Ultimate Spelling Software

The World’s 10 Most Difficult Words

December 7, 2012

These aren’t words that are weird or uncommon, but rather words that are the most commonly misspelled in the English language. Even top typists get their fingers twisted when they’re trying to write these words correctly! Take a look at this list of words with their correct (and incorrect) spellings, and make sure you practice them until they’re perfect. We’ve included some tips on how to remember the right way to spell these words, but the best way to remember is to come up with mnemonic reminders of your own. By putting in the mental effort to create a spelling reminder, you’ll create a solid link to the memory of how to spell the word correctly.

committee (comittee, commitee)
The joke is that using a committee doubles the time it takes to reach a decision, so use this joke to get serious about spelling the word. Try the mnemonic “Much Time Expended” to remember to double the letters M, T, and E.

achieve (acheive)
Here’s one place you can use the “I before E” rule to remember the spelling – as long as you forget about the “except after C” part of the old saying!

bizarre (bizzare)
The word is bizarre, because you double the R.

surprise (suprise)
When you pronounce this word correctly, you won’t be SURprised that you spell it correctly as well.

resistance (resistence)
Something that you can’t resist is probably grade-A wonderful, so use an A when you spell this word.

incidentally (incidently)
Pronunciation is your friend (ally) when spelling incidentally.

occurrence (occurance)
The letters C and R occur twice in this word, but the letter A does not occur at all.

foreign (foriegn)
If you’re still stuck on the “I before E” rule then the order of the letters in this word might look strange, even foreign … so make it E before I to get it right.

government (goverment)
Pronounce the middle N in this word, or think about the root word “govern,” and you’ll be elected president of the local spelling club.

disappoint (dissapoint)
You won’t be sorry when you remember that the prefix “dis-” stands alone, and that two Ps appear in “appoint.”

Spelling’s Easy With This Simple Memory Trick

November 30, 2012

There are many ways to learn to spell English words correctly, and you’ve probably used all of them by now! Repetition and pattern practice are great ways to learn, because the more times you see, say, and write out a word (or a set of similarly-spelled words) the easier it is to remember. There’s a quick trick you might have also practiced if you’re working on improving your memory skills overall, and that’s mnemonics. Many people don’t think of mnemonics when it comes to spelling, however, because it’s often used as a way of creating nonsense words or acronyms to remember things, rather than correctly-spelled words. For example, the mnemonic DOC is a way to remember the phases of the moon in the Northern hemisphere because the shapes of the letters match the shape of the waxing, full, and waning moon in the sky – but that won’t help you remember how to spell the word phases!

For spelling mnemonics, it’s often most useful to come up with clever ways to remind yourself about how a word is spelled, using the word itself. This trick is especially handy for words that are often confused. Here’s an example:

When you get a compliment (spelled with an “I”) it means that someone is saying a nice thing to or about you. You can remember this spelling by thinking “I got a nice compliment today.”

To complement (spelled with an “E”) something means to add to it in such a way as to make it whole, or better. For example, you might say that sour cream is the perfect complement to a baked potato. If you associate the word complete with the word complement, you’ll remember that both words are spelled with an “E” (try adding the mental image of a “complete” baked potato and its topping for even better recall).

It only takes a minute to come up with these quick mnemonic tricks for learning spelling, but you’ll find that you’ll remember how to spell the words easily from then on.

What mnemonic spelling tricks work for you? Share them in the comments.

Cross-posted at the Ultimate Memory blog.

How Spelling Helps Kids Read

November 24, 2012

When children are taught to read, a lot of early practice goes in to simple word identification, pronunciation, and being able to read out loud. Spelling is sometimes overlooked at first, because the oral aspect of language is used both in reading and in conversation. We don’t necessarily need to be able to spell or even write or read in order to talk, after all. All we need to do is memorize the words we hear and how to use and pronounce them. Even the most involved and education-friendly parents won’t point out the window and say to a child, “L-O-O-K A-T- T-H-E C-A-T” – they’ll say (as any of us would), “Look at the cat.” In fact, spelling out words is often a way that parents try to hide information from their kids! It makes sense that people would think it’s logical to wait on teaching spelling rules until after children have a good grasp of reading and word identification.

