SPELLING

No one is able to spell all unusual words on demand. But every one must spell correctly even unusual words in formal writing. The writer has time or must take time to consult a dictionary. The best dictionaries are Webster's New International Dictionary, the Standard Dictionary (less conservative than Webster's), the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia (Volume 2 of the Century is the best place to look for proper names), and Murray's New English Dictionary (very thorough, each word being illustrated with numerous quotations to show historical development). An abridged edition of one of these (the price is one to three dollars) should be accessible to each student who cannot buy the larger volumes. The best are: Webster's Secondary School Dictionary, Funk and Wagnalls Desk Standard Dictionary, the Oxford Concise Dictionary, and Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

But the student will be spared constant recourse to the dictionary, and will save himself much time and many humiliations, if he will employ the rules and principles which follow.

Recording Errors

70. Keep a list of all the words you misspell, copying them several times in correct form. Concentrate your effort upon a few words at a time—upon those words which you yourself actually misspell. The list will be shorter than you think. It may comprise not more than twenty or thirty words. Unless you are extraordinarily deficient, it will certainly not comprise more than a hundred or a hundred and fifty. Find where your weakness lies; then master it. You can accomplish the difficult part of the task in a single afternoon. An occasional review, and constant care when you write, will make your mastery permanent.

After this, and only after this, begin slowly to learn the spelling of words which you do not yourself use often, but which are a desirable equipment for all educated men. See the list under 79. Concentrate your efforts upon a few words at a time. It is better to know a few exactly than a large number hazily. Form the mental habit of being always right with a small group of words, and extend this group gradually.

Exercise:

Prepare for your instructor a corrected list of words which you have misspelled in your papers to the present time.

Pronouncing Accurately

71. Avoid slovenly pronunciation. Careful articulation makes for correctness in spelling.

Watch the vowels of unaccented syllables; give them distinct (not exaggerated) utterance, at least until you are familiar with the spelling. Examples: separate, opportunity, everybody, sophomore, divine.

Sound accurately all the consonants between syllables, and do not sound a single consonant twice. Examples: candidate, government, surprise (not supprise), omission (compare occasion), defer (compare differ).

Sound the g in final -ing. Examples: eating, running.

Pronounce the -al of adverbs derived from adjectives in -ic or -al. Examples: tragically, occasionally, generally, ungrammatically.

Do not transpose letters; place each letter where it belongs. Examples: perspiration (not prespiration), tragedy (not tradegy).

Note.—The principle of phonetic spelling as stated above applies to many words, but by no means to all. The Simplified Spelling Board would extend this principle by changing the spelling of words to correspond with their actual sounds. It recommends such forms as tho, thru, enuf, quartet, catalog, program. If the student employs these forms, he must use them consistently. Many writers oppose simplified spelling; many advocate it; many compromise. Others desire to supplant our present alphabet with one more nearly phonetic, and prefer, until this fundamental reform takes place, to preserve our present spelling as it is.

Exercise:

Copy the following words slowly, pronouncing the syllables as you write: accidentally, accommodate, accurately, artistically, athletics (not atheletics), boundary, candidate, cavalry, commission, curiosity, defer, definite, description, despair, different, dining room, dinned, disappoint, divide, divine, emphatically, eighth, everybody, February, finally, goddess, government, hundred, hurrying, instinct, laboratory, library, lightning, might have (not might of), naturally, necessary, occasionally, omission, opinion, opportunity, optimist, partner, perform, perhaps, perspiration, prescription, primitive, privilege, probably, quantity, really, recognise, recommend, reverence, separate, should have (not should of), sophomore, strictly, superintendent, surprise, temperance, tragedy, usually, whether.

Logical Kinship in Words

72. Get help in spelling a difficult word by thinking of related words. To think of ridiculous will prevent your writing a for the second i of ridicule; to think of ridicule will prevent your writing rediculous. To think of prepare will prevent your writing preperation; to think of preparation will forestall preparitory. To think of busy will save you from the monstrosity buisness. To think of the prefixes re- (meaning again) and dis- (meaning not), and the verbs commend and appoint, will prevent your writing recommend or disappoint with a double c or s.

