SpellQuiz | Blog

Imagine being asked to describe your hometown. How will you describe it? Some of you might say

“I live in X city. It is a big city. Many people live here. There are many big roads in the city so we can easily travel around…”

Or some might say

“My hometown is X. It is a metropolitan city with a sound transportation system. It has become a melting pot of different cultures due to its huge population…”

Which one sounds better? Or fluent?

Knowing enough words to be able to address something is without a doubt a praiseworthy accomplishment. But describing something with more accuracy requires a good command of the language, that is, a wider range of vocabulary.

Vocabulary expansion is an integral part of mastering a language. The more words you learn, the better you are at understanding and explaining complex concepts. It is also linked to sounding fluent in a language.

In this article, we would discuss vocabulary expansion techniques and exercises. But first, we should understand properly why it is necessary to acquire more words.

 

Why Is Vocabulary Expansion Necessary?

The example given at the beginning clearly shows the difference between knowing English and being fluent in it. But what if sounding fluent is not one of my priorities? Do I still need to expand my vocabulary? The answer is yes. Let’s discuss why:

 

Language Development

There is no doubt that vocabulary is the building block of every language. It helps us to clearly express and share our ideas, thoughts, information etc. which leads to growing relationships. One of the most unique features of vocabulary is that it can help you express yourself even without any knowledge about grammar. And that is why vocabulary expansion is needed.

Let’s say you are in a bakery in the UK, and you have no knowledge of English grammar. You only know some words including the names of some foods. Don’t worry! Just go to the worker there and say, “Blueberry Muffin” You are just as likely to receive one as saying “Hi! I’d like to have one blueberry muffin, thank you”.

If you are still not convinced, think about how children learn to speak. Do they take grammar lessons before they start to speak? Most definitely not. First, they acquire the words such as ‘food’, ‘ball’, ‘sleep’, ‘eat’ etc. and speak only the words to convey their needs.

The more words you know, the better you can make people understand what you are trying to say.

Learning easy vocabulary words in English can you with your vocabulary expansion.

Comprehension

The biggest contribution of vocabulary is obviously incomprehension. Being able to understand properly comes before being fluent and better comprehension is the foundation of improving fluency in all skills- Reading, Listening, Writing, and speaking.

 

Reading

Imagine sitting down to read a book but not being able to do so because you don’t understand what is written. Every once in a while, you need to get up to find a dictionary or search on the internet for the meaning of the word.

This can be irritating to the point you give up reading the book or lose interest in reading entirely. Also, it can have a negative effect on your confidence. And not just that, if you face trouble understanding an academic document because of poor vocabulary, it will affect your academic performance greatly.

 

Listening

If you don’t know the meaning and pronunciation of a word, how would be able to understand what the speaker is trying to convey? Having a good command of pronunciation is essential to keep a conversation going.

Yes, we can ask the speaker to repeat what they said but how long do you think we can do that before they get frustrated?

Native speakers might not face this problem, but non-native learners need a wide range of vocabulary to improve their listening skills.

 

Speaking

Have you ever been in a situation where you are trying to properly describe a concept but no word in your vocabulary seems appropriate enough? Both native and non-native speakers can relate to this which is why vocabulary expansion is mandatory for both types of speakers.

Enriched vocabulary also boosts your confidence, especially in a formal situation where you are expected to show your skill.

 

Writing

Like the example about hometown, now try to describe your friend. Do you think describing him as a “good person” is fulfilling enough? Or using ‘well-mannered’, ‘poised’, ‘suave’, ‘empathetic’, ‘optimistic’ etc. would be more attractive to the reader?

A larger vocabulary is immensely important when it’s come to writing because making concepts crystal clear to the audience is one of the top priorities in this field.

Do you know another interesting fact? Vocabulary expansion enhances your capability of understanding complex concepts as well. For example, if you understand ‘manners’ and ‘etiquettes’, it would be easier for you to understand the meaning of ‘courteous’, ‘poised’, ‘elegant’ etc.

Better understand your vocabulary errors in writing so that you can efficiently expand your vocabulary.

 

How Can I Expand My Vocabulary?

Now that we are aware of the necessity, it is time to get some tips and tricks for vocabulary expansion. One thing we must understand is that everyone has their own ways and pace to improve their skills. Also, different techniques work for different people.

An adult might not have the facilities a student has, and a student mostly doesn’t have the already enriched vocabulary like an adult. So, for their cases, vocabulary expansion exercises and approaches would be different.

 

How To Improve Vocabulary of Students

As a teacher, you should set goals for your students and then design your curriculum to achieve them. Below are some ideas about vocabulary expansion for students:

 

Direct Teaching

Vocabulary expansion, by definition, is suitable for older students and direct teaching can be exceptionally effective in this case. Provide them with a list of words and ask them to memorize them with meanings and usage in sentences. Monitor their progress regularly.

 

Reading Sessions

Books are arguably the best exposure to new vocabulary; therefore, interest in literature can contribute greatly to vocabulary expansion. Students will be able to understand the concept of the words better if they are read in a passage.

Arrange reading sessions in your class and asks the students to read out passages. If they get stuck at any point, explain the meaning of the word to them. You can also read out critical parts and ask if they are understood properly. If a student knows a word beforehand, encourage them to share their knowledge with others.

You should also help them notice new words in a text. Ask them to write down or record the new word with meaning, roots, use in a sentence etc.

You can also ask them to listen to audiobooks to understand the pronunciation better.

 

Dictionary

Motivate the students to use dictionaries for vocabulary expansion. It is obvious that they would find it boring at first, but with proper guidance, you can grow their interest.

The students might not be interested in using a paper book, ask them to use the ones available online. Most of the dictionaries that are printed are also available online. The user-friendly interface along with audio explaining pronunciation would definitely be more helpful for the students.

 

Roots, suffix, prefix

Suffixes and prefixes are building blocks of the word, and the root holds the core meaning. Teaching the students about word these parts help them understand the meaning to some extent when seeing a new word. Below are some examples of suffixes, prefixes and roots of English words with meaning to teach students:

Suffix

Suffix	Meaning	Example
-er, -or	The one who does	Counselor, Narrator, Driver, Singer
-ist	The one who believes or applies	Narcissist, Capitalist
-ize, -ise	Becoming	Socialize, Civilize, Categorize
-less	Without	Helpless, thoughtless, countless
-ship	Holding a position	Ownership, Membership, Internship

 

Prefix

Prefix	Meaning	Example
Co-	Together	Cooperation, coeducation, coordinate
Im-, In-	Not	Immoral, Immortal, Independent
In-	Extreme	Invaluable
Inter-	Between	Intercity, international
Pre-	Before	Prefix, preview

 

Greek Roots

Roots	Meaning	Example
Auto	Self	Automatic, Automobile
Geo	Earth	Geography, Geology
Micro	Small	Microscope, Microcredit
Poly	Small	Polygamy, Polygon, Polycystic
Tele	Distant	Telescope, Telephone, Television

 

Latin Roots

Root	Meaning	Example
Audio	Hearing	Audience, auditory, audible
Bi	Two	Bicycle, Bilingual, Binary
Duo	Two	Duet, Duplex
Manus	Hand	Manicure, manuscript
Ped	Foot	Pedestrian, Pedestal

 

How To Improve Vocabulary for Adults?

If you are an adult trying to improve your vocabulary, it is most likely that you have to do it on your own. Here are some tips for your aid:

 

Routine practice

The first and foremost task is to make a routine and follow it seriously. You should set a goal such as learning a new word every day or learning 20-30 new words each month. Assign a certain amount of time every day for practice.

 

Reading practice

There is no alternative to this. Develop a reading habit. Challenge yourself to read a new book every month. Read newspapers or magazines in your spare time. Articles are the best source of subject-related words. Try to find articles about the topics related to such words.

 

Use the words in conversation

You should plan beforehand to add certain words in your conversation, especially on a formal occasion, or when you are giving a speech. Practice with a friend or family to enrich your active vocabulary.

 

It is essential to have a clear idea about your current size of vocabulary before you decide to expand it. Otherwise, you might be looking at word lists that are too complicated for you or words you already know. That is why SpellQuiz Vocabulary Test assigns you a grade based on your vocabulary size. The test only takes 10 minutes to assume how many words you might know and places you between grades 1 to 12.

You will hear an audio clip recorded with professional voice artists and you need to write down what you heard with proper spelling.

After receiving your grade, you should check SpellQuiz Printable Words Lists to find words that are appropriate for your grade. There are multiple lists for each grade and separated word lists for the spelling bee.

It might be a little overwhelming for you or you might be in a hurry for vocabulary expansion but being relaxed and steady bring out the best outputs in this case. With the SpellQuiz Adaptive Spelling scheme, you can advance at your own pace and monitor your vocabulary expansion progress through the dashboard.

Happy Spelling!

Vocabulary wall- sounds a bit uncommon, right? What is this device and why do we need it? We will discuss that in this article, but first, let’s take a look at our current vocabulary expansion process.

What tricks do you apply to improve your vocabulary? Most of you will answer by learning new words regularly. And how do you remember them? By maintaining a notebook? Or do you depend on your memory only? Or do you actively use those words in your daily life?

