
Why do you think it is so important for a résumé to be free of any grammar and spelling errors?
A resume is your first step towards job search. It is your first and lasting impression in the eyes of your employer.
Look out for these minor errors in your resume that can have a huge impact on your profile:
- Your resume looks too cluttered.
- It has vibrant colours laid out in an imbalanced way.
- It has too much information.
- The text is too small, or too big.
- You haven’t used the correct spelling for resume.
- There are other spelling mistakes on resume.
These minor errors could have huge repercussions and could be the reason you do not pass the first level screening in the job you so hopefully applied for.
This article talks about the following:
How to spell Resume?
In this section, you will know
How to spell resume for job application?
How to spell resume for job?
Have you ever gotten confused between the spellings resume, a résumé, and a resumé? Then this section is for you! Let’s take you back to the origin and literal meanings of these words.
But what is it with those dashes on top of the word résumé? These are called accents and are usually found in foreign words. Note that these accents are different from apostrophes. While an accent is a dash placed over any letter in a given word, an apostrophe is put after a letter and is used at the end of the word.
How to spell resume for job application?
The resume French spelling is “résumé”, which is literally translated to ‘summary’.
While it is the correct spelling, makes the meaning of the word crystal clear, and appears very professional, it may sometimes be mistaken to be pretentious.
While dealing with employers who are old-school, or who do not come from a highly educated background, this might look like a wordplay which is not very well taken. It’s always better to play it safe with the elements that are dicey and cannot be guaranteed to work in all situations.
How to spell resume on word?
While deciding to go with the spelling with the accents, it is essential to learn all about the different types of accents, when they’re used and how to type them. These are some ways you can include accents into your text:
- Microsoft Word
To type out résumé spelling with accents, you can press CTRL + ‘ (apostrophe) + e. This gives you an accented é.
- Google Docs
There is no such shortcut to insert an apostrophe in Google Docs, you can go to
Insert – Special Characters – Latin – é
This will give you an accented é.
- Auto correct or Spell Check
If you do not want to put yourself through the trouble of using shortcuts or choosing the formatting to type out your accent, you can just type ‘resum’ and your autocorrect will automatically suggest the correct spellings for you to choose from!
- The easy road
If even choosing from the recommended spellings seems like a task, you can always copy the accented spelling from any article (such as the one you’re reading right now) and paste it onto your resume!
Resume Spelling

In this section, you will learn about
Resume correct spelling
The correct spelling of resume and the most common one is just ‘resume’! As they say, simplicity always works!
The word ‘resume’ is the standard and common spelling used in the USA and Canada. Using non-accented words looks more natural and practical.
The biggest disaster it will save you from is encoding bugs changing your accented letters to question marks. The end result? Your ‘résumé’ is typed as r?sume?. You wouldn’t want that, would you?
Resume spelling accent
While it is correct to spell resume with accents résumé or without any- resume, the most common form avoids the accents. Incorrect spellings include résume, resumè, resumé.
The accents that you might get confused in while writing the correct spelling for résumé are the acute accent (é) and the grave accent (è). The major difference between these two accent types is the sound in their spoken word. While an acute accent is spoken with a sharp pitch, a grave accent is spoken with a loud, heavy tone. While spelling résumé, the acute accent is used.
Resume proper spelling
Having considered all the factors, conditions and challenges that come with using different languages, you might have made your decision.
Remember, your spelling might not affect your employer’s decision to consider you for the interview stage, but making consistent spelling mistake on resume definitely will! So make up your mind about which spelling you’re going to use, and keep it consistent throughout.
But, one small tip: Look out for the spelling in the job description and use the same one. It not just saves you from any backlashes whatsoever, but also makes you look smart and clever!