Note.—The relationship between words is not always a safe guide to spelling. Observe four, forty; nine, ninth; maintain, maintenance; please, pleasant; speak, speech; prevail, prevalent. Do not confuse the following prefixes, which have no logical connection:

ante- (before)anti- (against, opposite)

de- (from, about)dis- (apart, away, not)

per- (through, entirely)pre- (before)

Exercise:

Write the nouns corresponding to the following verbs: prepare, allude, govern, represent, degrade.

Write the adjectives corresponding to the following nouns and the nouns corresponding to the following adjectives: desperation, academy, origin, ridiculous, miraculous, grammatical, arithmetical, busy.

Write the adverbs corresponding to the following adjectives: real, sure, actual, hurried, accidental, incidental, grammatical.

Copy the following pairs of related words or related forms of words: labor, laboratory; debate, debater; base, based; deal, dealt; chose, chosen; mean, meant.

Write each of the following words with a hyphen between the prefix and the body of the word: describe, description, disappoint, disappear, disease, dissatisfy, dissever, permit, perspire, prescription, preconceive, recommend, recollect, reconsider, antedate, antecedent, anticlimax, antitoxin.

Superficial Resemblances between Words

73. Guard against misspelling a word because it bears a superficial resemblance, in sound or appearance, to some other word. Most of the words in the following list have no logical connection; the resemblance is one of form only (angel, angle). But a few words are included which are different in spelling in spite of a logical relation (breath, breathe).

accept (to receive)

except (to exclude, with exclusion of)

advice (noun)

advise (verb)

affect (to influence in part)

effect (to bring to pass totally)

allusion (a reference)

illusion (a deceiving appearance)

all right

almost

already

altogether

always

alley (a back street)

ally (a confederate)

altar (a structure used in worship)

alter (to make otherwise)

angel (a celestial being)

angle (the meeting place of two lines)

baring (making bare)

barring (obstructing)

bearing (carrying)

born (brought into being)

borne (carried)

breath (noun)

breathe (verb)

capital (a city)

capitol (a building)

canvas (a cloth)

canvass (to solicit)

clothes (garments)

cloths (pieces of cloth)

coarse (not fine)

course (route, method of behavior)

conscious (aware)

conscience (an inner moral sense)

dairy

diary

device (noun)

devise (verb)

desert (a barren country)

dessert (food)

dining room

dinning

disappear

disappoint

disavowal

dissatisfaction

dissimilar

dissipate

dissuade

decent (adjective)

descent (downward slope or motion)

dissent (a disagreement)

dual (adjective)

duel (noun)

formally (in a formal way)

formerly (in time past)

forth

forty

four

fourth

freshman

freshmen (not used as adjective)

gambling (wagering money on games of chance)

gamboling (frisking or leaping with joy)

guard

regard

hear

here

hinder

hindrance

holly (a tree)

holy (hallowed, sacred)

wholly (altogether)

hoping (from hope)

hopping

instance (an example)

instants (periods of time)

isle (an island)

aisle (a narrow passage)

its (possessive pronoun)

it's (contraction of it is)

Johnson, Samuel

Jonson, Ben

later (comparative of late)

latter (the second)

lead (present tense)

led (past tense)

lessen (verb)

lesson (noun)

liable (expresses responsibility or disagreeable probability)

likely (expresses probability)

loose (free, not bound)

lose (to suffer the loss of)

maintain

maintenance

nineteenth

ninetieth

ninety

ninth

past (adjective, adverb, preposition)

passed (verb, past tense)

peace (a state of calm)

piece (a fragment)

perceive

perform

persevere

persuade

purchase

pursue

personal (private, individual)

personnel (the body of persons engaged in some activity)

Philippines

Filipino

plain (clear; adjective)

plain (flat region; noun)

plane (flat; adjective)

plane (geometrical term; noun)

planed (past tense of plane)

planned (past tense of plan)

pleasant

please

} these three are the "double e group"

precede

proceed }

succeed }

exceed }

concede

intercede

recede

supersede

pre cé dence (act or right of preceding)

préc e dents (things said or done before, now used as authority

or model)

presence (state of being present)

presents (gifts)

prevail

prevalent

principal (chief, leading, the leading official of a school, a sum of money)

principle (a general truth)

quiet (still)

quite (completely)

rain

reign (rule of a monarch)

rein (part of a harness)

respectfully ("Yours respectfully")

respectively (in a way proper to each--should never be used to close a letter)

right

rite (ceremony)

write

shone (past tense of shine)

shown (past tense of show)

seize

siege

sight (view, spectacle)

site (situation, a plot of ground reserved for some use)

cite (to bring forward as evidence)

speak

speech

Spencer, Herbert (scientist)

