Spelling Tips

Its probably one of the most well known spelling tips, but that only means its still important – “I before E, except after C”.

Another “oldie but goodie” spelling tip is - “When -ing comes to stay, little e runs away. (This is why make becomes making and bake becomes baking.)”

If you don’t know how to spell a word and need to look it up in a dictionary, try spelling it phonetically to have a starting place for looking it up.

Do not rely on your computers spell check! It will only check to see if a word is spelled correctly, not if the correct word is used. For example if you wanted to use “two” and you typed “to”.

Proper pronunciation of a word will help you to be able to spell it correctly, so make sure you are pronouncing the word the correct way.

Use memory aids to help you member how to spell difficult words. A good trick is to make up a silly phrase that uses a word for each of the letters of word you are trying to remember how to spell.

Figure out which words you have trouble spelling and put them into a list. You can check your old writing assignments and tests to see which words these might be. Then go over the words until you can spell them correctly. Repeat this as often as necessary if you discover more words that are causing your problems.

Remember that words with a silent "e" on the end helps the vowel "says its name". So a vowel will have its long sound any time that a constant and silent "e" follow it. So that is what separates bar from bare, dud from dude, cut from cute, etc.

While "I before E, except after C" is always a good spelling tip to remember, keep in mind that there are some exceptions, such as when a word with a sound like "a," such as in "neighbor" and "weigh."

Be careful when you pluralize words, as some words may just require an S to be added at the end (such as "train/trains"), but others may require -es at the end (such as "dress/dresses").

Spelling rules say that you must change "y" to an "i" when making a word plural or adding a suffix with a consonant before the "y". If a vowel is before the "y" or if the suffix begins with an "i", then it does not get changed. Also, any proper name is exempt from this rule.

Try to learn a few new words a day. Make a goal of at least using them at least once throughout your day. Make sure you remember the proper way to spell them too!