Learning new words is easy but remembering all of them is hard. And there is no point in acquiring more words if you keep forgetting old ones.

 

What Is a Vocabulary Wall?

Now imagine a wall in your room or in your classroom, filled with the words you are learning or struggling to learn. You can always see them before your eyes and can look at them whenever you need. That is called a vocabulary wall.

In other words, a vocabulary wall is a collection of words displayed on a board or other surface. It is usually used in the classroom to teach students, but students can easily build one for them at home.

A vocabulary wall is a practical interactive way to help students remember the words by always showing the words in front of them. They can take a quick glance at them while writing or reading a passage.

Vocabulary walls can also be used to teach spelling too. Walls containing high-frequency words can be built for beginner level students. It can also contain irregularly spelt words or commonly misspelt words for advanced level students. If done correctly, it can also teach students about spelling patterns. The wall can also teach students about roots, prefixes, and suffixes.

Vocabulary wall is a widely used tool for teaching and you can use it too. But first, you need proper planning.

 

Building A Vocabulary Wall

Appropriate Location

Finding a proper place in your classroom can be a bit tricky. You need to take care of certain factors:

• There should be enough space for including all necessary words
• The place should be well-lit
• It should not be too high or too low. The students should be able to look at it easily.

Students in lower grades cannot look at words written in a high place. The wall should be within their eye level.

 

Vocabulary Wall Display

The words should be prominent enough. The students must read it easily. The letters need to be large enough to see from afar.

The type of display also matters. Are you using a whiteboard and writing down the letters? Or will you write those words on paper and glue them to a board? You can also use big magnet letters. Anything that makes finding and understanding the word easy is acceptable.

Colour combination is another important part. Use vibrant colours for the words with a white background. Multicoloured background with black letters can also work. Be careful if you are using multiple colours for both words and background. The display should be pleasing to the eyes.

Want to know about common vocabulary errors? You should definitely read our blog on it.

 

Organizing Words

You should decide what types of words will be on the wall and what pattern will they follow.  More so, you should also take into account the level of your students. You can organize the words in alphabetical order and use a separate section for each letter. For example:

A Able, Act, Add, After, Again, Air, All, Among, Angle, Apple, Area, Ask, Attend, Aura, Average, Away	B Ball, Bear, Become, Bed, Before, Bell, Best, Big, Bird, Black, Blue, Board, Bone, Book, Box, Break, Brown, But	C Call, Can, Car, Case, Center, Chart, Child, City, Class, Color, Come, Control, Cook, Cost, Cow, Create, Cut	D Dark, day, Deal, Deep, Direct, Doctor, Draw, Dress, Dry
E Ear, Eat, Egg, Eight, Else, End, English, Enjoy, Even, Exact, Explain, Eye	F Face, Fall, Far, Fast, Fear, Fee, Field, Fine, Fire, Fit, Floor, Flower, Fly, Food, Force, Four, Free, Fur	G Game, Gas, Get, Girl, Glass, Go, Good, Great, Grow, Guess	H Had, Hair, Hand, Has, Head, Help, High, Hill, Hit, Home, Hot, How, Human
I Ice, Idea, If, In, Interesting, Iron, Is, It	J Jail, Job, Jump, Just	K Keep, Key, King, Know	L Land, Last, Late, Law, Left, Leg, Less, Lie, Life, Light, Like, Live, Look, Lost, Love, Low
M Main, Make, Man, Map, Mark, May, Me, Meet, Metal, Milk, Mind, Money, Month, Moon, Mother, Much, Music, Must	N Name, Near, Need, New, Nose, Now	O Off, Often, Oil, Old, One, Only, Order, Other, Our, Over, Own	P Page, Paper, Park, Past, Pay, People, Person, Pie, Place, Plan, Play, Poem, Poor, Price, Put
Q Queen, Question, Queue	R Race, Rain, Rat, Read, Red, Report, Rest, Rich, Ring, River, Road, Room, Rose, Row, Run	S Safe, Same, Saw, Scale, Sea, See, Sell, Shape, Sound, Space, Spot, Stand, Star, Still, Stop, Strong, Study, Sugar, Sun, Swim	T Table, Talk, Team, Test, That, There, Think, Though, Three, Time, Tool, Town, Travel, Tree, Try, Tube
U Uncle, Unit, Use,	V Value, Very, View, Village, Voice	W Walk, Warm, Water, Way, Week, Wheel, Whole, Wild, Wind, Word, Write	Y Yard, Years, Young, Your

 

This wall contains fry sight words for kindergarteners. Building such a wall in the classroom will help them remember the words faster. You can also make such a vocabulary wall using uncommon words only. In that case, you must include the meaning.

Vocabulary expansion exercises can also include vocabulary walls. Learn more about these expansions now!

Categorizing words by their roots, suffixes and prefixes is a great idea to enrich vocabulary. The student will get an idea about the meaning without much effort. This strategy is particularly useful in learning field related words e.g., science-related words or geography-related words. The wall can also display synonyms and antonyms. Check the vocabulary wall ideas below:

 

Vocabulary Wall Based on Roots

Greek Root		Latin Root
Astron Star Astronaut, Astrology	Auto Self Automatic, Automobile, Autograph	Annus Year Annual, Annuity, Anniversary	Bene Good Benefit, Beneficial
Bio Life Biology, Biography, Antibiotic	Dia Across Diagram, Dialect, Diagonal, Diagnosis	Capitis Head Capital, Captain	Contra Against Contradictory, Contrast, Contrary
Geo Earth Geology, Geography, Geometry	Homo Same Homophone, Homonym	Dictum Speak Dictionary, Dictate, Predict	Equi Equal Equity, Equation
Mega Large Megapolis, Megaphone	Micro Small Microscope, Microfiber, Micron	Fract Break Fraction, Fracture, Infraction	Ject Throw Eject, Reject, Object, Inject, Project
Meter Measure Diameter, Millimeter, Thermometer	Para Beside Parallel, Parenthesis, Paragraph, Parabola	Migrat Move Migration, Migratory, Immigrant	Populus People Population, Republic, Publication
Phone Sound Telephone, Phonics, Microphone, Symphony	Sphere Ball Atmosphere, Hemisphere, Spherical	Port Carry Portable, Transport, Import, Export	Scribe Write Scribble, Transcript, Prescribe, Describe
Techne Skill Technician, Technology	Therm Heat Thermos, Thermodynamic	Trans Across Transfer, Transport, Transaction, Transmit	Verb Word Verbal, Proverb

 

Vocabulary Wall for Synonyms

Word	Synonym	Antonym
Aesthetic	Artistic, Beautiful, Pretty	Ugly
Big	Enormous, Gigantic, Huge	Small, Tiny
Colossal	Immense	Miniscule
Diligent	Active, Devoted, Hardworking	Careless, Lazy
Erudite	Literate, Scholar, Wise	Uneducated
Gloom	Despair, sadness	Joy, Happiness, Delight
Implacable	Brutal, Cruel, Merciless	Kind, Mercy
Jumble	Unorganized, Mixed up	Order, organized
Meticulous	Cautious, Careful	Reckless
Nigh	Adjacent, Close, Near	Far
Obnoxious	Offensive	Agreeable
Perceive	Notice, Realize	Overlook
Sinister	Bad, Evil, Nasty	Auspicious, Good
Timid	Bashful, Introvert, Quiet	Extrovert
Weary	Exhausted, Tired	Energetic

 

Which words to include in the vocabulary wall can be a matter of hassle, but not with SpellQuiz. SpellQuiz Words Lists are divided into grades and available for adults too. There are multiple words lists for each grade including fry or sight words and separate word lists are available for the spelling bees.

 

Vocabulary Wall Ideas for Interactive Learning

• Student participation is needed in this kind of project. Take their opinion on the vocabulary wall display. Ask them which words they want to see on the wall and which pattern should be followed.
• The students should participate in making also. Hand them the papers, paints and other equipment and give instructions. Keep an eye on them while using glue, scissors etc.
• The wall should have enough space for adding new words. You can add them on monthly basis.
• The words displayed must be learned in the classroom beforehand.
• You can make separate sections on the wall, for example, Fry word section, irregularly spelt word section, scientific word section etc. The goal is to make the wall as efficient as possible.

 

Vocabulary Wall Activities

The basic function of the vocabulary wall is to give students quick access to words necessary in classroom activities. The students must know how to use the wall for their benefit.

• Instruct students to always check the words on the wall when they are forgetting one.
• Encourage them to use the words on the wall in their writing or in conversation. Use these activities to make sure they are using the vocabulary wall properly:
  • Assign certain words and ask them to write a paragraph about it.
  • Assign a topic for discussion and tell them to use as many words as possible for the wall.
• The wall can be used in other ways also. For example:
  • Some words have multiple definitions in a different contexts. Ask the students to discuss them and use the word accordingly in their activity.
  • Ask them to rearrange the words using a new pattern occasionally, especially when the number of words is increasing. Why do they think the new pattern will be more useful?

