Spelling Rules

[AwesomeMrsFox]

DD has always found learning and retaining spelling a bit difficult and comes home with the usual weekly sheets etc. However I have just noticed (after 2 years!) that each week there is a 'rule'. It seems that they are supposed to learn the rule and this helps with the spelling. When I asked DD about this she said she finds it difficult to remember all the rules and to be honest I can't blame her!

Is this really the normal way spelling is taught these days? I asked her teacher and she told me she had been on a special advanced course and this system is widely recognised. I must say I was really surprised and wonder if DD might just find it easier to rote learn most words.

I'm curious to know how widely this rules system is used and with what success.

I am no way any kind of an expert.

But, surely remembering a rule is easier than remembering all the words that follow it. e.g to make a y word plural, drop the y and add ies. Surely that is easier than learning every plural for every word ending in y?

I would have thought a rule would be more useful than just randomly learning thousands of spellings for individual words. However, that is dependent on understanding and remembering the rule. But if you can't remember a limited number of rules, I can't see how you can remember a fairly unlimited number of individual spellings.

Hi - is she in Yr2? and what is her reading, and knowledge of phonics like? If she is reading reasonably well and understanding how the sounds and letters 'work' to make words, then I would have thought she would be 'absorbing' many words as she went along.

However, if she is confused by reading and sounds, then I can see it makes it more difficult for her to learn spellings.

As you may have noticed, on MN there are different opinions on the value of weekly 'spelling sheets', and some schools no longer do it. I worked in KS1 for twenty years, mostly as a TA, also as voluntary helper, and have seen a lot of changes in teaching methods. Probably, the Phonics system as currently taught is an improvement on older systems, but unfortunately it is NOT always taught correctly and effectively! Some teachers are brilliant at it, others less so.

Recently I did a reply to another parent with a Yr2 child struggling with learning spellings, and I will copy (and edit) my reply; just ignore any bits that seem irrelevant to your needs:

QUOTE

?I was a poor speller all through my school life, but ironically, having worked in schools for over twenty years, mostly as a TA but also as a voluntary helper, I now frequently try to help MNers with phonics, Lit, Num and other difficulties or confusions.

What is her reading like, and what sort of words was she spelling at the end of last Term? (before we had that lovely sunny summer holiday - Gosh! doesn't that seem a long time ago! [Rhetorical Question - and she will be learning about those, if she hasn't already!] Also, how is she with other subjects? - maths, history, geog, science etc.

Break the words down in to manageable groups, with as many common threads as possible. If she can bear to do it, write each word clearly and quite large, on cards (or the inside of cereal packet, and cut them out.) Once cut out, she can arrange and re-arrange the words in different ways, finding common links between the words, either phonic links, or other links. For instance, I notice some are places, so group those together.

?Shuffle the word cards around, and find as many SIMILAR things in them, and as many DIFFERENT things as you can, and group them accordingly. In a notebook, write the words down again, in these groupings. (Sorry, but WRITING them helps you remember them.)

Try to think of the words as FRIENDS that you can play with, and not as ENEMIES that you have to fight against! Make lists of 'words within words', so find longer words that contain small words. Then see if you can write sentences, or even a tiny story, using as many of these words as possible. Try to see the phonic 'patterns' and the overall 'look' of a word, so you get to recognise when it just 'looks' right.

Mum: I keep recommending the Oxford Phonics Spelling Dictionary to people to help with improving spelling. It groups words by the initial SOUND, not just the LETTER. So, 'S' is the first section, and after words that DO start with 's', come words that have a 's' sound: circle, circus, cycle, etc. I think the book makes spelling seem much clearer and logical, and thus (hopefully!) easier to learn. You can see sample pages on Amazon HERE:

UNQUOTE

I hope the above might be of some use to you.

Have you tried writing the words out over and over rather than asking how it is spelled? Some children are more kinaesthetic learners - so doing something helps more than seeing or hearing - muscle memory helps them remember the physical act of writing the word.

The problem with teaching spelling rules is there aren't really any real rules, only generalisations which sometimes apply but often don't.

I'm always conscientious about putting i before e except after c; science shows that society is better off when I use this ancient rhyme. My foreign neighbours say English spelling is weird, so it's a weight off their mind now I've told them this useful rule. They've been journeying for years, but they've decided to memorise useful rules about suffixes, too, and know to change a y to an i unless the suffix starts with an i. Truly, it's noticeable how useful the rule about dropping final es is, too.

friday -

English spelling is very weird indeed. It has some rules,
such as doubling the final consonant of short words when adding suffixes which begin with a vowel (ed, ing, y, en, er: beg - begged, begging, bog - boggy, fat - fatten, big - bigger)
or changing y to ie (fry - fried, fries).

