Arguement or Argument Spelling Lesson

It’s time for an exciting new installment to our commonly misspelled words lesson series! Today we will be hashing out a tip to remember the arguement vs. argument spelling quandary.

What is the right way to write this word, for when we want to talk about a disagreement or quarrel, or a line of reasoning meant to convince someone something? Allow me to draw upon my twenty years as an English teacher — and lifetime as an artist — to hand-illustrate a way for you to remember, just as we did for “Begining vs. Beginning”…

“Arguement”

The verb “argue” has an “e” at the end, so many people assume that you just slap a “-ment” after it to create the noun “arguement.” Nope!

In fact, “arguement” (with an “e” in the middle) is a misspelling and should never be used. It is a figment of the imagination, like “aquire,” and should similarly be hurled into the trash, never to be seen again.

Spell Argument Correctly

So how do we remember that the correct spelling is “argument?” Conjure up the vision of my illustration, above, in which an anthropomorphized “E” cartoon yells: “There can only be ONE of us in this argument!”

You can also bring to mind my drawing, above, which lays out the visual cue of the second “E” erasing the first, but also shows another memory trick, similar to our “Beleive vs. Believe” lesson. “ARGU-MENT” is spelled correctly when it has exactly four letters in the first half (“argu”) and the four letters in the second (“ment”): perfect balance.

If you add in the “E” in the middle, it throws off that balance — so make sure to eliminate it! (Note that this is the opposite of our “Ninty or Ninety” spelling rule.)

Arguement vs. Argument, in Sum

I hope this hand-illustrated lesson on arguement vs. argument has been helpful. What would you like me to illustrate next, besides “Peice vs. Piece?” Do share!