The effectiveness of the wall can be determined by evaluating the student’s vocabulary range. You can monitor the progress of your students using the SpellQuiz Vocabulary Test. The test can evaluate one’s vocabulary size within just 10 minutes. The audio clips used in the questions are recorded by professional voice artists so that the participant has no problem understanding.

Vocabulary Wall is an effective idea for improving the vocabulary of the students. For more interesting ideas, don’t forget to check SpellQuiz Blogs.

Happy Spelling!

Aren’t you tired of using ‘Wow’ or ‘Awesome’ every time you are trying to express that you are impressed? It is not uncommon for us to use only a few selected words stuck in our minds to express most of our feelings.

Non-native speakers might be embarrassed about this habit but let me tell you; even native speakers suffer from this problem it is very annoying. And that brings us to improve our vocabulary used in daily life to show our fluency in English.

Ever wondered about the vocabulary used in daily life range of an average person? On average, an adult native speaker has a vocabulary range of around 20,000-35,000 words.

Children at the age of five can recognize up to 10,000 words. So, why do we face problems while showing our fluency?

Why does 90% of our conversation consist of terms that are extremely simple such as ‘He has good manners’ or ‘God! That was awful’ even though we are capable of using ‘He seems poised’ or ‘The incident was atrocious’?

In this article, we would first learn about the reasons behind poor vocabulary and how to develop a stronger one. A list of vocabulary used in daily life conversation would also be provided so that you can practice using them.

Let’s get started!

 

Why Is Our Vocabulary for Everyday Use Limited?

To be honest, the English words used in daily life conversation is not as poor as we think it is, we just forget to realize how many words we are using. Let me use mathematics to explain it better.

Studies show that knowing about 25 simple words is enough to understand 33% of daily writing and a vocabulary used in daily life range of 1,000 words would cover 89% of that writing.

If you know roughly 3000 English words, you will understand 95% of the common texts. Now, knowing 3000 words is a big achievement, it is just that the number of words available in the English language is far greater than this.

The Oxford English Dictionary contains around 171,476 words that are currently being used. So, 3000 words mean only 1.75% of the dictionary!

Also, you might want to show off your skills, but it is often preferred, or even mandatory in some cases, that what you speak or write should be understandable even to people with a limited vocabulary. Using simple words helps the conversation get going and texts are widely accepted.

That is why ‘His disingenuous apology has been rejected by the committee’ is suitable only for formal documents. For normal conversation, ‘The committee won’t accept his false apology’ will always be better.

Statistics show that an adult native speaker puts around 20,000 words in use while they know more than 40,000 words. Why? Because active vocabulary used in daily life is always smaller than passive vocabulary. Now, what are they? Let’s discuss this in detail.

 

Active Vocabulary

Active vocabulary used in daily life consists of words you actively use in your conversation and writing. You have a clear idea about their meaning, spelling, pronunciation, use in a sentence etc.

You can confidently use them in a certain situation with grammatical accuracy and can recall them without effort.

If you are learning English as a second language, then the range of your active vocabulary would depend on your level. Native speakers, however, are capable of acquiring an impressive amount of active vocabulary without learning due to English being their mother tongue.

Learn how to improve vocabulary for adults now!

 

Passive Vocabulary

Passive vocabulary consists of the words we know but don’t actively use in communication. These are the words we mostly learn from reading.

There is also some lack in our knowledge about these words. We might not be accustomed to its usage properly even if we saw them being used in documents.

We are not sure if they are appropriate to be used in a particular situation. Some might struggle with the pronunciation as well. We can use these words in academic or formal writing to enrich our work, but they won’t come to mind often when talking to a friend.

English learners often build a wide range of vocabulary used in daily life because of the way they are acquired. So, in this case, the difference between native and non-native speakers is not that prominent. Many ESL students might even defeat the native speakers in terms of known words.

One interesting thing is that active vocabulary is often considered a part of passive vocabulary because you know the meaning of the words in both cases; you are just more hesitant about using some words than others.

If you study those passive vocabularies enough, you will be able to convert them into your active vocabulary as well. Developing the passive vocabulary is one of the main strategies to improve your vocabulary for everyday use, that is, your active vocabulary.

Here are some tips for you to enrich your active vocabulary used in daily life with the help of passive vocabulary:

 

Synonyms

When you are learning a new language, a dictionary becomes your best friend. You can easily find the word by looking at the dictionary. But how often do you use a dictionary when you are trying to find a word in your mother tongue? The answer is rarely.

When we forget a word in our native language, we try to find other words to express the same emotion. This way our ability to find synonyms improves.

Try this method for foreign languages as well. This way, you would have a better idea about the meaning and usage of the word. And after finding it in the dictionary, the chance of forgetting it will decrease. So, next time, you will use the word with confidence, adding it to your active vocabulary.

Want to know about the types of vocabulary errors? Check out our guide now!

 

Planning

Including new words in your speech consciously immensely helps not only your vocabulary but your pronunciation as well. When you are learning a new word, try to include it in your speaking.

Try to replace the newly learnt words with old words, such as using ‘numerous’, ‘multiple’, ‘abundant’, ‘heaps of’ etc. instead of ‘many’ or ‘a lot’.

You must have a notebook for storing important words you learned. Try to note down their meaning and an example as well. If you know the example already, it would be easier to use the word on a proper occasion.

 

The list below contains synonyms for commonly used words in our daily life:

Word	Synonyms
All	Entire, complete, full, whole, total, sum of
Anger	Infuriate, enrage, wrath, exasperate
Bad	Wicked, immoral, evil, unpleasant, disappointing, obnoxious, foul, horrible, nasty
Beautiful	Gorgeous, Dazzling, pleasant, lovely, aesthetic, heavenly, pretty, exquisite
Big	Enormous, huge, gigantic, tremendous, spacious, vast, mammoth, broad
Calm	Peaceful, tranquil, mild, composed, quiet, still, collected
Do	Attain, execute, finish, carry out, accomplish
Dumb	Stupid, tiring, boring, dull, insensible, illogical
Enjoy	Delight, savor, appreciate
Explain	Account for, clarify, Justify, elaborate, define
Fair	Justified, reasonable, honest, just, unprejudiced, impartial
False	Wrong, incorrect, inaccurate, fake, improper, counterfeit, imposter
Good	Marvelous, excellent, great, proper, top-notch, gracious, trustworthy, superb
Hurt	Damage, hamper, injure, afflict
Happy	Glad, pleased, satisfied, cheerful
Idea	Opinion, concept, view, belief, thought
Interesting	Exciting, fascinating, curious, captivating, appealing, intelligent, inspiring
Little	Tiny, few, small, limited, petite, minute
Look	Examine, gaze, view, inspect, glimpse, watch, witness, survey, gape
Move	Go, budge, scuttle, pace, lunge, inch, walk, rush, run, dash, chase, race, slide, travel
Make	Invent, create, develop, produce, obtain, build
Many	Numerous, ample, innumerable, diverse, multiple, frequent, myriad
Normal	Conventional, usual, ordinary, standard, traditional, natural, classic, typical
Strange	Unusual, extraordinary, weird, atypical, unorthodox, peculiar, exceptional
Tell	Reveal, inform, command, implied, disclose, advise

 

Impressive vocabulary for everyday use doesn’t only include words. You should also write down idioms and phrases you learn such as ‘Killing two birds with one stone or ‘laid-back’ etc. Using these phrases will make you sound like a native.

Vocabulary wall display can be a great way to increase your overall daily vocabulary usage.

Check the examples below:

Idiom	Meaning	Example
A piece of cake	A very easy task	I have been working in this field for years. Training new recruits is a piece of cake for me.
An arm and leg	A lot of money	The new apartment cost an arm and leg. I cannot afford anything nice for a while.
Add fuel to the flames	Make something worse	The manager is already angry about the failure of the project. Telling him about the hacking incident will only add fuel to the flames.
Bad Omen	Indication that something bad will happen	They say it’s a bad omen when a cat crosses your path
Can’t stand	Cannot tolerate	I just can’t stand his recklessness.
Gut Feeling	Natural Instinct	My gut feeling is telling me not to trust her.
Put someone in their place	Reminding someone about their status, position etc.	I usually don’t bother with haters, but it is required to put them in their place once in a while.

 

Concluding Thoughts

For more items, go to SpellQuiz Idioms List. There is an image attached with each idiom which makes understanding the concept easier and more enjoyable. You can use them to teach the students as well.

Before you start to learn more words, you need to understand your level and how many words you already know. SpellQuiz can help you with that. The SpellQuiz Vocabulary Test evaluates your vocabulary range and assigns you a grade based on your knowledge within 10 minutes!

For each question in the test, an audio clip will be played that contains a sentence. You need to write the full sentence with correct spelling.

You can play them as many times as you want and each time, it would once be played with normal speed and once a bit slowly so that you can understand the words better.

After getting a grade, you don’t need to worry about finding grade-appropriate words either. SpellQuiz Words Lists are here for you. The words are divided by grades and are available for adults also.

There are multiple lists for each grade and separate word lists for the spelling bee is also available. The word lists are printable so you can print out and hang them on your wall if you want.

It is obvious that you want to improve your vocabulary used in daily life as fast as possible but being pressured to do so often do more harm than good. That is why SpellQuiz Adaptive Spelling allows students to advance at their own pace.

