Ultimate Spelling Software

Phonics and Spelling

December 15, 2011

English is a difficult language to learn because of the many different ways that individual and groups of letters can be pronounced. It’s difficult to explain to children that in the word place the “a” sound is AY, but in the word that it’s pronounced AH. When two or more letters are combined, the pronunciation differences are even more confusing. Think of the words height and weight, for example; in the first word, the “ei” combination is pronounced EYE but in the second it’s AY. And in neither case is it what a child might logically assume; that is, both vowels sequentially, or EE-EYE. It gets even more complicated when comparing the words weight and wait, which in English are generally pronounced the same, though the vowel cluster is different.

Phonics is a way of teaching reading that also teaches children how to correctly pronounce and spell words, by showing children from the beginning that letters and letter groups can have different pronunciations. Rather than just giving children simple words to learn and skipping over any questions about why two words that use the same letters are pronounced differently, or why two words using different letters are pronounced the same, a phonics instructor will isolate each phoneme (the sound made) as well as the letters associated with them. The phoneme generally represented by the letter F is written as /f/ phonically, but the letter F can also sound like a V, as in the word of (/^v/), and the word enough has an F-sound in the cluster OUGH (/^f/) – something that even adults find confusing! However, by breaking down words into their phonemes, or sounds, it’s actually easier for children to learn and understand how words should be pronounced, and this leads to quicker improvement in spelling, because it helps break a child’s instinctive habit of spelling words “just the way they sound.”

Phonics also leads to better reading skills, and the more children read, the better spellers they become. If you have young children in school, you might want to see if phonics is used in their English and reading classes, and encourage teachers to use this method.

What is a Spelling Bee?

December 7, 2011

A spelling bee is a competition in which the contestants are given words they have to spell correctly, without using visual aids or dictionaries or any other reference material, letter by letter out loud in front of a judge and an audience. These competitions used to be a regular part of many school years, but gradually fell out of favor as the teaching of spelling moved more towards phonics and reading in general. Younger students are still often required to take spelling tests in class, but a school-wide competition is rare. However, in the last decade or so the Scripps National Spelling Bee has gained a popular following, partly due to movies and documentaries made about the young contestants (like Spellbound, Bee Season, and Akeelah and the Bee) and partly due to the fact that the competition has been broadcast on sports channels like ESPN. Although the students on stage may not look like athletes, their mental gymnastics and stamina prove that spelling really is a competitive sport.

Adults have been finding out about how much fun this type of competition can be as well. Many local community centers sponsor spelling bees, and some bars alternate “pub quiz” night with “spelling bee night.” In fact, the bar Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg, New York, has been running a year-round ongoing spelling bee since 2004, with preliminary rounds leading up to the end-of-the-year spelling championship. Contestants cheer each other on, drink beer, spell words like “chaffinch” or “lepidopterologist,” and drink more beer, until finally a champion emerges. You can read about the bee at its own bee-related blog, and if you live in the New York City area, you might want to sign up soon. Registration is limited and the 2012 competitions start on January 2nd.

Always “bee” ready to take advantage of any opportunity you find to practice your spelling skills!

Top Spelling Tip #5: Don’t Rely on Spell-Checker

November 30, 2011

When ewe are righting a letter, yew may wont to deep end on yore come pewter’s billed-in tool, the spell-checker. Butt four awl that it helps ketch miss spelt longer words, it mite think a mistyped short won is just grate.

We’re exaggerating for effect, of course, but although there are sixteen errors in the paragraph above, your computer spell-check program won’t find any of them (did you find them all?). Most computers have a spell-check feature in their word processing program, and in general it comes already “turned on” unless the user resets it. There are two main reasons why you should consider turning this automatic feature OFF:

It will force you to pay attention to spelling. If someone else always does the cooking at your house, you won’t learn to cook well. If another person always drives you where you need to go, you won’t learn to be a good driver. In the same way, if you rely on the computer to spell your words correctly, you won’t improve your spelling skills.

The spell-checker may insert the wrong word. One of the automatic features of spell-check often has the computer insert the “correct” word as you type, if you’ve misspelled a word. However, the computer isn’t able to read what you type in context, and may substitute a different word. For example, if you’re writing a review of the local symphony’s fall concert series, and want to talk about the Mozart minuet they played so well, a slip of the key may cause the spell-checker to replace your mistyped “minuet” with the word “minute” – and suddenly your music review makes no sense.

