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Never realised this spelling mistake was such a thing but now I notice it all the time! I've been living in Bogotá for a few months and I only realised I was s

Never realised this spelling mistake was such a thing but now I notice it all the time! I've been living in Bogotá for a few months and I only realised I was spelling Colombia wrong a couple of months in - pretty embarrassing. I now notice many if not most of my English-speaking friends make the same mistake when emailing/facebooking/whatsapping me and I try to correct them as I go. It appears Columbia is a reflex spelling of the sound of the word - I'm from the UK so haven't had that much exposure to the use of the word for the NY University, so I don't think that's the explanation in my case. Someone should make a website for this along the lines of amispellingcolumbiacorrectly.com -> NO to spread the word ;-)

RobAtticus 11y ago
A lot of Americans probably are used to spelling it Columbia because there are tons of towns/cities/roads named Columbus or Columbia here. That would unfortunately render your website idea mostly incorrect - for most Americans "Columbia" is the correct spelling of what they are trying to spell. It's really only the country and some towns in Latin America that spell it with an O. (The reflex spelling probably comes from the fact that most English speakers are primarily familiar with the English spelling of Christopher Columbus)
- Dylan16807 11y ago
  Since Columbia and Colombia are the same word, and we're speaking in English... I'm not convinced either is "right".
- davnicwil 11y ago
  > That would unfortunately render your website idea mostly incorrect I meant correct in the context of trying to spell Colombia, the country name, given that's what I was talking about - obviously the spelling Columbia is correct if you're referring to anything else which actually goes by that spelling..
jegutman 11y ago
My dad is from Bogotá so I probably notice it more. I do remember one time he was looking for some world cup gear and we went into a sports store and he thought they had misspelled "Colombia" because a hat had "Columbia" written on it.

RobAtticus 11y ago

A lot of Americans probably are used to spelling it Columbia because there are tons of towns/cities/roads named Columbus or Columbia here. That would unfortunately render your website idea mostly incorrect - for most Americans "Columbia" is the correct spelling of what they are trying to spell. It's really only the country and some towns in Latin America that spell it with an O. (The reflex spelling probably comes from the fact that most English speakers are primarily familiar with the English spelling of Christopher Columbus)

Dylan16807 11y ago
Since Columbia and Colombia are the same word, and we're speaking in English... I'm not convinced either is "right".
davnicwil 11y ago
> That would unfortunately render your website idea mostly incorrect I meant correct in the context of trying to spell Colombia, the country name, given that's what I was talking about - obviously the spelling Columbia is correct if you're referring to anything else which actually goes by that spelling..

jegutman 11y ago

My dad is from Bogotá so I probably notice it more. I do remember one time he was looking for some world cup gear and we went into a sports store and he thought they had misspelled "Colombia" because a hat had "Columbia" written on it.