You should utilize the strategies given in this article and monitor your progress often. You can find more tips and tricks for skill improvement in SpellQuiz Blogs along with new words for practice.

In simple words, a club is a group of individuals with shared interest or goals. Clubs arrange different activities related to their common interest to improve their skills and strengthen their understanding.

People join different clubs associated with different types of interests for personal development, building networks and team-spirits etc. And a spelling club aims to utilize all these characteristics to improve the spelling skill of the students.

Building a spelling club free in school (or outside school if required) is a great idea to enhance students’ spelling skill through club activities. You can develop their English vocabulary and usage, prepare them for competitions and build their interest in learning spelling.

But running a successful spelling club needs a lot more than ideas and concepts which we will discuss in this article. So, let’s get started!

 

Spelling club ideas: How to set up a Spelling Club?

Before starting a spelling club, you need to make a proper planning to ensure that the club will run for a long time and the members who join will actually benefit from it. You need to take care of a few things first:

Set a goal

Setting a proper aim or goal for your club will help you to understand what you want to achieve from it. Do you want to improve the spelling skill of your students or prepare them for a competition? Or is your main concern to complete the school syllabus successfully?

Being clear about the aim will help you set what activities your students will perform in your club.

If your aim is to develop the interest of your students in spelling, then the spelling activities should be interactive and interesting to your students. Making sure the students are enjoying the activities will be one of the major priorities.

But, if you want to prepare your students for a spelling bee competition, then there will be stricter rules and activities that will focus on learning more words in less time. You will have deadlines to maintain. Enjoyment will still be a concern, but vocabulary acquisition would be the main.

Focusing on school curriculum fall somewhere between the two categories mentioned above. You need to find spelling activities different from the ones applied in everyday lessons. Your club would be considered an additional lesson outside school.

 

Planning Participations

Participation is the biggest issue in setting up a club, so you need to plan it beforehand. Is the spelling club going to be for a certain grade, a couple of grades or for the whole school? If the members are from different grades, then you need to find spelling activities and spelling words lists suitable for each grade.

Grade-appropriate spelling words lists might be hard to find and building your own would be time consuming too. In that case, you can always seek help from SpellQuiz. SpellQuiz Printable Words Lists are divided into grades and have multiple lists for each grade. There are also separate word lists for spelling bee competitions.

You also need to plan if there would be grade-specific sessions, or all the members will be present in each session. If members from different grades are joining together, then activities in those sessions should be enjoyable for all of them.

Useful Tip

If your club has students from different grades, ask the older students to help the younger ones in learning spelling. You can make groups consisting of members from different level and give them a task to complete within a given time. This will develop the team-spirit and strengthen the bonds among the students.

In spelling clubs, you can increase your list of impressive vocabulary for everyday use. Check out our blog on this now!

 

Making the schedule

You should schedule your sessions in a way that it is easy to maintain for both you and the students. Flexible schedules are a great attraction to the members. Each session should not be very short or long. You should make time for at least 2 to 3 activities but not more than that. Make sure to have some time to recall what they learnt earlier.

Weekly sessions would be the best for such clubs, but you can make them more frequent according to the students’ requirements.

Finance

Running a club requires a lot of arrangements and that would definitely need a budget. Is the school going to sponsor the club? How are you going to manage the financial sector if the club is outside the school? Do the members need to pay a fee to join the club?

If a member can join for free, then you can expect a lot of enthusiasm and participation. You should totally go for it if the club is run by the school. But running a club outside school would be expensive. You can arrange a virtual spelling club to reduce expense. In that case, you need to find interesting virtual spelling activities for the students.

 

Plan the activities

The spelling activities you perform in the club will determine how efficient your club is to improve spelling skills. And that would decide how long your club will exist.

The Spelling club activities should be interactive and more interesting than traditional learning. Try to avoid homework as much as you can, rather encourage them to practice the lessons at home in their free time. Below are some ideas for spelling club activities:

Study Sessions

The best way to remember the spelling is to see them regularly. And reading ensures that we see the words continuously in front of our eyes. Arrange reading activities occasionally. You can use books or other printing materials but make sure they contain the target spelling words. Encourage the students to read them loudly. This task will improve their reading ability along with their spelling skill.

 

Spelling Scramble

Spelling scramble is perfect game for students of every level. There are 3 levels of this game:

• Beginner Level:
  Scramble the letters of a word. Say the word loudly and ask the player to rearrange them to make the word.
• Mid-Level:
  Scramble the letters of a word and add a few more letters. Say the word loudly and the player to find the correct letters to build the word.
• Advanced Level:
  Ask the player to build the word after scrambling the whole English alphabets.

For spelling clubs, mid-level and advanced level should be played so that students from different level can enjoy it.

 

Hangman

Hangman is a spelling game that even the adults will enjoy. In case you don’t know how to play it, check the instruction below:

• Select a spelling word.
• Mark spaces for each letter on the board and write down the alphabets beside it.
• Ask the students to guess the letters on the spaces.
• For each incorrect guess, draw a part of a stick figure.
• If the player fails to guess the word before drawing is complete, they will lose the round.
• For beginner level students, write one or two letters beforehand. For advanced level students, you may choose lengthy words.

 

Spelling Bingo

For this activity, you will need a blank bingo grid.

• Give the students a spelling words list.
• Give them a blank bingo grid and tell them to fill the grids with words from the list.
• Now randomly say a word from the list and ask the students from spell it correctly. The one who spells correctly at first will put a cross on that letter in their bingo.
• The number of boxes in a row they need to mark would be determined by the size of the bingo and your instructions.
• You can start with 5 x 5 grid and letter increase the number if needed.

Vocabulary wall ideas are a great addition for spelling clubs. Learn more about it now!

 

Word Search

Word Search is a great way to teach spelling. You can find plenty of templates on the internet or make your own.

• Give the students a grid of letters.
• Give them a list of words that they need to find from the grids.
• The words can be placed vertically, horizontally, or diagonally from left to right or right to left.
• For younger students, place the words vertically and horizontally only, and that from left to right. Other directions should be used for older students or in group activities.

 

Competitions

Arranging competitions should be on your activity list even if you are not preparing your students for competitions. You can arrange these competitions grade-wise if you want, or, you can make it a group competition. Friendly rivalry will motivate students to put more effort in learning and winning the competitions.

Spelling bee competition will help you monitor the improvement of the spelling skill of your students. If you are preparing your students for a competition, these in-house competitions will give them an idea about the actual competition.

In case arranging a spelling bee competition physically becomes a hassle, you can use the virtual ones! SpellQuiz Spelling Bee Online is a virtual spelling bee competition held among students around the world. Your students can participate in the competition, compete against each other, and show their skill on a global platform.

Learn how to improve vocabulary of students now!

 

Online activities

As the competition mentioned above, online spelling activities can be a useful addition to your spelling club. It will also reduce your pressure to arrange new spelling club activities for every session.

Set up a few computers in your spelling club (or you can arrange that particular session in the computer room of the school). Select some online spelling games or other activities suitable for your students and let them enjoy! You would be surprised to see how enthusiastic the students are when it comes to play online games, even if it is spelling games.

You can hold a competition and announce a reward for the winner.

Now that you have a good idea about how to set up a spelling club, there is one thing left for you- print some attractive posters and hang them on the noticeboard. Let the students know about your spelling club and start!

Best of luck!

Imagine you are taking a test. You received your question but couldn’t understand the question properly. You know you are supposed to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of something, but you can’t understand of what. Sounds like a nightmare, right?

This is a common problem faced by ESL students or the ones that are preparing for English Proficiency Tests. Due to having limited vocabulary, they often fail to express their thoughts and have trouble understanding others too. Having a profound knowledge on English words is a must to avoid such embarrassing situation, which is why vocabulary acquisition is important.

 

What Is Vocabulary Acquisition?

Vocabulary acquisition simply means learning words to learn a language. Though often associated with learning a second language, it is just as important for the first language. Many don’t realize but the way a child learns to talk properly falls under the vocabulary acquisition process too. We must learn enough words to be able to communicate smoothly in any language- whether it is our first, second or third language.

 

Why Is Vocabulary Acquisition Important?

The incident mentioned at the beginning is not the only problem associated with poor vocabulary. Vocabulary is the foundation or building blocks of a language that we use to share our ideas, exchange information, and run a conversation. It is our key to communication and develop relationships.

 

Communication

One amazing thing about vocabulary that even without proper knowledge about grammar, we can express ourselves to some extent (something most of the people do while in a foreign country). And not just adults, think about how children first learn to talk. First, they learn the words by listening to the elders. Then they attempt to pronounce the same way.

At that stage, they are not capable of forming a full meaningful sentence but can speak words such as ‘doll’, ‘mum’, ‘eat’ etc. to communicate. The more they learn new words, the better they become at expressing themselves.

 

Learn New Language

When we are learning a new language, 99% of the time we create an alternate vocabulary for our first language. If a Spanish student is learning the word ‘Milk’, it would be easier to understand the meaning if they already know ‘Leche’. He already knows a word to assign to that object and now he assigned a new word to it.

