Bad spelling can be dangerous.
Let’s take the commonly misspelled words – your and you’re.
Some folks might write – “Your going to die,” when they meant to write, “You’re going to die.”
@_ryanpm_Bad grammar is scary #inverted #SometimesIRun #grammarlesson #tiktokteacher♬ Sometimes – Britney Spears
Okay, this might be an extreme example.
Whether you are writing an essay for school, an important email, or a resume for a new job, the spelling of the words you use matter a lot. After all, an email with a bunch of spelling errors can make you look lazy or unprofessional.
However, the English language is drawn from multiple sources, like Latin and Greek. Add in the nuances between American English and British English. And, it is easy to see how people get confused about all of the different spelling rules.
Luckily, it is easy to fix. Our phones and computers now come with built-in spell checkers, so we don’t have to turn to Merriam Webster, dictionary.com, or, heaven forbid, memorize all of the ways to spell words like our grandfathers and grandmothers had to do back in the old days pre-computers, Internet, and smartphones.
However, the best spellers – you know the ones who participated in the National Spelling Bee as kids – know autocorrect won’t always have your back and can sometimes feel like it’s actively working against you. For example, every time your phone autocorrects a certain word to “duck” or “ducking” in your texts.
In this post, we’ll share the basics of spelling, tips for improving your skills, and a few of the most commonly misspelled English words.
What does spelling mean?
Essentially, spelling is the forming of words or letters in the correct, accepted order. It boils down to a series of letters that make up a word.
Being able to spell words correctly is not this magical force or superpower. Anyone can learn to be a better speller if you learn these basic rules to guide English spelling.
Without diving into the specifics of each, here are 5 of the categories that most spelling rules apply to in English:
• Prefixes and suffixes
• Doubling letters
• Dropping and adding letters
• Verb forms
• Plurals
The dictionary uses both American and British spellings of words. For instance, “color” is the American form of the word “colour” in British spelling. Though neither spelling is incorrect, the spelling you’ll use will likely depend on where you live.
British and American spellings of words often follow different spelling rules, so you’ll need to be sure to follow the rules of whichever you use.
How to spell words correctly
There are many rules to follow when it comes to spelling, and so many of these rules aren’t set in stone. The rules aren’t always applied the same way to different words.
This is a recipe for confusion.
But don’t worry! By keeping a few hints in mind, you can improve your spelling without having to memorize a ton of rules.
• Start by sounding out the words. Not every word is spelled how it sounds, but the phonetic respelling will give you a good start.
• Remember the old saying, “I before E except after C.”
• Know that adding a prefix doesn’t change the spelling of a word.
• Look for smaller words within a larger, more complex word. If you can spell the smaller words, it can get you closer to the bigger picture.
• Know that the second vowel is silent when two vowels are next to each other.
• Make a list of your most commonly misspelled words and practice spelling them correctly.
• Use a memory trick! For example, this one to help you remember the spelling of island: an island is land in the ocean.
• When in doubt, use thesaurus.com as a shortcut to find synonyms of the words that are easier for you to spell.
Commonly misspelled words
Spelling is a fundamental skill, but it takes time and practice to get the rules right. Even then, some words are just trickier than others and are often misspelled.
People often have the same natural tendencies toward making similar spelling mistakes. Here are a few of the most common reasons that people misspell words:
• Not understanding patterns or blending
• Inability to apply phonetic rules
• Reversing certain letters
• Misunderstanding of the relationship between letter sounds
• Inability to put spelling rules into action
• Not adding an apostrophe in the right place – or even at all.
Not everyone struggles with the spelling of the same words or even makes the same type of spelling mistakes. However, some words in general are just more difficult for people to spell.
For example, this epic middle school teacher shares a bunch of commonly spelled words in this fun TikTok.
@queenbc84##inverted ##MyRoutine ##grammarcheck ##teachersoftiktok ##ela ##middleschoolenglish♬ original sound – Shuba
In addition, here are 20 more frequently misspelled words in the English language:
1.
Correct spelling: separate
Common misspelling(s): seperate
2.
Correct spelling: definitely
Common misspelling(s): definitly, definately
3.
Correct spelling: accommodate
Common misspelling(s): accomodate, acommodate
4.
Correct spelling: separate
Common misspelling(s): publically, pubically
5.
Correct spelling: government
Common misspelling(s): goverment
6.
Correct spelling: receive
Common misspelling(s): recieve
7.
Correct spelling: independent
Common misspelling(s): independant
8.
Correct spelling: acceptable
Common misspelling(s): acceptible
9.
Correct spelling: piece
Common misspelling(s): peice
10.
Correct spelling: grateful
Common misspelling(s): greatful
11.
Correct spelling: gauge
Common misspelling(s): guage
12.
Correct spelling: aluminium
Common misspelling(s): alluminnum, alluminum
13.
Correct spelling: possession
Common misspelling(s): posession, possesion
14.
Correct spelling: perseverance
Common misspelling(s): perserverance, perseverence
15.
Correct spelling: questionnaire
Common misspelling(s): questionaire, questionnaire
16.
Correct spelling: rhythm
Common misspelling(s): rhytm, rythm
17.
Correct spelling: maintenance
Common misspelling(s): maintanence, maintenence, maintnence
18.
Correct spelling: exceed
Common misspelling(s): excede
19.
Correct spelling: entrepreneur
Common misspelling(s): entepreneur
20.
Correct spelling: misspell
Common misspelling(s): mispell
***
In sum, the best way to improve your spelling? Practice, read, and write often. You could also try Writer! Start a free trial today and keep your spelling game sharp with the power of an AI writing platform.
More resources
The English language has some complicated spelling rules. While English is a Germanic language, it borrows heavily from Latin, Greek, and other modern languages. This means many words aren’t spelled at all like you would expect!
Luckily, there are some basic spelling rules and tips to help you spell words correctly in English. Keep in mind there are exceptions to every rule, particularly as foreign words become more common in this language. But these guidelines can help you master English spelling.
Keep reading to learn some commonly misspelled words and improve your spelling skills.
Common Spelling Rules in English
Let’s check out some of the most common spelling rules in the English language.
I Before E
Chances are, you’ve heard the rhyme, “I before E except after C.” But did you know the entire rhyme is actually, “I before E except after C, or when sounded as A as in neighbor or weigh”?
In other words, the letter I comes before the letter E in most cases. The exceptions are usually when they come after the letter C or if the letter combination makes a long /a/ sound.
Of course, it’s easy to find words that break this rule, such as “leisure” and “height.” Use this rhyme as more of a general guideline.
U After Q
This rule is one of the easiest to learn because the exceptions are few and far between. The letter Q must be followed by the letter U in all English words.
The rule is the same whether Q is at the beginning of a word or in the middle. If Q is at the end, there will be an E after the U. The rule is also true whether Q makes a /kw/ sound or a /k/ sound.
Endings of English Words
There are several rules that involve the endings of words. First, no words end in V or J.
Typically, if a one-syllable word ends in F, L, or S, you should double that letter. With F and L, the only exceptions are for consonant blends, which is when another consonant precedes the letter. There are more exceptions to the double-S rule, but it’s still a helpful guideline to follow.
If you need to add a suffix to a word that ends in a vowel plus Y, don’t drop any letters. Often, words that end in just Y will drop the letter or replace it with an I before a suffix. But if a vowel precedes the Y, keep all the letters the same (e.g. journey, journeys, journeying).
Some words double the final letter before suffixes, while others don’t. If a word ends with a consonant, you should generally double the consonant if there’s only one vowel before it in the final syllable (e.g. admit, admitted, admitting). But if there is more than one vowel or another consonant in the final syllable, you won’t double the final consonant (e.g. accept, accepted, accepting).
CK After a Vowel
Learning how to spell words with the /k/ sound is difficult. The letters C, K, CK, QU, and even CH can all make the /k/ sound.
If the /k/ sound follows just one vowel in that syllable, you will usually write a CK, like in the words lackey or duck. Rarely does CK follow another consonant or a double vowel in the same syllable.
C and G Before Vowels
The pronunciation of C and G changes depending on which vowel follows them. They will usually make a soft sound before E, I, and Y. This means C will sound like /s/ and G will sound like /j/. C and G make hard sounds—/k/ and /g/ respectively—before A, O, and U.
For example, city, cede, and cytoplasm use the soft C. The soft G appears in giraffe, gentle, and gym. There are plenty of exceptions, especially with the letter G, but knowing this rule will teach you how to spell most words with C and G.
Every Syllable Needs a Vowel Sound
Almost every word in English requires a vowel. In fact, every syllable requires a vowel sound. Usually, this means A, E, I, O, or U, but sometimes Y acts like a vowel even though it’s a consonant. If your word is missing a vowel, you’ve most likely made a spelling error.
Keep in mind that when U follows Q, it’s not considered a vowel sound. Another vowel is required for any syllable containing QU.
