Spelling involves forming words with the appropriate combinations of letters or the ability to do so. Hence, the task of spelling is extremely taxing. As an exposition to this treatise which discusses spelling, note that a task which is difficult or needs a lot of thought or effort is adjudged to be taxing (not, tasking). Meanwhile, this piece will expound on some rules that govern spelling, how to improve one’s spelling significantly and some commonly misspelt words.
In an article such as this, a detailed treatment of spelling is not realistic. Notwithstanding, ingenious writing will be ruined if it contains misspelling. With attention to a few simple rules, many of the prominent spelling errors can be easily avoided. Again, this is not to say that the English spelling is controlled by a tidy set of rules; it is, however, more economical to deal with the rules, which are accompanied by exceptions, than having to deal with each individual word. Admittedly, spelling in English is difficult because it is a language derived from many sources. There is the further difficulty of using twenty-six letters to represent forty-four sounds. Another major problem is that many of the letters used in English are not vocalised at all, as obtainable in words like: comb, listen, knife, plumber, build, Wednesday, sing, psychology, answer and numerous others.
Moving forward, a great deal of misspelling is associated with carelessness. We can assume, for instance, that every literate user of the English language knows the difference between to and too, there and their, these and this, as well as lose and loose. Yet, as often as not, many write-ups are marred by the indiscriminate use of these pairs of words. To spell words correctly, one must cultivate the habit of thinking about words clearly and, more importantly, pronouncing them carefully. This is achieved by not perceiving words as a group of letters, but as a group of syllables which are units of articulation that can be realised with a single breath effort. If well partitioned into its syllables, the longest word will become as easy to spell as the shortest one; that is, spelling me-teo-rol-o-gy will give you no more trouble than spelling comm-erce. This leads us to the first rule of spelling, which is: pronounce carefully. This helps us to avoid many of the common errors relating to spelling; for instance, auxiliary (not, ‘…lary’), comparative (not, ‘…ritive’), definite (not, ‘…nate’), February (not, ‘…buary’), secretary (not, ‘…cetary’). Other general rules of spelling are considered below:
2. For some words ending in ‘–ll’, drop one of the l’s in derivative words: all (but, ‘almost’, ‘also’, ‘already’ and ‘always’), full (but ‘fulfil’, ‘careful’, ‘truthful’ and ‘wonderful’), till (but, ‘until’).
3. When Y is preceded by a consonant, it changes to I when the former is succeeded by suffixes that begin with E (for instance, ‘est’, ‘er’ and ‘ed’). Instructive examples are apply-applied, rely-relied, deny-denied, country-countries, dirty-dirtiest, tidy-tidier.
4. Q is almost always succeeded by U. The foregoing rule is reinforced by the spellings of queen, quotation, quadruplets and quadrilateral.
Having perused these rules, we shall consider some ways to improve our spelling appreciably. First off, good spelling is largely a function of an excellent visual memory, and whether your spelling is good or bad is substantially dependent upon the way you read. If you read with keen and critical interest, you will form mental pictures of the printed words; whereas when one rapidly scans a page, one will be left with nothing more than blurred impressions. Indeed, there is a degree of truth in the saying that ‘Lazy readers make bad spellers’. In summary, the four steps towards achieving good spelling are: good spelling, careful pronunciation, keep a notebook to write down the correct version of words whose spellings cause you trouble, and use the words you have noted regularly.
It will not slip my mind (not, ‘skip my mind’) to disclose that, sometimes, letter combinations reflect the dichotomies of spelling conventions in British English and American English. Put succinctly, axe, jewellery, programme, colour, per cent, centre, instil, judgement, defence, driving licence, favourable, skilful and practise (a verb) are represented as such in British English. In striking contrast, the aforementioned words are written in American English thus: ax, jewelry, program, color, percent, center, instill, judgment, defense, driver’s license, favorable, skillful and practice (a verb).
Lastly, I shall outline some pervasively misspelt words and their correct forms. Among a boatload of others, we have: foolscap (not, fullscap), pronunciation (not, pronounciation), privilege (not, priviledge), beneficent (not beneficient), supersede (not, superceed), inasmuch as (not, in as much as), embarrassment (not, embarassment ), occasion (not, ocassion), tomorrow (not, tommorow), calendar (not, calender), exorbitant (not, exhorbitant), heartthrob (not, hearthrob), camouflage (not, camoflague), maintenance (not, maintainance), acquaintance (not, aquaintance), misspell (not, mispell), dining (not, dinning), hindrance (not, hinderance), grammar (not, grammer), a lot (not, alot), in fact (not, infact), library (not, libary), necessary (not, neccessary), playwright (not, playright), receipt (not, reciept), rhythm (not, rythm), surprise (not, suprise), forty (not, fourty), withhold (not, withold), fortnight (not, forthnight), procrastinate (not, procastinate) and repetition (not, repitition).
Spelling constitutes an essential part of language mastery. Therefore, anyone who desires proficiency in the language should take spelling seriously.
