LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Recognize ways to become a better speller.
2. Implement methods of monitoring your common spelling problems.

Regardless of your spelling ability, knowing the type of spelling errors you are likely to make can help you correct the errors.

Spell Check

The combination of extensive computer use and spell checkers have changed the way we look at spelling. Today’s software programs often provide both manual and automatic spell checking. Manual spell checking lets you go through the entire document or selected text from it and checks for spellings not present in the dictionary of reference. Automatic spell checking underlines spelling errors for you (usually in red). By right-clicking on the misspelled word, you’ll be given one or more correctly spelled alternatives. When you find the spelling you think is correct, clicking on that word will change the text automatically. Sometimes automatic spell checking underlines words that aren’t misspelled, but it rarely misses words that are. So if you check all the marked words, you can “spell check as you write.”

Make sure you don’t rely too heavily on spell check. Consider the following sentence: “It was sunny win I drove of this mourning, so I lift my umbrela in the car port.” If you use a spell checker on this sentence, you will be alerted to fix the problem with “umbrela.” You won’t, however, be given any indication that “win,” “mourning,” “of,” “lift,” and “car port” are problems. Spell checkers have no way to tag misspelled words if the misspelling forms another word, incorrectly used homophones, or compound words that are presented as two words. So even though spell checkers are great tools, do not give them the sole responsibility of making sure your spelling is accurate.

Spell checkers can also suggest the wrong first choice to replace a misspelled word. Consider the following sentence: “My shert was wet cleer thrugh to my skin, and my shos sloshed with every step.” A spell checker might list “though” as a first-choice for “thrugh” and “through” as the second choice, thus forcing you to know that “though” is not right and to look on down the list and choose “through.”

As a rule, only  common proper nouns are part of spell checking dictionaries. Consequently, you are left to check your spelling of those words. Many software programs allow users to add words to the dictionary. This permission lets you incorporate proper nouns you use often into the dictionary so you will not have to address them during a spell check. You might, for example, add your name or your workplace to the dictionary. Besides adding proper nouns, you can also add your list of other words you’ve commonly misspelled in the past.

Common Spelling Rules

Although they all have exceptions, common spelling rules exist and have become known as common rules because they are true most of the time. It is in your best interest to know both the rules and the common exceptions to the rules.

Common Spelling Rules

• Rule: i before e 
  • Examples: belief, chief, friend, field, fiend, niece
  • Exceptions: either, foreign, height, leisure

• Rule: …except after c
  • Examples: receive, ceiling
  • Exceptions: conscience, financier, science, species

• Rule: …and in long-a words like neighbor and weigh
  • Examples: eight, feint, their, vein

• Rule: In short-vowel accented syllables that end in a single consonant, double the consonant before adding a suffix that begins with a vowel.

• • Examples: beginning, mopped, runner, sitting, submitting
  • Exceptions: boxing, buses (“busses” is also acceptable), circuses, taxes

• Rule: There is no doubling if the syllable ends in two consonants, the last syllable is not accented, or the syllable does not have a short vowel.
  • Examples: asking, curling; focused, opening; seated, waited

• Rule: With words or syllables that end in a silent e, drop the e before adding a suffix that begins with a vowel.
  • Examples: achieving, baking, exciting, riding, surprising

• Rule: If the suffix doesn’t start with a vowel, keep the silent e.
  • Examples: achievement, lately
  • Exceptions: hoeing, mileage, noticeable, judgment, ninth, truly

• Rule: With syllables that end in y, change the y to i before adding a suffix (including the plural –es).
  • Examples: carries, cities, dries, enviable, ladies, luckiest, beautiful, bountiful
  • Exceptions: annoyance, babyish

• Rule: Keep the final y when it is preceded by a vowel.
  • Examples: keys, monkeys, plays

• Rule: …and when the suffix begins with i, since English words do not typically have two i’s in a row.
  • Examples: babyish, carrying, marrying
  • Exceptions: skiing

• Rule: When forming the plural of a proper noun, just add –s unless the proper noun ends in ch,s, sh, x, or z.

• • Examples: Bartons, Blairs, Hubbards, Murphys, Bushes, Collinses, Lynches, Martinezes, Wilcoxes

• Rule: When forming plurals of hyphenated nouns, use the plural form of the main word, regardless of where it falls within the word.
  • Examples: brothers-in-law, clearing-houses, ex-wives, not-for-profits, runners-up, T-shirts

• Rule: Add –es to words ending in s, sh, ch, x, or z.
  • Examples: classes, dishes, couches, quizzes, taxes
  • Exceptions: epochs, monarchs (ch spelling makes k sound)

• Rule: For words ending in a consonant and an o, add –es.
  • Examples: heroes, potatoes, tomatoes, zeroes
  • Exceptions: memos, photos, zeros (also acceptable)

• Rule: For words ending in a vowel and an o, add –s.
  • Examples: patios, radios, zoos

• Rule: For words ending in f or fe, either change the f to v and add –s or –es or just add –s with no changes.
  • Examples: knives, leaves OR cuffs, roofs

• Rule: Some words have whole word changes for the plural forms.
  • Examples: children, feet, geese, mice, women

• Rule: Some words have the same spellings for singular and plural forms.
  • Examples: deer, fish, sheep

Homophones

Homophones are words that sound alike but have different spellings and different meanings. The best way to handle these words is to view them as completely separate words by connecting the spellings and the meanings rather than relying totally on the sounds. You can make mnemonics (memory clues) to use with words that are a problem for you. The following video from Khan Academy helps to clear up the confusion between eight frequently-confused words:

Here’s a small sampling of the thousand or more homophones in the English language:

And there’s still more. For a discussion of the difference between compliment and complement and desert and dessert, check out this video from Khan Academy:

Commonly Misspelled Words

The following list includes some English words that are commonly used and often misspelled. You, personally, might or might not have problems with many of the words in the list. The important issue is for you to identify your problem words and negate the problems. You can handle your spelling problems by keeping a list of those words handy. Another way to deal with spellings that puzzle you is to use mnemonics (a tool you can use to help you remember the correct spelling) such as those shown for the words in bold italics on this list:

Selected Mnemonics

• calendar: Remember that a calendar is made up of many days.
• conscience: If you con people about your science work, your conscience should bother you.
• forty: Forty people are hiding in the fort.
• gauge: You use a gas gauge.
• judgment: The general manager might pass judgment, but the lowly employee won’t even be there.
• ninth: Nineth…Take the e out so you can use it for the tenth.
• quiet: You need to be qui(end)(talking).
• scissors: She used some sharp s(cut)iss(off)rs.
• tomorrow: There’s only one morning, but every day there are two red skies (sunrise and sunset).
• weird: Halloween last year was wild and eerie.

Of course, these mnemonics are not universal. Some of the suggestions on this list might seem corny or even incomprehensible to you. The point is to find some that work for you.

Words from Other Languages

English is an ever-evolving language. Part of this ongoing evolution is the incorporation of words from other languages. These words often do not follow typical English spelling rules, and thus require extra attention. This chart shows a small portion of such words that are used in English.

Many common words in British and American English are spelled differently. For example, American English words ending in –er are often spelled with –re in British English. American English tends to use –yze or –ize while British English prefers –yse or –ise. Words that include the letter o in American English are often spelled with an ou in British English. American English uses –ck or –tion as word endings, whereas British English often uses –que or –xion.

Some words from other languages have plural formations that appear unusual within the English language. A good approach is to simply memorize these plural formations. If you don’t want to memorize them, remember that they are unusual and that you will need to look them up.

 

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Adapted from Chapter 19 “Mechanics” in Writer’s Handbook v 1.0 used according to Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

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