The Silent E
English words have many silent letters, but E plays this role the most. One rule involving the Silent E is vowel-consonant-E. The silent E gives the vowel a long sound, but only if there’s just one consonant between them.
In most cases, you should drop the silent E before adding a suffix like -ing or -ed. However, you will usually keep the silent E before the suffix -able.
Common Misspelled Words
Some words are more commonly misspelled than others. Spelling is even more complicated when you consider differences in English around the world. The correct spelling of a word in British English might be incorrect in American English, and vice versa.
Below are some of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language. We tried to only list words that are the same on both sides of the Atlantic, and we left out most homonyms.
- Acceptable
- Accommodation
- Acquire
- Apartment
- Apparent
- Atheist
- Background
- Beautiful
- Believe
- Belligerent
- Breathe
- Calendar
- Caramel
- Cemetery
- Colleague
- Colonel (pronounced Ker-Nel)
- Committed
- Conscience
- Conscientious
- Conscious
- Definitely
- Discipline
- Dumbbell
- Embarrass
- Entrepreneur
- Exhilarate
- Exceed
- Existence
- Experience
- Fiery
- Ferocious
- Foolproof
- Foreign
- Fulfill
- Gauge
- Grateful
- Guarantee
- Height
- Humorous
- Immediate
- Independent
- Indispensable
- Intelligence
- Jewelry
- Judgment
- Kindergarten
- Laid
- Lead
- Leisure
- Liaison
- Library
- Lieutenant
- Maintenance
- Medieval
- Millennium
- Miniature
- Mischievous
- Misspell
- Necessary
- Neighbor
- Niece
- Ninety
- Occasion
- Occurred
- Pastime
- Perseverance
- Playwright
- Precede
- Privilege
- Pronunciation
- Publicly
- Receipt
- Receive
- Recommend
- Referred
- Relevant
- Schedule
- Separate
- Sergeant
- Supersede
- Successful
- Threshold
- Truly
- Twelfth
- Until
- Vacuum
- Weird
- Withhold
6 Tips on How to Spell
The good news is you don’t have to live your life as a terrible speller. You can learn how to spell words correctly. Here are some tips to help you improve your spelling skills.
Learn Spelling Rules
Learning spelling rules is a great way to cut down on spelling errors. You can start by learning the ones listed earlier in this article.
It’s impossible to learn the correct spelling for every word because there are so many rule exceptions, but you can eliminate many of your commonly misspelled words.
Read Your Writing Out Loud
When you’re proofreading your own work, a great trick is reading aloud. When you read aloud, you will find many spelling mistakes because the word just won’t sound right.
There’s a reason your grade school teachers told you to sound out words when you learned to read. Knowing what phonetic sounds correspond to each letter will help you spell correctly.
Read Frequently
The more you read, the more your brain will absorb the correct spelling of words. You don’t have to just read books, either. Magazines, news stories, and blogs are all great options.
Master the Homonyms
English has many homonyms, homographs, and homophones. Let’s clarify what these terms mean. Homophones are words that sound the same but have different spellings, while homographs are words with the same spelling but different pronunciations.
Homonyms can be either or both, and often refer to words that have the same spelling and pronunciation but different meanings (like a bow that shoots arrows and a bow on a dress). Some people use the word homonym as a way to reference all the types of similar words.
If you can learn how to spell all the main homonyms, you will eliminate many spelling mistakes in your writing.
Play Word Games
Learning how to spell better doesn’t have to feel like school work. Gamify your learning to make it fun!
Spelling board games like Scrabble, Boggle, and Upwords make for a fun game night with friends and family, and they help you practice spelling skills, too!
You can also play word games on your device. Wordle and Letter Boxed are popular online games, or you can opt for classics like crossword puzzles and word searches. There are also apps like Words with Friends and Wordscapes.
Use AI to Help You Write
Even a world spelling bee champion makes mistakes. The best way to find and eliminate errors in your writing is by using a spelling and grammar checker like ProWritingAid.
It’s quick, efficient, and free to check your spelling with our AI-powered technology.
Conclusion: How to Spell Correctly
You don’t have to enter a spelling bee competition to want to improve your spelling. Improving your spelling will make your written communication easier and clearer. By using a few tips and tricks, you can learn how to spell words correctly more often.
Have you tried ProWritingAid yet? What are you waiting for? It’s the best tool for making sure your copy is strong, clear, and error-free!
How to teach a child to write in English
The importance of knowledge of the international, English language is difficult to overestimate. You can feel confident with him in any country. However, the ability to speak and read is sometimes not enough, because often there is a need to write something.
It is better to start learning English from childhood. This will allow you to better master it and use it in the future, and the entire learning process is easier to divide into several stages. This division will allow you to teach your child to write in English much faster.
Step 1 — learning transcription
One of the most important stages is the study of the transcription of letters, because English has some peculiarities in the pronunciation of letter combinations — by ear, words are perceived differently than they are written. Having learned the transcription, the child will be able to easily perceive speech by ear, improve the ability in reading, and as a result, in writing.
After familiarization with the rules, it is necessary to consolidate the knowledge. To do this, it is enough to perform a simple exercise:
We launch a program that in a chaotic manner pronounces words with complex letter combinations and write them. This will be an effective way to teach your child to write in English from scratch.
Step 2 — learning the basics of grammar
For correct listening comprehension of English speech, and then writing sentences under dictation, it is important that the child can highlight prepositions, articles, pronouns, conjunctions and particles in it. Knowing the rules for using various parts of speech, you can know in advance that when writing, you need to separate them from other words.
Step 3 — reading in English
Reading can help you get the following benefits:
- improved pronunciation;
- a good way of memorizing the correct spelling of words for children with developed visual memory;
- memorizing the rules of punctuation;
- increase in vocabulary;
- repetition of grammar in practice.
You need to read regularly: at least 1-2 times a week. In this case, the time interval is selected individually, taking into account the child’s age, ability to concentrate and can, on average, be from 20 to 45 minutes. It will be much easier to learn the spelling of English words in this way, and given the additional advantages listed above, reading becomes indispensable when studying any foreign language.
Step 4 — dictation
The final and most difficult stage. Parents need to dictate the text that he will write down at a convenient pace for the child. The first few attempts will focus on identifying gaps in the previous steps. It is possible that you will have to return to studying some of the rules already passed, but this will take a little time.
After all the necessary rules are finally mastered, regular dictation will make it possible to consolidate the result and teach the child to write English words correctly.
Tips for organizing training
First of all, you need to choose the right lesson duration. For children 9-10 years old, it can last from 45 to 60 minutes — this is how much a child at this age can concentrate his attention and perceive well the incoming information. Younger kids usually exercise for 30-45 minutes.
During the lesson, it is worth alternating between activities, for example, for a lesson of 60 minutes:
- study of grammatical foundations, repetition of articles, tenses, prepositions — 10 minutes;
- practical exercises to consolidate grammar — 15 minutes;
- reading and translation of texts — 20 minutes;
- writing dictations — 15 minutes.
A properly organized learning process makes it possible to quickly master the necessary basics of the English language, developing which in a few months you can get a good result. The main thing is the regularity of the classes, because their effectiveness will depend on this. However, it is also not worthwhile to conduct lessons too often, because this can overload the child and he will no longer perceive information correctly.
English courses for children, which are held in Ayilandia, are great for those who do not have the opportunity to study with a child on their own. Specialists will find an individual approach to your child and quickly teach him the basics of the language, after which he will begin in-depth training on the correct spelling of words, as well as improving the skills of speaking in a foreign language.
Source: https://itlandia.by/blog/kak-nauchit-rebenka-pisat-na-angliyskom-yazyke/
Ege in English. essay
Without too much embellishment, it can be said that in the USE exam in English, the essay is the most difficult task. How can you correctly express your thought, give it logical arguments, support them with examples and explanations, and at the same time correctly and without errors arrange the text, and even not go beyond the number of words? In this article we will try to disassemble the structure of the essay and give tips on improving the quality of your essay.
Let’s start at the end. Your essay will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
Aspect Maximum Points
Solution of a communication problem (content) | 3 |
Organization of text (structure) | 3 |
Vocabulary | 3 |
Grammar | 3 |
Spelling and punctuation | 2 |
The maximum number of points you can get for an essay is 14 points.
Before we start thinking about fulfilling each criterion correctly, first let’s make our English essay testable. The most important thing here is volume.
Formally, your essay in English should be within 200-250 words. You don’t have to take it literally and panic if you’ve written 198 words. However, keep in mind that an essay will not be validated if it contains less than 180 words.
If you get more than 275 words, then the examiner will count 250 words from the beginning of the essay, trace the rest and check everything down to the line.
That is, in the first scenario, you lose the entire essay; with the second, you will most likely lose the conclusion, which is also important.
and structure of the essay
First of all, your English essay should cover ALL aspects of the assignment, and should also be written in an appropriate (neutral) style. It should be logically divided into paragraphs and correspond to the plan proposed in the assignment.
