Education in San Antonio

Learning to spell properly in English can be frustrating at times. English speaking children take 3 times longer to master the basics of writing and reading, compared to users of other alphabets. Surveys among native speakers have revealed that nearly half of them find it difficult to write in proper English. One in five native speakers is unable to read well English.

Following certain rules will help you learn English spelling. At the same time, spelling rules vary depending on the English you use – British English, American English, or Commonwealth English, which is also used in some of the former British colonies. You can learn the standard rules of spelling, together with some common exceptions.

Some words contain silent letters. Those with a silent letter ‘e’ at the end are not difficult to recognize. Words like ‘plane’, ‘stone’, or ‘alone’ are easy to figure out. Words containing silent letters in other places are more problematic in view of spelling. The word ‘align’ has a silent ‘g’, and the word ‘psychiatry’ contains a silent ‘p’. These letters are written but not vocalized. Silent letters are written in the middle of words as well. This is the case with words such as ‘management’ and ‘forceful’, in which the letter ‘e’ is not vocalized. Note that exceptions to this rule exist, for example, the word ‘mileage’.

Learning to write in English may be overwhelming at times because the same letter strings may be pronounced differently. For example, the string ‘on’ is pronounced differently in ‘woman’, ‘women’, ‘only’, and ‘once’.

There are several easy techniques that will help you proper English spelling. First, it is recommended to start a notebook with all words you occasionally misspell. You may underline that part of the word you have hard time remembering. Abstain from using a spell-checker – it is better to look up words in the dictionary. Even if you have to use a spell-checker, don’t rely on it too much. A spell-checker is not useful when it comes to the meaning of words, which is a common reason for spelling mistakes. A good thing to do is to learn every word with its possible suffixes and prefixes. But then, even if you have learnt the rules, you should not rely on them. There are quite a few exceptions. For instance, the rule says that ‘i’ should come before ‘e’, except if it is followed by ‘c’. To make it clear, ‘i’ will come before ‘e’ in words such as ‘thief’, ‘chief’, ‘grief’, and ‘niece’. It is the opposite with ‘c’ in words like ‘receive’, ‘conceive’, etc.

When it comes to prefixes, they normally do not change the spelling of a word’s stem. Examples of words with prefixes are ‘impossible’, ‘microwave’, and ‘intermediary’. The spelling of a word often changes when you add a suffix as in ‘stopping’ and ‘bigger’. This should not be ‘stopping’ you from making ‘bigger’ and ‘bigger’ advances to become proficient in English.

Find out more at free word games.