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Structural Grammar Spelling and Pronunciation Adding –ing to verbs, words ending in –ful, ie, ei, silent letters, same sound, different spelling, words which look similar.
Table of CONTENTS Adding –ing to verbs, words ending in –ful ie, ei, silent letters 01 02 03 same sound, different spelling words which look similar. 04 05
Adding-ing to verbs • One-syllable words ending in one vowel and one consonant, double the last consonant. Swim/swimming put/putting Compare these words which do not double the consonant: shoot/shooting lift/lifting • Two-syllable words ending in one vowel and one consonant, double the last consonant when the stress is on the second syllable. begin/beginning control/controlling Compare these words with the stress on the first syllable: wonder/wondering threaten/threatening One exception to this rule in British English is travel/travelling • Words ending in one vowel, one consonant and -e, drop the final -e. write/writing leave/leaving
The suffix -ful has only one l. Beautiful successful When -lyis added to make an adverb, the l becomes double. Beautifully successfully Words ending in -ful
-ie or -ei? There is a useful rule: i before e except after c. field niece receive This rule only works when the sound is 'ee' i:/. For example, in the word reign the sound is different, and e comes before i.
Silent letters Many words contain letters which do not form a sound. These are sometimes referred to as ‘silent letters.’ The silent letters are underlined. bt/mb Doubt Plumber Thumb knKnee Knife Know psPsychology Psychiatrist sc Descend ascend st Listen Castle The letter q is always followed by u. question squid acquire
In English one particular sound can be spelt using different letters. In each group below the sound underlined is the same. Vowels Company brother love trouble rubbish blood Road most home though low Earth further word hurt Wait great late weight Now shout drown plough Same sound, different spelling
Consonant relation shock sure conscious delicious church furniture watch leisure measure confusion Same sound, different spelling
Same pronunciation, different spelling and meaning Different words can have exactly the same pronunciation. Common examples are:lesson/lessen stair/stare waste/waist allowed/aloudwarn/worn find/fined no/know fare/fair wait/weight two/too
Words which look similar • Some words may have only a letter or two different to other words, but they have a completely different meaning. Be careful with these commonly confused words: formerly/formally later/latter quiet/quite accept/except through/thorough recent/resent insure/ensure lose/loose
Words with a syllable which is not pronounced Some words are difficult to spell because they seem to have a syllable which is not pronounced. The examples below show how many syllables are normally pronounced: • temperature (3 syllables) • Wednesday (2 syllables) • people (2 syllables) • library (3 syllables) • vegetable (3 syllables) • interesting (3 syllables)
Nouns and verbs with c and s How to improve spelling • Noun advice practice • Verb Advise Practise • Relate the spelling of new words to words you already know • Make lists of the words you usually spell wrongly. Test yourself or ask friends to test you. • Read widely to give you experience of the way words are spelled.
