I have recently been on holiday Morocco and I’ve just come back and had a look at Andy and Luke’s recent blog posts. I saw that there was quite a lot of vocabulary to remember so I thought I’d give you some advice on spelling English words. Remember English is not a phonetic language meaning that the sounds made do not always match the way the words are written and the combinations of letters that are used. This means that both pronouncing new words and learning to spell them can be difficult at times. When you come across a new word to spell try this method.
- LOOK – Sounds obvious I know but spend a bit of time looking at the word. How can you break it into smaller bits / syllables?? Do any of the bits remind you of the patterns of letters from other words? Pay attention to prefixes and suffixes.
- THINK – Think about the parts of the words which might cause problems - double letters for instance, or a vowel that isn't pronounced as you would expect or combinations of vowels.
- COVER – Cover the word or close your eyes. Try to see it in your head. Look again if you need to.
- WRITE – Write the word down without looking back, if it doesn’t look right try another way and compare with your first attempt.
- CHECK – Check to see if you're right. If not, look carefully at where you went wrong and try again.
Some more advice
- Whenever you have to copy a new word from the blackboard, from a book, or from the dictionary, always try to write the whole word in one go. Don't keep looking back after every few letters.
- Try finger-writing: while you're THINKing about the word, pretend to write it with your finger, on your desk or on your hand.
- Try to notice common patterns e.g prefixes and suffixes / words with the same sound.
- Break the word down into syllables and chunks and say these in your head as they are spelt not as the word sounds e.g. together to - get - her
I hope you find this method and advice useful. English spelling is not easy and native speakers often make mistakes. Don't worry if your spelling isn't perfect and remember, if you use a computer always use your spell check.
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Thank you for your positive comments. I'm glad you enjoyed reading the blog and keep an eye out for more tips and advice on learning English and the English language coming soon!!
ReplyDeleteyou helped me very much with this,i don't know what to say...thank you very veryy veryy much <3
ReplyDeleteDo people still spell these days? I thought everyone just used spell check all the time.
ReplyDeleteOf course people use spell check but it's still important to know how to spell for times when you aren't using a computer.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, if you do use spell check and you spell something wrong and make a word which does exist in English the spell check won't notice it as a mistake even though you have probably completely changed the meaning of the sentence.
e.g take the sentence
Water boils at 100 degrees.
If you spelt it
Water bails at 100 degrees.
You have changed the meaning of the sentence as bail is a word in English. The sentence also doesn't make sense although you can bail water, it doesn't relate to temperature
Thanks for your comment and for reading the blog