, Melbourne, Dublin, Auckland or Chicago, or an English-medium program closer to home. It walks through the words of a normal student week, shows which ones go wrong and why, and marks the places where American and British English part ways.

Week one: the words in your inbox

The first emails from a university are full of administrative words. Enrollment is the act of officially joining a course or a university. In American English it has two l's: enroll, enrolled, enrollment. In British, Irish, Australian and New Zealand English the usual forms are enrol and enrolment, with one l in the base word and in the noun, though "enrolled" and "enrolling" still double it. Canada generally follows the British form, though you will see both. Neither is wrong. They are two standards.

Registration is close in meaning and causes fewer problems, apart from the temptation to write "registeration". The noun drops the e of "register", so the middle is -str-. Orientation is the welcome program in North America. In the UK you will often hear "induction" or "welcome week" for the same idea.

Then comes tuition, the fee you pay for teaching. Learners often write "tution" because the middle i is barely heard in fast speech. Say it slowly, tu-i-tion, and the missing letter comes back. In the UK people more often say "tuition fees" than "tuition" alone, but the spelling is the same everywhere.

One word appears in nearly every first-week email: receive. "You will receive your student card on Monday." The i-before-e rhyme, "except after c", fits this word family: receive, receipt, deceive, ceiling. After c, the e comes first.

Accommodation and residence: two words with traps

If one word deserves its own section, it is accommodation. It has two c's and two m's, and it is one of the most misspelled words in English, for native speakers too. A memory hook that works for many people: the word is big enough to accommodate two of each. In British English, "accommodation" is the general word for where you live. In American English, people more often say "housing", and "accommodations" in the plural can also mean adjustments for a disability, as in "exam accommodations".

The other trap is residence. A residence is a place where you live; residents are the people who live there. The two words sound almost the same, which is why "halls of residents" and "student residance" appear on so many forms. The ending is -ence, as in "experience" and "independence".

The names differ by country. In the UK, student housing run by the university is usually called "halls of residence" or simply "halls". In the US it is a "residence hall" or a "dorm", short for dormitory. Canadian students often just say "residence".

Two more words from the housing office are worth a quick look. Deposit has an o in the middle, not an a; say it carefully and you will hear it. Guarantor is the person who promises to pay if you cannot. It ends in -or, like "sponsor", another word international students meet early.

The words of the classroom

The teaching itself has its own vocabulary, and here the differences between countries are as much about which word you use as how you spell it.

In the United States, the people who teach you are usually called professors, whatever their exact rank. In the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, most teaching staff are lecturers, and "Professor" is a senior title that only some of them hold. Calling a UK lecturer "Professor" is a common and forgivable slip, but it is better to check. Spelling matters here too: professor has one f and two s's. "Proffesor" is an error teaching staff notice at once, because it is about them.

A lecture is a large talk. A seminar is a smaller discussion group, and a tutorial is a small group or one-to-one session. The usual errors are mixing up "lecture" and "lecturer", and writing "seminer". The ending is -ar, like "grammar", another word that tempts people to write -er.

The units of study change names too. An American student takes a course within a program. A British student often takes a module within a programme. In British English, "programme" is the spelling for a plan of study or a television show, while "program" is kept for computer software. Usage in Australia and Canada varies by institution, so copy whatever your university writes.

The week is organized by a schedule in American English or a timetable in British English. The course outline is a syllabus, which starts s-y-l-l, with a y where you might expect an i. Its plural can be "syllabuses" or "syllabi", and both appear in university writing.

Assignments, deadlines and extensions

This is the vocabulary you will use most, and under the most pressure.

An assignment is any piece of work you are set. It keeps the g from "assign", even though you cannot hear it. Once you notice "sign" inside it, the g has a reason to be there, as it does in "design" and "signature". A deadline is one word, not two.

Submission has a double s, from "submit". The verb "submitted" doubles the t because the stress falls on the last syllable of "submit", the same rule that gives you "committed", "omitted" and "transferred". Our guide to consonant doubling in the middle of words explains the pattern in full.

An extension is extra time. It ends in -sion, not -tion, because it comes from "extend", just as "comprehend" gives "comprehension". Many universities have a formal process for asking for one, with its own name and its own form. Read your student handbook before you write the email, because a request in the right format is far more likely to succeed.

You will also see attendance, with -ance, and absence, with -ence. They are worth learning as a pair. The endings differ, you cannot hear the difference, and both words appear constantly in student emails.

Plagiarism, citation and the words of honesty

Within a week or two you will read about plagiarism: presenting someone else's words or ideas as your own. Universities in every English-speaking country treat it seriously, and their policies use a small set of words you will soon be writing in your own essays.

Plagiarism has a g, not a j, and an i straight after it: pla-gi-a-rism. The verb is "plagiarize" in American English, and "plagiarise" or "plagiarize" in British English. Citation is a reference to a source in your text, and its verb is cite.

