English Practice & Support

Theory:

TRICKS TO HELP YOU SPELL BETTER

Teachers in schools in the U.K. have the problem of teaching their students how to spell properly, and they use some strategies that we will describe here.

Using Rhymes

So, is it BOAT, or BAOT?

The rhyme says When 2 vowels go walking, the first one does the talking and says its own name. eg. BOAT

Using mnemonics

A mnemonic is a phrase to help you remember something.

So, is it FRIEND, or FREIND?

The Mnemonic

Five Red Indians Eating Nuts Downstairs gives us FRIEND.

Looking for words within words

So, is it SEPERATE or SEPARATE.

There is always A RAT in sepARATe.

Breaking difficult words down into their syllables.

What about GEOGRAPHY?

That's GEO GRAPH Y

A word of caution. Some kids learning English as a foreign language use a strategy where they pronounce every letter.

So, FRIEND becomes FRI END.

That is to be discouraged because it can affect pronunciation down the line. Silent letters must stay silent.

ANSWER is never ANS WER.