Thanks to the popularity of the online correspondence, you can safely call our time the “era of spelling discoveries.” We’re so anxious to convey to the interlocutor their ideas that completely forget about spelling and sometimes invent new words. This approach can play a cruel joke with you, especially if you are writing a business letter. As they say, the Word helps those who help themselves. In this article we will tell you how to learn the spelling of English words and begin to write competently competent.
How to easily remember the spelling of English words: rules and whether to write correctly in this age of computer technology? But what we think about him? It seems that on the other side of the screen sits a frivolous person. Agree, I would not want to make such an impression on foreign colleague or friend. And sometimes mistakes make a real splash in the network, you can read about it in the article “12 memes in English with hilarious mistakes.” So if you don’t want to see your own pearl in this compilation, listen to our advice.
I want to note that spelling is difficult even for native speakers. That is why in America there are various competitions that are designed to test the literacy of people, such as Spelling bee. This is a competition in which people are called different words, and they must pronounce them letter by letter. Who made the mistake, he is eliminated. At each stage of the competition are given increasingly difficult words until there is one winner. For the first time the competition was held back in 1925 and since then its popularity. Now Spelling bee is conducted in different countries of the world.
Now let’s see what errors we have to fight. According to research conducted in the UK, most spelling errors can be attributed to the following 4 groups:
A 6% error in the suffixes -ful and -ly, for example: beautiful is beautiful, successfully is successfully;
20% is the omission of letters, for example: instead of the restaurant, restarant, goverment instead of the government;
A 28% error in homophones, i.e. words that sound the same but are written differently, for example: no instead of know, to instead of two;
42% other errors – mostly people change the letter places (beleive instead of believe) and forgetting to double the consonant (corect is correct).
Spelling strategies
The Huffington Post published an interesting article about the spelling of the English language. The authors argue that there are important rules of spelling, knowledge of which will help you to write competently.
In English there is a simple rule: I before E except after C. That is, in most cases, we write the combination of letters ie, for example: believe, piece, chief, achieve, friend.
And after the letter C we write ei: receive, deceive, ceiling, receipt, deceive.
Exception: efficient, foreigner, height.
Rule #2 -e at the end of words
If the suffix begins in a vowel, silent -e at the end of the word drops: write + ing writing, dance + ing dancing, translate + or translator, please + ure pleasure.
If the suffix starts in a consonant, -e remains in place: white + ness whiteness, use + ful useful, state + ment statement, care + ful careful.
The exceptions: true + ly truly, notice + able noticeable.
Rule #3 -y at the end of words
If the word ends in a consonant and -y when adding a suffix should replace the -y into -i: party + es parties pity + ful pitiful, happy + ness happiness, defy + ance defiance.
However, if we add -ing, y is retained: try + ing trying, cry crying, copy + ing copying study + ing studying.
If the verb ends in a shock syllable with a short vowel, which stands between two consonants, the final consonant letter is doubled when adding -ing: plan – planning begin – beginning, swim – swimming.
How to improve spelling words in English: simple tips
Learn basic rules of reading
Rules of reading the English language should definitely know, to understand what the letters how it is pronounced. Learning to spell better will be definitely useful. For example, you will know that s can be pronounced like z when between vowels, so think about it, to write noze or still nose.
Learn the rules of the use of unpronounceable letters
Silent letters (silent letters) the trap into which fall almost all learners of English: so I want to write iland instead of island or foreign instead of foreign. Such words in which the letter is written but not pronounced, in English quite a lot. Fortunately, there are certain General rules of their use that make your life easier, here is something we offer to learn.
Engage with special tutorial to help with spelling
Textbooks on spelling is not the most popular benefits, and they are not always easy to find. However, if you are constantly business correspondence and feel that I need to bring up spelling, is to teach according to this manual.
List of writing strategies
“The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules” by John Fulford is a good compilation of the rules of spelling of the English language without practical exercises.
“The Essential Guide to Spelling, Style, Usage, Grammar and Punctuation” by Anne Stilman the rules of spelling compound words with tests to check understanding of the material.
Use the spell checker
Such services are key allies for budding in the difficult fight against illiteracy. The program will detect and help to correct most errors, but keep in mind the fact that they do not check your text for logic and style, and also will not give you clear information about the compatibility of the English words between them.
The most famous service for spell checker. Checks the text in literacy, highlights the errors and gives a brief comment on each error. You can install a free browser extension that will check the texts of your emails.
This program checks the normal rules of spelling and collocations (only partially). Enter the text in the box, the program will highlight errors. Hover over any misspelled word, in the popup window you’ll see the error and correct spellings.
Running language tool
The principle is the same: enter the text in the box, select the language of the text in the dropdown list and click Check text. The program will highlight errors in different colors. Click on the highlighted word to get a short help about the error and correct the sample writing.
Consider the difference between British and American English
In English, a lot of words that people in the US and the UK write in different ways. This is the confusion: it seems to be the word found in the dictionary, was discharged, and the spellchecker or even Microsoft Word underlines it and impose your own version of writing. For example, instead of color you will be asked to write an American color, and realize the program will replace realize. In this case, it is worth knowing frequent words in the British and American versions are written in different ways.
The article “British and American English: differences in words.”
We have compiled for you a document which contains words and phrases for the topic. You can download it from the link below.
Check with a dictionary
When you write a compound word, do not rely only on your memory, check the spelling in the dictionary. Better to write slowly, but correctly, than fast and wrong. Don’t worry, after a few “sneak peeks” you will remember the word and be confident to write it without any prompting.
Make your own dictionary of good spelling words or use a ready
In the personal dictionary will include the words, the writing of which is causing you difficulties. However, try to view it, read the words, make up sentences with them and learn their spelling. In addition, you can use the ready-made lists of words that are difficult written.
Spelling by sound and structure
Also pay attention to the words that are similar in sound and spelling but have different meanings. Only the correct spelling of these words will allow the interlocutor to understand your thoughts.
Read as often as possible
How to memorize the face of a new acquaintance? Often need to see it. To memorise the spelling of words can and should be the same: try to meet with them often. The easiest way to do it by reading: read articles and books in English. This technique is perhaps the most interesting and unobtrusive, because you remember the spelling automatically while reading, using visual memory.