In order not to get confused in the process of writing your essay, you need to spend 5-7 minutes thinking about the plan and preparing all the arguments. Traditionally, we will divide the essay into five paragraphs.
Paragraph 1. Introduction
There must be a statement of the problem. Since the statement of the problem has already been set out in the assignment, your task is to correctly retell it. Precisely to RELATE, not to paraphrase.
Tip: Do not re-read the assignment 10 times until the wording is hammered into your head. Then it will be very, very difficult to write the introduction in your own words. Read the situation given in the assignment once or twice, make sure you understand it correctly. Close the finished situation and try to retell it in English exactly as you understood it, as if you were telling a friend about it who did not understand what was being discussed there. ATTENTION: after you have done this, be sure to open the situation and make sure that your retelling essentially coincides with the situation given to you. Now you can go further.
Instead of banal “Some people think, Others think, » can be used:
Some people claim that, while others argue that
After you have described the essence of the problem, you can ask the question directly, which you will answer in your essay. For example: “What is better: or?”, “What should we do: or?” etc. In 2018, a clarification was released that classified rhetorical questions as stylistic errors. Therefore, we do not use them.
The last sentence of your opening paragraph should be the purpose of your essay. This can be done, for example, like this:
In this essay I will try to look upon this issue.
In this essay I will try to express my opinion on this issue.
In this essay I would express my point of view on this issue.
In this essay I will try to answer this question. (This is the simplest option, if it will be difficult for you to remember the previous two, remember it)
Paragraph 2. Your opinion
It is most logical to start this paragraph with the statement of your position on this issue. Useful phrases (be sure to follow this punctuation!):
in my mind,
From my point of view
To my mind
Personally, I think that
I am certain that (Note! We do not abbreviate: we write I am)
As far as I am concerned,
Next, you need to give 2-3 arguments to support your point of view. Arguments can be any, if you interpret them correctly. That is, such that it would be difficult to argue with them (within reasonable limits, of course).
Tip: It is better to give 2 arguments and justify them in detail and give examples to support them than 3 short and not fully disclosed ones. Remember that the number of words in an essay is limited.
Here we should not forget about the means of logical connection of sentences. The first argument is a good place to start with:
Firstly,
to start with,
to begin with,
First of all,
After you have formulated the first argument, you need to confirm it and / or give an example in support. Here are the simplest models for how to do this:
because
… That is why
. For example,
If you started with a word «Firstly,», then the second argument should start with the word Secondly,
If the first argument came with the phrases “To start with,”, “To begin with,”, then the second can be started with the following words:
Moreover,
Furthermore,
Besides,
In addition,
The second argument must also be supported by an example or proof.
Paragraph 3. Opposite opinion
You will begin a paragraph by stating an opposite opinion on the proposed topic or question. You can do it like this:
Others believe that
Some people argue that
However, some people think that
This is followed by 1-2 arguments confirming the opposite opinion. I advise you to initially think of two. And how much to write in the end: 1 or 2 — decide in the process, based on the resulting size of your essay.
Advice: You will then have to dispute the opposite arguments, therefore, coming up with them initially, think over how you will dispute them. If you have nothing to object to the invented argument, it is better to immediately replace it with another, so as not to do it while writing the essay. It is also limited! Tip: When challenging arguments, you should not repeat anything written in the second paragraph. So if you can’t come up with a counterargument without repeating yourself, try coming up with something else. Alternatively, you can think of other pros while the essay is not yet written. In any case, it is better to think it over initially, while you are drawing up the outline of the essay, rather than during the writing process!
Paragraph 4. Your counterarguments
The point of this paragraph is to explain why you disagree with the opposite opinion. You can start a paragraph, for example, with a sentence:
I cannot agree with this opinion because
I am afraid I cannot agree with this idea because
Source: https://realstudy.ru/articles/51-ege-po-anglijskomu/82-ege-po-anglijskomu-essay.html
30 tricks to help you memorize words better
The prospect of forgetting everything you learned during a long-awaited conversation with native speakers doesn’t make you very happy, right? Me too. Then remember the important principles for replenishing an active vocabulary in a foreign language: study and practice. Regularly.
It is not enough to memorize a list of words in order to use them in speech or understand by ear in the future. Most likely, most will fly out of my head and not be remembered in the right situation. Your task — feel comfortable with every new expression that you learn and make it part of your vocabulary.
In this article, I will share with you effective methods that will help you learn to memorize words with a view to their further application in practice. I’ll also tell you what worked for me. Remember, it is not the quantity that matters, but the quality of memorization, let’s go!
1 Create a personal dictionary
Since the dictionary is personal, you will keep it in the way that is convenient for you. Write in a notebook or type on your computer.
- Keep track of which methods work best for you and apply them.
- Don’t learn too many words at once. Let it be a limited amount for a week.
- You can add a notebook to the dictionary for those words that you learn this week. Cross out words as you memorize and add new ones.
- Maintain a dictionary regularly, review it, and repeat words using the methods we will talk about next.
I tried different methods and simulators for memorization, but still stayed with my own: I practice exercises online and write down words with a pen in a notebook (a foreign word and an example of its use nearby).
2 Remember the school method
You can keep a dictionary traditionally (as we did at school): a column of words in Russian and an English version opposite each. Test yourself by covering each column with your hand in turn. I do not like this method, as it involves cramming individual words. Instead of learning to apply a word to a situation, we simply memorize a meaningless list that seldom makes sense apart from the situation.
3 Explore the context
Many people underestimate the power of context. In many languages, especially in English, words are ambiguous. By ignoring the context, you are making a big mistake. You can simply use it out of place in speech or misunderstand what is being said to you. Always work with context, no matter what materials you study.
4 Apply explanatory dictionaries with voice acting
Reduce the use of Russian-English (or other similar) vocabulary in teaching. If you really want to rely on a dictionary, take an explanatory dictionary of the target language, for example, English-English. Read examples of the use of a new word, immediately listen to its voice acting and repeat it aloud after a native speaker.
5 Make proposals from the 1st person
After reading the examples in the dictionary, immediately compose your own. Make a few sentences in the first person, that is, «from yourself.» Gradually, your list of ready-made phrases for conversation will be replenished.
6 Select thematic groups
I noticed that it is easier for me to memorize words by topic. It is enough to choose 7-15 words and master using several methods in combination.
I remember when I was taking courses myself, we made a menu for our restaurant, when we went through the topic of food, created projects to improve the environment, when we discussed the environment, made a resume and played out an interview when we learned business vocabulary.
7 Record synonyms and antonyms
When you memorize a word, immediately write down to it a couple of synonyms (words with the same meaning) or antonyms (words with the opposite meaning).
8 Prepare cards
You can make the cards yourself, order ready-made ones, or find them in online format. The bottom line is that on one side you write a word, and on the other its translation. I adapted this method for myself as follows: on one side there is a phrase (not a separate word!), And on the other an example of use or a phrase with a word skip, but without translation into Russian!
9 Glue Stickers
If you need to memorize single words, such as the names of items on your desktop, in the kitchen or in the hall, stick stickers with words in a foreign language. Without translation!
10 Find associations
Our brains love to make connections between new information and what we already know. Everything that we read, listen to and watch, he brings into pictures, feelings, ideas. This is how we remember. You can use a simple method: take a new word and remember what or with what situation you associate it. Or write it down.
11 Draw pictures and diagrams
Again, it all depends on imagination. Write down a word to remember and make a diagram describing what ideas you have. You can just draw a funny picture or mind map if there are many words. In order not to look for a leaf every time and not waste time, allocate a special notebook for this lesson. By the way, this method helps to remember information on other topics as well.
12 Speak and spell
Any new word or expression can simply be spelled out and spoken out loud on the day of study and several times during the week until you feel that you can use it in practice.
13 Play out dialogues
What could be better than sentences with new words? Full dialogue with them! Play with the teacher situations in which you have to use new expressions. This will help you gain confidence, prepare yourself, and practice how to use these words in your speech.
14 Making up stories
This is a great thing, which I will talk about separately later. Sometimes there are a lot of words. And we really need to learn everything. The question is: how to memorize more and at the same time effectively? Answer: make a story in which you connect all these words together. Let it be funny, stupid and incomprehensible about what, your task is to come up with and help yourself in memorization. As you come up with situations and visualize the story in detail, pictures are created in your mind and you remember.
15 Explain in other words
Previously, I often heard from students: «What will this word be in English?», «How to say?» Such tactics are not conducive to promotion. You cannot learn all the words, there will always be something unfamiliar, and constantly asking again in a conversation or looking into a dictionary is not the case. Learn to express thoughts in different ways.
Next to each word in the explanatory dictionary (English-English and so on), there is a description of its meaning. And you write your own description and speak it out loud. How would you explain to a friend or acquaintance what this word means? This workout will help you out more than once. If you do not remember difficult words, you will definitely be able to explain them in a different way and convey your thought to the interlocutor.
16 Make combinations
As you memorize a word, immediately check and write down what it goes with. It is useful to deal with the parts of speech.
