Follow the Rules! Spelling Rules Guide to Spelling: Hooked on Phonics Introduction If U can read This … Quick and Dirty Tricks of the Trade Attaching Prefixes and Suffixes: Bits and Pieces Contractions: Suck It In Follow the Rules! Spelling Rules See and Say Spelling Demons Who can trust the rules of life? You really can go swimming right after you eat; men do buy the cow even after theyve gotten the milk for free. Spelling, fortunately, has some valid rules. Here are three nifty ones that will serve you well. The -ceed/-cede rule. There are only three verbs in English that end in -ceed: succeed, proceed, and exceed. All the other verbs with that sound end in -cede. For example: secede intercede concede accede cede precede The -ful rule. Remember that the sound full at the end of a word is spelled with only one l. For example: careful graceful healthful hopeful i before e except after c … Remember this baby from the eighth grade? (Or were you too busy putting Clearasil on your nose and ogling the teacher to pay attention to something as mundane as spelling?) Heres the rule (and it even has a bouncy rhyme to it): i before e except after c or when sounded as a as in neighbor and weigh Here are some words that fit the rule. i before e except after c sounded as a achieve conceit neighbor believe ceiling weigh siege receive freight relief conceive reign grief deceit sleigh chief deceive vein fierce perceive weight fiend receipt piece receive shriek And here are some words that dont: either neither foreign height leisure seize weird Read more: Guide to Spelling: Hooked on Phonics: Follow the Rules! Introduction Guide to Spelling: Hooked on Phonics Introduction If U Cn Reed This … Quick and Dirty Tricks of the Trade Attaching Prefixes and Suffixes: Bits and Pieces Contractions: Suck It In Follow the Rules! Spelling Rules See and Say Spelling Demons In This Section Learn how to attach prefixes and suffixes Form contractions, plurals, and possessives Learn the rules! “Waiter, waiter!” said the irate patron in the fancy restaurant. Whats this fly doing in my soup?” “Looks like the backstroke to me,” replied the waiter. Right or wrong, good or bad—you know that spelling matters. A fly in your soup doesnt do much for your appetite; likewise, a misspelled word can destroy the effect of an entire document. This section gives you some quick and dirty ways to learn to spell. (Getting rid of the fly is a subject for another book, however!) Bee a Good Speller Can you spell? I dare you to prove it! Take this pretest to see how well you spell. Use what you learn here to focus on the sections that you need the most. In each of the following groups of words, only one of the words is misspelled. For each group, select the misspelled word and spell it correctly. Write your answer in the space provided. ___________ 1. arguering knives shepherd thousandth ___________ 2. baggy unreleived canine vengeful ___________ 3. contagious obituary lonliness cadence ___________ 4. millinery sacrafice caramel burglarize ___________ 5. publicity promontory sieze patriarch ___________ 6. bridle loosely breakage symtom ___________ 7. civillian primeval apologetic truancy ___________ 8. uncanny statuesque ajournment aisle ___________ 9. trigonometry exhaust Artic visualize ___________ 10. bewitches satchel vegetable obstinite Answers 1. arguing 6. symptom 2. unrelieved 7. civilian 3. loneliness 8. adjournment 4. sacrifice 9. Arctic 5. seize 10. obstinate Ten Tips for Better Spelling This may be the best-known spelling rule: i before e, except after c or when sounded like ay as in neighbor and weigh Here are some words that follow the rule: IE words: believe, field, relief CEI words: ceiling, deceit, receive EI words: freight, reign, sleigh Some exceptions: either, foreign, height, leisure, protein, weird CIEN words are another exception to the rule. These include ancient, efficient, and science. Heres another familiar spelling rule: Silent e helps a vowel say its name. This means that when a word ends with a vowel followed by a consonant and then silent e, the vowel has a long sound. Thats the difference between rate and rat, hide and hid, and cube and cub. Have you heard the expression When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking? This means that when there are two vowels in a row, the first usually has a long sound and the second is silent. Thats why its team, not taem; coat, not caot; and wait, not wiat. Remembering this rule will help you to put vowels in the right order. Learn the basic rules for spelling with plural nouns so that you know whether to use s or es and how to make plurals of nouns that end in y or f. In general, though, memorizing rules isnt the most effective way to