1. Basic Facts of English Spelling | 3. Word Families | 4. More Families | 5. Word Fun | 6. Some Rules | 7. More Rules | 8. Weird Words | Say-it-in-English Entry Page |
Absolutely Ridiculous English Spelling |
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Lesson 2. Clues on How to Read and Spell Common English Words |
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There are many books and tapes on English pronunciation in your schools, libraries and book stores, so we will not deal with that issue here. When we talk about long vowel sounds or short vowel sounds, or any other sounds represented by written letters, it will always be the standard American English alphabet and sounds that we are referring to. Also, sounds such as Long I and Long O will be treated as individual sounds rather than as diphthongs (blended vowel sounds) as linguists would call them. |
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1. Words spelled with -ought or -aught: Words that end with -ought or -aught will almost always end with a sound similar to -OT as in not. This is a nice short list and will be easy to memorize. Then you will know that any word you hear with the /OT/ sound that is not on this short list will probably be spelled with the letters O-T. Examples: spot, clot, forgot, shot, trot, plot, not, got, rot, pot, sot, lot, jot, hot, dot, etc. |
bought, sought, thought, ought, taught, caught, fought, wrought, brought |
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Bough, a tree limb, rhymes with cow, a four-footed animal that gives milk. Bough also rhymes with bow, what a stage performer does after the show, bending at the waist toward the audience. But then, how do you tell the difference between bow (rhymes with how) and bow (rhymes with go), which is what one shoots an arrow with? This is where the idea of CONTEXT comes in. Context refers to the situation in which the word is used - what the other words in the sentence are referring to. "After the archer shot an arrow into the bull's eye, he leaned his bow against the bough and gave a bow to the audience." The words archer and arrow tell us that the first bow probably refers to the instrument with which an arrow is shot, which means it will rhyme with GO. The second bow is used in a part of the sentence which includes the word audience, so this probably refers to the action of bending at one's waist as a sign of respect or appreciation and will rhyme with HOW or NOW. |
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Through ends with a Long U sound and is pronounced the same as threw, what Sammy did with the baseball. "Sammy threw the ball through the window." How can you remember which is which? Think about who threw something. He threw ; She threw ; We threw ; They threw. Notice the letter E in each of the words. Remember that the word that means "sent an object flying by releasing it from one's swinging hand" has an E in it, thus must be threw. On the other hand, the train drove through the tunnel, with 'through' and 'tunnel' both containing the letter U. |
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Rough, tough and enough rhyme with each other and end with the same sound as stuff. Using the words in a rhyme might help you remember that they are spelled alike so if you know how to spell any one of them, you will know the others, also: Example: "I'm rough and tough and that's enough." or "How was my cruise? The seas were rough; the meat was tough; I've had enough." A less common word in this group is slough, meaning to shed dead skin. |
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2. The -ight dilemma: There are many words in English that end with the letters -ight and are pronounced kind of like "ah-ee-t", or like a long i + t. Hundreds of years ago, the gh was pronounced, but time and speech patterns changed; Now you just have to write the letters, not pronounce them. These words rhyme with bite or kite. -ight is a large family and when you hear that sound in a word, there is a better than 60% chance that you will be correct if you spell it with -ight. |
Common words in this group include: fight, light, night, might, right, tight, sight, insight, mighty, fighter, nightly, fright, delight, bright, knight, alight, enlighten, frighten, height, sightly, plight. |
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2-A. Eight = Long A sound +T. eight, freight, weight rhyme with gate. Since there are only a few members of this family, you should be able to remember them easily. Try this: "What is the weight of the freight on car number eight?" If you are able to spell any of these words, then you will know the others because the endings are all the same.
2-B. A final member of this group is straight. Again, there is the Long A sound followed by T, and the word rhymes with crate, trait, and great. There is also the word strait, a narrow stretch of water between two bodies of land, which rhymes with straight. |
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3. Words with beginning letters that are silent. A method often used when learning to spell such words is to pronounce the silent letter to yourself every time you write the word. If you do that every time, you will not forget. But how, you may ask, does one know which words begin with silent letters if you hear the words but do not see them? That is simple....you cannot. That is why it is important to read as much as possible so you become familiar with just about any word you are likely to hear.