Let’s say a noun takes an article (a book, the Sun), some verbs assume a preposition after itself (wait for, get back), and some adjectives can only be used to describe people.
Mark such moments and record them in the dictionary.
17 Learn parts of words
Use word roots, prefixes, suffixes, endings to understand the meaning of a word. For example, you can find out the meaning of a noun if you already know a cognate verb or the meaning of a particular word prefix.
Think about which parts of a word you see most often, and make a list. By memorizing them gradually, you will automatically guess more and more new words.
Let’s see how this works in English.
If we add to the verb suffix or / er, we get the occupation of the person: employ -> employer; act («to act», «to play in the theater») -> actor («actor»).
If you add to the adjective suffix ness, we get a noun (some mathematical formulas :)): kind («kind») -> kindness («kindness»); happy -> happiness.
Any language is a puzzle that we put together piece by piece, then get a whole. Practice and this tip will help you.
18 Play vocabulary games
An unobtrusive way to check if you really remember new words and expressions is to go through games, tests, memory games and crosswords on the Internet. You can easily find word games by searching on the Internet. If there is a lot of time, then on certain complex topics you can compose crosswords yourself and exchange with other students.
19 Sing songs
Source: https://elenaruvel.com/30-ulovok-kotorye-pomogut-luchshe-zapominat-slova/
Written English — written English letters (alphabet), English lessons and assignments
When teaching English, it is necessary to harmoniously use all four types of speech actions. Good English will only come out with a combination of speaking, reading every day, listening to live English, and writing correctly.
Modern written English does not place too much emphasis on the development of calligraphy skills in the sense that students are not loaded with the skills of connecting letters to words. Perhaps this is due to the fact that we are more and more typing on the computer.
The youngest schoolchildren are taught to write letters in special copybooks, pointing with arrows the direction of movement of the hand when writing. When children begin to master written English letters, and then combine them into words, it is necessary to teach them that the distance between letters should be less than the distance between words. As practice shows, this is not such an easy task.
Written english letters (alphabet)
The written English alphabet is easy to write. The so-called spelling is much more difficult. The fact is that in English, many words are spelled differently from the way they sound in speech. A good example is a word like “choir” [ˈkwaɪə]. According to linguists, it is impossible for a Russian-speaking person to write this word “by ear” without knowing it.
This is where spelling comes to the rescue, which means «spelling a word.» Moreover, this technique is used not only by language learners, but also by English-speaking people themselves. To write a lexical unit correctly, you need to learn the following phrases for asking for help:
Spell it please! Spell this word, please!
Could you spell this word please? Could you pronounce this word letter by letter, please!
Thus, learning the written letters of the English alphabet is best done with spelling. In the English alphabet, some letters are pronounced differently from the letters of the generally accepted Latin alphabet. These are a [eɪ], c [siː], e [iː], g [ʤiː], h [eɪʧ], i [aɪ], j [ʤeɪ], r [ɑː], u [juː], y [waɪ] … When practicing spelling, pay special attention to these letters. Another important point is that when spelling words, they should sound strictly the way they are pronounced in the alphabet.
The role of writing in English
When learning any language, it is necessary to place emphasis on the order of development of skills. Think about how the child perceives the mother tongue:
- From the first minutes of birth, he listens (listening);
- Begins to pronounce sounds, put them into words and phrases (speaking);
- Begins to recognize letters, read individual words, and then texts;
- He writes the first letter scribbles, deduces letters according to the prescriptions and gradually comes to the texts.
We conclude that the written part of the English language requires listening skills, speaking tolerably well and reading well. At each age, it is necessary to achieve the necessary balance of these skills, and not start writing, bypassing, for example, listening.
Written English lessons
With a reasonable approach to the development of written language, students develop sufficient literacy by the end of school or by the end of language courses. After the 9th and 11th grade of school, students can choose to take an English exam, where the last task is a letter. This is the hardest part of the exam, so take your written English lessons seriously when preparing for the final test.
It is very important to practice the word order exercises, which are quite strict in English. When writing simple texts, use simple sentences, following the rules:
- In an affirmative sentence, first comes the subject, then the predicate, then the addition, and the circumstance (place, time, and so on) completes the construction;
- In interrogative sentences, the word order is changed or an additional auxiliary verb “do” appears;
- In a negative sentence, “not” appears after the auxiliary verb, or pronouns or adverbs that carry negation by themselves (nobody, never) appear before the verb.
Written assignments in English
When completing written assignments in English, in the future, use complex sentences, in each of the parts of which, as a rule, there are its own subject and predicate:
When I was a young boy, I used to wear long hair. When I was a boy, I wore long hair.
Written work in English requires the ability to rationally distribute information. To do this, you need to be able to divide texts into paragraphs, use unions and special connecting words:
First (ly) — first;
Second (ly) — secondly;
Besides — besides;
Moreover — more than that;
In conclusion — in conclusion;
Therefore — therefore.
Depending on the level of training, on the Lim English website you will learn how to write letters, make simple and complex sentences, organize texts according to a plan, compose letters for various purposes, essays and essays.
Source: https://lim-english.com/posts/pismennii-angliiskii/
5 ways to learn English words and not forget them
Learning English words is much easier than it sounds. If you disagree with this, then, apparently, because at school you were forced to cram the columns of words that were remembered with difficulty, but were forgotten the next day. Fortunately, learning words is now a pleasure using simple techniques, tutorials, and readily available English materials.
Learning English words and learning a language are not the same thing.
First of all, we note that language learning is not limited to memorizing words. Yes, you cannot erase words from the language, but their interaction in speech occurs according to the rules of grammar. In addition, vocabulary and grammar will not be «animated» without practice in reading, listening, speaking and writing. Some of the techniques listed below involve memorizing words in the context of live speech.
Cards with words
Ordinary cards made of cardboard are a powerful tool for memorizing words. Cut out cards of a convenient size from thick cardboard, write on one side English words or phrases, on the other — Russian and repeat.
To be more effective, take sets of 15-30 flashcards and learn words in two directions — English-Russian and Russian-English — in four steps:
- Acquaintance with words. Skim the cards as you speak the words aloud, trying to imagine the objects, actions, and even abstractions they represent. Don’t try to memorize words thoroughly, just get to know them, hook them on the memory hook. Some of the words will be remembered already at this stage, but not reliably.
- Repetition of English — Russian. Looking at the English side, remember the Russian translation. Go through the deck until you can guess all the words (usually 2-4 runs). Be sure to shuffle the cards! Memorizing words with a list is ineffective largely due to the fact that words are memorized in a certain order. The cards do not have this drawback.
- Repetition Russian — English. The same, but from Russian to English. This task is a little more difficult, but 2–4 rounds will be enough.
- Fastening. At this point, time the time with a stopwatch. Run the deck as quickly as possible, achieving instant recognition of the word without hesitation. Do 2-4 rounds, trying to keep the stopwatch at a shorter time each round. Don’t forget to shuffle the cards. Words can be run in both directions or optionally in one (better in Russian-English, as it is more difficult). At this stage, you will achieve instant, without translation in your mind, recognition of the word.
It is not necessary to make cards out of cardboard; there are convenient programs for creating electronic cards, for example, Quizlet. With the help of this service, you can make voiced cards, add pictures to them, teach in different modes, including games.
Price: Free
Spaced repetition method
The method consists of repeating words using flashcards, but at intervals. It is believed that, following a certain repetition algorithm, a student fixes information in long-term memory. If the information is not repeated, it will be forgotten as unnecessary.
The most popular spaced-repetition word memorization program is Anki. Create a deck of words, and the application itself will select the half-forgotten material and offer to repeat it at regular intervals.
Convenience is that you only need to load the words, and the program itself will tell you when and what to repeat. But sometimes the interval method is simply not necessary. If you are learning a selection of such common words as days of the week and months, verbs of movement, vehicles, then there is no need to repeat them according to a special algorithm: they will already be encountered very often in the textbook, when reading, in speech.
Memorizing words while reading in English
It makes sense to learn words with flashcards when the vocabulary is still insufficient even to understand the simplest texts. If you do not yet know such basic vocabulary as days of the week, colors, motion verbs, politeness formulas, then it is convenient to lay the foundation of your vocabulary by memorizing words from flashcards. According to linguists, the minimum vocabulary for understanding simple texts and speech is about 2-3 thousand words.
But, if you can already read in English, try to write words out of the text as you read. It will not be just vocabulary taken from a dictionary, but living words, surrounded by context, associatively tied to the plot, the content of the text.
Don’t write out every unfamiliar word in a row. Write out useful words and phrases, as well as words, without understanding which it is impossible to understand even the basic meaning. Write just a few words per page to reduce distraction from your reading. After reading an article or chapter of a book, words can be quickly repeated.
By the way, if you just read in English without writing anything out, the vocabulary will also grow, but much more slowly and only if you read a lot and regularly, for example, every day for half an hour or an hour.