For the rest, the spellings of consonants (b, c, d....) are fairly stable, with just a few dozen exceptions here and there (fun - photo), but vowel spellings are very variable, and many have to be memorised word by word.

The following summary shows u all the different ways the 44 English speech sounds can be spelt. (The figures in brackets show how many of the 7,000 most used English words which I have analysed use the main spelling - and how many spell it differently.) At least 4,000 common English words contain some unpredictably used letters.

1. a: cat – plait, meringue (466 – 3)
2. a-e: plate – wait, weight, straight, great, table dahlia, fete (338 – 69)

-ain: rain – lane, vein, reign, champagne (39 – 19) -ay: play – they, weigh,ballet,cafe, matinee (35 – 20)

1. air: care – hair, bear, aerial, their, there, questionnaire (31-are – 27 other)
2. ar: car – are + (Southern Engl. bath) (138 – 1)
3. au: sauce – caught, bought,always, tall, crawl (44 au – 76 other)

-aw: saw – (0)- but in UK 11-aw + 40 awe, or, four, sore, war

1. b: bed (0)
2. ca/o/u: cat, cot, cut – character, kangaroo, queue (1022 – 33)

cr/cl: crab/ clot – chrome, chlorine (192 – 10) -c: lilac –stomach, anorak (89 – 9) -ck: neck –cheque, rec (62 – 6) k: kite/ kept – chemistry (124 – 7) -k: seek –unique (36 – 5) -sk: risk –disc, mosque (86 – 10) qu: quick – acquire, choir (78 – 4) x: fix – accept, except, exhibit (98 – 15)

1. ch: chest – cello (155 – 1)

-tch: clutch – much (24 – 7) 9 d: dad – add, blonde (1,010 – 3)

10. e: end– head, any, said, Wednesday, friend, leisure,
    leopard, bury (301 – 67)

11. er: her – turn, bird, learn, word, journey (70er – 124)

12. ee: eat– eel, even, ceiling, field, police,people,
    me, key,ski, debris, quay (152ea – 304)
    --y: jolly– trolley, movie, corgi (475 – 39)

13. f: fish– photo, stuff, rough (580 - 44)

14. g: garden– ghastly, guard (171– 28)

15. h: house– who (237 – 4)

16. i: ink– mystery, pretty, sieve, women, busy, build (421 – 53)

17. i-e: bite – might, style, mild, kind, eider, height, climb
    island indict sign (278 – 76)
    -y: my – high,pie, rye, buy, I, eye (17 – 14)

18. j: jam/ jog/ jug (0)
    jelly, jig – gentle, ginger (18 – 20)
    -ge: gorge (0)
    -dg: fidget– digit (29 – 11)

19. l: last– llama (1,945 – 1)
    20: m: mum– dumb, autumn (1,128 – 19)

20. n: nose– knot, gone, gnome, mnemonic (2,312 – 34)

21. -ng: ring (0) 22

22. o: on– cough, sausage, gone(357 – 5)
    want – wont (19 – 1); quarrel– quod (10 -1)

23. o-e: mole – bowl, roll, soul; old – mould
    boast, most, goes, mauve (171 – 100)
    -o: no –toe, dough, sew, cocoa, pharaoh, oh, depot (106 – 59)

24. oi: oil– oyster (29 –1)
    -oy: toy –buoy (12 – 1)

25. oo (long): food– rude, shrewd, move, group, fruit, truth, tomb,
    blue, do, shoe,through, manoeuvre (94 – 108)

26. oo (short): good– would, put, woman, courier (15 -21)

27. or: order– board, court; wart, quart– worn, quorn (188 – 16)
    -ore:more – soar, door, four, war, swore,abhor (23– 17)

    • (14 –aw/awe in UK)

28. ou: out– town (74 – 24);
    -ow: now – plough (11 – 4)

29. p: pin (0)

30. r: rug– rhubarb, write (1,670 – 27)

31. s: sun – centre,scene (138 – 49)
    -ce: face – case; fancy– fantasy (153 – 65)

32. sh: shop – chute, sure, moustache, liquorice (166 – 30)
    -tion: ignition– mission, pension, suspicion,fashion (216 – 81)

