It will come as no suprise that, even as we approach the millenium, wierd spellings of words are everywhere. People just can't seperate the right from the wrong, and while some people find it humourous, others warn it will be disasterous for the country.

Six mistakes are hidden in the above paragraph, not very cunningly. (Click here if you still can't spot them.)

But they are six of the top ten words most commonly misspelt by the UK's adult population. The others are accommodate, mischievous, privilege and pronunciation.

A poll last month found that the over-65s were significantly better at spelling than younger people.

Sample spelling targets

8-year-olds = "gnash" 9-year-olds = "quickly" 10-year-olds = "marvellous" 11-year-olds = "aeronaut"

Now the government is introducing spelling tests for pupils, including lists of words it expects children to be able to spell.

Teachers' unions have claimed that they are unnecessary because primary schools have spelling tests in any case.

But the perception that spelling is getting worse is still widespread.

And - conversely - so is the public humiliation if words are spelt wrongly. Just ask Lord Archer. Two weeks ago, he was photographed writing a letter of apology to a friend.

The letter for which Archer was ridiculed

It was not his regret that hit the front pages, but rather his spelling of "apoligise" and "derserved".

The Mirror's verdict was unforgiving: "Apologise? Shamed Archer can't even spell the word," it screamed, labelling him a "so-called wordsmith".

Lord Archer is not the only one who must owe a debt of gratitude to the spell checker. But, says Catherine Soanes of Oxford English Dictionaries, technology could be part of today's problem.

E-mail - blamed by some for falling standards - is a casual sort of communication, she said, and people were not as exacting as they otherwise might be.

Many people say, however, that spelling is only a means to an end, and that it is more important to be able to make yourself understood.

Dyslexia is much more widely understood nowadays as not being a simple inability to spell. But those same people may well say that if dyslexics such as Einstein and Churchill can still achieve what they did, then spelling as a virtue in itself must be overrated.

After all, greengrocers are notorious for not being able to spell and for incorrect usage of the apostrophe ("Apple's 39p per lb"). But everyone knows what's on sale and how much it is.

How much for a pound of apostrophes?

Of course, that is not an opinion held by Ms Soanes. People wince if they see something spelt wrongly, she said.

"It does still matter. If you get a CV which has misspellings, it looks like the person hasn't checked it.

"Perhaps people of a younger generation might not worry too much about spellings so long as they can get their message across, but I think it still matters."

Despite resistance from some teachers who see the introduction of compulsory tests as intervention in the classroom, a government source said ministers would continue intervening because it had had results.

Which - unfortunately for any schoolchildren sitting in class and dreading the prospect of more spelling tests - seems to make any argument... well, academic.

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The correct spellings are: surprise, millennium, weird, separate, humorous and disastrous.