Spenser, Edmund (poet)

stationary (not moving)

stationery (writing materials)

statue (a sculptured likeness)

stature (height, figure)

statute (a law)

steal (to take by theft)

steel (a variety of iron)

than

then

their (belonging to them)

there (in that place)

they're (they are)

therefor (to that end, for that thing)

therefore (for that reason)

till

until

to

too

two

track (an imprint, or a road)

tract (an area of land)

tract (a treatise on religion)

village

villain

wandering

wondering

weak (not strong)

week (seven days)

weather

whether

whole (entire)

hole (an opening)

who's (who is)

whose (the possessive of who)

your (indicates possession)

you're (contraction of you are)

Exercise:

Insert to, too, or two: He is —— tired —— walk the ——miles —— the town. Then ——, it is —— late —— catch a car. It is —— minutes of ——. It is —— bad.

Insert lose or loose: You will —— your money if you carry it —— in your pocket. We are ——ing time. The sailor ——ens the rope. Did you —— your ticket?

Insert speak or speech: I was ——ing with our congressman about his recent ——. I —— from experience.

Insert plan or plane: The architect's —— was accepted. The carpenter's —— cuts a long shaving. The carpenter does not —— the house.

Insert quite or quiet: The baby is ——ly sleeping. She is —— well now, but last night she was —— sick. Be ——. Walk ——ly when you go.

Words in ei or ie

74.

Examples: believe, grief, chief; but receive, deceive, ceiling.

Exceptions: Neither financier seized either species of weird leisure. (Also a few uncommon words, like seignior, inveigle, plebeian.)

Rules based on a key-word, lice, Alice, Celia (i follows l and e follows c) apply after two consonants only, and do not help one to spell a word like grief. Rule 74 applies after all consonants.

Note.—The words in which the sound is ee are the words really difficult to spell. When the sound is any other than ee (especially when it is a), i usually follows e.

Examples: veil, weigh, freight, neighbor, height, sleight, heir, heifer, counterfeit, foreign, etc.

Exceptions: ancient, friend, sieve, mischief, fiery, tries, etc.

Exercise:

Write the following words, supplying ei or ie: conc—t, retr—ve, dec—tful, n—ce, y—ld, p—ce, s—ge, s—ze, rec—pt, n—ther, w—rd, rel—ve, l—sure, f—ld, v—n, r—gn, sover—gn, sl—gh, br—f, dec—ve, r—n, f—nt, perc—ve, w—ld, gr—vous, —ther.

Doubling a Final Consonant

75. Monosyllables and words accented on the final syllable, if they end in one consonant preceded by a single vowel, double the consonant before a suffix beginning with a vowel.

Examples: (a) Words derived from monosyllables: plan-ned, clan-nish, get-ting, hot-test, bag-gage, (b) Words derived from words accented on the final syllable: begin-ning, repel-lent, unregret-ted.

Note 1.—There are four distinct steps in the application of this rule. (1) The primary word must be found. To decide whether begging contains two g's, we must first think of beg. (2) The primary word must be a monosyllable or a word accented on the final syllable. Hit and allot meet this test; open does not. Deferred and differed, preferred and proffered, committed (or committee) and prohibited double or refrain from doubling the final consonant of the primary word according to the position of the accent. The seeming discrepancy between preferred and preferable, between conferred and conference, is due to a shifting of the accent to the first syllable in the case of preferable and conference. (3) The primary word must end in one consonant. Trace, oppose, interfere, help, reach, and perform fail to meet this test, and therefore in derivatives do not double the last consonant. Assurance has one r, as it should have; occurrence has two r's, as it should have. (4) The final consonant of the primary word must be preceded by a single vowel. This principle excludes the extra consonant from needy, daubed, and proceeding, and gives it to running.

