Logic in Spelling

Some people say that English is a funny language as far as spelling is concerned. Consider the spelling of two innocent looking words such as “truly” and “lovely”. They are formed from “true” and “love”. Both words end in an “e”.

However, the word “true” drop sits “e” before turning itself into “truly”. Meanwhile, the word “love” does not drop its “e” when it becomes “lovely”.

To a person well versed in the English language this poses no problem. But the beginner is often baffled by the logic in spelling. Even those holding responsible posts spell English words incorrectly.

English is a second language to many Sri Lankans. So it is quite natural that they make silly spelling mistakes all the time. However, a recent survey shows that even the standard of spelling among British undergraduates is appalling.

The problem has become so acute that some University lecturers have been forced to turn a blind eye to spelling mistakes of undergraduates. If the situation in British Universities is so deplorable, you can imagine the plight in a third world country like Sri Lanka.

One day a student from a prestigious international school approached a retired lecturer in English to follow a short course in literature. He dictated a passage to test her spelling. These were some of the words she wrote: “litrature” for literature; “Shakespear” for Shakespeare; “prota joinist” for protagonist; “loveable” for lovable and “honourary” for honorary.

As I have already pointed out in these columns, private tutors with dubious qualifications are the worst offenders. They give English “tution” and teach “grammer”! In one poster a tutor has announced his academic qualification as “BA (UG)”.

After making discrete inquiries I found that he was an undergraduate following a degree course as an external candidate. Once an English trained teacher confided in me that he himself did not know how to spell certain words such as “believe”, “receive” and “forfeit”.

Simply because British students are weak in spelling, are we going to misspell words? Certainly not. English has become second nature to most of us. Sometimes we get annoyed when we come across poorly constructed sentences and incorrectly spelled words. Although students spend at least 13 years in school, most of them are poor spellers.

If we are a little more careful in applying the basic rules of spelling, half the battle will be over. The problem is that most young teachers themselves do not know that there is a set of spelling rules in English.

The latest news is that some foreign students have a firmer grasp of English than British students. Researchers say that students from Singapore and Brunei are good spellers although English is their second language. Jack Bovill, Chairman of the spelling society says that there are more and more students at University level whose spelling is not up to scratch.

The society has listed “Top ten misspellings”: “arguement” for argument; “Febuary” for February; “Wensday” for Wednesday; “ignor” for ignore; “occured” for occurred; “opertunity” for opportunity; “Que” for queue; “speach” for speech; “thier” for their; “truely” for truly and “twelth” for twelfth.

Those who regularly read good books and reputed newspapers need not worry too much about spelling rules. However, watching the idiot box has replaced our reading habit. With all such distractions, we can still learn good English and master the spelling rules under a competent tutor.

If you are unable to find a suitable tutor, make your own book of rules as far as spelling is concerned. What you need is a note pad and the desire to learn. Make a list of words you find it difficult to spell and try to find out whether there is a recurring pattern. When in doubt consult the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

After dabbling with words for several decades, I find that there is a set pattern in spelling. There are, however, exceptions to this pattern. For instance, you cannot end a word with “u” or “v”. You have to put “e” after them. There are many examples: true, blue, glue, sue, issue, clue, value, give, have, move, live, sieve, twelve, deprive, curve, leave, serve, reserve, deserve, forgive, attractive etc. (An exception is “you”) In these words the final “e” is not sounded.

When you spell a word which ends in the “ul” sound, you can use “le”. Examples: little, simple, apple, bubble, treacle, candle, sparkle, people, dazzle, battle, angle and kettle.

Most one-syllable words ending in “s” or “z” sound have “se” at the end. Some examples are: sense, horse, else, house, mouse, purse, nurse, crease. Following words end in “z” sound: noise, poise, pause, cause, because, please, these, those, lose, choose, cheese. However, certain words in this category end in “ze”: breeze, freeze, sqeeze, sneeze, wheeze.

If you observe carefully, you will note that the sound “ns” at the end of a word is spelled “nce”, with certain exceptions: dance, mince, once, ounce, bounce, confidence, entrance, fence, offence, defence. The exceptions are sense and dense.

Words ending in a silent “e” drops before adding an ending beginning with a vowel: hope-hoping, ache-aching, dive-diving, joke-joking, live-living, dare-daring, serve-serving, paste-pasting, rule-ruling, dance-dancing, cruise-cruising, write-writing, take-taking, make-making and come-coming.

Another spelling rule is that the letters “f, l” and “s” are doubled after a single vowel in a one-syllable word: “f” doubled in staff, cliff, stiff, whiff, cuff, huff, puff, stuff, off. “L” is doubled in: small, tall, bell, cell, fell, hell, smell, swell, spell, tell, well, ill, bill, fill, shrill, skill, drill. “s” is doubled in brass, class, grass, lass, mass pass, glass, chess, dress, less, mess, press, bliss, kiss, boss. There are a few exceptions: if, of, has, pal, nil, gas, this, us, yes, thus, bus and plus.

The sound “k” is spelled “ck” straight after a short vowel sound at the end of a one-syllable word: back, pack, rack, sack, track, whack, shack, track, crack, black, jack, deck, peck, wreck, quick, lick, flick, tick, stick, cock, dock, flock, mock, rock, clock, frock, buck, duck, luck, muck, truck and struck.

In order to get the “ch” sound, you can spell words with “tch” straight after a short vowel sound at the end of a one-syllable word: catch, bitch, match, ditch, pitch, witch, stitch, crutch. But there are a few exceptions: much, such, which, rich.

It is fascinating to note that the letter “q” is always followed by “u”. Look at the following words: quick, quiz, queen, queer, quibble, quarrel, quaint, quake, quite, quote, quotation, quiet, quest, question, query, quill, quiver, quirk, qualm, quail, request, inquest, require, enquire and bequeath. In all these words you produce the sound “kw”.

If you are a lover of words, you will see a recurring pattern in spelling. After studying them carefully, make your own spelling rules. Readers respect good spellers. Why not become a member of the good spellers’ club?

Tel: 038 2238338