As we learn a new language by translating our native language, it is important to have a strong vocabulary in our 1^st language too. It might sound absurd, but not everyone is fluent even in their 1^st language. It is often seen that people struggle to understand the meaning of a word in a foreign language even if the word can be translated in their mother language. Why? Because they don’t know the assigned word in their own language either.

Learn more English words used in daily life conversation for your Vocabulary Acquisition Activities.

 

Improving Language Skill

According to linguist researcher Paul Nation, “Vocabulary is not an end in itself. A rich vocabulary makes the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing easier to perform”.

When we learn a new word, we don’t just learn their meaning and spelling, we also learn their pronunciation and usage in a sentence. This way, vocabulary acquisition helps us improving all four skills- reading, listening, writing, and speaking.

The greatest impact of vocabulary acquisition is definitely on our reading and writing skill. Imagine you are trying to read a thriller and you need to halt every few minutes to search dictionary to understand a word. And it is not often enough to know just the definition to understand the reason why that particular word was used.

Almost everyone interested in writing complains about not remembering a word that will perfectly describe their thoughts. You may know other synonymous words, but each of them has their differences.

But poor reading or writing skill hardly cause as much embarrassment as other two skill can cause. You have time to read the meaning and search a word in the dictionary for the previous 2 skills, but for listening and speaking, you solely depend on your memory. How long can you ask your boss to repeat themselves because you didn’t understand what thy said? Or how would you persuade your clients with poor speaking skill?

Vocabulary acquisition activities can be one of the best spelling club ideas. Learn more about it now!

 

The Process

Strong vocabulary helps us overcome these obstacles. And after improving these 4 skills, the student can advance to learning about grammar rules and patterns to have a better understanding of the language.

Want to know an interesting fact? The more words you learn, the better you are prepared to learn more words! Because you know enough concepts to understand advanced level concepts. Here is a picture to describe the concept:

Vocabulary Acquisition Strategies

The strategies applied for vocabulary acquisition may vary from person to person. Children doesn’t learn the same way an adult does, and the steps of learning are totally different for native and non-native speakers. Here are some strategies that you should apply to learn and remember more words:

 

Create Word Groups

It is impossible to remember the definition of every word and recall them whenever necessary, especially if they are new. So, divide them in categories and group them together. When you categorize them, you already remember a part of their meaning. It is easier to remember both the word and the definition this way. You can also use this strategy to learn phrases, idioms, proverbs etc. Below is an example for you:

 

Business and work	Furniture	Measurement
·         Agenda ·         Capitalism ·         Executive ·         Framework ·         Inflation ·         Monopoly ·         Shipment ·         Spreadsheet ·         Stockholder ·         Wholesale	·         Bookcase ·         Deck chair ·         Display Cabinet ·         File cabinet ·         Hammock ·         Kitchen island ·         Mantle ·         Ottoman ·         Sideboard ·         Wardrobe	·         Acre ·         Barrel ·         Bushel ·         Dash ·         Fathom ·         Furlong ·         Megapixel ·         Octant ·         Percentile ·         Troy ounce
People	Transportation	Vacation
·         Acquaintance ·         Adolescent ·         Benefactor ·         Descendant ·         Doppelganger ·         Inhabitant ·         Occupant ·         Sidekick ·         Sponsor ·         Well-wisher	·         Automobile ·         Caravan ·         Carriage ·         Diesel truck ·         Engine ·         Hatchback ·         Mountain bike ·         Traffic congestion ·         Vehicle ·         Waterways	·         Adventure ·         Booking ·         Camping ·         Destination ·         Explore ·         Hiking ·         Holiday ·         Luggage ·         Passport ·         Tourism

 

Make Reading A Habit

Reading is a must when it comes to vocabulary acquisition. When you see the same word appearing multiple times before your eyes, in novels you read, in that post you saw on Facebook or in the article you read this morning- you subconsciously remember the word along with their meaning and usage. This is far more efficient than reading from a list of spelling words.

After categorizing the words, you can start reading contents of each category to strengthen your vocabulary skill. This way, you would be able to grasp the concept of the word better.

 

Use A Dictionary

Keeping a dictionary near hand is important so that you can quickly check the meaning of a new word or revise an old one. If you are not a fan of using giant dictionaries, install a dictionary app on your phone or laptop for convenience.

 

Word Games

There is no place for doubt that scrabbles, word puzzles, crossword puzzles and other classic games are immensely helpful for improving vocabulary skill. You can play them with your family and friends or online via apps.

 

Maintain A Notebook

You should keep a notebook for the words you learned so that you can revise them from time to time. Also, you can customize your notebooks by adding additional information you learned about the word beside meaning such as roots, suffix, prefix, sentences as examples etc. These little notes go a long way to improve your skill.

 

Set A Routine

Give yourself a goal of learning a certain number of words within a week or a month. Try to learn at least a new word every day. Also, set a time to revise the old words to prevent forgetting them.

 

Use The Words You Learned

It is normal to forget a word if you don’t use it much, no matter how hard you tried to remember it. Writing and speaking are the skills that come in handy in this situation. Use the words you learned in your writing and your speech. By using the words in conversation, you can also practice proper pronunciation.

 

Before you start working on your vocabulary skill, it is best to know how many words you already know and which level you are currently in. And, what’s a better way to evaluate your vocabulary range than taking a vocabulary test? SpellQuiz vocabulary test is your best companion that will estimate the range of your vocabulary within just 10 minutes. It also determines your level and assign it to a grade so that you have a clear idea from where to start.

After determining your level, you need to find words that will help you advance to the next level. Don’t worry, SpellQuiz Printable Word Lists are here to help you. The word lists are divided into grades and there are multiple lists for each grade so that you never run out of words to learn.

SpellQuiz also has a ranking system to acknowledge the vocabulary genii among the users around the world. You can show your potential on a global platform by learning as many words as you can. It also offers Adaptive Spelling System that let the student advance at their pace so that you never feel pressured.

So, what are you waiting for? Start your vocabulary acquisition mission today and visit SpellQuiz for any help you need.

Happy spelling!

When you ascertain a fact, be as certain as you can be because no one will believe a lie.

Did you see what I did there? The word ascertain was broken down into two smaller words that are easier to remember. They also help to understand the meaning of the main word. For believe, we just found a word within it and that particular part is a bit hard to remember- many will write ‘belive’ if they don’t remember it properly.

Tricks like these to remember spellings are called Spelling mnemonics. It is a tool that takes the information of what the user already knows and connects them to the target word so that the user can remember better. It is a widely used effective strategy to learn spelling words faster. Spelling mnemonics are mainly used to learn irregularly spelled words or commonly misspelled words because they don’t follow traditional spelling rules or patterns, but they are not limited to that only. You can use this technique to learn any word you want, no matter how simple or complex they are.

In this article, we will discuss Spelling mnemonics that are used to learn high frequency words that are repeatedly used in our everyday life.

Let’s get started!

 

What are High Frequency Words?

In case you are confused, high frequency words are also known as Sight words. These words appear so frequently in our speech or in the contents we read that anyone can recognize them as soon as they see them. Consider words such as ‘the’, ‘and’, ‘what’, ‘you’, ‘is’, ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘of’, ‘to’ (plenty of sight words are prepositions, apparently) etc. It’s hardly possible to write a few lines without using any of them.

High frequency words are a major stage of the initial stage of building vocabulary. Knowing these words enables a person to read fluently, improves their writing ability and aids their speaking skill. Also, by mastering the sight words, it would be easier for a child to advance to the next level and learn more difficult words.

Do you know that by learning around 300 high frequency words, a child can read about 75% of works of children’s literature that are written in English! And by following proper strategy, learning that many words or more are possible within 2nd grade.

 

Why Do We Need Mnemonics for Spelling High Frequency Words?

Now the question arises that if a word can be recognized just by looking at it, why do we need spelling mnemonics to learn it? Children will eventually learn them by seeing these words in front of them so many times, right? Wrong.

Of course, it might seem unnecessary to go to such extent to learn a word that you probably see more than 30 times a day, but spelling mnemonics used to teach sight words are an important part of teaching spelling, especially to beginner level students.

Think about kindergarten students who just have mastered the letters and their corresponding sounds and have yet to understand the concept of words. Even sight words are foreign to them as they might struggle to spell even a word containing two or three letters. When we are introducing spelling to help them learn basic words, we must make the process as easy as possible. This is where spelling mnemonics come.

One problem the teachers often face with high frequency words is that in many cases, the spelling and the sound of these words are different. It is difficult for a child to learn spelling from sound. Mnemonics in these cases work better than other methods.

Also, rhyming spelling mnemonics or making up their own mnemonics will be more attractive to children than traditional memorizing. These mnemonics are easier for them to remember than spelling rules.

As you’re interested in spelling mnemonics, you should definitely check these vocabulary acquisition activities. It can work wonders for enriching your English vocabulary. 

 

How To Teach Spelling Mnemonics for Sight Words

For kindergarten students, the best spelling mnemonics strategy would be assigning a word to each letter and making a sentence with them. Here is how that can be done:

• Take the word that needs to be spelled and assign a word for each letter.
• Make a sentence with the words maintaining the sequence of letters in the spelling word
• The sentence might sound absurd or silly in some cases (Said: Silly Aunts In Dresses) but don’t mind them. Children might find the sillier ones more interesting.

