How to enhance the spelling in your essays Part 1

Thanks to the popularity of the online correspondence, you can safely call our time the “era of spelling discoveries”. We’re so anxious to convey to the interlocutor their ideas that completely forget about spelling and sometimes invent new words. This approach can play a cruel joke with you, especially if you are writing a business letter. As they say, the Word helps those who help themselves. In this article we will tell you how to learn the spelling of English words and begin to write competently competent.

How to easily remember the spelling of English words: rules and whether to write correctly in this age of computer technology? Of course, we understand what is meant when people write something. But what we think about him? It seems that on the other side of the screen sits a frivolous person. Agree, I would not want to make such an impression on foreign colleague or friend. And sometimes mistakes make a real splash in the network, you can read about it in the article “12 memes in English with hilarious mistakes”. So if you don’t want to see your own pearl in this compilation, listen to our advice.

I want to note that spelling is difficult even for native speakers. That is why in America there are various competitions that are designed to test the literacy of people, such as Spelling bee. This is a competition in which people are called different words, and they must pronounce them letter by letter. Who made the mistake, he is eliminated. At each stage of the competition are given increasingly difficult words until there is one winner. For the first time the competition was held back in 1925 and since then its popularity. Now Spelling bee is conducted in different countries of the world.

Now let’s see what errors we have to fight. According to research conducted in the UK, most spelling errors can be attributed to the following 4 groups:

• A 6% error in the suffixes -ful and -ly, for example: beautiful is beautiful, successfully is successfully;
• 20% is the omission of letters, for example: instead of the restaurant, restaurant, government instead of the government;
• A 28% error in homophones, i.e. words that sound the same but are written differently, for example: no instead of know, to instead of two;
• 42% — other errors – mostly people change the letter places (believe instead of believe) and forgetting to double the consonant (correct is correct).

These statistics are the most common mistakes of native speakers, but according to our teachers, statistics for students will be about the same. So we decided to give some practical advice and also tell about sites of helpers who will help you deal with the spelling of English words.

4 important rules for the English grammar nazi

The Huffington Post published an interesting article about the spelling of the English language. The authors argue that there are 4 important rules of spelling, knowledge of which will help you to write competently.

Rule #1 — ei or ie

In English there is a simple rule: I before E except after C. That is, in most cases, we write the combination of letters ie, for example: believe, piece, chief, achieve, friend.

And after the letter C we write ei: receive, deceive, ceiling, receipt, deceive.

Exception: efficient, foreigner, height.

Rule #2 — -e at the end of words

If the suffix begins in a vowel, silent -e at the end of the word drops: write + ing — writing, dance + ing — dancing, translate + or — translator, please + ure — pleasure.

If the suffix starts in a consonant, -e remains in place: white + ness — whiteness, use + ful — useful, state + ment — statement, care + ful — careful.

The exceptions: true + ly — truly, notice + able — noticeable.

Rule #3 — -y at the end of words

If the word ends in a consonant and -y when adding a suffix should replace the -y into -i: party + es — parties pity + ful — pitiful, happy + ness happiness, defy + ance — defiance.

However, if we add -ing, y is retained: try + ing — trying, cry — crying, copy + ing — copying study + ing studying.

Rule #4 — doubling the consonant when adding -ing to the verb

If the verb ends in a shock syllable with a short vowel, which stands between two consonants, the final consonant letter is doubled when adding -ing: plan – planning, begin – beginning, swim – swimming.