On the other hand, spell-check is an excellent tool for your own review and editing. After writing a letter or proposal paper, you can select the spell-check option and run it once for the entire document. This will give you an opportunity to find misspelled words, substitute the correct words, and make a note of the words that you found hard to type so that you can practice them later. Like any other modern convenience, make sure that you use the features on your computer as a tool, and not a crutch.

Spelling Tips for Teenagers

November 24, 2011

An interview with Leah, a 13-year-old girl living in the United States, about spelling, reading, and advice for other teenagers who want to improve spelling skills.

Do you work on spelling as part of your English class at school?

Yes! Every day, we work on a sentence, and try to fix it.

What’s the hardest part about learning to spell English words correctly?

Trying to figure out the pronunciation of the word, and trying to figure out HOW to spell the word.

When you use e-mail or send text messages, do you spell all the words out, or do you use abbreviations like “C U L8R”? What about your friends?

I do both! My friends do the same thing that I do!

Do you read a lot of books outside of school time? What books do you like to read?

I do read outside of school time. The books I usually read are big, long chapter books that have interesting words in them. The current book I’m reading is The Lord of the Rings.

Do you think reading helps you spell better?

Yes! It actually does help me learn to spell. It also teaches me new words.

What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to someone trying to improve their spelling?

I would tell someone to read books, look in a dictionary, and take Language Arts/English classes.

I have a follow-up question about pronunciation: does it help to know how to pronounce the word before you learn to spell it, or does it work the other way around – that once you know how to spell a word, it’s easier to pronounce? Also, what are some of the ways words are spelled and/or pronounced that you find particularly difficult?

Well, it’s different for certain people. Some find it easier to know how to pronounce a word before learning to spell it, and some find it easier to spell it before learning how to pronounce it. For me, it depends on the word. I can’t think of any words that are hard for me to pronounce or spell probably because I read tons of books including the dictionary.

Our Strange Lingo: A Humorous Look at Pronunciation

October 28, 2011

One of the major sources of frustration for people learning English is the frequent disconnect between the way a word is spelled and the way it’s pronounced. All languages evolve over time, of course, but English has come a very long way from where it started a thousand years ago. From its early Germanic and Norse elements, words were added over the years from Romance languages like French and Italian, which had completely different orthographies. As explorers visited and returned from the Middle East, India, and China, more words were added based on the objects and ideas found in those countries, and more ways of spelling and pronunciation were added to the mix. By the 20th century, English had become a kaleidoscope of colorful ways to put letters together, and most attempts to impose a more standardized match between spelling and pronunciation had failed. In the London magazine The Spectator, a poem attributed to Lord Cromer was published in 1902 that sums up all of the frustration caused by this quirk of the English language. We can’t change the rules of English spelling and pronunciation at this point, so we might as well laugh while we study them!

Our Strange Lingo

When the English tongue we speak.
Why is break not rhymed with freak?
Will you tell me why it’s true
We say sew but likewise few?
And the maker of the verse,
Cannot rhyme his horse with worse?
Beard is not the same as heard
Cord is different from word.
Cow is cow but low is low
Shoe is never rhymed with foe.
Think of hose, dose,and lose
And think of goose and yet with choose
Think of comb, tomb and bomb,
Doll and roll or home and some.
Since pay is rhymed with say
Why not paid with said I pray?
Think of blood, food and good.
Mould is not pronounced like could.
Wherefore done, but gone and lone –
Is there any reason known?
To sum up all, it seems to me
Sound and letters don’t agree.

Cross-posted at The Vocabulary Builder’s Blog.

Helping Children Learn to Spell Through Reading

October 20, 2011

The more children read, the more words they learn, and the more words they’ll be able to spell correctly. Even if a child does not actively try to learn the correct spelling of a word, the more times they see it while reading, the faster that spelling will be stored in their memory. If a child is not old enough to read for themselves, parents can start the learning process by reading aloud and having the child follow the words on the page.

Parents can encourage independent reading by helping children realize that reading is fun, and not just something they are required to do at school. If your child is interested in a particular activity or hobby – dance, skateboarding, music, computers – then you can help them find books on those subjects at the local public library. Instead of taking them to the toy store with their holiday money, lead them to a good bookstore instead. They’ll get into the habit of finding their entertainment in a book, and will start reading more on their own.

Keep children engaged in the learning process while they read by asking questions about the book. To help them work on their spelling, try asking these questions in e-mail messages that require them to write a response. If you make this a regular pattern, and show your interest without making the children feel like you’re testing and grading them, they’ll be happy to share what they’re learning.

