Chapter 4 Spelling and vocabulary

Spelling
It is important that your written English is as accurate as possible – and
part of that is checking your spelling carefully.

Homophones
If you are struggling to spell a word in a test or exam, it is a good idea
to try to sound it out in your head. However, things become a bit trickier
when some words sound the same even though they are spelt differently
and mean different things. These words are called homophones.

homophones words Try this

that sound the same,
are spelt differently 1 Look at the grid below and circle the correct word to answer
and mean different each question.
things
a If I am listening to d If I am travelling on a g If I am writing about
something, which cruise ship, which one something owned
one is correct? is correct? by them, which one
here / hear see / sea is correct?
there / their / they’re
b If I am thinking about e If you want to slow h If I am asking if my
walking through a down your car or bike, answer is correct,
forest, which one is which one would you which one is it?
correct? use? right / write
would / wood break / brake
c If I am describing f If I am describing the i If I am describing
the way the wind is way someone eats the king and his
blowing, which one gum, which one is rule, which one is
is correct? correct? correct?
blew / blue choose / chews rain / rein / reign

2 To show that you understand the difference between the

homophones in question 1, write a sentence for each of the
homophones you didn’t choose.

a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h

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 CHAPTER 4 SPELLING AND VOCABULARY

i
j
k

Try this
Complete the table below. Write down the meaning of each word in
the first column. Then write down a homophone for the word and the
meaning or usage of the homophone.
The first one has been completed as an example.

Word Meaning/usage Homophone Meaning/usage

main Most important mane Hair belonging to a lion/horse
waste

plain

vein

two

bear

board

son

sight

cereal

one

poor

past

no

draw

band

caught

pear

week

steal

Now write sentences using each of the words and homophones from
the table on a separate piece of paper.

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 Spelling

HINT Try this

To help you revise the
differences between Think of another five words that are homophones and copy and
these homophones, it complete the table below in the same way.
can be useful to draw
a picture to represent Word Meaning/usage Homophone Meaning/usage
the distinction visually.

Try this
In this piece of writing, the student has become confused about which
homophones to use.
The queen, who reigns
over her people, is Find the 15 mistakes and correct them. Underline each mistake and then
holding the reins in the write the correct word above the mistake.
rain.
Dear Sir,

You asked me to right a letter to ewe for homework so I have.

You said I should chews what I should right. I could knot decide

what two do. So I decided too tell ewe about my holiday at the

seaside. I had a grate time and a lovely view of the clear blew

see from my hotel. It was a long weigh from hear. I hope ewe had

a good holiday to.

mnemonic a pattern
Mnemonics
of words or letters to Sometimes, you may want to learn the spelling of a longer word, or a
help you remember tricky-sounding one.
something
Making up a mnemonic or a silly rule can help you to remember words
like this.

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 CHAPTER 4 SPELLING AND VOCABULARY

For example:
NECESSARY – Never Eat Cake Eat Salad Sandwiches And Remain Young
Another way to remember tricky words is by finding a smaller word inside
a longer word.
For example:
ENVIRONMENT – There is always ‘iron’ in our environment.
A technique like this might help you to remember that there is a silent ‘n’
in the middle of the word.

Try this
Try making up a mnemonic or rule of your own for the following words:
l definitely

l embarrass

l parliament

TOP TIPS Try this

Another way to
remember tricky Can you find a smaller word within these tricky words to help you
spellings is to write remember them?
the word down and
write the part you Write the small word next to the tricky spelling.
have difficulty with in 1 Secretary
a different colour or in
capital letters, so that 2 Separate
it stands out.
3 Soldier
For example:
4 Believe
receive recEIve
5 Business
Then try to think of a sentence or silly rule that might help you to
remember each word. Complete this answer on a separate piece of paper.
For example:
Secretary – secret – a secretary will always keep a secret.

