Spelling is the way we combine letters to write words. Learning to spell correctly is part of learning a language. The English language has over 40 sounds, called phonemes, but only 26 letters to represent them. Nevertheless, the several hundred thousand words of the English language can all be spelled with these 26 letters. Correct spelling, like correct speaking, is more than a sign of a person’s education. Spelling helps a person communicate thoughts in writing, so others will know quickly and easily what is meant. Any system of spelling and the art and study of spelling are called orthography.
To understand how an alphabet-based spelling system works, say out loud the word bat. Say the word again, and listen carefully for the three sounds that blend together to make up the spoken word. Now, write the word instead of saying it. First, write the letter that stands for the beginning sound of the word, b. Next, write the letter that stands for the middle sound, a. Finally, write the letter that stands for the final sound, t. The letters b-a-t repeat in the same order the three original sounds of the spoken word. This is the spelling of the word bat. Spelling is simply the method of writing letters for spoken sounds. But the historical development of the English language has resulted in many spellings that do not follow the way the words are pronounced.
Learning to spell
Many people make spelling more difficult than is necessary. They try to learn their spelling by speaking, as one would spell in a spelling bee (spelldown), and they forget that writing is the only place in which spelling can possibly matter. They spend time and effort on words that they are unlikely ever to write and whose meanings are vague to them. They emphasize spelling drill and spelling rules, but they neglect to work out an effective method of learning to spell new words. Experts estimate that over 80 percent of all English words are spelled according to regular patterns. Of the 20 percent of irregularly spelled words, only about 3 percent are used commonly enough to require that their spelling be memorized.
Base words.
The first problem in learning to spell is to decide which words are the most important. The average person uses fewer than 25,000 words in speaking, and even fewer in writing.
About 2,000 base words will satisfy over 90 percent of the writing needs of the average eighth-grade student. An additional 1,000 base words, or 3,000 in all, will take care of 95 percent of the writing needs of the average adult. An example of a base word is danger. Some words that can be formed from this base include dangerous and endanger.
The student should first learn to spell the 3,000 base words. Then the student can add the spellings of words used for personal or business reasons. There are two main sources for base words. One is the writing of adults, and the other is the writing of children. Many words occur in both groups. Most spelling textbooks include lists of words of both groups.
Thousands of words have been studied to make up the lists of base words. For example, about is used by adults and by children as early as the first grade. Absorb is used by adults, but it is seldom used by children before they are in the eighth grade. Abrupt is often used by adults but is seldom used by young people before high school.
Methods of study.
The difference between good spellers and poor spellers can often be traced to one problem: finding an effective method of learning to spell. Good spellers have some method for studying words they want to spell. Poor spellers are frequently helpless with a new word. When they try to learn a new spelling, they usually use poor methods. Here are 10 common steps used by good spellers:
1. Looking at the word.
2. Copying the word.
3. Remembering how the word looks.
4. Listening to the pronunciation of the word.
5. Pronouncing the word.
6. Dividing the word into syllables.
7. Saying the letters of the word in order.
8. Writing the word to get its “feel.”
9. Studying the difficult parts of the word.
10. Using the word in a meaningful sentence.
Remembering trick phrases, such as “the principal is a pal,” is not a good substitute for an effective learning method. A few spelling tricks, such as remembering “stationery” with “paper,” may be helpful with particularly hard words. But too many tricks can be confusing.
People who want to improve their spelling can make a combination of the steps listed above that suit them. Few people would use all 10 steps. Once the combination has been selected, it should be tested and changed if necessary. Then the combination can become a regular part of people’s learning habits. Visualizing the word, or remembering how it looks, should probably be part of everyone’s combination. A combination of steps for learning to spell a word suggested by an authority on spelling is given below:
1. Understand the use, meaning, and pronunciation of the word.
2. Visualize the word.
3. Note the spelling of the word.
4. Write the word carefully and neatly.
5. Check the spelling of the word.
6. Use the word as often as possible in writing.
Spelling rules
can help improve a person’s spelling. But there are often many exceptions to these rules.
