One of my biggest grammatical peeves of all time is the misspelling of the word definitely (frequently spelled “definately”). And, as if to taunt me and throw me into one of my many grammar-induced epileptic fits, it’s everywhere! In emails, Facebook statuses, Twitter updates, IM conversations… just all over the place. Guess what? It’s definitely incorrect.
Here, my dear friends, is where pronunciation makes the world of difference. There’s no ‘a’, so let’s not “ate” anything. It’s definitely – deff-in-it-lee, or even deafen-it-lee (if my version of phonics fails to do the job, you can feel free to listen to the pronunciation of definite – it’s ok, I won’t be offended). Either way, the syllable is it, not ate. You see, when you say “definATEly”, you write “definately” – and we can’t have that happening, now can we?
Let’s play spot the error – how many offenders will you catch today? Go ahead and share the link if you’re too shy to correct them 