While it’s possible to figure out the meaning of words just by reading them in context, there will be words that your child doesn’t know. Help them learn how to use a dictionary to look up words. When you’re traveling or walking around town together, point out interesting or unusual words, especially if they have uncommon spelling patterns. For example, if you’re at the zoo, you might visit the aardvark, the leopard, or the rhinoceros. When you’re back home, ask your child to draw a picture and write the name of the animal below it, and help them understand that there may be differences between the way a word is spelled and the way it’s pronounced.

Above all, stay involved in your child’s education – your support and encouragement will motivate them to learn!

Why English Words Have Always Been Hard to Spell

October 12, 2011

If you’re getting tired of spelling practice, and think that surely times were easier back when the language was simpler, without all of the new technological and literary terms that have been invented over the past four centuries, consider this: four hundred years ago, books were already being published to help people spell English words correctly. The English language incorporates words from many languages, and before books became widely available, there were often several different ways words were commonly spelled, depending on the education of the person or the region where they lived. We recently discovered an old text titled “A Table Alphabeticall of Hard Usual English Words” written by Robert Cawdrey in 1604. Raymond Siemens, at the University of British Columbia, has made this text available, and if you’re interested in what the English language looked like in Shakespeare’s day, we encourage you to explore his web site. Here are some of the words from Cawdrey’s original text that might have given Queen Elizabeth I some problems in spelling – and perhaps are even a spot of bother for Queen Elizabeth II today!

aberration, a going a stray, or wandering.
benediction, praysing or blessing
castigation, chaistisement, blaming, correction.
circumlocution, a speaking of that in many words, which may be said in few
dissipation, scattering abroade
Ebullient, seething
elocution, good vtterance of speech.
flexible, easilie bent, pliant, or mutable
graduate, that hath taken a degree
hospitality, good entertainement for friends and strangers.
illiterate, vnlearned, without knowledge.
implacable, that cannot be pleased or pacified.
inscrutable, that cannot be searched into, or throughly knowne.
laudable, worthie of praise
malediction, slaundring, ill report, or backbiting, or cursing
notorious, knowne to all, or made plaine and manifest.
obscure, darke, or cloudie
ornament, a decking, adorning, or trimming.
palpable, that may be felt, manifest:
perturbation, disquietnes, or trouble
procrastinate, to defer, or delay
recapitulation, a briefe rehearsing againe of any thing
secular, worldly, of the world
surplus, more then inough
tractable, easie to handle, or easie to be entreated
triumphant, reioycing for the conquest
vacation, a time of ceasing from labour

Note: While we chose the words on the list above because their spelling and general meaning have not changed since 1604, we didn’t change the spelling of Cawdry’s definitions. You’ll undoubtedly notice that a few of those words have changed over the years.

Five Spelling Errors You Should Never Make

October 4, 2011

What you say, and how you say it, has a big impact on how people see you and what sort of impression you make. The words you use and they way you use them can enhance your image as an intelligent, professional, capable person; they can also give people the idea that you don’t really know what you’re talking about, if you use those words incorrectly. With written communication – often your introduction to someone, via a letter or e-mail – you not only have to choose the right words, you have to spell them correctly as well. Just one misspelled word in an application, resume, or proposal can move your file from the desktop to the trash bin.

Reviewing and editing your documents will help prevent this problem, and using spell-check software provides another useful tool. However, the spell-check program won’t flag words that are spelled correctly but misused. These elementary mistakes send the message that you aren’t careful or observant, or don’t care enough about the project to fix your errors. Make sure you avoid making any of these spelling errors, and continue to study the proper spelling of all of the words you learn.

you’re and your
The contraction you’re stands for “you are” while your is a possessive meaning “belonging to you.”
Example: Your mother tells me that you’re a very good piano player.

a lot (correct) and alot (incorrect)
While there is a word allot (meaning “to give a share or portion to”), the phrase meaning “many” is two words – a lot – not one.
Example: A lot of students need to allot more time to their spelling study so they don’t use the misspelling “alot.”

there, they’re, and their
These three frequently-misused words mean three entirely different things: location (there), possession (their), and action (they’re = they are).
Example: They’re going to store their school supplies in the cupboard over there.

could’ve (correct) and could of (incorrect)
The contractions could’ve (“could have”), should’ve (“should have”), and would’ve (“would have”) are grammatically correct, but look unusual when written down. Most people use the longer form when writing, but frequently use the contraction when speaking – and that’s where the confusion comes in. When spoken, could’ve often sounds like could of and people who are “spelling by ear” will generally use the second, incorrect version. Keep the contraction, or spell out both words, but don’t use “of” in this context.
Example: If I’d only spent more time reviewing my spelling notes, I could’ve gotten a better grade on the exam.

its and it’s
Even people with excellent English skills sometimes mix up these words, but its is a possessive, and it’s is a contraction (“it is”), and they have very different uses.
Example: It’s often hard to train a dog to follow behind its owner on a leash.