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4. Some of the most difficult words to learn to spell are also some of the most common words in English. These words are difficult because they do not follow the normal pronunciation rules in English, so you cannot spell them by sounding them out. Here are several of those words followed by their pronunciations. You will find more such words and explanations in Lesson 5, Word Fun. one - /wun/ ; to - /tu/ ; do - /du/ ; shoe - /shoo/ ; of - /uv/ ; was - /wuz/ ; two - /tu/ ; from - /frum/ ; come - /cum/ ; some - /sum/ ; were - /wer/ ; does - /duz/ |
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5. More English words that are not pronounced in normal everyday conversation the way they are spelled: T or TT in the middle of a word often is pronounced like the letter D |
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water, often pronounced /wahder/ | latter, often pronounced /ladder/ | bitter, often pronounced /bidder/ |
batter, often pronounced /badder/ | letter, often pronounced /ledder/ | sitter, often pronounced /sidder/ |
better, often pronounced /bedder/ | fatter, often pronounced like /fadder/ | setter, often pronounced /sedder/ |
butter, often pronounced /budder/ | litter, often pronounced /lidder/ | matter, often pronounced /madder/ |
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There are also situations in which a T at the end of one word followed by another word that begins with a vowel or an H will sound like D: |
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let her, often pronounced /ledder/ | hit him, often pronounced like /hiddem/ | hurt him, often pronounced like /hurdem/ |
let it, often pronounced like /leddit/ | met her, often pronounced like /medder/ | bit her, often pronounced like /bidder/ |
set it, often pronounced like /seddit/ | bet it, often prounced like /beddit/ | let him, often pronounced like /leddem/ |
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Glottal Stop: Sudden closing of the glottis, the space between the vocal cords in the throat, shutting off any further sound. Then there are situations where the Glottal Stop takes the place of final T's or T's between syllables and where final D's are not pronounced at all. The final consonant of one word or syllable will blend with the beginning consonant of the next word or syllable. How is this related to Spelling? It will show you that what you hear is not always the same as what you need to write. The following chart will show you how some common phrases are spelled, then how they are pronounced. The apostrophe ( ' ) will show where a Glottal Stop is often used in conversation. Some of these are examples of careless speech habits and other are common practices to help English pronunciation flow more smoothly. |
hit the ball- /hi' thuh bawl/ | had to go- /ha tu go/ or /hadda go/ | Mister Martin - /mister mar'en/ |
shut the door- /shu' thuh dor/ | the dog bit the boy- /thuh dawg bi' thuh boy/ | shorten the rope - /shor'en thuh rop/ |
caught the fly ball- /caw' thuh fly bawl/ | had to sit down- /ha tuh si' down/ or /hadda si' down/ | feed the kitten - /fee' thuh ki'en/ |
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6. -ed endings that sound like T. There is a group of words that end with the suffix "-ED" , but are pronounced as if they end with the letter T. The root forms of these words will end with -CK or -SS or -PP. Here are some examples: |
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passed | sounds like past | sassed | sounds like sast | trapped | sounds like trapt |
missed | sounds like mist | packed | sounds like pact | stepped | sounds like stept |
kissed | sounds like kist | picked | sounds like pict | tripped | sounds like tript |
mussed | sounds like must | pecked | sounds like pect | tricked | sounds like trict |
messed | sounds like mest | sacked | sounds like sact | strapped | sounds like strapt |
flossed | sounds like flost | socked | sounds like soct | flopped | sounds like flopt |
tossed | sounds like tost | sucked | sounds like suct | locked | sounds like loct |
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Try different ways to study. People learn new information in different ways. These are called "Learning Styles". Some people simply need to read new information and it seems to stick in their brains as if it were glued there, or as if they had a video recorder in their heads. Other people learn new things better if they hear it explained or described. Still others need to use the new information in some way, such as reading it aloud or discussing it with someone or by writing it on a chalkboard or in a notebook. Many people like to use a combination of these methods. Here is a good rule to follow: The more difficult something is for you to learn, the more you need to use extra channels to get the information into your brain. |
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SIGHT | HEARING | MOTION | TOUCH | SPEECH |
Receiving information into your brain through your eyes. This can be by reading, watching a movie or video, watching what happens around you. Motion, larger size and bright colors make SIGHT information easier to remember. | Receiving information into your brain through your ears. This can be by listening to your teacher or other students in class; by listening to tapes, CD's, radio or other sources of sound information; by listening to yourself as you read or speak. | Receiving information into your brain through movements that your body makes. This can be whole body movements such as running, skating, playing tennis, or movements of small parts of your body as in writing, drawing, or building a model plane. Speaking also involves moving parts of your body. Your brain will remember movements that you make time after time in the same way a path will be worn across a field if people walk the same way day after day | Receiving information into your brain through your sense of touch. Nerve endings in your fingertips and all over your skin can sense heat and cold, rough and smooth, and a variety of other textures and conditions. Ways to use TOUCH to help you learn or remember new information: write words with your fingertips in sand (or salt) spread over a large tray; use finger paints to write or draw new information; use textured letters (made of carpeting, plastic, wood, metal, etc.) to spell out words. | This actually combines most of the other channels in one activity: the motion of your lips, tongue, cheeks, jaw, vocal chords, lungs; hearing the sounds that your speech organs make; seeing words on a page if the speech involves reading aloud; touch if you follow along on the page or chalkboard with your finger while you read. |
Assignment: Write all the spelling words from this page in your notebook. Allow 3 lines for each word. On the first line, write the first two or three definitions of the word (if there are that many). On the second line, use the word in a sentence that you make up. On the third line, write the word one letter at a time as you say each letter aloud. Look at the word carefully, then close your eyes and picture the word with each letter clearly visible. Write the word with your eyes closed. Repeat these steps until you are sure that you know the word completely. When you have studied 10 words this way, get a friend or acquaintance to read each word to you as you spell the word and use it in a sentence.
You can meet the Word Families on the next page.
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