Piggybacks
Piggybacks are known as pairs of consonants that are pronounced where one is silent. This can make spelling difficult, so it is important that whoever you are teaching look out for these piggy backers. Here are some examples of piggyback pairs to remember:
- Gn, pn and kn: With these pairs, in these piggyback pairs you can only hear the “n” sound. One example is the word “gnome”.
- Rh and wr: For these pairs, only the “r” sound is apparent. For example, the word: “rhyme”.
- Ps and sc: With these two you can only hear the “s” sound, and the letters “p” and “c” are silent. For example: “psychic”.
- Wh: With this single piggyback pair you can only hear the “h” sound. An example of this would be the word “whole”.
Pluralizing Nouns:
This can be tricky, so we are going to go over a few helpful ways that you can teach someone how to pluralize nouns correctly. Firstly, it is important to pay attention to the last letters in the word. Once you are aware of the last letters, you can follow these common rules:
- Singular nouns that end in the letters “ch”, “sh”, “s”, “x”, or “z” can be turned plural by adding the letters “es” to the end.
- Singular nouns that end in a vowel and the letter “y” can be made plural by adding the letter “s” at the end.
- Singular nouns ending in a consonant followed by the letter “y” can be changed to plural by dropping the “y” and adding “ies” to the end.
- Singular nouns ending in “f” or “fe” can be changed to plural by dropping the “fe” or “f” and adding the letters “ves” to the end.
- And simply, singular nouns ending in “o” can be turned plural be adding an “s” to the end.
How to Practice Spelling
Now that you have the rules down to teach, here are some helpful tips for helping someone put these spelling rules into practice.
Break it down:
Break your words down into syllables, smaller words, and smaller parts. Once they are broken down, look for words within words. For example, “together” can be broken down into “to” “get” and “her”. Also, consider learning prefixes and suffixes. This can also help improve your spelling.
Sound it out:
Sound out words can also help you figure out how to spell them. However, make sure to pronounce the word correctly as well. With that in mind, simply reading out words that you do not know how to spell can be helpful towards the overall spelling process. Make sure that syllables are pronounced correctly or you might miss something as small as an “e” in the middle, for instance, the word “interesting”.
Mnemonics:
Memory aids or mnemonics are a great and fun way to help someone learn how to spell. You can try different things, such as:
- Silly or fun sentences. For example, the world: “right” can be remembered with the phrase: “real is great happy tiger”.
- Clues or clever meanings behind words that you make up can help you remember spelling.
- Try breaking up a word and remembering a part to the whole. For example, the spelling of “separate” can be remembered by the fact that there is the word “rat” in the middle.
Classics:
As always, there are the classic ways of studying to memorize the spelling of words.
- Practice, practice, practice the words that are commonly being misspelled so that they will stick in your brain!
- Write out words that you are having trouble with and rewrite them at least ten times. Split the words up into syllables so that you can see them on paper.
- Consider making flashcards for your problem words and practice them multiple times throughout the day. You can even use post-it notes to stick commonly misspelled words around the house for reminders.
Spell Yourself Silly
As with anything else, the more you practice, the easier spelling will become for you. Udemy.com has some helpful and convenient courses for some helpful tips and tricks towards getting your letters in the right place. Time to put those letters in their correct spots.