As the words mostly consist of less than 5 letters, the kids won’t feel difficult to remember them. Below are some popular examples of Spelling Mnemonics that you can use in your classroom:

• They: They Had Eggs Yesterday
• Other: Only Tigers Hunt Evil Rabbits
• What: What a HAT!
• But: Butterflies Under Trees
• Come: Can’t Open My Eyes
• Came: Can Anyone Make Eggs?
• Very: Very Early risers Yawn
• View: View It Every Way
• Here: Here Every Rat Eats
• Ocean: Only Cat’s Eyes Are Yellow
• Often: Dad often gives a bill of ten
• Said: Small Ants in Danger
• Does: Dad Only Eats Salad
• Sail: Sail Across Inari Lake
• Laugh: Laugh And You Get Happy (A lesson even the older ones need to learn)

After mastering the simple words, you can teach them to find those words in bigger words. Being able to break down words into smaller words will help them remember new words quicker as they know the spelling of some parts beforehand.

 

Techniques For the Classroom

You can even design a classroom activity of finding words within words.

Here are some spelling mnemonics that use this technique:

• You Hear with your ear
• Here, there, everywhere!
• Be sure of your measurements.
• Miss Pell never misspells
• The principal is your pal.
• Have a piece of the pie.
• You need to get her to be together
• Slaughter is laughter with an S
• I saw an ad for the dress with this address.
• An island is land surrounded by water
• CIA has special agents.

You can ask the students to make their own mnemonics. They will show great enthusiasm and work on the words with more attention which will help them memorize the word quicker. If you are looking for words to use in this activity, use SpellQuiz Printable Words Lists.

You will find multiple lists of spelling words appropriate for each grade and for adults too. There are lists for sight words, fry words and spelling bee words. The website also offers a special Spelling Test for Sight Words so that the students don’t have to worry about receiving unfamiliar words.

 

Spelling Rhymes

Who doesn’t love rhymes? And what could be better than learning new words with fun rhymes? You definitely heard the famous rhyme from movie ‘Matilda’:

Mrs. D, Mrs. I

Mrs. F-F-I

Mrs. C, Mrs. U

Mrs. L-T-Y

Isn’t it amazing to learn ‘difficulty’ without any difficulty? Guess which word is spelled in the rhyme below:

Mrs. M, Mrs. I

Mrs. S-S-I

Mrs. S-S-I

Mrs. P-P-I

Not just one word, rhymes can teach multiple words with similar spelling too. Take the one below for example:

The cat ate a rat

And after that

The naughty cat sat

On a big yellow mat

Spelling rhymes will come in handy when you start teaching them spelling rules such as:

Q and U

Stick like a glue

When -ing comes to play

E runs away

I before E

Except after C

Or when sounded A

As in neighbour and weigh

When it comes to teaching spelling, spelling rhymes never go wrong. As they are stored by acoustic encoding in the brain, students hardly face any difficulty memorizing them.

Spelling clubs can help in remembering spelling mnemonics faster. Check out our spelling club free guide now!

 

Things To Remember

Spelling mnemonics are undoubtedly one of the most efficient techniques to teach spelling, but there are a handful of things teachers and parents consider before applying it.

• Overusing spelling mnemonics will confuse the learners and slow down the learning process as a result. Use the mnemonics only when necessary.
• Popular mnemonics are always a good choice. You can find plenty on the internet. But check if they are really useful for your students. Some students might find them difficult to remember. In those cases, change the words or create your own.
• Creating your own mnemonics helps immensely in learning to spell. You should also encourage your students to make their own mnemonics. But don’t give them too many words or else they might mix up the mnemonics.
• Ask your children to keep a notebook for the mnemonics or make posters of them that you can hang on your classroom walls. This way students can always revise if they forget anything.

 

In the End

You also need to assess if the strategies you are applying to teach are effective enough. To do so, you can use SpellQuiz Spelling Tests to evaluate the spelling skill of the students and monitor their progress. In this test, the students will hear a sentence and they need to spell all the words correctly. The sentence is repeated two times- once at normal speed and once slowly.

They can play it as many times as they want. The tests are divided into grades and available for adults. The sentences are recorded by professional voice artists so you don’t need to worry about accent or pronunciation, in fact, the candidate can improve their pronunciation skill this way.

Looking forward to hearing how you used the spelling mnemonics. Happy Spelling!

Have you ever written about the ‘Colors’ of the rainbow or how friendly your ‘Neighbour’ is and got poor marks because of so many spelling mistakes?

Did your spell checker ever show a word spelled wrong which you can swear is spelled exactly how you learnt in school? Well, you are not the only one.

Spelling variants, also known as alternate spellings of words, is an issue for both teachers and students while learning spelling. Students, especially ESL students who are unaware of the variations of the new language they are learning, often face difficulty in learning the language because of it. Even native speakers go through many problems for not knowing how the other country spells some words.

Occurrences like this can not only confuse the learner but hamper their confidence as well. That is why you must teach your students or children about the spelling variations for certain words. In this article, we will discuss spelling variants and their effects. If you are a student, this article would be of great help to you as we would be providing examples as well.

Let’s get started!

 

Why Spelling Variants Exist?

Before starting, we should answer one basic question- why do these spelling variants exist? Well, to answer this question, we need to take a look at history.

The spread of the former British Empire and British colonization holds immense importance in World history. They conquered a vast area of the world and spread their culture and language in those regions. English was introduced in numerous parts of the world by the British.

Over the centuries, the English language used in those parts has significantly changed from the original form, the ‘British English’. For example, what the Americans call ‘Gas Station’ is called ‘Petrol Station’ by the British and ‘Servo’ by the Australians. The same goes for Candy (the USA), Sweets (The UK) and Lollies (Australia).

Like the usage, the spelling of the words varies too. Many of us already dealt with the problem of ‘Color’ and ‘Colour’, ‘Jewelry’ and ‘Jewellery’ etc. And not just spelling, grammar, date formats and many other things differ from region to region.

 

Why Do We Need to Learn About Spelling Variants?

Well, even if these spelling variants exist, why do we need to know about them? Schools often use a globally accepted variant, so why is it important to know other variations?

 

Avoid Confusion

The main reason why it is required to learn about other variants is to avoid confusion. In this modern age, you would frequently see contents that use other variants. It is natural to be confused and judge the creator if you don’t know about the spelling differences. Reading books and articles from other countries might be troublesome. So, having a clear idea about the spelling variations is necessary.

 

For Appropriate Writing

If you are writing your statement of purpose for a British university, it is convenient that you will use British English. Similarly, if the majority of your readers are American, you should use American English to make your blogs reach more people. Knowing and using the variant appropriate for a particular region is kind of a norm. It also makes you be treated better by the natives.

 

Mixing Up Spelling Variants

If you are not familiar with the variations, you might mix the variants in your writing which is not tolerated anywhere. You need to have profound knowledge about the rules and patterns in each variant before using them. If you are writing about your ‘Enrollment’ in a course, you have declared that you are using American English; therefore, the course can never be your ‘Favourite’.

 

Why Spell Checkers Aren’t Reliable

Spelling variants are one of the main reasons why spell checkers are not always effective. Some spell checkers have options to choose which variant you want to choose but most of them follow only one.

 

Proofreading

If you want to build a career in proofreading, it is mandatory for you not just know about the spelling variants but to master them. You also need to know about grammar variations, vocabulary differences etc.

Do you want to learn vocabulary acquisition strategies? Check out this blog now!

 

How Many Spelling Variants Are in English?

So, do we need to know about all the spelling variants across the world? And can I make my own spelling variation? Sounds tempting, but no, we can’t. The variations that are accepted globally originated from English-Speaking countries other than the UK. And while other non-English-speaking countries can accept all the spelling variants, one English-speaking country might not be so tolerant towards the variations of another country.

There are mainly two spelling variants accepted globally- American and British English. British English is obviously the most widespread and accepted variant, but the popularity of American English cannot be ignored. One of the main reasons American English Spelling being so popular is that it often omits unnecessary letters from words such as ‘Neighbor’ (British: Neighbour), Catalog (British: Catalogue) etc.

There are also Australian and Canadian variants, but they are only a few and not widespread either. Below are some examples of spelling differences in British, American, Canadian and Australian English:

British	American	Canadian	Australian
Centre	Center	Centre	Centre
Analyse	Analyze	– Analyze	Analyze
Defence	Defense	Defence	Defence
Travelling	Traveling	Travelling	Travelling
Programme	Program	Program	Program
Ageing	Aging	Ageing	Ageing
Grey	Gray	Grey	Grey

 

As you can see from the words above, Canadian and Australian English use both American and British English for spelling. So, in this article, we will mainly focus on British and American spellings.

 

Spelling Variations Examples

Spelling differences between American and British English can be categorized in different sectors. In this article, we would talk about:

• Adding letters
• Removing letters
• Changing letters
• Changing places of letters in a word etc.
• Multiple spelling of a word in one variant

 

Removing Letters

The main difference between the two spelling variants is that American English often omits silent letters. This way, it is easy to remember the spelling.