Learning programs can greatly simplify and speed up the memorization of words. For example, when reading texts online, you can save words with a single click and then repeat them using the Leo-Translator browser extension.
Memorizing words from video and audio recordings
While it is easy to underline or write out a word while reading, it is more difficult with a film or audio recording. But listening (listening) for vocabulary learning is no less interesting than books. In live speech of native speakers, there are fewer bookish, uncommon words and more popular colloquial expressions. In addition, listening develops not only vocabulary, but also the skill of listening comprehension.
The easiest way to learn English from films and audio recordings is to just watch or listen without being distracted by spelling out words. This is the easiest approach, but this way you are unlikely to learn something new, just fix the already familiar words well (which is also important).
If you write out and then repeat new words, then you will not only enjoy the movie, but also replenish your vocabulary. Of course, while watching, it is very inconvenient to be distracted by pause and writing down words, but you can take short notes, and then return to them and analyze the material in more detail. As with reading, you do not need to write out all the incomprehensible words in a row.
It is much easier to study audio and video using dedicated sites. Most of all, the popular online services LinguaLeo and Puzzle English are suitable for this, which use a special interface for easy viewing of videos with the ability to quickly (click on a word in subtitles) translate and save words.
Memorizing words while writing and speaking
Reading and listening is passive speech activity, speech perception. Speaking and writing is an active use of language. When you write or speak, vocabulary develops in a different way: you have to practice using already familiar words, translating them from passive (at the level of comprehension) to active vocabulary.
While writing, whether it be an essay or informal chatting, you have to constantly select words and try to understand, more accurately express the idea. A situation often arises when you want to say something, but do not know the right word or expression. It is not difficult to find it with the help of a dictionary, but do not let this valuable find be immediately forgotten — write down such small discoveries and repeat in your free time. Practice in vigorous speech activity is great for identifying such gaps.
Of course, you won’t be able to look into the dictionary during an oral conversation, but speaking practice forces you to work out already familiar words and constructions. You have to strain your memory, remember everything that is stored even in its most distant corners in order to express a thought. Conversational practice for learning a language is like training for the body: you strengthen, develop your «language form», transferring words from passive to active stock.
Conclusion
The first two methods — flashcards and spaced repetition — are suitable for memorizing collections of words, such as “In the city,” “Clothes,” and so on. Methods three through five are designed to memorize words during speech practice.
If you want the words to be not only remembered but also not forgotten, regularly practice reading and listening. Having met a familiar word several times in a living context, you will remember it forever. If you want not only to have a passive vocabulary, but also to freely express thoughts — communicate in the language. This will help you transform dry knowledge into confident skills. After all, we do not learn languages in order to know them, but in order to use them.
Source: https://lifehacker.ru/english-words/
Oge letter: general information
Writing a personal letter in response to an incentive letter.
The student in the OGE in English is required to write a letter to a friend in response, based on the information provided in the assignment.
The time allotted for the task is 30 minutes.
The maximum result is 10 points.
EXECUTION PLAN
In order to get a good score for the Letter to the OGE section in English, try following these tips:
Fortunately, in the OGE (GIA) in English there is only one format for a written assignment — a personal letter to a friend.
Imagine that you are communicating in person.
Try to ask questions to keep the recipient interested, add details and express your personal attitude.
Words and expressions should not be official, as in real communication with your friends.
Informal writing also involves short forms:
it’s instead of it is,
I’ve seen instead of I have seen
etc.
Sample letter OGE (GIA) English language subject to this requirement
- It’s important to stick to the 100-120 word limit
A letter less than 90 words in length does not score at all, and you will receive 0 out of 10 points for that part of the exam.
The part of the text of the letter exceeding 132 words is not evaluated, in this case the probability of getting 0 points is much less likely,
but
120 words will be counted from the beginning of your letter and only those will be checked,
respectively,
the grade will definitely be lowered for the structure of the letter,
since the specified volume will not include the farewell and signature required for a personal letter.
Sample letter OGE (GIA) English language subject to this requirement
- It is necessary to adhere to a clear structure of the letter
1 paragraph — address and date (in the upper right corner)
2 paragraph — address and greeting
3 paragraph — reaction to a friend’s information
4 paragraph — answer to 1 friend’s question
5 paragraph — answer to 2 friend’s question
6 paragraph — answer to 3 friend’s question
(or answers to all questions together in one paragraph)
7 paragraph — a message about the desirability of receiving a response
8 paragraph — signature
I strongly advise against leaving one or more questions unanswered (friend questions 1-3)
and / or
answer them in monosyllables,
as well as ignore your friend’s message.
To get the maximum score, each question should be answered in a sufficiently detailed way — about 2 sentences.
Sample letter (OGE) GIA English language subject to this requirement
- Show the examiner the variety of vocabulary and grammatical structures you know.
Try to use
synonyms, antonyms, words from the same language family
и
as many different grammatical structures as possible within a given volume.
Amaze the examiner with the knowledge of different tenses, complex sentences, degrees of comparison of adjectives and conditional moods.
Sample letter (OGE) GIA English language subject to this requirement
- The letter should be logical and coherent
Having written a draft,
check the consistency and consistency of your thoughts
и
link individual paragraphs with introductory words — well, by the way, you asked me about, etc.
- The letter must be lexically and grammatically correct
Try to write, avoiding words and constructions that you are not sure about, and check the final letter for any misspellings and misspellings.
INFORMATION ABOUT OTHER SECTIONS OF THE OGE
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Source: http://zhilina-english.ru/gia-pismo/
How to write an Essay in English for the exam 2020?
An essay in English for the Unified State Exam is the most voluminous and responsible task in the entire exam. Successful writing of an essay gives as many as 14 points, and therefore you need to approach its preparation as seriously as possible. The examiners recommend that 40 minutes be devoted to solving the grammar alone, but the essay seems to be a more time-consuming task that requires special attention from the students.
Essay requirements in 2020
The essay is written in task 40, or C2, and it takes about 60 minutes to complete it. The average length of an essay is 200-250 words, but not less than 180 and not more than 275, otherwise the work will not be counted.
The Unified State Exam assesses the content and structure of the essay, the accuracy of the selected lexical units and grammatical structures, spelling and punctuation. Therefore, you need to write not only logically consistently and correctly, but also extremely competently — for the absence of errors and correctly placed punctuation marks, the student receives 5 points out of a possible 14.
Essay evaluation criteria in English
If we analyze each aspect separately, the solution of the communicative problem in the text gives 3 points, the organization of the essay, vocabulary and grammar — also 3 points, punctuation — 2 points.
- Solution of a communication problem — consists in a clear, consistent statement of the position on a given topic, in the specified volume of words, using a neutral style of presentation.
- Organization — provides for the correct division of the essay into fragments, logically connected by introductory constructions and linking words. Stick to the law: One paragraph, one key thought.
- Vocabulary — prepare a long list of lexical units in advance so as not to repeat the same template constructions from sentence to sentence. Choose words according to meaning, use synonyms and explanations, build sentences of different lengths, but do not overload the text with heavy explanations.
- Grammar — mistakes in an essay in English are unacceptable. Articles, verb tense forms, singular and plural nouns must be used correctly.
- Spelling and punctuation — write the words correctly and clearly. If a specialist cannot understand what was written, the questionable word or construction will be considered an error. Strikethroughs, corrections, blots and misspellings deduct points from the precious 14 you can get in this section.
English essay outline with answer templates
Before you start writing an essay, it is important to draw up a detailed and specific plan. It will help you not to get lost in thought and not go far away from the given topic. We offer a visual outline of an essay in English for the Unified State Exam with applied lexical constructions for each individual paragraph and fragment of the text.
Entry
Here it is necessary to briefly outline the key problem of the text, without going into details, but also not limited to the title of the essay.
1.1. Problem identification.
Nowadays, the problem of causes is great argument and controversy.
In today’s world, the issue of is considered to be a matter of common concern / the main concern of
1.2. Commentary on the problem.
Source: https://tetrika-school.ru/blog/esse-po-anglijskomu-po-ege/
How to write an essay in English for the exam-2019
In 2018, 80% of graduates from the Sverdlovsk region received 0 points for their essays from the Unified State Exam in English. According to the FIPI, students traditionally perform the written part of the exam worse. And it is she who gives the greatest number of points — 14 for the error-free task number 40, the essay «My opinion». In the material, we share tips that will help you avoid stupid mistakes when writing an essay with elements of reasoning.
Follow the plan
In 2019, graduates will be given two statements to choose from. For one of them, you need to write a written composition with elements of reasoning.
An example from the demo version of the control measuring materials of the 2019 unified state exam in English
The essay must strictly comply with the plan:
- introduction — paraphrase the selected statement;
- your opinion on the topic and 2-3 arguments in its defense;
- opposite opinion and 1-2 arguments in its defense;
- an explanation of why you disagree with the opposite opinion;
- a conclusion in which you rephrase your position from point 2.
Each part of the text should begin with a new paragraph, as a result, the essay should have 5 paragraphs.