Note 2.—After q, u has the force of w. Hence quitting, quizzes, squatter, acquitted, equipped, and similar words are not really exceptions to the rule.

Exercise:

Write the present participle (in -ing) of din (not dine), begin, sin (compare shine), stop, prefer, rob, drop, occur, omit, swim, get, commit.

Write the past tense (in -ed) of plan (not plane), star (compare stare), stop (compare slope), lop (not lope), hop (not hope), fit, benefit, occur (compare cure), offer, confer, bat (compare abate).

Final e before a Suffix Beginning with a Vowel

76. Words that end in silent e usually drop the e in derivatives or before a suffix beginning with a vowel.

Examples: bride, bridal; guide, guidance; please, pleasure; fleece, fleecy; force, forcible; argue, arguing; arrive, arrival; conceive, conceivable; college, collegiate; write, writing; use, using; change, changing; judge, judging; believe, believing.

Note 1.—Of the exceptions some retain the e to prevent confusion with other words. Exceptions: dyeing, singeing, mileage, acreage, hoeing, shoeing, agreeing, eyeing. The exceptions cause comparatively little trouble. One rarely sees hoing or shoing; he often sees hopeing and inviteing.

Note 2.—After c or g and before a suffix beginning with a or o the e is retained. The purpose of this retention is to preserve the soft sound of the c or g. (Observe that c and g have the hard sound in cable, gable, cold, go.)

Examples: peaceable, changeable, noticeable, serviceable, outrageous, courageous, advantageous.

Exercise:

Write the present participle of the following words: use, love, change, judge, shake, hope, shine, have, seize, slope, strike, dine, come, place, argue, achieve, emerge, arrange, abide, oblige, subdue.

Write the present participle of the following words: singe, tinge, dye, agree, eye.

Write the -ous or -able form of the following words: trace, love, blame, move, conceive, courage, service, advantage, umbrage.

Write the adjectives which correspond to the following nouns: force, sphere, vice, sense, fleece, college, hygiene.

Write the nouns which correspond to the following verbs: please, guide, grieve, arrive, oblige, prepare, inspire.

Plurals

77a. Most nouns add s or es to form the plural. Examples: word, words; fire, fires, negro, negroes; Eskimo, Eskimos; leaf, leaves (f changes to v for the sake of euphony); knife, knives.

b. Nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant (or by u as w) change the y to i and add es to form the plural.

Examples: sky, skies; lady, ladies; colloquy, colloquies; soliloquy, soliloquies.

Other nouns ending in y form the plural in the usual way. Examples: day, days; boy, boys; monkey, monkeys; valley, valleys.

c. Compound nouns usually form the plural by adding s or es to the principal word. Examples: sons-in-law, passers-by; but stand-bys, hat-boxes, writing-desks.

d. Letters, signs, and sometimes figures, add 's to form the plural. Examples: Cross your t's and dot your i's; ?'s; $'s; 3's or 3s.

e. A few nouns adhere to old declensions. Examples: ox, oxen; child, children; goose, geese; foot, feet; mouse, mice; man, men; woman, women; sheep, sheep; deer, deer; swine, swine.

f. Words adopted from foreign languages sometimes retain the foreign plural. Examples: alumnus, alumni; alumna, alumnæ; fungus, fungi; focus, foci; radius, radii; datum, data; medium, media; phenomenon, phenomena; stratum, strata; analysis, analyses; antithesis, antitheses; basis, bases; crisis, crises; oasis, oases; hypothesis, hypotheses; parenthesis, parentheses; thesis, theses; beau, beaux; tableau, tableaux; Mr., Messrs. (Messieurs); Mrs., Mmes. (Mesdames).

Exercise:

Write the singular and plural of the following words: day, sky, lady, wife, leaf, loaf, negro, potato, tomato, pass, glass, boat, beet, flash, crash, bead, box, passenger, messenger, son-in-law, Smith, Jones, jack-o'-lantern, hanger-on, stratum, datum, phenomenon, crisis, basis, thesis, analysis.

Compounds

78a. Use a hyphen between two or more words which serve as a single adjective before a noun: iron-bound bucket, well-kept lawn, twelve-inch main, normal-school teacher, up-to-date methods, twentieth-century ideas, devil-may-care expression, a twenty-dollar-a-week clerk.