Do you want to know an interesting fact? British Spelling is mostly close to French Spelling. So, if you are a French ESL student, it would be easier for you to learn the British variant.

Here are some examples for you to understand better:

Change	British	American
-our to -or	Behaviour, Colour, Favour, Neighbour	Behavior, Color, Favor, Neighbor
-ll to -l	Travelling	Traveling
-gue to -g	Analogue, Catalogue, Dialogue	Analog, Catalog, Dialog
-ae to -e	Aesthetic, Archaeology	Esthetic, Archeology
-lle to -l	Jewellery	Jewelry
-mme to -m	Programme	Program

 

Adding Letters

In some spelling, American English adds a word. For example:

Change	American	British
-l to -ll	Enrollment, Fulfill	Enrolment, Fulfil
-p to -pp	Worshipped	Worshiped
Adding an e	Acknowledgement	Acknowledgement

 

Changing Letters

Instead of reducing or adding letters, some letters are replaced with another one. For example:

Change	British	American
-ce to -se	Defence, Offence	Defense, Offense
-se to -ze	Categorise, Realise	Categorize, Realize
-sa to -za	Personalisation, Realisation	Personalization, Realization
-ey to -ay	Grey	Gray
-lt to -led	Learnt, Spelt	Learned, Spelled

 

Changing The Place of Letters

In the American spelling rule, -re is often replaced with -er. For example,

British	American
Centre	Center
Sombre	Somber
Litre	Liter
Fibre	Fiber
Theatre	Theater

 

Multiple Spelling of a Word

In British English, there are multiple spellings of a word depending on the usage of the word (Noun, Verb) while American English has only one. This is important to remember the variation while using them in a sentence. Below are some examples of such words:

British	Distinction	American
Licence	Noun	License
License	Verb
Practice	Noun	Practice
Practise	Verb
Check	Verb	Check
Cheque	Noun

 

However, some words have different spellings in both spelling variants such as Advice (Noun) and Advise (Verb).

There are also other words that are spelled differently in each variant such as:

• Barbeque- Barbecue
• Disc- Disk
• Whiskey- Whisky etc.

Learning about spelling variants can be a good addition to your spelling club activities. Learn more about other activities now!

 

How To Teach Spelling Variants in The Classroom?

Rather than in kindergarten, spelling variants should be taught to advanced level students, possibly in high school. Beginners might find them confusing and that will hamper the learning process. As these variations would matter greatly in higher studies or in professional life, high school students should have great knowledge about this.

Introducing the variants is a sensitive issue; therefore, teachers should be careful while teaching it. Here are some tips:

• Encourage the students to read articles or chapters in novels that include the alternate spellings. Seeing them for the first time might make the students uncomfortable and curious and that would be your cue to introduce the spelling variants.
• Teach them about the necessities of knowing the spelling variations so that they become serious.
• Give them a list of words that has multiple spellings. This way, they will have a clear idea about which words to look out for.

 

If you are looking for some spelling words lists with American Spelling for practice, check out SpellQuiz Printable Word lists that are divided into grades and there are multiple lists for each grade. SpellQuiz uses American English Spelling for all the tests, exercises, and other contents. You can print them to use in your class or hang them on your wall to always keep them near hand. There are separate lists for Spelling Bee Competition for intense practice.

You can also practice your spelling in SpellQuiz Spelling Practice to see your progress before taking any test. This will help you improve quicker and boost your confidence.

Happy Spelling!

How to make spelling lessons more effective and interesting?

How can we ensure the words are being learned properly?

And how does Spelling Zappers help us in this field?

Spelling is an essential part of language learning, especially for beginner level students. They are naturally curious about everything and as a teacher, it is crucial to keep the curiosity alive. That is why teachers often look for interactive and effective methods to teach spelling. Spelling Zappers is one such method that has been proven to be one of the most effective ways for teaching spelling.

In this article, we will discuss-

• What Spelling Zapper is and how it works
• Effectiveness of the method
• Scope of improvements etc.

So, let’s get started!

 

What is Spelling Zappers?

Spelling Zappers is a method of teaching spelling that involves competitiveness and rewarding. It is created by educationalist Anne Yeadon, an advisory teacher with profound experience in teacher training. She has qualifications on dyslexia and experimented on several sectors of the curriculum that are considered ‘boring’ yet crucial such as spelling, phonics, times tables etc. Her invention, the zapping method has been proven effective in many schools already and helpful to students with learning difficulties.

 

How Does It Work?

In simple words, a Spelling Zapper is a grid containing spelling words for your child to master. Usually, there are 9 grids. For example, consider this grid of 4^th grade Spelling words (word source: SpellQuiz 4^th Grade Spelling Words List 1)

Friends	Pineapple	Speed
Fountain	Hammer	Jewel
Compass	Salute	Subject

 

You can customize the words according to your child’s need and they may take as much time as they want to master these words.

After successfully spelling a word for the first time, a ‘Z’ would be put in the top left corner of the grid.

Then, after spelling it correctly for the 2^nd time, another ‘Z’ would be put in the top right corner.

After spelling the word 2 more times, 2 more ‘Z’ would be added in the corners. This means the student has mastered the spelling. So, a big ‘Z’ would be drawn across the grid. It is called Zapping. After getting the big ‘Z’, the student can say they have ‘zapped’ the word.

An Important thing to remember: This is a daily activity. So, only one ‘Z’ can be put on the grid in a day. They should practice daily to have all the ‘Z’ on the grid.

After each grid is zapped, a golden ‘Z’ is put across the whole zapper.

After zapping the whole grid, the student will be given another set of spelling words.

 

How Effective Is the Method?

The method has been experimented with in several schools that were looking for a new and effective way to teach spelling. The experiment was done on almost 160 students from Y3 and Y6. The trial period was five months. The result was quite promising.

On average, the Y3 students advanced a year over the trial period and the Y6 students were able to advance two years. They showed more enthusiasm about spelling which resulted in advancing in such speed. As a side experiment, Y6 students were told to teach the Y3 students about zappers which showed splendid student involvement.

Spelling Zappers mainly motivates students to master the words as quickly as possible by rewarding them at the end. Students give extra effort to earn the stickers and certificates. Even students with learning difficulties try their best to speed up their progress which is why this method works impressively for dyslexic students.

However, you can’t learn about spelling variations here. 

What Is in The Resource Pack?

The resource pack costs £22.50 (Now available at £20.00 for a limited time) and can be bought on the Spelling Zappers Website. The pack is in an electronic format that includes printable contents to use in the classroom. It is delivered immediately to the buyer after payment via email.

The resource pack includes-

• Full Instruction Manual including step guidance and tips
• PowerPoint Presentation to train the staff
• Zapper sets. The sets have different themes and are available in both colors and Black and white outlines.
  Themes include wizard, unicorn, space, robot, jungle, dinosaur, frog, super frog, dolphin, footballer, and skateboarder
• Blank Zapper to personalize
• Zappers for staff training- available with words and blank
• Colored spelling strategies poster. The resource pack utilizes 4 strategies:
  • S- Syllables
  • S.- Silly Sentences
  • I. S.- Say It Silly
  • W. W.- Words Within Words
• Certificates
  • Rank: Gold, Silver and Bronze
  • Color: Color, Black and White
  • Size: A4, A5 and A6
  • Spelling Zappers Grid
  • Spelling Record Mat
  • Printable Sticker Sets
    • Size: 297mm x 210mm

 

Spelling Zappers Templates

As the grids are customizable, you can make your own spelling zappers to use in the classroom. But you also need to make sure that the words used in the grids are suitable for the level of your student. Here are some Spelling Zappers Templates to help you get an idea:

Spelling Zappers For Grade 3:

Price	Electric	Country
Destroy	Mirror	Stored
Glare	Firm	Party

 

Spelling Zappers for Grade 4:

Public	Extend	Deposit
Bargain	Courage	Neutral
Since	Language	Puzzle

 

Spelling Zappers for Grade 5:

Layer	Desert	Suppose
Frequent	Artifact	Passive
Golden	Laughter	Situation

 

Spelling Zappers for Grade 6:

Correct	Employee	Potatoes
Fossil	Gesture	Concern
Entire	Distributed	Private

 

This method can be used for students at higher grades also, even for adults and ESL students. You can find more words in the SpellQuiz Word List. The spelling words are divided by grades, so you don’t have to worry about the level of your students. There are multiple lists of spelling words for each grade that can be used throughout the years.

 

Scope of Improvement

Spelling Strategies

One thing is evident that the method is mainly popular for the zapping technique. Though the resource pack contains guidance on 4 spelling strategies, they are effective on a basic level and advanced level students might need more in-depth learning. Multi-sensory approaches are encouraged but there is no specific instruction about it.

Spelling Zappers mainly depends on the techniques teachers apply in their classrooms to teach spelling. It might be a good indicator of how effective your spelling strategy is, but it cannot be considered a complete spelling program on its own. Teachers still need to research which spelling strategies will be appropriate for the students.