It’s a good idea to spend some time reviewing this list of potential problem words, so that the first impression you make on someone isn’t your last!

Top Ten Spelling Errors

September 26, 2011

The list of words that people most frequently misspell changes according to the group of people being surveyed and the type of documents concerned, but some words are constant trouble-makers, no matter who you ask. Whether you’re doing your homework for a class at school, working on a cover letter to apply for a new job, or simply writing a note to a friend, pay careful attention to these ten words and how they’re spelled. Remember, if you misspell a word, there are often consequences: a lower grade on a test, a job application that never makes it past the initial review, or just a impression given to other people that you don’t truly understand the word.

Study these words that give most people problems:

separate
Remembering that there is A RAT in separate will help you separate yourself from the group of people who always misspell this word.

parallel
Think of the two Ls as two parallel lines in the middle of this word.

definitely
Remember that definitely has two Is IN IT.

conscience
It’s not rocket SCIENCE to remember how to spell conscience.

particularly
ICU looking at this word and working on remembering its correct spelling.

embarrass
Remember that there are two Rs and two Ss in this word, and you won’t embarrass yourself in front of your coworkers.

occurrence
There is a doubled C and a doubled R, but the letter A does not occur in the word occurrence.

consensus
Remember that there are three Ss in this word, and the consensus will be that you really know your English vocabulary!

unnecessary
Be sure to double the N and the S, but it’s not necessary to double the C in unnecessary.

referred
Forget about a second F, but always remember the doubled Rs in this word.

Spelling Difficulties: Words That Are Easy to Confuse

September 16, 2011

Cross-posted at The Vocabulary Builder’s blog.

Learning how to spell English words correctly can be difficult sometimes, especially when you’re learning words that are very similar in spelling, in pronunciation, or both. In fact, spelling words “like they sound” creates problems for many people. Whether it’s in an e-mail to your boss or a letter to a friend, if you misspell words, you’re leaving a bad impression. Either your readers will assume that you just didn’t feel like taking the time to proofread what you wrote, or they’ll assume that you really don’t know how to use the words correctly – and therefore that you might not really know what you’re talking about. Neither of these are messages you want to communicate, especially in a work environment! To help you avoid this situation, study these four word pairs and make sure that you know how to spell and use them properly.

hoard and horde
These two words are both pronounced HORD, but have two different meanings. The verb to hoard means “to save, to store up.” As a noun, it refers to the end product of that action, a quantity of items that have been saved and stored. This word sometimes has a negative connotation; someone who hoards office supplies in their desk, for example, is saving them for their own personal use and probably not sharing. The noun horde describes a large group of people (or sometimes animals), with the sense that the group is so large it’s overwhelming or hard to deal with for some reason.
Example: There is a horde of squirrels in the yard gathering nuts to hoard for the winter, and I don’t think I’m going to get any walnuts for myself this year!

eminent and imminent
Eminent (EH-mih-nent) means “famous, noteworthy” and imminent (IH-mih-nent) means “almost about to occur.” These adjectives are often confused because of their similarity, but take care that you use them correctly.
Example: The eminent philosopher has been involved in humanitarian work in war-torn regions for decades, and many people think that an award of the Nobel Peace Prize is imminent.

perspective and prospective
The noun perspective refers to a way of looking at things, or the depiction of objects in three dimensions by creating a sense of distance or depth (the word comes from the Latin roots for “through” (per-) and “to look” (specere). The adjective prospective means “possible, likely, anticipated.”
Example: To get a better perspective on the hiring decision you’ll have to make, read through these applications from prospective employees.

accept and except
Although these two words are frequently pronounced the same way, they really shouldn’t be, and remembering the correct pronunciation will help you remember the correct spelling. Accept (ahk-SEHPT) is a verb meaning with the primary definitions of “to agree to receive something” or “to agree with an opinion or conclusion.” Except (ehk-SEHPT) is most often used as a conjunction meaning “unless” or “other than,” though it can also be a verb.
Example: All of the committee members will accept the compromise, except George – he’s determined to have his own way.

Get help with more easily-confused words here and here.