Many words come from a base word. For example, the words derived from develop include develops, developed, development, developing, and developer. Each of these new forms is made with a suffix added at the end of a word. Here are some rules for spelling suffixes correctly:
1. Drop the final e in a word before a suffix beginning with a vowel. For example, love + ing is loving. An exception to this rule is dyeing.
2. Keep the final e in a word before a suffix beginning with a consonant. For example, sure + ly is surely.
3. When a word ends in y preceded by a consonant, change the y to i before adding a suffix (unless the suffix begins with i). For example, plenty + ful is plentiful.
4. When a one-syllable word ends in a consonant preceded by a single vowel, double the consonant before a suffix beginning with a vowel. For example, run + er becomes runner.
5. In American English, when a word has more than one syllable, double the consonant only if the accent of the word is on the last syllable. For example, admit + ed is admitted.
Prefixes are added to the beginning of words. Three common prefixes are dis-, mis-, and un-. When they are added to a word beginning with the same letter, there will be two s’s or n’s. For example, mis + spell is misspell.
One of the biggest spelling problems comes from the use of ei and ie. Some words are spelled with ei, such as receive. Some words are spelled with ie, such as believe. A spelling rule to remember is: “Use i before e except after c or when it is sounded like a, as in neighbor and weigh.” Exceptions include either and seize.
Adding new words
One way people can increase the number of words they can spell is to learn the spelling of words derived from a base word. For example, trust is a base word. A number of words, such as mistrust, trusting, and trustee, come from this base word. A similar method is to learn the root meanings of words. The root of a word is its basic form. For example, the verbal root port comes from the Latin word for carry. Knowing this helps to learn the spelling and meaning of such words as portage, import, export, report, porter, deport, portable, comportment, and portfolio.
A more important way of learning to spell new words is to learn the habit of using a dictionary. On seeing a new word, look it up in the dictionary and study its spelling and pronunciation. The dictionary also gives root meanings of words. See Dictionary.
Sometimes a word has two or more different spellings. For example, enrollment and enrolment are both correct spellings. Usually, a dictionary gives the preferred spelling first. But this does not mean that the alternate spelling is wrong. There are also many differences between American and British spellings. For example, the American labor is the British labour. The American center is the British centre. And the American spelling connection is the British connexion.
Spelling demons
Words that people find unusually difficult to spell are called spelling demons. They often have an irregular arrangement of letters and need special study. The word fasten is a typical spelling demon. Many people who misspell this word write it fasen, because the t is silent. That is, people do not sound the t in fasten when they speak the word. Another spelling demon is friend. People often write it freind, because the word has the sound of e.
There are also many words in English that have silent letters. The k in knee and knight, for example, is not pronounced. The reason for this mismatch between pronunciation and spelling is that in earlier stages of English the k-sound in these words was pronounced audibly. The pronunciation changed over time, but the spelling was already fixed. Another source for silent letters is the borrowing of words from another language, such as pneumonia (from the Greek word for lung).
Many spelling demons are homophones, or words that sound alike but have different meanings. For example, pray and prey are often misspelled because they sound alike. Other homophones include bare and bear, principal and principle, read and red, and to, too, and two. Failing to pronounce a word accurately and distinctly is a frequent cause of error. The word government is an example. People who say gov-er-ment may spell the word without the first n. Two other examples are preform for perform and quanity for quantity.
Simplified spelling
Many attempts have been made to simplify the spelling of words in the English language. The aim of most of these plans is to spell a word exactly as it is pronounced. For example, under these plans the word though would be spelled tho, and the word knock would be spelled nok.
There have been two chief arguments against such changes. The first is that simplified spelling would destroy the familiar pattern of words and cause confusion. The second is that the pronunciation of words changes continuously. Changes in pronunciation can occur rapidly or slowly. Words would soon become unrecognizable if the spelling were changed to meet each new change in pronunciation.
