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Learning to spell:
1. Look at the printed word and say it out loud. Repeat it, pronouncing each syllable correctly.
2. Picture the word in your mind and try to visualize its shape. Avoid looking at the printed word on the page. Try to visualize the word letter by letter.
3. Look at the printed word again; write it two or three times. Then write the word without looking at the printed spelling.
4. Check your spelling. Did you spell the word correctly? If not, repeat each step until you can spell the word easily.
Dictionary: Think of how the word might be spelled and look up this combination of letters in a dictionary.
Computer: A word-processing program will have a spell checker that will recognize an attempt to spell a word. Although spell checkers are handy, they can't do the whole job. A computer can only search its own memory for similarly spelled words and offer these as choices. But the choice is up to you, so you still need to know how to spell the word. -
Spelling with ie and ei: An easy way to learn when to use either ie or ei is to memorize the following rhyming rule. Write i before e, except after c, or when it sounds like an a, as in neighbor and weigh.
Some exceptions to this rule are either, caffeine, foreign, forfeit, height, heir, leisure, neither, protein, seize, species, their, weird; words ending in cient (ancient) and cience (conscience); plurals of nouns ending in cy (democracies); third-person singular form of verbs ending in cy (fancies) and words in which i and e follow c but represent separate sounds (science, society).
Words ending in sede, ceed and cede: The only English word ending in sede is supersede. Three words end in ceed: proceed, exceed and succeed. You can remember these three words by thinking of the following sentence: If you proceed to exceed the speed limit, you will succeed in getting a ticket. All other words ending with the seed sound are spelled with cede: concede, intercede, precede, recede and secede. - Spelling unstressed vowels: Listen to the vowel sound in the second syllable of the word or-i-gin. This is an unstressed vowel sound. Unstressed vowel sounds can be spelled in many ways. Dictionary spellings use the schwa (ə) to indicate an unstressed vowel sound. To spell a word that has an unstressed vowel sound, think of a related word in which the syllable containing the vowel sound is stressed. The word original, for example, will help you spell the word origin.
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Adding prefixes: To add prefixes, keep the spelling of the root word and add the prefix. If the last letter of the prefix is the same as the first letter of the word, keep both letters: un + happy = unhappy, re + enlist = reenlist.
Adding suffixes: When you add a suffix beginning with a vowel, double the consonant if the word ends in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel and the word has one syllable: mud + y = muddy, sad + er = sadder. The word is stressed on the last syllable and the stress remains on the same syllable after the suffix is added: occur + ence = occurrence, regret + able = regrettable. Don't double the last consonant if the word is not stressed on the last syllable or if the stress shifts when the suffix is added: Murmur + ed = murmured, refer + ence = reference. Don't double the final letter if the word ends in s, w, x, or y: gases, rowing, waxy, employer. Don't double the final consonant before the suffix --ist if the word has more than one syllable: druggist, but violinist, guitarist. When a word ends in a vowel and y, keep the y: play + s = plays. Some exceptions: gay + ly = gaily, day + ly = daily. When a word ends in a consonant and y, change the y to i before any suffix that doesn't begin with i. Keep the y before suffixes that begin with i: deny + al = denial, baby + ish = babyish. Some exceptions: shy + ly = shyly, dry + ly = dryly. Usually a final silent e is dropped before a suffix: care + ed = cared. -
Exceptions: Drop the e and change the i to y before suffixing: die + ing = dying. Keep the e before suffixes that begin with a and o if the word ends in ce or ge: courage + ous = courageous. Keep the e before suffixes that begin with a vowel if the word ends in ee or oe. There can never be three of the same letter in a row: free + er = freer. Keep the e before suffixes that begin with a consonant: grace + ful = graceful. Drop e before the suffix ly when the word ends with a consonant and le: possible + ly = possibly. Don't drop any letters when you add ly to a word that ends in a single l. When a word ends in ll, drop one l when you add the suffix ly: real + ly = really, full + ly = fully. Don't drop any letters when you add the suffix -ness to a word that ends in n: mean + ness = meanness.
Compound words: Keep the original spelling of both parts of a compound word. Remember that some compounds are one word, some are two words and some are hyphenated. Check a dictionary when in doubt.
Spelling plurals: A singular noun names one person, place, thing or idea. A plural noun names more than one. To form the plural of most nouns, you simply add --s. Remember, however, that simple plural nouns never use apostrophes.
Comments
harrietcat said
on 11/9/2008 Very nice. English is so funny with all its exceptions. I'm sure this will be helpful to second-language and native speakers alike.
iamageniuster said
on 10/30/2008 Very nice article. Something I haven't thought of. 5 stars!