Collins - Collins Easy Learning English Spelling

The book uses simple explanations, backed up with examples demonstrating each point, to describe the important features of English spelling. It also points out the most difficult words to spell and offers ways of learning these. The book begins with a clear explanation of how the letters and groups of letters regularly correspond to certain sounds, and then looks at the reasons why the spelling of some words does not match the sound. Next, it looks at recurring patterns and rules with which you need to
be familiar to understand and predict how the majority of words are spelt. The last part of the book is concerned with words whose spellings are not easy to predict: it provides some pra ctical advice on learning tricky spellings and then looks at tricky words themselves, showing why each can present pitfalls even to experienced users of English. All of the hard words that are examined in this book are listed in an alphabetical index at the end of the book.

You can use this index both as a resource for checking the correct spellings of tricky words and also to point you to the books explanations and useful tips for memorizing many of the words. English spelling can sometimes appear to be a chaotic affair, with the spellings of words such as choir, colonel, laugh, and yacht having little relation to the way that words are pronounced in spoken English. Yet there are rules and patterns at work in the spelling system, and it is possible to become a good speller by mastering relatively few of these simple rules and patterns. Collins Easy Learning English Spelling is designed to help you with this task, and is a valuable resource for all users of English. Ian Brookes, 2010

contents

The basics of spelling

Spelling is the process of using letters to represent a word. For most words there is one arrangement of letters that is accepted as the correct spelling.

Using the correct spelling of a word means that you can be confident of being understood when you write English; getting the spelling wrong can make it difficult to be understood and create a bad impression.

The alphabet

There are twenty-six letters that are used to spell words in English: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Each of these letters can also be written as a capital letter. This form is used at the beginning of a sentence or a name, and in certain other places (see page 7778). A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Five of these letters (A, E, I, O, U) are vowels. These are used to represent sounds that are made when your mouth is open.

cat	pen	sit
dog	cup

The other letters are called consonants.

These are used to represent sounds that are made by closing your mouth or using your tongue.

pea

see

do

The letter Y can act as a vowel in some words, such as sky and crypt. Most words are spelt using a mixture of vowels and consonants.
This is because in most cases we need to open our mouths between pronouncing different consonants. It is unusual to find more than two vowels or two consonants together.

Typical letter-sounds

Most consonants are strongly associated with a particular sound
and represent this sound in virtually every word in which they appear.

big	bad	bee
cab	club	robin

Some consonants can represent different sounds in different words.

big	bad	bee
cab	club	robin

Some consonants can represent different sounds in different words.

For example C can have a hard sound like a K.

cat

cup

panic

But it can also have a soft sound like an S.

city

acid

place

Combinations of consonants

Some consonants can be combined and still keep their typical sounds. The letters L, R and W can come after some other consonants.

blob	grip	dwell
clip	prod	twin

The letter S can come before a number of other consonants.

doctor	left	golden
milk	help	belt
lamp	land	ri