CV Spelling Mistakes: 10 Errors That Cost You Interviews

On a CV, spelling acts as a brutal filter: while a work report might tolerate three typos, a one-page document designed to showcase your professionalism forgives none. In most surveys of recruiters, spelling errors top the list of reasons for rejection, sometimes even before reviewing your work experience.

Here are the ten most frequent spelling mistakes found on CVs, along with their corrections, followed by a five-step proofreading method that eliminates most errors in under an hour.

The 10 Most Common Spelling Mistakes

These errors affect even good writers: they result from haste, not ability. Proofread your CV specifically for these issues.

1. 1Missing accents: experience instead of expérience, evenement instead of événement, reserve instead of réservé. Missing accents suggest a rushed submission.
2. 2The unaccented 'a': I work a Lyon should be à. Tip: if you can say 'had', it's à with an accent.
3. 3Confusing 'et' and 'est': the position is interesting and motivating me. The verb 'to be' is est.
4. 4Past participle without agreement: the missions I led should be menées, as the complement comes before the verb avoir.
5. 5Approximate conjugation: I have effect becomes I have effected; you must verify becomes you must verify.
6. 6Random capitalisation: project manager is written in lowercase in common use, except as a section heading.
7. 7Missing space before double punctuation: in French typography, we write 30% and title: mission with a space before the symbol.
8. 8Inconsistent numbers: in the same CV, write ten years or 10 years, but not both; choose numerals for better readability.
9. 9Undeveloped acronyms: SIRH or TPE don't mean anything to all recruiters; write the full name once, then the acronym.
10. 10Unnecessary anglicisms: prefer feuille de route to roadmap, position to job, when the French word exists and remains natural.

Test your current CV: most candidates spot at least two of these traps in their own document. The most pernicious remains the unaccented 'a', invisible to spellcheckers but immediately spotted by a trained eye. Pay special attention to the first five lines: that's where a recruiter's gaze falls first.

Why Spellcheckers Aren't Enough

A word processor's spellcatcher catches non-existent words but lets pass correctly spelled homophones: a for à, et for est, ses for c'est, ou for où. It also ignores industry context and validates grammatically correct but awkward phrasing. A CV can therefore pass spellcheck yet remain full of errors visible to humans.

The 5-Step Proofreading Method

Effective proofreading is about method and distance, not talent. Follow these five steps in order.

1. 1Let the document rest for 24 hours: with fresh eyes, errors jump out.
2. 2Read aloud, slowly: your ear catches what your eye automatically corrects.
3. 3Proofread backwards, from the last bullet to the first, to break the reading flow.
4. 4Have someone outside your profession proofread it, who won't guess your vocabulary mistakes.
5. 5Print the final PDF: errors show up better on paper, and you check the formatting at the same time.

The 24-hour rule requires some organisation, but it makes all the difference: errors you no longer notice after three hours of writing jump out the next day. If the deadline is tight, allow at least a one-hour break, time for a walk or another task.

Tools That Actually Help

Three types of tools work well together: specialised proofreaders that understand English and its context, reading by a third party, and assistance built into your CV tool. HightCV for example integrates assisted correction during writing, which flags errors and awkward phrasing even before export. No tool replaces human proofreading, but combining them significantly reduces the risk of sending a faulty document.

In practice, combine three perspectives: a linguistic proofreader for agreements, a friend for vocabulary misunderstandings, and the final export for formatting. It's their combination, not any single one, that truly secures a document meant for recruiters.