How to Spell

The English language is confusing, packed with inconsistencies and exceptions that anyone who's learning the language for the first time will be quick to point out. There are so many ways to write out a single sound that theoretically, you could pronounce the word "ghoti" as "fish" (if you pronounce the gh as in tough, the o as in women and the ti as in nation).[1] If you're struggling to get a grasp on those silent vowels, confusing consonants, and crazy pronunciations, here's how you can improve.

Steps

1. Learn spelling rules. There are some classic rhymes and rules to help children get the hang of spelling, but they do have exceptions, so use them in conjunction with the rest of the steps in this article.
   
   • i before e, except after c, or when followed by g, or when sounding like "ay", as in "neighbor" and "weigh"
     
     • this rule does not apply for the word "weird"; weird but true
       
     • other exceptions: either, leisure, protein, their
       
     • "cien" words don't follow this rule: ancient, efficient, science
       
     • "eig" words that don't sound like "ay" also don't follow this rule: height, foreign
       
     
     
   • "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." When there are two vowels together, the first one in the word is pronounced the "long" way (way, be, mite, go, flu) and the second one is silent. If you're not sure how to arrange the vowels, sound the word out--which long vowel do you hear? Put that one first. Examples: team, coat, wait. Exceptions: you
     
   • The spelling of a word doesn't change when you add a prefix, even if it means putting two of the same letter right next to each other. Examples: Misspell, misstep, preeminent, unnecessary.
     
   • Remember the rule for making singular nouns ending in y into plurals. If a word has a vowel (a,e,i,o,u) before the y, the plural is formed by adding s. Examples: toy becomes toys; buoy becomes buoys. A singular word with a consonant before the y at the end changes the word ending to -ies in the plural. Examples: lady becomes ladies in the plural, ferry becomes ferries. The rule also applies to present tense verbs ending in y in the third person singular - He/she carries, he/she marries, he/she worries.
     
   
   
2. Identify problematic words. Look back through previous writings and check the spelling. This will be easier to do if you have electronic files and run a spell check program, but the very best way to get this done is to have an impeccable speller edit your work. Which are the words you tend to misspell the most often? Write down every word you misspell. Consult the list below for some commonly misspelled words, and pick out the ones you tend to confuse.
   
3. Sound it out. Some words are spelled exactly as they sound, but the most problematic words are the ones with silent vowels or consonants. It may help to sound out the correct spelling in an exaggerated way. Take the word "beautiful" for example. When you see this word, say to yourself "beeeee--a---ooooootiful". Emphasize the "a" (pronouncing it like in "hay" or "hat") because it is normally not pronounced in the word, and is more likely to be left out. There may also be words in which you make a vowel silent when you really shouldn't, such as "intresting" instead of "interesting" or "comfrtable" instead of "comfortable"). Make it a habit to pronounce words correctly (don't skip consonants or vowels that you're not supposed to) and you'll have a better chance of spelling them correctly.
   
4. Watch out for homonyms and homophones. A homonym is one of two or more words that have the same sound and often the same spelling but differ in meaning, such as bank (embankment) and bank (place where money is kept). A homophone is one of two or more words, such as night and knight, that are pronounced the same but differ in meaning, origin, and sometimes spelling. Click on any of the following commonly mistaken homonyms/homophones for guidelines:
   
   • How to Use You're and Your
     
   • How to Use There, Their and They're
     
   • How to Use Than and Then
     
   • How to Use Affect and Effect Properly
     
   • How to Use Its and It's
     
   • Other common homonyms and homophones are: Two, To, & Too; And & End; Here & Hear; Eight & Ate; Wear, Ware, & Where; Lose & Loose; and Sent, Scent, & Cent.
     
   
   
5. Be familiar with "piggyback pairs". It's not uncommon for pairs of consonants to be pronounced so that one is silent and figuratively "piggybacks" on the sound of the other. Make note of the following:
   
   • gn, pn, kn = n (e.g. gnome, pneumonia, knife)
     
   • rh, wr = r (e.g. rhyme, wrestle)
     
   • pt, ght = t (e.g. ptomaine, height)
     
   • ps, sc = s (e.g. psalm, science)
     
   • wh = h (e.g. whole)
     
   
   
6. Use mnemonics. For words that you keep spelling incorrectly, develop creative memory aids to help you remember how to spell them. Some examples:
   
   • Desert (arid land) or dessert (a sweet treat)? Remember that with dessert, there are two "s"s because you always want seconds.
     
   • Separate - Keep forgetting that "a" in the middle? Remember that there's a rat in sepARATe, separating the first beginning of the word from the end.
     