As research studies have shown, however, while reading practice helps make better spellers, and spelling practice makes better readers, the results of each practice are not the same. In fact, several recent studies show clearly that when the focus is put primarily on spelling, children make more rapid improvement in reading as well. When you think about it, that’s the logical conclusion to come to. After all, a word’s spelling isn’t something you learn all on its own. When you’re learning how to spell a word, you’re also (and probably automatically) saying it out loud, so you’re learning the pronunciation as well. And when children are given lists of words to learn for a spelling test, they’re generally also given the definitions of the words so that they know what they mean and can keep that meaning in mind as they practice the spelling. What’s more, because the act of writing out words in spelling practice stimulates multiple areas of the brain by using both motor skills and visual perception (and vocal production as well when words are said or spelled out loud), there’s a much greater chance that the word, correctly spelled and pronounced, will be stored in long-term memory. That means the next time a child sees that word in a book, they’ll recognize it because they know how to spell it, they’ll know what it means, and they’ll know how it’s pronounced when they’re reading out loud.

If you’re a parent, you can start introducing your child to spelling while you read books to them. Don’t make it boring by having them spell every word, but pick out words now and again, especially ones with tricky letter patterns, and review the spelling. Or pick out a book like The Berenstain Bears and the Big Spelling Bee to help them get interested in spelling, and to teach them how much fun it can be!

References:
Conrad, N. J. (2008). From reading to spelling and spelling to reading: Transfer goes both ways. Journal of Educational Psychology
Foorman, B. R., & Petscher, Y. (2010). Development of spelling and differential relations to text reading in Grades 3-12. Assessment for Effective Intervention

Science and the SAT: Why Spelling Isn’t Just a Language Art

November 17, 2012

Too often people look at classes and study programs and classify them into “hard” and “soft” categories, with things like geology, mathematics, computer technology and engineering going in the first slot, and literature, art, language, and music in the second. However, it’s important to remember that in order to learn any subject, you’ve got to have the words to explain it, and in order to do well on tests and essays, you need to be able to spell those words correctly. Sometimes students who are focused on the SAT examinations think that they’ll have no problems in the math or science categories because they know the concepts and facts, only to have points taken off because they’ve misspelled words or misunderstood words they didn’t know how to spell. If you’re a parent of a highschool student who needs to score well on the SAT, make sure that spelling is part of their study program, no matter what the subject is. Here’s a list science of words that every highschool student should know how to spell for SAT success:

fission
catalyst
centrifugal
biosphere
isotope
photosynthesis
vaccine
hypothesis
variable
precipitation
aquifer
savannah
estuary
invertebrate
pathogen
covalent
kinetic
nuclear
fulcrum
pulsar
sedimentary
tsunami
torque
quasar
exoskeleton
chlorophyll
aerobic
cerebellum

We know someone who always thought she had no head for math. She majored in English in college and didn’t score well on the math section of her SAT at all! But when she went back to school to get a nursing degree, and had to take the required math courses for it, she got straight As – her advisor even recommended that she take advanced classes, since she was obviously so good at it. That’s proof that it’s important to keep an open mind about the “hard” and “soft” fields of study, and to spend time on learning the words of science and how to spell them as you do on memorizing the facts they describe.

T-Y-P-I-N-G Spells … Success!

November 16, 2012

Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy – that’s the key to spelling. You need to know how to spell words when you’re writing them out, recognize misspelled words when you’re reading over a manuscript, and even be able to spell words out loud when you’re asked for help by a coworker or participating in a spelling bee. Spelling is even more important when you’re typing, whether that’s on a school report or a professional paper. It’s not enough to rely on your computer’s spell-check feature, because a computer can’t recognize the difference between right and rite and write – only you know which one is ~~rite write~~ right. One of the best ways to help eliminate these errors is something you might not think of at first: touch typing.

Why will learning to touch type help you become a better speller? It’s because you’re training your fingers to automatically go to the right keys when you see or hear a word that you need to type. When you focus your mind on making the mental connection between the letter and the key, you’re moving that information and that connection into your permanent long-term memory, and that creates an indelible link in your mind. That link will improve your ability to remember how to spell a word, because you’re adding “muscle memory” to the mix. When you’re a touch typist, simply typing a word out once, correctly, will make that spelling automatic in the future. Your fingers, as well as your brain, will remember how the word is spelled.

This connection works in the other direction, too. When you’re a good speller, you’ve already got an excellent start on improving your typing skills, because you won’t have to consciously think about how a word is spelled before you type it. You’ll see the word, and your brain will be free to signal the proper fingers to hit the correct letter sequence, without having to stop and consciously think about the spelling.

