SPELLING

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SPELLING

• JOU 121
• DMACC

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Why do we misspell?

• Pronounce words incorrectly
• Separate
• Dont read enough
• Language full of word pairs
• Cite sight site
• Principal principle
• Seem seam
• To too two
• Dont check them in context
• Rely on spell-check programs

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Tips

• Visualizesee the word as you hear it note the
  organization of letters
• Listen pronounce pronunciation
• Wreck wreak
• Proofread, dont skim
• Keep a dictionary handy at all times

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SOUND

• Sound out each syllable
• Per-sist-ent
• Di-lem-ma
• De-f-i-nite-ly
• Use mnemonics
• Desert dessert

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SENSEConfusing word pairs

• Accept-except crews-cruise morning-mourning
  rack-wrack vain-vane-vein aisle-Ill-isle
  discreet-discrete oar-ore rye-wry ware-wear
  bear-bare grate-great penance-pennants
  seam-seem weather-whether berry-bury
  heard-herd pray-prey sight-site-cite
  cede-seed hour-our principal-principle
  their-there-theyre complement-compliment
  lead-led profit-prophet to-too-two
  council-counsel

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STRUCTURE

• -able ible -ance/-ence -ant/-ent
• Old French/Anglo-Saxon or Latin
• -able mostly used with complete roots and more
  common than
• -ible
• Dont drop e for soft g or soft c
• Changeable, manageable, noticeable
• -ible used after double consonants, s, st, some d
  sounds and soft c
• Infallible, horrible, divisible, plausible,
  edible, credible, forcible, invincible
• -ance/-ant attendance, descendant, maintenance,
  relevant, resistant
• -ence/-ent existence, independence, persistent,
  recurrent, superintendent

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What about ie/ei?

• -ie more common (I before e except after c)
• Except for words with long a weigh/freight
• Words with long ain feign/reign
• If c is a sh sound deficient/sufficient
• Five exceptions caffeine, leisure, protein,
  seize, weird

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Double consonant

• if adding ing or ed
• Word ends in a single consonant
• Commit/committing
• Consonant is preceded by a single vowel
• Commit/committed
• Accent is on last syllable
• Commit/profitnote the accent

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Do not double consonant

• If suffix begins with a consonant
  commit/commitment
• Equipping/equipment
• Allotting/allotment

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Abandon the rules!

• accumulate/accommodate battalion/medallion
  census/consensus embarrass/harass
  inoculate/innovative millionaire/questionnaire
  proceed/precede/supercede recommend/occasional
  religious/sacrilegious theater/massacre
  vilify/villain

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Most Commonly Misspelled Words

• a lot, acceptable, accessible, accidentally,
  accommodate, accumulate, achieve, acknowledgment,
  acquit, admissible, adviser, all ready, allege,
  already, annihilate, argument, assassin,
  athletic, bankruptcy, believe, benefited,
  bookkeeper, broccoli, business, caffeine,
  calendar, canceled, cemetery, changeable,
  chocolate, commitment, comparable, conceive,
  condemn, congratulations, conscious, consensus,
  consistent, coolly, counselor, courageous,
  criticize, curiosity

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Most Commonly Misspelled Words

• definite, definitely, desirable, desperate,
  deterrent, dilemma, dumbfound, ecstasy, eighth,
  embarrass, endeavor, environment, excitable,
  excusable, exhilarate, existence, extremely,
  fierce, fiery, financier, forcible, fulfill,
  government, grammar, harassment, hemorrhage,
  hierarchy, hygiene, incredible, indispensable,
  innocuous, inoculate, insistence, irascible,
  irresistible, jeopardy, judgment, knowledgeable,
  legitimate, leisure, liaison, likable, likelihood

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Most Commonly Misspelled Words

• loneliness, maintenance, manageable,
  millionaire, mischievous, missile, misspell,
  necessary, niece, noticeable, occasion,
  occurrence, omitted, optimistic, parallel,
  pastime, perceive, permissible, persistent,
  potatoes, precede, predecessor, prejudice,
  privilege, procedure, profited, protein,
  questionnaire, recede, recommend, referred,
  relevant, remembrance

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Most Commonly Misspelled Words

• repetitious, resistant, rhythm, seizure,
  separate, sheriff, sizable, skillful, sovereign,
  succeed, superintendent, supersede, supervisor,
  surprise, tariff, temperament, tomatoes, usable,
  vacillate, vacuum, vilify, villain, visible,
  weird, wield, willful, withhold, woolly, yield