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Problems associated with Spelling

 English is the most accommodating Of all  languages. It has borrowed from virtually all other languages (popular) in the world. Interestingly, it tends to maintain the morphological structure of any language it borrows from. This has caused the irregularity in the spelling of some words that sound alike but are spelt differently or words that have similarly spellings but are pronounced differently.


See for instance, the difference between receive and believe. The letters of focus, ei/ie in either word are jointly pronounced /i:/, yet ordered differently. Examiners cash in on this irregularity to test students painstaking attention to this minute yet germane areas in spelling.


Before we go into some example of difficult words, let’s discuss why students spell wrongly:


Assumption Arising From Overgeneralisation of Rules.

English language has some basic rules that can guide one to learn especially at the very basic levels. However, these rules should not be over-generalised as there are exceptions. These exceptions are the areas of interest of examiners as observed in their mode of questions.


For instance, the ending order of words like knowledge, porridge, cartridge etc can cause language users to overgeneralise and assume that all words that rhyme with them should be spelt alike.


So,


Privilege goes for priviledge


Sacrilege goes for sacrilegde


Other examples are: precede, exceed, concede, succeed, proceed, secede, etc



✏️ Word formation


When new words are formed from existing ones using prefixes and suffixes, some letters from the old words are dropped or changed. Often times, language user don’t take cognisance of this, they still retain the old letter/s and this becomes an error.


move + able = movable (‘e’ is dropped)


pronounce + ation = pronunciation (‘o’ is dropped and ‘e’ changed to ‘i’)



🔸Foreign Word

Some words came from another language with their peculiarity of spelling. Except you make effort to learn them, meeting them in the exam hall for the first time, can pose a lot of difficulty. Examples are:


etiquette, chauffeur, beau, camouflage, façade, entrepreneur



In this era when American English is very prominent, candidates in countries where British English is used for official matters need to be very careful not to allow the popular American variety sway them into ‘errors’. For instance:


British         🔸        American

Manoeuvre    🔸     maneuvre

oestrogen      🔸     estrogen

paediatric      ðŸ”¸     pediatric

endeavour     🔸     endeavor

programme   🔸     program



💠Silent Letters


Some words in English have letters that are not pronounced. If one spells the way such a word is pronounced, an error is bound to occur. Below are such examples with the silent letters in bold.


separate, mnemonic, psychology, campaign, paradigm



💠Double Letters


Some words have certain letters that are doubled and of course with one sound. You may mistakenly use of one letter instead of two or double a wrong letter. Examples are:


embarrassment, exaggeration, aberration, occurrence, occasion, harassment, referred, occurred, misspell



✏️Commonly Misspelt Words


The following are some commonly misspelt words for students to take note:


Interpret not interprete


Auxiliary not auxilliary


Cemetery not cementary


Doughnut not downut


Brassiere not brezier


Millennium not millenium


millionaire not millionnaire


pneumonia not nemonnia


gynaecology not gynechology


cantankerous not catankerous


buoyant not bouyant


buttress not butress


erroneous not erronious


hypotenuse not hypotenus


oscillatory not oscilatory


hierarchy not hierachy


grievous not grievious


loquacious not locuacious


accommodation not accomodation


continuous not continous


February not febuary


diarrhoea not diarhea


indict not indite


supersede not supercede


maintenance not maintainance


sustenance not sustainance


catastrophe not catastrophy


camouflage not camoflag


curriculum not curiculum


liaison not liason


lieutenant not leftenant


noticeable not noticable


paraphernalia not parafenelia


trafficking not trafficing


trekking not trecking


questionnaire not questionaire


restaurant not restuarant 


fluorescent not flouresent


rheumatism not romatism


satellite not sattelite


tomorrow not tomorow


Wednesday not wensday


Tuesday not tusday


Weird not wierd


Vengeance not vengence


Success not sucess


Somersault not somersult


acoustic not acoostic


acquiesce not acquisce


professor not proffessor


👉 Get practice questions 

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