But when the words follow the noun, the hyphen is omitted. The lawn is well kept. Methods up to date in every way.

Also adverbs ending in -ly are not ordinarily made into compound modifiers: nicely kept lawn, securely guarded treasure.

b. Use a hyphen between members of a compound noun when the second member is a preposition, or when the writing of two nouns solid or separately might confuse the meaning: runner-up, kick-off; letting-down of effort, son-in-law, jack-o'-lantern, Pedro was a bull-fighter, a woman-hater, Did you ever see a shoe-polish like this?

c. Use a hyphen in compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine, and in fractions according to the following examples:

Twenty-three, eighty-nine; but one hundred and one. Twenty-third, one-hundred-and-first man. Three-fourths, four and two-thirds, thirty-hundredths, thirty-one hundredths.

But omit the hyphen in simple fractions when loosely used: Three quarters of my life are spent. One third of his fortune.

d. A hyphen is not used in the following common words: airship, altogether, anybody, baseball, basketball, everybody, football, goodby, herself, handbook, himself, inasmuch, itself, midnight, myself, nevertheless, nobody, nothing (but no one), nowadays, railroad, themselves, together, typewritten, wherever, without, workshop, yourself, newspaper, sunset.

e. For words that do not come within the scope of rules, consult an up-to-date dictionary. Compounds tend, with the passing of time, to grow together. Once men wrote steam boat, later steam-boat, and finally steamboat. New-coined words are usually hyphenated; old words are often written solid. The degree of intimacy between the parts of a compound word affects usage; thus we write sun-motor, but sunbeam; birth-rate, but birthday; cooling-room, but bedroom; non-conductor, but nonsense. The ease with which a vowel blends with the consonant of a syllable adjoining it affects usage; thus self-evident, but selfsame; non-existent, but nondescript; un-American, but unwise. Many compounds, however, are still uncontrolled by usage; whether they should be written as two words or one, whether with or without the hyphen, the dictionaries themselves do not agree.

Exercise:

Copy the following expressions, inserting hyphens where they are necessary: twenty two years old, twenty two dollar bills make forty dollars, twenty seven eighths inch boards, a normal school graduate, two handled boxes, a cloth covered basket, blood red sun, water tight compartment, sixty horse power motor, seven dollar bathing suits, a happy go lucky fellow, germ destroying powder, he had a son in law, passers by on the street, the kick off is at three o'clock, dark complexioned woman, silver tongued orator, a dish like valley, a rope like tail, a fish shaped cloud, a touch me not expression, will o' the wisp, well to do merchant, rough and tumble existence.

79. SPELLING LIST

The English language comprises about 450,000 words. Of these a student uses about 4000 (although he may understand more than twice that number when he encounters them in sentences). Of these, in turn, not more than four or five hundred are frequently misspelled. The following list includes nearly all of the words which give serious trouble. Certain American colleges using this list require of freshmen an accuracy of ninety per cent.

absurd

academy

accept

accidentally

accommodate

accumulate

accustom

acquainted

acquitted

across

addressed

adviser

aeroplane

affects

aggravate

alley

allotted

all right

ally

already

altar

alter

altogether

alumnus

always

amateur

among

analogous

analysis

angel

angle

annual

anxiety

apparatus

appearance

appropriate

arctic

argument

arising

arithmetic

arrange

arrival

ascend

asks

athletic

audience

auxiliary

awkward

balance

barbarous

baring

barring

baseball

based

bearing

becoming

before

beggar

begging

beginning

believing

benefited

biscuit

boundaries

brilliant

Britain

Britannica

buoyant

bureau

business

busy

calendar

candidate

can't

cemetery

certain

changeable

changing

characteristic

chauffeur

choose

chose

chosen

clothes

coarse

column

coming

commission

committee

comparative

compel

compelled

competent

concede

conceivable

conferred

conquer

conqueror

conscience

conscientious

considered

continuous

control

controlled

coöperate

country

course

courteous

courtesy

cruelty

cylinder

dealt

debater

deceitful

decide

decision

deferred

definite

descend

describe

description

derived

despair

desperate

destroy

device

devise

dictionary

difference

digging

dilemma

dining room

dinning

disappear

disappoint

disavowal

discipline

disease

dissatisfied

dissipate

distinction

distribute

divide

divine

doctor

don't

dormitories

drudgery

dying

ecstasy

effects

eighth

eliminate

embarrass

eminent

encouraging

enemy

equipped

especially

etc.