So how do you use your spelling skills to improve your typing speed and accuracy? Use them in combination with Ultimate Typing, the latest product from eReflect. If you’re already benefiting from the advanced video and interactive computer-based training in Ultimate Spelling, you’ll immediately recognize the advantages you can get from using Ultimate Typing. You’ll find the same focused, effective, and personalized lesson plans and exercises in Ultimate Typing, with the same top-rated customer support and a money-back guarantee.

To find out how you can learn to type two and even three times faster than you do now, click here to learn more about Ultimate Typing and what it can do to help!

7 Words You Must Spell Correctly On Your Resumé

November 9, 2012

When you’re looking for a job, you want to make sure that you make a good impression on your future employer. Since the first thing that the employer sees is usually your resume, cover letter, or your online application form, it’s crucial that all of the words are spelled correctly in those documents. A misspelled word will imply that you’re careless, that you rush through things too quickly, that you’re not well educated or intelligent, and that you have no sense of pride or ownership in the work you do. Often, a typo in a cover letter means that the entire application packet doesn’t make it past the desk of the low-level administrative clerk in the Human Resources department! After all, with hundreds of job seekers to sift through, it’s a time-saver to just toss out any application that has grammatical errors or spelling mistakes. The job market is incredibly competitive, and you must make sure that you’re always presenting yourself as a polished professional – and that means proper spelling. Below we’ve listed seven words that are frequently misspelled on job applications and resumés. Get these words right and you’ll be one step closer to getting the job you want.

guarantee
Because of the silent ‘u’ this is sometimes misspelled garantee. In other cases, slurred pronunciation often leads people to think it’s spelled with an ‘e’ (guarentee).

familiar
Pronunciation is the problem here again: the ‘iar’ cluster is pronounced YAR or YUR, but not spelled that way. Take note of the I-L-I sequence in the middle of the word.

necessary
Doubled letters and pronunciation cause problems with this word. Avoid misspellings like neccessary and necessery and remember that there’s only one C, but two Ss in this word.

personnel
Here’s another word where one set of doubled letters often makes people add more where they’re not needed. Only the N is doubled here.

reference
If you’re pronouncing this word correctly, you’ll be able to remember that E is the only vowel.

conscientious
You need to embody the definition of this adjective (“paying attention to details and accuracy”) in order to spell this word correctly, with its difficult SCI and TI sequences.

successful
Keep the doubled C and S in this word, but don’t slip up and add a doubled L.

Remember, repetition is key when it comes to learning to spell hard words. We can guarantee that if you’re conscientious, and reference a dictionary as often as necessary until you’re familiar with these words, you’ll be a successful addition to the personnel at the company of your choice!

All About Spelling Study

November 2, 2012

Any language that has a written form that relies on individual letters has to deal with the problem of spelling. Each language has its unique difficulties, and English is at or near the top of the list of languages that present issues for new language learners. Whether these learners are young children first acquiring the language from their parents and teachers or whether they’re adults learning English as a second language, each new English speaker (and writer) needs to learn the patterns of letters that make up words in the English language. In order to help children learn – or, if you’re the ESL learner, in order to make your own learning process easier – there are some things that you need to know about spelling:

Spelling techniques and practices need to be different in order to accommodate each student’s different learning style. Some people may need to have a strong connection between the way a word is pronounced and the way it’s spelled, while others might be able to quickly pick up on spelling rules simply by looking at the visual patterns made by the letters.

It’s important to include rhyme and repetition in spelling practice. There are many exceptions to spelling rules in English, but also a lot of easy to learn patterns. By grouping words by equivalent spelling pattern/sound rules, each rule and pattern will be learned more quickly. Word groups like dare / fare / mare and night / fright/ light / sight are fast and effective learning tools.

A multimedia approach to spelling is usually the most effective. Combining visual images with words, acting out words and spellings (think of the “YMCA” song), writing words before, during, and after saying them out loud, and any other technique that uses several different learning methods at the same time will improve the student’s chances of both learning and remembering spelling rules.

9 Medical Terms You Need to Know How to Spell

October 28, 2012

We hope you’re aren’t sick of learning how to spell difficult words! Whether you’re a conscientious student, a dedicated career professional, or just someone who wants their communication to be as carefully crafted as possible, keep in mind that the best way to make a good impression when you’re writing to someone is to spell all the words correctly. Doctors and other medical professionals might have a reputation for having hard-to-read handwriting, but once you decipher their scrawls, you’ll find important and accurately-spelled terminology on their records and prescriptions. The field of medicine is full of difficult words, and learning some of the letter patterns in these words will help you be a better speller in any field. Open up your mind and say “Aaaaah – a new set of words to practice!”