learn spelling. Most rules have exceptions—and besides, you are best at learning words that you have made an effort to understand. A good way to understand a word is to break it into syllables. Look for prefixes, suffixes, and roots. Practice each short part and then the whole word. dis-ap-pear-ing tra-di-tion-al After you break apart a word, ask yourself: How is this word like other words I know? Spelling the word traditional may make you think of spelling functional and national. Finding patterns among words is one of the best ways to learn spelling. Its also helpful to try making up a funny memory aids. For example, do you have trouble remembering which has two ss—desert (arid land) or dessert (a sweet treat)? Remember that with dessert, youd like seconds. Similarly, do you have trouble remembering how to spell separate? Remember that theres a rat in the middle. Another kind of memory aid is to make up a sentence in which the first letter of each word can be used to make the spelling word. The sillier the better—goofy sentences may be easier to remember. chili: cats have interesting little ideas physical: please have your strawberry ice cream and lollipops Make sure that you are pronouncing words correctly. This can help you to avoid some common spelling errors, such as canidate instead of candidate, jewelery instead of jewelry, and libary instead of library. Put together a list of words that you find difficult to spell. Go over your old papers and spelling exams to track down these troublemakers. Once youve got your list in hand, see if some of the tips above will help you. And lastly: Dont rely on electronic spellcheckers! They can miss errors—especially when you have used the wrong word but spelled it correctly. To prove it, weve taken a sentence and messed up all the words. And the spellchecker thinks its fine. I might need some new shoes for gym, Harry told our Aunt Ann. Eye mite knead sum knew shoos four Jim, Hairy tolled hour Ant an. See also: Guide to Spelling. Read more..... Commonly Mispronounced Words English can be a tricky language, especially when it comes to pronunciation rules. You probably know a few people who would pronounce that word prob-lee. You might even do it yourself! Learn more commonly mispronounced words (did you know its e-LEK-tor-al, not e-lek-TOR-al ?), and start retraining your tongue today. aegis: ee-jis, not ay-jis asterisk: as-ter-isk, not as-ter-ik alumnae: a-lum-nee, not a-lum-nay archipelago: ar-ki-PEL-a-go, not arch-i-pel-a-go athlete: ath-leet, not ath-a-leet candidate: kan-di-dayt, not kan-i-dayt chimera: kiy-MEER-a, not CHIM-er-a disastrous: di-zas-tres, not di-zas-ter-es electoral: e-LEK-tor-al, not e-lek-TOR-al etcetera: et-set-er-a, not ek-set-er-a lambaste: lam-bayst, not lam-bast larvae: lar-vee, not lar-vay library: li-brar-y, not li-bar-y mischievous: MIS-che-vus, not mis-CHEE-vee-us mispronunciation: mis-pro-nun-see-ay-shun, not mis-pro-nown-see-ay-shun nuclear: noo-klee-ur, not noo-kyu-lur nuptial: nup-shul, not nup-shoo-al primer: (schoolbook) prim-mer, not pry-mer picture: pik-cher, not pit-cher prescription: prih-skrip-shun, not per-skrip-shun prerogative: pre-rog-a-tive, not per-rog-a-tive peremptory: per-emp-tuh-ree, not pre-emp-tuh-ree probably: prob-a-blee, not pra-lee or prob-lee Realtor: reel-ter, not ree-la-ter supposedly: su-pos-ed-lee, not su-pos-ab-lee spurious: spyoor-ee-us, not spur-ee-us tenet: ten-it, not ten-unt ticklish: tik-lish, not tik-i-lish triathlon: try-ath-lon, not try-ath-a-lon Read more: Commonly Mispronounced Words Frequently Misspelled Words There are a lot of tricky spelling rules in the English language. This list of words are some of the most commonly misspelled. For more spelling tips, see our Guide to Spelling: absence address advice all right arctic beginning believe bicycle broccoli bureau calendar camaraderie ceiling cemetery changeable conscientious conscious decease deceive definite descent desperate device disastrous ecstasy embarrass exercise fascinate February fiery fluorescent foreign government grateful guarantee harass height humorous independent jealous jewelry judgment ketchup knowledge leisure library license maintenance mathematics mediocre millennium miniature miscellaneous mischievous misspell mysterious necessary neighbor nuclear occasion occurrence odyssey piece pigeon playwright precede prejudice privilege pumpkin raspberry receive rhythm sacrilegious science scissors separate sincerely special thorough through truly until Wednesday weird youre Read more: List of Frequently Misspelled Words in the English /american/british dictionary
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 02:07:48 +0000
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