33. t: tap, pet – pterodactyl, two, debt (1,398 – 4)
    --te: delicate – democrat (52 – 3)

34. th (sharp): this (0)

35. th (soft): thing (0)

36. u: up– front, some, couple, blood (308 – 68)

37. u-e: cute – you,newt, neutral, suit, beauty, Tuesday, nuclear (137 – 21)
    -ue: cue –few, view,menu (20– 22)

38. v: van (0)
    -ve: have –spiv (116– 3) [80 with surplus –e]
    -v-: river– chivvy (73 – 7) – v/vv after short vowel

39. w: window– which (216 – 31)

40. y: yak– use (31 – 11)

41. z: zip– xylophone (16 – 1)
    -se: rose –froze (85– 33)
    wise– size (UK 31 – 3, US 11 – 22)

42. zh: -si-/-su-: vision, measure – azure (20 – 3)

43. Unstressed, unclear vowel sound (or schwa),
    occurring mainly in 8 endings and 2 prefixes:
    -able: loveable– credible(33 – 17)
    -ccle: bundle (2 consonants + -le for -l) (0)
    -al: vertical– novel, anvil, petrol (200+ – 32)
    -ary: ordinary– machinery, inventory, century,carpentry(37 – 55)
    -en: fasten– abandon, truncheon, orphan, goblin, certain (73 – 132)
    -ence: absence– balance (33 – 26)
    -ent: absent – pleasant (176 – 58)
    -er: father –author, armour, nectar, centre, injure,quota (UK 340, US 346 – 135/129)
    butcher – picture (42 –ure)
    de-: decide – divide (57 – 29)
    in-: indulge – endure (73 – 30)

Consonant doubling rule for showing short, stressed vowels
merry (regular) – very (missing) – serrated (surplus)
(423) - (513 ) - (239)

Masha Bell

"It has some rules, such as doubling the final consonant of short words when adding suffixes"

like boiling and playing and jumping and hoping and foxy and oily and ...

Mrz
"It has some rules, such as doubling the final consonant of short words when adding suffixes"

like boiling and playing and jumping and hoping and foxy and oily

U ar quite right to pick me up on this. That is not the whole rule. The final consonants of short words get doubled only when they follow a short vowel, to differentiate them from ones with long vowels, hence
pin + ed = pinned,
but pine + ed = pined.

Can - canned, cane - caned, pip - pipped, pipe - piped, piper.

(Also only if they are spelled with a single consonant, i.e. not pushed, or rushed).

With longer words it's more complex, because stress comes into it as well (e.g. preferred, anchored),
but 'l' gets doubled in them UK English anyway (travelled, marvelled)
but not in US (traveled, marveled) which sticks to the general rule.

like foxy- foxed -

taxed - taxing
fixed - fixing

"U ar quite right to pick me up on this."

Before giving complex, and wrong, "rules" for spelling, wouldn't it be an idea to learn how to spell "you" and "are"?

masha is championing spelling reform and advocates that you should be spelt U (as we spell I with a capital I) and that the on the word are is superfluous ...

Oh, I know exactly what her agenda is. It doesn't make it any less ludicrous. For example, if the objective of spelling reform is that at least they, alone, are thinking of the children, is the mis-spelling of "are" and "you" a major issue in today's classrooms?

is the mis-spelling of "are" and "you" a major issue in today's classrooms?
In isolation, to proficient readers and spellers, they might seem small fry. But every word with wrong, surplus or missing letters (mother, women, you, are, only, once - cf. much, swimmer, use, car, lonely, wonder) needs special attention. In all, they add up to at least 4,000 words. That's why learning to read and write English takes an exceptionally long time, in comparison to languages with more sensible spelling systems.

The surplus letters wer mostly added deliberatly by 16th century type-setters, because they wer paid by the line. Most of them wer dropd again by the pamphleteers of the English Civil War (1642-9), because they wantd to squeez the maximum of information onto a singl page, but many ar hanging in there stil. Getting rid of at least the ones that do nothing exept make lerning to read mor difficult than need be, such as surplus -e endings, would be a simpl way of making English spelling at least a bit mor sensibl (ar - care, there - wer, hav - save).

And there, ladies and gentlemen, is "the agenda".

masha is championing spelling reform and advocates that you should be spelt U (as we spell I with a capital I)

I thought this week in masha-land it was being spelt "i", rather than "I", for reasons that are I'm sure as well-founded as the rest of her idiocy.

Friday

"i", rather than "I",

Saves having to press the Shift key.