Double Letter Disease

In some cases, it’s easy to remember when a letter is doubled in a word, because the pronunciation of the word changes. For example, the word vaccine is pronounced vak-SEEN; you can think of the first ‘c’ as possessing the ‘k’ sound and the second ‘c’ as possessing the ‘s’ sound, and you’ll need both of them to spell the word correctly. On the other hand, there’s no easy way to know that the ‘s’ sound at the end of abscess involves not one ‘s’ but two. For words like these, you need to practice and memorize the spelling. Learn more about double-letter difficulties here.

abscess

hemorrhage

vaccine

Silent Letter Syndrome

As we’ve mentioned before, one of the hardest things to do is figure out the “silent letter” aspect that makes the connection between English spelling and English pronunciation so difficult some times. In these three words, the ‘ph’ sound is pronounced ‘f’ (which in a way makes both the ‘p’ and the ‘h’ silent letters!) and in the first two words, the ‘g’ is silent, with both diaphragm and phlegm ending in a simple ‘m’ sound.

diaphragm

phlegm

lymphatic

Consonant Condition

While several Eastern European languages are more notorious for their difficult consonant clusters, it’s not unknown for English words to have combinations of three or even four consonants in a row. However, in the the second and third words below, the consonant ‘y’ is technically acting as a vowel.

eczema

larynx

syringe

Improve Editing Skills to Improve Spelling

October 18, 2012

A large part of learning how to spell is learning to recognize patterns. When you see a word that’s misspelled, but you can’t figure out exactly why you think it’s misspelled, it’s because your eyes have tried to match the shape of the word with the correctly-spelled version stored in your brain. Even if you can’t consciously identify the error, you’ve got a memory of the right spelling, and that’s triggering your reaction of “wait, something’s wrong …”

Learning to trust this instinct is an important skill, and the earlier children get comfortable with it, the better. As a parent, you can help your child develop their editing skills with a simple exercise. First, take a paragraph or two of text from something at or above your child’s reading level. Copy it so that it’s entirely accurate with regard to grammar and punctuation, but change the spelling of several words so that they’re incorrect. Give the changed text to your child and ask them to find all of the mistakes in it, but don’t tell them that they should be looking for spelling errors. If you’re confident of your writing skill, it’s even more useful if you can come up with a few paragraphs of your own that include specific words your child needs to learn for a spelling test. You can make the text passages longer and include more difficult words as your child’s skill increases.

By changing the type of errors, you can also help your child learn good grammar and punctuation. As in the example above, make sure that all other aspects of the text are correct, but insert errors of one particular type. After you’ve tested your child on spelling, grammar, and punctuation, you can create a “final exam” with all three types of mistakes in it, and see how they do. The more chances a child has to see errors and compare them with the correct version of a word or sentence, the better able they’ll be to remember and reproduce the correct ones in the future.

Of course, you can use this technique to improve spelling if you’re an adult as well. Find a study partner or a friend willing to help by creating the example text passages for you, and see how well you do as an editor. After all, if you can fix something that’s wrong, you’ll know how to do it right the first time – next time!

There’s No Rhyme or Reason to English Spelling …

October 10, 2012

… but you should study spelling anyway, and learn to correctly spell the words you use. Whether it’s in a short inter-office e-mail or a larger formal handout, your boss and your coworkers will judge you on how well you spell. Even if you’ve got excellent ideas, a poorly-spelled document giving the details of those ideas might very well be ignored. Good spelling implies an excellent education and thorough knowledge of a topic, and that’s important for your success at work. Good spelling habits need to be enforced and encouraged in students and young children as well, to ensure their ongoing success. One of the ways to keep children interested in spelling (or any other topic) is to use humor and make learning fun, and since there are so many examples of why English is just plain silly when it comes to spelling and pronunciation, once you point those out, it’ll become a game to find them. And of course if children are focused on finding pairs of words that don’t rhyme but should, they’ll also be committing them to memory, and that means they’ll spell them correctly in the future. Here’s a list of word pairs you can start with – how many more can you think of?

dingy (DIHN-jee) vs. stringy (STRIHN-gee)

absolves (ahb-ZOLVZ) vs. wolves (WULVZ)

suite (SWEET) vs. quite (KWIT – rhyming with “eye”)

theirs (THAYRZ) vs. piers (PEERZ)

most (MOHST) vs. lost (LAHST)

cow (KOW) vs. show (SHOH)

delayed (dee-LAYD) vs. eyed (ID)

breath (BREHTH) vs. sheath (SHEETH)