A couple of days ago, I was reading the comments related to an Internet article listing food that packs on the pounds (is there really anyone out there who still doesn’t know that cream-filled doughnuts and buttered mashed potatoes could be the reason that the number on the scale keeps getting higher?), and I came across the chose/choose spelling error.
Choose rhymes with lose, cruise, and booze (I know, I know, English is full of spelling inconsistencies), as in I lose my temper, A cruise to ANYWHERE would do me a world of good, and Is it too early in the day for a little booze? It does not rhyme with loose; loose has a soft –s sound; choose has the –z sound. I choose my battles wisely.
The past tense of choose is chose, which rhymes with close, sews, and snows. She chose her maid of honor by pulling a name out of a hat.
Sherry
Paul’s book–Literally, the Best Language Book Ever;
Everything Language and Grammar 
FYI: Here’s my list words that are often wrong.
Ceasar / Caesar
Seperation / Separation
Capuccino / Cappuccino
Expresso / Espresso
And, in Canada, we spell most words with an “our” instead of the American version of “or” such as colour and harbour.
My personal nemesis: Minute, even, stationary, stationery- (I really like the spell check feature.) 🙂
Reply: Those are all good choices; whenever I see separate spelled incorrectly, in my mind, I hear my elementary school teacher saying Separate has A RAT in the middle! I’ve actually done a post on espresso/expresso and some other misspelled words that you might want to add to your list.
I’d like to add to your list the pair “complEmentary”/”complImentary”, very frequently misspelled in Journalese, perhaps because both share the same pronunciation.
A few days ago, an ad offered a “complimentary brochure”. Literally taken, what you could expect of it was something telling very good things about you and accompanying best wishes.
They probably meant “complementary”, which, in turn, could apply only if the ad lacked something substantial (grammatical correctness apart). They should have used the word “supplementary”.