This is where a homophone trap waits. "Cite" means to quote or refer to a source. "Site" is a place or a website. "Sight" is the ability to see. In an essay you cite a source, and a spell-checker will never tell you if you wrote "site" instead.

Reference, bibliography and paraphrase complete the set. Reference has one f and one r in the middle, then -ence. Bibliography is easier when you break it up: bib-li-og-ra-phy. Paraphrase has a ph only once, at the start of "phrase": para-phrase. Students writing academic English for the first time will find more words of this kind in our guide to the Academic Word List.

Money, scholarships and the records that follow you

Money words arrive in emails from the finance office and in your own applications for support.

A scholarship is money given for study, often on merit, and it is one word. A bursary, a word you will meet in the UK, is often based on financial need. A stipend is a regular payment, common for research students. When you pay in parts, American English writes installment and British English writes instalment. You will also deal with receipts, with a silent p, and invoices.

At the end of the year you will want a transcript, the official record of your courses and results. In the US your results are grades, and you may have a GPA, a grade point average. In the UK, individual pieces of work receive marks, and the final result is a degree classification. If you later apply between systems, use the word your reader uses.

Here are the American and British forms you are most likely to meet in your first semester, or your first term.

Pick the variety your university uses and stay with it. Mixing "enrollment" and "programme" in one email does no real harm, but it reads as untidy, and in assessed work some markers will notice. Our complete guide to British and American spelling covers the full pattern.

Why these words go wrong, and how to make them stick

Most of the words in this guide go wrong for one of three reasons. A letter is doubled and you cannot hear it: accommodation, submission, committed. A vowel is weak and you cannot hear which one it is: residence, attendance, seminar. Or a letter is silent, and only meaning explains it: assignment, receipt.

None of this means your English is weak. These are the same words native speakers misspell, for the same reasons.

The fix is not to read a list more often. Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke showed in 2006 that trying to recall information strengthens memory more than studying it again, even though studying again feels more productive. A large review by Nicholas Cepeda and colleagues, published the same year, found that spreading practice over several days produces better long-term memory than the same amount of practice in one sitting.

For spelling, that means hearing a word, writing it without looking, checking it, and coming back to the ones you missed on later days. It takes a few minutes, and it fits between a lecture and a seminar. This is what Spelling.School is built to do: you hear a word in a recorded American English voice, type it, see which letters went wrong and why, and the app schedules it for review with spaced repetition. British spellings are accepted as correct.

What to do this week

If you want to practice these words right away, Spelling.School has a list called University Life with the 47 words in this post's world, from enrollment and tuition to bibliography and dissertation. Add it to your daily practice, and each word comes back until you spell it without thinking.

Open your university inbox and read the last ten emails from staff. Every word in them that you are not sure how to spell goes on a short personal list, along with any word from this guide that made you hesitate. Twenty words is plenty to begin with.

Then practice those words from memory for a few minutes each day, and use them in real sentences when you reply to emails. Check the spelling of your lecturers' or professors' names against the course page and save them in your contacts exactly as written. If you are also writing your first essays, our guide to spelling for university students covers the words that cost marks.

If you would like the words read aloud and the reviews timed for you, Spelling.School has a free plan that stays free, with every review and three new words a day. By the time your first deadline arrives, "accommodation" and "assignment" will be words you no longer have to think about.

Questions people ask

Is it enrollment or enrolment?

Both are correct. "Enrollment", with two l's, is the American spelling. "Enrolment", with one l, is the usual spelling in British, Irish, Australian and New Zealand English. Canada generally follows the British form, though you will see both. Use the form your university uses in its own emails and documents.

How do you spell accommodation?

Accommodation has two c's and two m's: a-c-c-o-m-m-o-d-a-t-i-o-n. It is one of the most commonly misspelled words in English, including among native speakers. A popular memory hook is that the word is big enough to accommodate two of each letter.

What is the difference between a lecturer and a professor?

In the United States, the word "professor" is used for most university teaching staff. In the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, most teaching staff are called lecturers, and "Professor" is a senior title held by only some of them. If you are unsure, check the person's title on the university website.

Is it practice or practise?

In American English, "practice" is both the noun and the verb. In British, Australian and many other varieties, "practice" is the noun and "practise" is the verb, so you would "practise English" but "do some practice". Choose one variety and use it consistently in your writing.

What does extension mean at university?

An extension is extra time to submit an assignment after the original deadline. Most universities have a formal process for requesting one, and many ask for a reason and sometimes evidence. The word is spelled with -sion, because it comes from the verb "extend".

Should international students use British or American spelling?

Use the spelling of the place where you are studying, or the one your university uses in its own documents. American spelling is standard in the United States, and British spelling is usual in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Above all, be consistent, because a mix of both looks careless.

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