Top Ten Tips to help you with your English spelling

1) Say the word loudly when trying to spell it.

2) Work out the number of syllables in the word, i.e. how many times do you move your mouth when you say the word?

For example, Friday has two syllables and September has three syllables.

3) Spell the syllables, not the whole word.
For example, Fri – day and Sep – tem – ber.

4) Write what you think, many different times and look at the word. Try writing the same word with the different vowels because a, e, i, o, u are the most difficult letters to spell.

a) Satarday
b) Saterday
c) Satirday
d) Satorday
e) Saturday

Look at the words and eliminate what you think is wrong first, and then try to choose the correct spelling.

5) Try to remember spelling patterns, i.e. words that sound the same and have the same spelling:

For example, January and February, or light, right and night.

6) Think about common spelling rules:

For plurals:
vowel + y, just add s, e.g. play – plays

consonant + y, change the y to i and add es, e.g. study – studies

q is always followed by u in English.
For example, question, quiet, quickly….

7) Don’t forget about silent letters:

For example, write and wrong and lamb and comb

8) Be careful of the same letter having different sounds:

For example, c sounds like /s/ in city and December but it sounds like /k/ in cat and class.

9) British English and American English is mostly the same but there are some differences:

Favourite, apologise and centre are British English spelling but favorite, apologize and center are American English spelling.

10) Practise at home, cover the word you’re trying to spell, then uncover and check. Write the correct spelling many times:

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday,…………..

Good luck!!!!!!