Spelling Tips for Parents and Students

This article contains a detailed list of spelling tips for parents and students learning to spell.

I Before E:

Perhaps the best known spelling rule is, I before E, except after C; or when sounded like 'A' as in neighbor or weigh. Children have been learning this little rhyme, also known as a mnemonic device, for decades. Some exceptions to this rule are: either, foreign, height, and weird. Words with 'cien' as in science and ancient are also exceptions.

-Able and –Ible:

Knowing whether to end a word with -able or -ible can be hard to memorize. Instead of having to memorize each individual word, the following rule usually works: -able words are complete without this ending; -ible words are usually incomplete when you remove the suffix. For example is the word negligible; if you remove ible from the end, 'neglig' is not a word!

The Silent E:

Silent E helps vowels to say their names is another common adage. This means that the words which have a long vowel sound, followed by a consonant, usually end with a silent E. This helps children remember word endings. Examples that help children understand are rate and rat, as well as hate and hat.

Walking Vowels:

When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking. This helps children remember which vowel goes first when there are two in a row. For example, tea is not tae because the vowel sounds like 'eee.'

Here’s a List of Commonly Misspelled Words:

absence
accommodation
believe
calendar
campaign
canceled
cancellation
conscience
conscious
desperately
embarrass
exceed
forfeit
guarantee
harass
harassment
irrelevant
judgment
license
mischievous
misspell
necessary
neighbor
offense
parallel
potato
potatoes
receipt
receive
recommend
separate
siege
subtly
succeed
thoroughly
vacuum
weird
whether

The spelling tips for parents and students offered in this article can easily help any student overcome most of their learning difficulties associated with spelling.

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