Consider the word: BID-goh-sh-ch (\ˈbid-ˌgȯsh(ch)\). This is a geographical word, and refers to a city in central Poland. The correct spelling of this word is Bydgoszcz! That is probably not the first spelling that comes to mind when you hear the pronunciation. For many spellers, tackling Polish is a difficult and daunting task. The consonant…
French Suffixes: é vs. ée
One of the most difficult sounds in the French language is the long a sound \ā\, pronounced like the “ay” in “may”. There are many ways to spell it, including -ait, -et, and more. Two especially difficult suffixes to differentiate between that make this sound are é and ée. In French, -é is the masculine past participle. You…
Greek Patterns (Words of Champions 2021-22)
‘f’ sound: spell it ‘ph’ short ‘ee’ sound: spell it ‘i’ ‘k’ sound can go c, k, ch ‘you’ sound goes ‘u’ or ‘eu’ ‘r’ in the beginning goes ‘rh’ ‘z’ in the beginning goes ‘x’ ‘s’ in the beginning goes ‘ps’
Latin Patterns (Words of Champions 2021-22)
“ee” sound at the end: spell it ae: (algae) “eye” sound at the end: spell it as i, especially in plural nouns (alibi, stimuli, Gemini, cirri, Apostolici) “k” sound: spell it ‘c’ (Greek words have ‘k’ in them, but Latin words rarely do) “f” sound: spell it ‘f’ (Greek words can go ‘ph’, but Latin…
Words of Champions 2021-22 Part 3
ie vs ei We’ve all heard the rule “i before e except before c”. For spelling, we use an extended form of this rule: i before e except when: There are 151 words in Words of Champions 2021-22 that have “ei” or “ie” in them. After applying the rule above, we’re left with about 25…
Words of Champions 2021-22 Part 2
-ise vs -ize Let’s take a look at all the ‘-ise’ and ‘-ize’ words in the Words of Champions list. As a general rule, “-ize” is two times more common than the “-ize” ending where the syllable is pronounced as “eyes”. So if in doubt, guess “-ize”. However, there are a bunch of interesting pronunciations…
Words of Champions 2021-22 Part 1
In this post, we look at some commonly mispronounced syllables and explain rules to spell them correctly. -ous vs -us words Both endings are pronounced the same way (as the last syllable in “marvelous”). The rule here is: adjectives usually go “-ous”, and nouns usually go “-us”. So ask for part of speech before deciding…
Latin words ending in /-əsəl/
How do you spell /ˈärˌbəsəl/, a word from Latin that means: “a dwarf tree or shrub”? If you guessed “arbustle”, I don’t blame you. There are plenty of common English words that end with “-ustle” (bustle, hustle, rustle…). Note that none of those words have passed through Latin. However, arbuscle comes from the Latin root…