A problem when writing an essay can be not only poor knowledge of a foreign language, but also vice versa — too good. A graduate can write an essay in a more free form and move away from the template, but the commission will not appreciate such an impulse. Therefore, we advise you to write an essay strictly according to the plan and in accordance with the criteria.
Let’s consider what mistakes were made by graduates of past years and how to avoid them.
Keep track of the volume
The text of the answer must contain at least 200 and no more than 250 words, a deviation of 10% is allowed. According to the rules, if the volume of the essay is less than 180 words, 0 is given for the entire work, if more than 275, part of the essay is checked up to the 250th word.
How to avoid mistakes:
- Write your essay at home on an unlined sheet of paper. After 10-20 essays, you will understand how much of the sheet is occupied by the required amount of text. This will help you navigate the exam.
- Count the words correctly. For one word they consider:
Source: https://blog.teachmeplease.ru/posts/kak-pisat-esse-po-angliyskonu-v-2019-godu
How to write beautiful text in English
Last time we agreed that the coherence of the text is its main feature. Logically written text with a competent internal organization makes a good impression on the reader, conveys important thoughts and helps you get what you want.
How to compose a text in English?
Before picking up the pen and ink on the notebook, it is most logical to start by defining, what text and for whom we will compose… An official letter in English or an informal e-mail to a friend? Request letter or Facebook status? Text for a company website or a salad recipe for a friend?
Within the chosen the genre and register we will stay. What is appropriate in one genre will be foreign to another. For the peculiarities of each genre of writing — welcome to the numerous manuals on writing practice that answer the questions «how to write a business letter», «how to write a friendly letter», «how to draw up a contract», «how to write anything» in English …
If you have a lot of thoughts on the topic that you shouldn’t miss, you can sketch out the outline of the text with highlights, arguments and examples. They wrote it down. Putting it all together — this will be our first sketch. You can, of course, not bother with plans and sketches, but write and send right away, but better not. It is fraught with)) Writing is also wonderful that there is time to collect thoughts and edit what is written, as opposed to spontaneous oral speech.
Now let’s take a fresh look at our sketch and let’s pretend this letter is for you. Reread. Do you understand everything? Is everything logical? What is the impression of the letter? Are you convinced by the arguments or is there a lack of logic somewhere? The letter prompted action or to be sent to the trash can? Where can you avoid repetitions and add cohesion?
Unlike verbal communication, where you have to improvise, writing gives you the luxury of thinking. So we must take advantage of this! Re-read the first version of the text and, if you don’t like something, edit… Find the best wording. Correct your grammar. This is by no means evidence of your incompetence. Vice versa.
So how do you write beautiful text in English?
And now, more to the point, more precisely, to practice. Imagine you are on a vacation and it started with an adventure. Do you want to share with your friends? And so, you write an e-mail or blog post. It is possible with a plan, it is possible without. And this is what happens:
Phew, lost steam. Now, if you do not write to the table, like many unrecognized authors, it would be nice to bring the opus to mind. And already right away — before delving into the content — the complete unreadability is striking. The first instinct is «multi-letters», I will not even start reading. Seriously! The first glance at a letter and «multi-letter» in one paragraph will immediately turn the reader away. Well, unless he’s a fan of yours. Otherwise, let’s divide the text into paragraphs:
Better, but still nonsense. Many repetitions of words. Unrelated sentences at the level of a XNUMX-year-old. It’s good that everything is in order with grammar and I am not ashamed of my vocabulary)) But these are the only advantages of this letter.
Do we remember that writing differs from oral speech precisely in that there is time to think and edit what is written? So let’s take this chance, don’t pretend to be a kamikaze hero! And there is no need to be complex due to the fact that it was not possible to immediately write a beautiful, well-organized text in English. Not all at once, we are learning!
And this is what happens if we remove unnecessary repetitions and connect thoughts (those that are really connected! And then there were cases when they brought me essays consisting of one mega-sentence Tolstoy-style) and the sequence of events among themselves:
Read it, understand it. Find out why we made all these amendments, and how they improve the text — line by line, paragraph by paragraph. Now go and do not sin, write as in the first version))
Note to teachers: I made this writing practice task based on this page from the textbook.
The only thing is that everything is limited to reading history, filling in gaps and correcting errors. And then immediately — write! There is absolutely no practice of organizing text and ways to write a coherent text. In fact, this is a test of the ability to write text in English. Normally((
You can download all the tasks here and use at your discretion in order to increase the literacy of the population))
An example of a linguistic analysis of a text with a parsing of means of connectivity.
Criteria for the assessment of texts in the IELTS exam and an example essay.
Learn more about how to learn how to write an essay, where to get ideas from, and how to develop spontaneous thinking skills.
So how do you write literate, coherent and beautiful text in English?
- Decide who your readers are.
- Decide what goal you want to achieve with your text.
- Sketch the main ideas.
- Write the first draft of the text.
- Remember your readers and your goals.
- Be aware of the genre, style, and coherence of the text.
- Reread with a fresh eye.
- Edit.
- Edit again))
How do you write lyrics in English? Editing your sketches or submitting without looking?
Source: https://anglofeel.ru/blog/kak-napisat-krasivyy-tekst-na-angliyskom
Do you make spelling mistakes? Learning how to spell words correctly can be a big nightmare! But it can be made easy by following some simple rules. Here are 21 easy ways to improve spelling and learn how to spell words correctly in English and write them.
The English language develops from several different language families. Evolving from different cultures and languages, different ways exist to spell the same sound & different ways exist to pronounce the same spelling.
Accept it or not, but your spelling skills are used throughout your life. It evaluates you as a person. No doubt, English spellings are full of contradictions as well as exceptions. It implies that sometimes it’s become difficult to apply logic when you’re not sure how a word should be spelled. For instance, you have heard about the word “phone”. It sounds as if it should begin with an ‘f but it begins with ’p’.
Before moving on to tricks, let’s have a look at an important question: why English spelling is necessary?
Why English spelling is important?
You need to learn to spell in English while learning this language. Maybe a thought may arise in your mind that writing and spelling aren’t so important for everyday communication. But if you are thinking that you only need to write in school, you must give it another thought!
There are a bunch of instances to prove the statement right, “today, people are writing more than ever”. People update their Facebook status. They used to text each other. Writing reviews of things they buy on Amazon, writing emails to friends and at work, many other things require writing.
You don’t realize this. But writing is a big part of your life. That’s why spelling plays an important role! If you know how to spell correctly, it helps others to understand you. It also helps you understand better all that you read.
Improving your speaking skills can really help you to figure out the meaning of new words, along with their pronunciation.
English spelling can be frustrating for writers to master as poor spelling can be both embarrassing and costly. But with some patience, you can improve your spelling by using some techniques used by good spellers.
Don’t worry! Here are simple tips and tricks in this article that can help you make rapid progress. Meanwhile, you can also try using punctuation and grammar checker tools.
1. Learn commonly misspelled words
There are some words that are so tough to spell even for native speakers too. Scroll the page a little bit to read some commonly misspelled English words to avoid any type of confusion in your learning strategies.
Actually, many commonly misspelled words are not those words that you need to use very often. Here is a small list of commonly misspelled words that you might need to know to improve your spelling skills:
- across
- basically
- beginning
- believe
- foreign
- friend
- forty
- interrupt
- until
- weird
It’s quite obvious that you don’t need to memorize all these words in one turn! Don’t need to run. Just learn them one by one, begin with the ones you use the most often.
2. Check word origins in the dictionary
There are many English words that have Greek and Roman origin. This implies that Greek or Latin words are present in them. When you will know about the common roots, it can really help you to spell and understand more words correctly.
Whenever you search for a particular word in the dictionary, you might check the meaning as well as the part of the speech. Sometimes, it can also be useful to check the origin of the words i.e: from where they have arrived from. And yes, many dictionaries have the origin of the words.
No doubt, memory aids are very useful for memorizing even the most difficult words to spell. But the good spellers never completely rely on memory. They make use of a reliable, up-to-date dictionary. Many kinds of dictionaries are available for you, both in print and online. You will find many instructors who will have strong preferences about spelling conventions while others will accept any standard spelling only.
3. Chunk it
Sometimes it’s much better to crush the difficult words into small parts to spell them efficiently and effectively. This method is known as chunking. Chunking implies that you separate the word into chunks. Hence, in this way manner, you’re not remembering or memorizing the spelling for one long word but just a few short ones.
Have a look at one example to understand it well to apply it in your real life for spelling improvement. The word “embarrassed,” can be chunked like this:
- em
- bar
- ras
- sed
Now what you are required to do is just remember the spelling for these four short words. It will enable you to spell “embarrassed” correctly every time. You can try this with any word in which you face trouble spelling in the right manner.
4. Sound it out
It’s a very simple spelling trick usually taught to little kids as it is easy to grasp. Whenever you’re not sure how to spell a word, What should you do? Just say it out loud, very slowly. After that write down what you hear.