everybody

exaggerate

exceed

excellent

except

exceptional

exhaust

exhilarate

existence

expense

experience

explanation

familiar

fascinate

February

fiery

fifth

finally

financier

forfeit

formally

formerly

forth

forty

fourth

frantically

fraternity

freshman (adj.)

friend

fulfil

furniture

gallant

gambling

generally

goddess

government

governor

grammar

grandeur

grievous

guard

guess

guidance

harass

haul

having

height

hesitancy

holy

hoping

huge

humorous

hurriedly

hundredths

hygienic

imaginary

imitative

immediately

immigration

impromptu

imminent

incidentally

incidents

incredulous

independence

indispensable

induce

influence

infinite

instance

instant

intellectual

intelligence

intentionally

intercede

irresistible

its

it's

itself

invitation

judgment

knowledge

laboratory

ladies

laid

later

latter

lead

led

liable

library

lightning

likely

literature

loneliness

loose

lose

losing

lying

maintain

maintenance

manual

manufacturer

many

marriage

Massachusetts

material

mathematics

mattress

meant

messenger

miniature

minutes

mischievous

Mississippi

misspelled

momentous

month

murmur

muscle

mysterious

necessary

negroes

neither

nickel

nineteenth

ninetieth

ninety

ninth

noticeable

nowadays

oblige

obstacle

occasion

occasionally

occur

occurred

occurrence

occurring

o'clock

officers

omitted

omission

opinion

opportunity

optimistic

original

outrageous

overrun

paid

pantomime

parallel

parliament

particularly

partner

pastime

peaceable

perceive

perception

peremptory

perform

perhaps

permissible

perseverance

pérsonal

personnél

perspiration

persuade

pertain

pervade

physical

picnic

picnicking

planned

pleasant

politics

politician

possession

possible

practically

prairie

precede

precédent

précedents

preference

preferred

prejudice

preparation

primitive

principal

principle

prisoner

privilege

probably

proceed

prodigy

profession

professor

proffered

prohibition

promissory

prove

purchase

pursue

putting

quantity

quiet

quite

quizzes

rapid

ready

really

recede

receive

recognize

recommend

reference

referred

regard

region

religion

religious

repetition

replies

representative

restaurant

rheumatism

ridiculous

sacrilegious

safety

sandwich

schedule

science

scream

screech

seems

seize

sense

sentence

separate

sergeant

several

shiftless

shining

shone

shown

shriek

siege

similar

since

smooth

soliloquy

sophomore

speak

specimen

speech

statement

stationary

stationery

statue

stature

statute

steal

steel

stops

stopped

stopping

stories

stretch

strictly

succeeds

successful

summarize

superintendent

supersede

sure

surprise

syllable

symmetrical

temperament

tendency

than

their

there

therefore

they're

thorough

thousandths

till

to

too

together

tragedy

track

tract

transferred

tranquillity

translate

treacherous

treasurer

tries

trouble

truly

Tuesday

two

typical

tyranny

universally

until

using

usually

vacancy

vengeance

vigilance

village

villain

weak

wear

weather

Wednesday

week

weird

welfare

where

wherever

whether

which

whole

wholly

who's

whose

wintry

wiry

within

without

women

world

writing

written

your

you're

Note 1.—The following words have more than one correct form, the one given here being preferred.

abridgement

acknowledgment

analyze

ax

boulder

caliber

catalog

center

check

criticize

develop

development

dulness

endorse

envelop

esthetic

gaiety

gild

gipsy

glamor

goodby

gray

inquire

medieval

meter

mold

mustache

odor

program

prolog

skilful

theater

Note 2.—In a few groups of words American spelling and English spelling differ. American spelling gives preference to favor, honor, labor, rumor; English spelling gives preference to favour, honour, labour, rumour. American spelling gives preference to civilize, apprize; defense, pretense; traveler, woolen; etc. English spelling gives preference to civilise, apprise; defence, pretence; traveller, woollen; etc.