   
   
7. Practice. Go through each word that you frequently misspell and write out the correct spelling ten times (more if you're a fast typer, fewer if you're writing by hand). Do this every day or every other day. What you're essentially doing is "training" your mind and hand(s) to spell the word correctly. Eventually, you might want to quiz yourself by having someone read the words out loud (or making a recording of yourself) and writing out each word as you hear it. Then go back and see which ones you got wrong. Focus on practicing with those.
   
8. Copyedit someone else's work. Sometimes the best way to learn something is to try to teach it to someone else. Train yourself to pick out other people's spelling mistakes, even in books (it does happen). You can begin by copyediting wikiHow articles!
   
9. Watch out for the "grocer's apostrophe." This gets its name from a spelling error traditionally made by greengrocers on signs in produce sections. Unfortunately, this error is popping up in all sorts of places these days. Remember that an apostrophe with an "s" shows possession. Correct: "The banana's skin turned brown." You do not use an apostrophe to form the regular plural of a noun. Not correct: "Special on banana's: 49 cents."
   

Commonly Misspelled Words

From How to Spell Commonly Misspelled Words
MISSPELLING
CORRECT SPELLING
acheive achieve
adress address
alot a lot
athiest atheist
beggining beginning
beleive believe
bisness business
catagory category
committment commitment
concieve conceive
copywrite copyright
decaffinated decaffeinated
decathalon decathlon
definately definitely
desireable desirable
diety deity
dissapoint disappoint
dispell dispel
embarass embarrass
enviroment environment
expresso espresso
extremly extremely
facist fascist
Febuary February
flourescent fluorescent
fourty forty
freind friend
guage gauge
goverment government
grammer grammar
harrass harass
hemorage hemorrhage
heros heroes
hieght, heigth height
hygeine hygiene
independance independence
inate innate
innoculate inoculate
it's its (possessive pronoun)
judgement judgment
knowlege knowledge
lazer laser
libary library
lightening lightning
loose lose
maintainance maintenance
managable manageable
midevil medieval
millenium millennium
mischievious mischievous
mispell misspell
mit mitt
monestary monastery
monkies monkeys
morgage mortgage
mountian mountain
neccessary necessary
neice niece
nickle nickel
nineth ninth
ninty ninety
noone no one or no-one
noticable noticeable
occured occurred
occurence occurrence
oppurtunity opportunity
paralell parallel
pasttime pastime
pavillion pavilion
peice piece
percieve perceive
perserverance perseverance
persue pursue
posession possession
pertend pretend
potatoe potato
preceeding preceding
pronounciation pronunciation
priviledge privilege
publically publicly
recieve receive
reccomend recommend
rediculous ridiculous
reguardless regardless
remeber remember
roomate roommate or room-mate
rythm rhythm
sacreligious sacrilegious
seige siege
sentance sentence
seperate separate
sieze seize
similiar similar
sincerly sincerely
speach speech
stationary stationery (office supplies term)
stragedy strategy
suggestable suggestible
supercede supersede
supposively supposedly
suprise surprise
thier their
throughly thoroughly
tommorrow tomorrow
tounge tongue
triathalon triathlon
ukelele ukulele
vaccuum vacuum
vegeterian vegetarian
villian villain
Wendesday Wednesday
wierd weird (exception: Wierd programming language)
writting writing

Tips

• Proofread your work. We all get busy at some point during writing, which makes it easy to toss in a sound alike word such as reef or wreath; and you can carry on that mistake unaware that a mistake has been made...until later and it jumps out at you...then you are like, "Wow, I wrote that?"
  
• Reading books and newspapers, catalogues, billboard signs, posters in windows all aid in learning how to spell. If you find a word that is not familiar, write it down, even if all you have is a paper napkin. When you go home, look up the word or words in the dictionary. The more you reference, the more you read, the better you will be at spelling.
  
• It can really help to be familiar with the spelling of a few other languages, and to know the language that the word comes from.
  

Warnings

• Don't rely on a spelling checker program, as they are not foolproof and would let a sentence like this slip through: "Eye tolled ewe, eye am knew at this."
  
• Don't assume that just because a word is printed in a book that it is spelled properly; there are mistakes made there, too, as well as in other writings. It happens!
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Use English Punctuation Correctly
  
• How to Study for a Spelling Test
  
• How to Spell a Difficult Word
  
• How to Memorize Words for a Spelling Bee
  
• How to Win a Spelling Bee
  
• How to Understand Chat Acronyms
  

Sources and Citations

1. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Spell. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.