But it will not work with every word. For example, the word “friend,” doesn’t sound the way it’s written. You will have to use some other method for words that don’t sound the way they’re spelled.
In the end, what all matters is you should be able to get the correct spelling by sounding the word out. You may be confused about similar words like “blink” and “blank”, better to sound them out, letter by letter. This will not only help you to spell well but also improves your pronunciation.
5. Draw a picture
Drawing a picture can also serve as another mnemonic device. Have you ever noticed – the word “bed” actually looks like a bed or not? Using pictures can help you to remember spellings easily.
Mold the most difficult words into pictures to spell them properly. For example, “balloon” looks as if it has two balloons in the middle. Simply draw any word with which you’re facing trouble, converting letters into pictures. Hence, you will easily memorize and spell the words quickly.
6. Learn a few rules
One of the best ways to learn is to know the rules clearly. You can start by learning a few of them. Gradually as you will learn new words, you will get to know more rules. Till then you’ll be able to spell many words.
Never go for the way to learn them all at once! Instead of doing this, you can learn and practice one or two at a time till the time you understand them well.
Now when next time you find a word troubling you to spell, try to find out if it follows a rule.
For instance, why it happens that the ‘y’ in “friendly” turns into ‘i’ in “friendliness”?
Have you ever noticed while adding a suffix to a word ending with the letter ‘y’, that ‘y’ changes to ‘i’? But it doesn’t happen if the suffix starts with an ‘i’.
Therefore, some people can be “trying” but that same person “tries.” Also, you can say that you can be “partying” or you can go to many “parties.” You must thank knowing one word making you learn how to spell many others following the same rule.
7. Make a list of the words you have trouble spelling
Yes, maybe you are already aware of most of the commonly misspelled words. Or it may be that you just don’t use the word “vacuum” while writing and that too so often.
We want to suggest to you the best tricks here. That’s why we are saying that instead of studying a list of words made by someone else, why not create your own list?
Follow these simple steps:
- Write down all those words that you have trouble spelling.
- Learn their spelling rules or memorize them with mnemonics.
You might get into trouble while reading or writing some words in terms of their spelling. For instance: “percent,” “preview,” “presentation” etc…
Knowing about the things that you need to learn is a crucial part of learning.
8. Use mnemonics
We agree that memorizing information can be typical. But when that info becomes more meaningful, it becomes easier to remember it. It’s quite easy to turn information into a picture, a sentence, or a rhyme with the help of mnemonic devices to remember.
Three types of mnemonic devices used to remember difficult spelling are:
Rhymes and songs are interesting ways to make words and information much easier to remember. For example, “using I before e except using after c or when it sounds like an as in neighbor and weigh.” You can see that this rhyme tells you when one must write “ie” and when to write “ei.” You can listen to any other rhyming song for spelling or you can make up your own.
An acronym is the other best device to memorize spelling. It takes the first letter of a few words and places them together. You might be using acronyms online or in texts. Suppose, LOL stands for “Laughing Out Loud.” One way to remember the tricky spellings is by just turning each letter into a word. Start turning difficult words into silly sentences keep them in your mind for a long time.
In order to understand and explain the difficult part of spelling, some mnemonics use sentences also. Do you face trouble while spelling the word “island”? Now you don’t need to! Remember that “An island is a land.” Similarly, “There’s a rat in separate!”
9. Play word games
The fun way to test your new spelling skills is to play word games. It is one of the most interesting methods to learn new words. You can go for classic board games like Scrabble and Scattergories for spelling practice. Spelling City and SpellTower are other fun apps to test yourself much better. You have methods now that can improve your English spelling, all you need to do is to work on it.
Crosswords and codewords
Do you know about the most innovative and best way to make your brain work harder and improve your general knowledge in solving the puzzle that works well to improve your spelling skills also?
Crosswords provide you a series of clues that are required to get fit correctly into overlapping horizontal and vertical boxes. And codewords are somewhat similar to crosswords, except for the thing that it involves working out with numbers as per their respective letters.
Now you might be thinking about how it is helping you to spell the words accurately? See, if you get the spelling wrong in either of the game whether it’s a crossword or a codeword, the other words won’t fit properly. That’s why it’s a good idea to have a dictionary beside you.
10. Watch out for homophones
There exist many English words that have identical or similar pronunciations but they have different spellings. For all the writers, using the wrong word of a homophone pair can be one of the most common spelling pitfalls.
Here are some homophones where people mostly make mistakes to spell them correctly:
- accept/except
- affect/effect
- eminent/imminent
- populace/populous
- altar/alter
- ensure/insure
- discreet/discrete
- oral/aural
- elude/allude
11. Use your computer spellchecker
Many people think that a spell checker is a proofreading tool for spelling purposes. The spellchecker will catch any combinations of letters which do not form a known English word. But for positive outcomes, you should not rely completely on your spellchecker. This is because it can miss many incorrectly spelled words forming another English word. The spellchecker will not record who is as a misspelling of whose.
Over-relying on this tool can be a big danger for learners as you may become less conscious of your spellings as you write and revise and this may consequently lose confidence in your ability for recognizing correct spellings. Students who make themselves totally dependent on spell-checkers suffer a lot, especially during exams. In exams, they are not allowed to use any electronic aid.
You can also make use of your intuitions for correct spelling by turning off the spellchecker and devoting at least one revision to spell. During revision, if you observe that a word may be used incorrectly, look it up. This is the most encouraging activity in the process of spelling. It is also the only reliable way of making your spelling skills much better than before.
In the end, you can turn the spell checker back on just to be sure that a spelling error cannot arise further when checked by an examiner or person other than you.
12. Watch English television with subtitles
Television is one of the best and most used entertaining sources worldwide. Yes, it is the device that can help you to improve your spelling skills. You can get better at spelling without even taking classes or learning them. You must watch more English shows, movies to spell well during communication.
Just switch the subtitles on and you will get to know how the words you’re hearing should be spelled. They will move at a fast pace for you to make notes, but you’ll learn through osmosis. This will help you to recognize the instances where a word has been written by you.
13. Read
Reading plenty of things in English is another fun way of learning to spell. If you will expose to English words on a regular basis, it will help new spellings to sink in and will improve your vocabulary. Reading enables you to absorb new things, information increasing your knowledge too along with the spelling skills.
How you can go for it? You can try to read the English translation of a book you have already read in your own language. This is because of the reason that you will already be familiar with its plot and characters. By keeping yourself up-to-date with English language magazines, websites, and newspapers, you can introduce more English to your daily reading.
14. Word of the day emails
You wanna learn new words, then use word of the day emails. Using this will also improve your spelling power. Such emails help you in learning more unusual words such as words that are used by British people.
But there are some people who are dedicated to learners like this English Learner’s Word of the Day which teaches you the various meanings of words and their contexts as well as the spelling and pronunciation.
Make a collection of your Word of the Day emails in a dedicated folder on your computer so that you can look back over them whenever you want. Add each new word to a Post-It note and paste it on your cupboard. This way you will see the new words when you’re getting ready to go out every morning.
15. Spelling competitions with friends
Do you know anyone around you who is also learning the English language? If yes, you must give him or her a challenge for the spelling competition. Play it in turns by giving each other a word to spell. You will be astonished by how much this will enhance your knowledge.
The competitive element adds more fun to this process as well as helping you to spell more and more words correctly and confidently. How to go for it now? Make a list of the spellings you find hard and tricky taking the help of a dictionary to help you in compiling the list if required. After that try to learn them by heart. Finally swap lists with your competitor to test each other.
16. Put posters and flashcards up in your room
An instant search of Google images for “English vocabulary poster” indicates hundreds of posters that are designed to help you grasp a good English vocabulary. And this is how you will get to learn the spellings more.
If there are some particular words whose spellings may be troubling you, you can try making your own poster for tricky spellings. Paste the poster anywhere in your room and study it for a few minutes each day. Try to read each of the spellings, now recall them without looking at them.
17. Writing spellings out several times
This trick sounds dull, but once you will try it, you will learn more spelling by writing a word down several times. What you can do is to only look at the original word for the first two or three times, but then try to write the word again two or three more times without doing cheating or looking at them. It may seem to be very boring sometimes but it can help you a lot.
18. Learn Plural Versions
What do you think learning plural versions of a word is very easy and simple as adding an ‘S’ to the end of a word? No, it’s not. You can do much better by spelling plurals by learning rules for their different versions of words. It may vary based on the ending of a word and its origins. For instance, the plural of the word “berry” is “berries”.
19. Keep a notebook of spellings
Whenever you find any word quite difficult to spell just write it down in a notebook. It gives you an instant guide of spelling and serves as a good future reference. It’s probably going to be quicker instead of trying to look for the word in the dictionary.
No doubt that English spelling can seem a struggle many times, but don’t lose hope ever. By exposing this language in the maximum amount, you’ll learn more and become much more confident.