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 Spelling

Try this
The table below contains some commonly misspelt words.
Write down the words and show how you would remember the
tricky parts.
Complete this answer on a separate piece of paper.

accidentally fortunately happened

annual government immediately
appearance independent restaurant
beginning knowledge sincerely
committed miscellaneous thoughtful
conscience opportunity thoroughly
courageous permanent vengeance
equipment privilege weird
experience recommend

Identifying misspellings
When you are having difficulty spelling a word, write the word down in
rough first. If it doesn’t look right, it probably isn’t, so try again.

Try this
Look at the words in the lists below and decide which ones have been
written correctly. Circle the correct words.
1 definite definate definit
2 dissappoint disappoint disapoint
3 terrifyed terrified terriffyed
4 disastrus disastrous disasterous
5 argument arguement arguemeant

Revision of spelling rules

‘I’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’
For example:
l believe
l receive
l ceiling
Remember there are exceptions:
l ancient
l weird
l leisure
l neighbour

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 CHAPTER 4 SPELLING AND VOCABULARY

Changing -y to -ies or adding -s

When the word ends in a vowel + y, just add ‘s’:
l key – keys
l delay – delays
l trolley – trolleys
If the word has a consonant before the ‘y’, take off the ‘y’ and add ‘ies’:
l story – stories
l company – companies
l difficulty – difficulties
Adding -es to words ending in -s, -ss, -ch, -sh, -x
l bus – buses
l business – businesses
l watch – watches
l bush – bushes
l box – boxes

Doubling up rule
When adding a vowel suffix (for example, -er, -ing, -ed, -ence) to a word
vowel suffix a suffix
that begins with a that has one syllable and ends with one vowel next to one consonant,
vowel, such as -ed, double up the final consonant:
-ing l swim – swimming
l put – putting
l tap – tapping
This happens in longer words when the stress is on the final syllable:
l begin (beGIN) – beginner, beginning
l refer (reFER) – referring, referred
l occur (ocCUR) – occurring, occurred, occurrence
Drop the ‘e’ rule
.

We usually drop the final silent ‘e’ when we add vowel suffix endings.
For example:
l write + ing = writing
l hope + ed = hoped
l excite + able = excitable
We keep the ‘e’ if the word ends in -ce or -ge to keep a soft sound, with
-able or -ous:
l courage + ous = courageous
l outrage + ous = outrageous
l notice + able = noticeable
l manage + able = manageable

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 Spelling

Changing the ‘y’ to ‘i’ when adding suffix endings

If a word ends in a consonant + ‘y’, the ‘y’ changes to ‘i’, unless adding
endings that already begin with an ‘i’ (-ing, -ish):
l beauty + ful = beauti + ful = beautiful, beautify, beautician
l happy + ness = happiness, happily, happier, happiest
l angry + er = angrier, angriest, angrily
l pretty – prettier, prettiest but prettyish
l dry – dried but drying, dryish
l defy – defies, defied but defying
l apply – applies, applied but applying
Change -f to -ves or -s
Most words ending in -f or -fe change their plurals to -ves.
l calf – calves
l half – halves
l knife – knives
l leaf – leaves
l life – lives
l wife – wives
l shelf – shelves
l thief – thieves
l yourself – yourselves
Some words can have either a -ves or -s ending:
l scarf – scarfs/scarves
l dwarf – dwarfs/dwarves
l handkerchief – handkerchiefs/handkerchieves
Words that end in -ff just add -s to make the plural:
l cliff – cliffs
l sniff – sniffs
Some words that end in -f add -s. Nouns that end in two vowels plus -f
usually form plurals in the normal way, with just -s:
l chief – chiefs
l roof – roofs
There are exceptions:
l thief – thieves
l leaf – leaves
Words ending in -ful
The suffix -ful is always spelt with one ‘l’, for example:
l faith + ful = faithful
l hope + ful = hopeful
l careful
l helpful
l useful

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 CHAPTER 4 SPELLING AND VOCABULARY

Adding -ly
When we add -ly to words ending in -ful then we have double letters:
l gratefully
l faithfully
l hopefully
We also add -ly to words ending in ‘e’:
l love + ly = lovely
l like + ly = likely
l live + ly = lively
l complete + ly = completely
l definite + ly = definitely
But note this common misspelt word:
l true + ly = truly
We change the end ‘e’ to ‘y’ in these -le words:
l gentle – gently
l idle – idly
l subtle – subtly

Vocabulary
Try this
Here are some tricky words that many people struggle to spell. Improve
vocabulary words your vocabulary by using these words, but be sure to spell them
that are used
correctly.
onomatopoeia the
Think of an easy way to remember each one:
use of words to
indicate the sound Onomatopoeia
they make, such as
buzz, crack paraphernalia

conscientious

acquiesce

mischievous

accommodation

ingenious

miniscule

Wednesday

nauseous

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 Vocabulary

Synonyms and antonyms

Try this
Look up the meanings of each of the words in the table below and add
them to your vocabulary list.
Try to use some of them in your own writing.
Complete the table with a synonym and an antonym for each word.
synonym a word with
a similar meaning to Word Synonym Antonym
another word, such
gigantic
as ‘ancient’ being a
synonym for ‘old’
paraphernalia
antonym a word that
means the opposite
of another word conscientious

acquiesce

mischievous

ingenious

miniscule

Whenever you are asked to write something, it is important that the

words you choose are effective and suitable. To do this well, you need to
think about all the words you know and decide which word communicates
exactly what you want to say. It is often a good idea to use synonyms to
stop you from repeating the same words and to make your work sound
more interesting. You can use a thesaurus to help you find synonyms or
antonyms.

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 CHAPTER 4 SPELLING AND VOCABULARY

Try this
Read this student’s letter of complaint about a disastrous experience at
a restaurant.

When we got to the restaurant we got a shock! There was no

‘ample car park’ so we realised we’d got to park our car on a
narrow road outside. After we got inside it took us more than
thirty minutes for the waiter to get us a table because other
people had booked theirs in advance. We finally got to our
table but after we’d ordered our meals the waiter didn’t even
get us the right food! The correct order took a further twenty
minutes to get to us and we didn’t even get an apology from the
staff for having to wait so long. Naturally we were getting really
annoyed but complaining to our waiter didn’t get us anywhere
as he simply ignored us! Our meal was so unsatisfactory we
were glad to get out of there but when we got back to our
car we were outraged: it had got a deep scratch all along one
wing. I therefore insist on getting a full refund for our very
disappointing meal or I will consider getting the police involved.

The extract sounds boring because the student has used the word ‘got’
too much. Rewrite the paragraph, replacing the word ‘got’ with more
appropriate and interesting words.
Complete this answer on a separate piece of paper.

Try this
Now write your own letter of complaint about poor service or a
faulty product.
Complete this answer on a separate piece of paper.

TOP TIPS Try this

Using emotive
language (words Here are some synonyms for the word ‘tragic’:
that affect the way
the reader feels) can l disastrous l devastating l horrendous
add impact to your l awful l catastrophic l terrible
writing and make it l dreadful l unfortunate l cataclysmic
more effective. Think Each of the words has a similar meaning but affects the reader in a
carefully about the
slightly different way.
effects of the words
you choose. Explain the difference in the meaning of each word.
Think of a situation in which you would use each word.
Complete this answer on a separate piece of paper.

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 Vocabulary

Check your understanding

1 Which of these words is not a synonym for ‘respectful’?
a Polite
b Well-mannered
c Deferential
d Ancient
2 Which of these words is a synonym for ‘tired’?
a Devastated
b Weary
c Disrespectful
d Vapid
3 Which of these words is not a synonym for ‘cynical’?
a Disenchanted
b Disillusioned
c Optimistic
d Pessimistic
4 Which of these words is a synonym for ‘curious’?
a Eager
b Keen
c Inquisitive
d Intelligent

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