20. Ask Someone to Check Your Spelling
There is another way to overcome your spelling issues apart from continuous improvement with a dictionary or spell-check. You can ask any friend, relative, colleague, or partner to read what you have written and checked the spelling for you.
21. Bonus Tips – Use Grammarly
Grammarly is a free writing app that corrects all your grammar errors and enhances your writing. Millions of people are using this free online grammar checker tool to eliminate grammar errors.
After creating a free account, you can either use its mobile application, browser extension or Grammarly’s editor to automatically detects grammar, spelling, punctuation, word choice, and style mistakes in your writing.
Here is a nice tutorial from James, in which he is describing few basic rules to learn English and improve your spelling.
Spelling skill is a very important part of English vocabulary. Improving spelling skills allows you to become more confident and thus you can achieve success in life easier. We hope that all 20 tricks and techniques have helped you to tackle your spelling mistakes and weaknesses.
By
Last updated:
December 6, 2022
How to Improve Your English Spelling: 9 Easy Techniques
Confused by English spelling?
If so, that’s understandable!
Plenty of native speakers find it confusing, too.
Don’t worry, though. It is possible to improve your English spelling.
You just have to know where to start.
Contents
- Why English Spelling Is Important
- What Country Is Your Spelling From?
- How to Improve Your English Spelling: 9 Painless Methods
-
- 1. Use mnemonics
- 2. Learn a few rules
- 3. Learn commonly misspelled words
- 4. Make a list of the words you have trouble spelling
- 5. Check word origins in the dictionary
- 6. Chunk it
- 7. Sound it out
- 8. Draw a picture
- 9. Play word games
Download:
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you
can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Why English Spelling Is Important
If you’re learning English, you need to learn to spell in English.
You might think English writing and spelling aren’t so important for everyday communication.
But if you think you only need to write in school, think again!
Today, people are writing more than ever.
We’re updating our Facebook statuses. We’re texting each other. We’re writing reviews of things we bought on Amazon.
We write emails to friends and at work. We send out invitations. We write reports. We do many other things that require (need) writing.
Writing is a big part of your life, even if you don’t realize it.
That’s why spelling is so important! Knowing how to spell correctly helps others understand you. It also helps you understand more of what you read: The more you learn about spelling, the more you know about how words work. This knowledge can help you figure out what new words mean, and how to pronounce them.
What Country Is Your Spelling From?
Before you learn spelling for English words, figure out which country’s spelling you want to use. American, British, Canadian and Australian English have slightly different spellings for some words. For example, the word “color” in American would be spelled “colour” in British.
Which country’s spelling you choose should depend on why you’re learning English. Are you planning to study in Great Britain? Work in the U.S.? Are you learning just for fun? Decide before you learn, so you don’t have to re-learn the correct country’s spelling later!
1. Use mnemonics
Remembering information can be difficult. But when you give that information more meaning, it becomes easier to memorize. Mnemonic devices turn information into a picture, a sentence, a rhyme or anything else that’s easier to remember.
Here are three types of mnemonic devices you can use to remember difficult spelling:
- Rhymes and songs make words and information easier to remember. One of the best-known spelling rhymes is “i before e except after c or when sounding like a as in neighbor and weigh.” This rhyme tells you when to write “ie” and when to write “ei.” You can listen to another rhyming song about spelling from Between the Lions. You can also make up your own!
- An acronym takes the first letter of a few words and puts them together. You might already use acronyms online or in texts. LOL, for example, stands for “Laughing Out Loud.” BRB is “Be Right Back.” One way to remember some tricky spellings is by turning each letter into a word. For example, to remember “rhythm” just remember “Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move.” Turn difficult words into silly sentences and you will remember them in no time.
- Some mnemonics use sentences to explain the difficult part of spelling a word. Having trouble spelling the word “island”? Just remember that “An island is land surrounded by water.” Is “separate” spelled with an e or an a in the middle? “There’s a rat in separate!” You can find more useful sentences on About.com, or make up your own.
2. Learn a few rules
Sometimes the best way to learn is to know the rules. Start by learning a few. Then, as you learn new words, you can add more and more rules. Before you know it, you’ll be able to spell most words!
You can find short lists of basic spelling rules at YourDictionary and About.com. Don’t try to learn them all at once! Instead, learn and practice one or two at a time until you understand them.
The next time you find a word that you can’t spell, try finding out if it follows a rule.
For example, why does the y in “friendly” turn into an i in “friendliness”?
Well, when you add a suffix (a word ending like “-ness”) to a word that ends in the letter y, that y is changed to an i. But that’s not the case if the suffix starts with an i (like “-ing”).
So someone can be “trying” but that same person “tries.” You can be “partying” or go to many “parties.” Thanks to knowing one word, you can learn how to spell many others that follow the same rule!
3. Learn commonly misspelled words
Some words are so tough to spell that even native speakers get them wrong a lot. You can find some commonly misspelled English words in this post or in this list on YourDictionary.
You can also find some videos of misspelled words. This one looks through YouTube comments and corrects the spelling. This one teaches a song to help you remember seven tough-to-spell words.
Many commonly misspelled words are not words you need to use too often. But here are ten commonly misspelled words you might actually need to know how to spell:
- across
- basically
- beginning
- believe
- foreign
- friend
- forty
- interrupt
- until
- weird
Of course, this doesn’t mean you should memorize all these words at once! Learn them one at a time, starting with the ones you use the most often. Or you can just…
4. Make a list of the words you have trouble spelling
Maybe you already know how to spell most commonly misspelled words (great for you!). Or maybe you just don’t use the word “vacuum” too often when you’re writing.
Instead of studying a list of words made by someone else, why not make your own? Write down words that you have trouble spelling, even if they seem simple. Then learn their spelling rules or memorize them with mnemonics.
You might find that you have trouble with certain groups of words. For example: “percent,” “preview,” “presentation”… when do you write “pre” and when is it “per”? Knowing what you need to learn is an important part of learning!
To keep associating the sound with how it’s spelled, consider using a program like FluentU. This language learning program uses videos with high-quality subtitles so you always know what you’re hearing. Follow along with short clips like movie trailers, news segments, interviews, educational short programs and more.
Reading the subtitles can be helpful because as you’re watching the videos and listening to what’s said, you’ll also get used to the spelling. You can also pause at any time to check the definition or pronunciation of a word by hovering over or clicking on the word. You can then add the word to your flashcard lists if you want to study it in more depth later.
FluentU also has quizzes for every video and flashcard deck, giving you the chance to read and type each word and practice its spelling.
5. Check word origins in the dictionary
Many English words have Greek and Roman roots. This means they have Greek or Latin words in them. Knowing common roots can help you spell (and understand) more words.
When you look up a word in the dictionary, you might check the meaning and part of speech. But it can also be useful to check the origin (where something comes from). Many dictionaries include the origin of the words.
For example, have you ever wondered why “bicycle” is spelled the way it is? It comes from the Greek word cycl, which means “circle.” This is easy to remember because a wheel has the shape of a circle. The bi in “bicycle” is from Latin, and means “two.” So a bicycle is something that has two wheels.
Now, the next time you see cycl in a word, you can use it to guess the meaning. It will also help you remember how to spell the word. If a unicycle is like a bicycle but with just one wheel, what do you think uni means?
Here’s a short list of Latin and Greek roots, and here is a huge one.
6. Chunk it
Sometimes words are difficult to spell just because they are long. In these cases, you can use the chunking method. Chunking is when you separate the word into “chunks,” or shorter parts. This way, you’re not memorizing the spelling for one long word, but just a few short ones!
The word “embarrassed,” for example, can be chunked like this:
em
bar
ras
sed
Just remember the spelling for these four short “words,” and you’ll spell “embarrassed” correctly every time.
You can do this with any word you have trouble spelling—it makes them much easier to remember!
7. Sound it out
This is a spelling trick that is often taught to little kids, because it’s so simple. If you’re not sure how to spell a word, say it out loud, very slowly. Then write down what you hear.
Of course, this won’t work with every word. The word “friend,” for example, doesn’t sound the way it’s written. For words that don’t sound the way they’re spelled, you will need to use a different method.
In many simpler words, you should be able to get the correct spelling (or very close to it) by sounding the word out. So if you’re getting similar words like “blink” and “blank” confused, sound them out, letter by letter. This will help you spell and improve your pronunciation.
8. Draw a picture
You can use drawing as another mnemonic device. Have you ever noticed that the word “bed” actually looks like a bed? Using pictures is a great way to remember spellings.
Turn words that are difficult to spell into pictures. For example, “balloon” looks like it has two balloons in the middle. Maybe they’re being held up by the double l next to them, which is really two kids.
Draw any word you’re having trouble with, making the letters into a picture. The words will stop being just letters, and turn into an image.
9. Play word games
Playing word games is a fun way to test your new spelling skills. It’s also a good way to learn new words.
Classic board games like Scrabble and Scattergories are great for spelling practice.
Now that you know how to improve your English spelling, you just need to work on it.
Before you know it, spelling will become much easier for you!
Download:
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you
can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)