Interested in new spelling strategies? Check out SpellQuiz Spelling Blogs to find out about fun, interactive, and interesting spelling activities to include in your spelling lessons.

Also, think about spelling mnemonics — Spelling Zappers don’t teach or talk about examples of spelling mnemonics. 

 

Subscription Pack

There is only one Spelling Zapper Resource Pack available which is designed for use in school. The whole package is in an electronic format that can be printed later to distribute among the students.

Clients are naturally more driven to sites that offer multiple package options designed for different types of customers. It also enables different pricing options so that the customer can choose a pack best suited for them.

 

No Freemium Features

Products such as spelling packages should not be bought just by reading reviews. As a responsible teacher or a parent, you need to ensure that these products will be able to fulfill your child’s needs which is why freemium features are a must.

A customer should be able to understand what the product is offering before deciding to buy. Allowing access to resources for a limited time or offering sample products helps the customers be interested in the products. It also improves trustworthiness and reliability.

 

Spelling Zappers vs SpellQuiz

Spelling Tests

SpellQuiz Spelling Test is an online test to evaluate the spelling skill of a student. The student will listen to a sentence and need to write the whole sentence correctly. This improves their phonic skill and pronunciation along with their spelling skill.

The tests are divided into grades and available for adults. The audio clips are recorded by professional artists so that the students don’t face any difficulty understanding the sound.

 

Spelling Bee Online

SpellQuiz hosts a Spelling Bee Online Competition where students around the world compete against each other. Your child can present themselves in front of the world which will boost their confidence and motivate them to be more serious about learning spelling.

 

Certification

Like Spelling Zappers, SpellQuiz also offers certifications for students. There are ranks for daily, weekly, monthly, and all-time top spellers. There is also a dashboard for each student that shows how many words they have mastered over a period. This way, the student can monitor their progress with more clarity.

 

Multiple Subscription Packages Including 14 Days Trial Period

SpellQuiz offers multiple subscription packages designed for both parents and teachers. The packages for parents are specially designed to be used at home. The packages available for teachers also varies depending on the number of students. There is also an option to add students later in a subscription.

The subscription is offered on a monthly and yearly basis, but you don’t need to decide which one to buy right away. SpellQuiz offers 14 days trial period for every customer where they can explore all the features SpellQuiz has to offer. You can also monitor your child’s or student’s progress through the dashboard for 14 days and decide if this is working for them or not.

You can learn more about the pricing at SpellQuiz Subscription Packages.

 

And this is not all. It offers Adaptive Learning that enables students to advance at their own pace without pressurizing them. This way, students with dyslexia and other learning difficulties can improve their skills without being overwhelmed.

As you can see, SpellQuiz has a lot of features that involve multi-sensory learning and evaluation. It is more promising than most other spelling programs available on the market. Why don’t you give it a try?

People often wonder if spelling practice is necessary for high school students. Isn’t spelling lessons only needed for primary school students? Aren’t high school students familiar with all the spelling rules and patterns? Then what is the use of high school spelling lessons?

Spelling practices are necessary throughout our lives, even after graduating from school. University students and people in the professional fields also practice spelling for several reasons.

For those who have looking for a link to Grade Spelling Words and Spelling Bee Words in grade 10-12, you have come to the right place. In this article, we will discuss the necessity of spelling lessons and practices for students of grades 10 to 12 and provide tips and suggestions for students and teachers.

 

Why Is Spelling Important at The High School Level?

First thing first- why is high school spelling practice required? It is a common misconception that only beginner level students should be taught spelling. Obviously, students also think so which is why as a teacher, you need to teach your students first about the necessity of these lessons; otherwise, they will never actually be serious about this.

 

For Better Writing

Almost 85% of English words can be mastered with phonetic spelling, but the remaining 15% of words need other methods. It is a major concern for high school students to clearly express their thoughts, ideas, and arguments in their writing which often involve having a wide vocabulary range.

But just knowing words isn’t enough; one needs to be able to correctly spell those words and use them properly in their essays. That is why spelling lessons should still be included in the high school curriculum.

 

Spelling Mistakes Can Cost You a Job

Sounds absurd, doesn’t it? But it’s true. Resume and cover letters are your first impression on the employer and spelling mistakes in them, no matter how small, can greatly damage that impression.

Many recruiting officers have stated that spelling mistakes in an official document mean that the person is not serious about responsibilities. If they are unable to write a simple letter without mistakes, how can they be trusted with complex situations?

Building an impressive resume is a must for high school students to get admitted into a prestigious university, receive a scholarship, land an internship or apprenticeship, etc.

They also need to write their letter of motivation to clearly state their future and explain why the authority should consider them as a worthy candidate. Spelling mistakes in such a crucial state will not be tolerated; therefore, the high school spelling curriculum should be taken seriously.

Spelling variations can be quite confusing at times too. Check these spelling variations examples to sharpen your spelling skills. 

 

It Affects Our Ability to Communicate

Exactly how much of our communication is verbal nowadays?

Due to the text messaging services, emails and social media posts, a great portion of our communication is non-verbal. Though the ‘SMS language’ is trendy and easier to use, they are only appropriate in informal situations.

When you are communicating with an organization or someone in a different country, proper language must be used. Spelling mistakes in these situations can often lead to great danger.

For example, if you sent a foreigner some instructions about a machine or medicine, or gave the university the wrong address, the consequences can affect both parties.

Also, the issue with spelling mistakes in the job sector also applies here. Brochures, articles or a post published on social media won’t be trusted by the clients if they have spelling mistakes in them.

 

Spell Checkers Aren’t Always Trustworthy

There is a common joke about misspelling- “Have you ever misspelled a word so badly that even spell checkers couldn’t fix it?”

Spell checkers might find out misspelled words but not the use of inappropriate words. Those who do, often suggest removing “unnecessary words” such as ‘actually’, ‘pretty’ etc. which are in fact needed to better express the statement.

There are also issues with American English and British English that create unnecessary confusion. I have been corrected several times for writing ‘colour’, ‘behaviour’ or ‘neighbours’ by spell checkers available on the internet. It was not possible to select English (United Kingdom) in most of them.

Spelling lessons often include the usage of correct words and grammar rules which enable students to understand which word to use on their own. The biggest advantage of it, in my opinion, is that it saves time and effort.

It is easier to be able to detect the mistakes or know enough to not make the mistakes than writing whatever I want and running the whole essay in spell-checking software which is evidently not very reliable.

 

How To Design Effective High School Spelling Lessons?

Giving Age-Appropriate Curriculum

Spelling words, rules or patterns taught in high school will obviously be more complex than lower grades but, as there are 4 grades in high school, the curriculum should also divide the complexity level accordingly.

High school spelling lessons should involve words that don’t follow traditional spelling rules or are commonly misspelled.

It is also time to incorporate words from science, commerce, humanities, and arts fields. While teaching a new word, the teacher should consider its applications in the students’ future.

Here’s a fun way to learn spelling — Spelling Zappers. Check out our review on Spelling Zappers before trying the Spelling Zappers template. 

Here are some words that high school students should know:

 

Absolve	Altruistic	Ambient	Antipathy	Archetype
Baccalaureate	Balsamic	Baroque	Brachial	Blasphemy
Camouflage	Canoeing	Carbohydrate	Cathartic	Conscientious
Decentralization	Delirious	Dichotomy	Dissemblance	Dromedary
Eloquence	Entourage	Equilibrium	Euthanasia	Evidentiary
Fatigue	Feasible	Flamboyant	Fluorescent	Frivolous
Genial	Geographical	Globalization	Gregariously	Grievance
Hallucination	Hierarchy	Homogeneous	Humiliate	Hypothetical
Illumination	Incandescence	Indigenous	Inheritance	Isotopes
Jaundiced	Jurisdiction	Juvenile	Kaleidoscope	Knowledgeable
Lethargic	Leviticus	Logarithm	Longitude	Luminous
Massacre	Meningitis	Metaphorical	Miniscule	Mythologies
Nautical	Nepotism	Neurology	Notoriety	Numerical
Obdurate	Obstetrician	Opaque	Outrageous	Ozonosphere
Palatable	Pasteurization	Patronizing	Phenomena	Philanthropist
Quarantine	Quarrelsome	Quasi	Questionable	Questionnaire
Referendum	Regime	Reservoir	Rhododendron	Rigorous
Sanguine	Scrumptious	Scrutinize	Shenanigans	Shrewd
Temperamental	Theological	Thesaurus	Threatening	Tyranny
Ultraviolet	Unanimously	Unconscious	Undermine	Utility
Vacillate	Vendetta	Ventriloquists	Vigorous	Volatile
Wharf	Whimsical	Whirlpool	Wholeheartedly	Whortleberry
Xenophobia	Xerophilous	Yearningly	Yielding	Yodeler
Zestfully	Zillion	Zirconia	Zucchini	Zygosis

 

You can find more words from SpellQuiz Printable Sight Word Lists where the word lists are divided into grades so that you won’t have to worry about complexity level. Check out the links below for spelling words lists:

• High school spelling words list for grade 10
• High school spelling words list for grade 11
• High school spelling words list for grade 12

There are multiple lists for each grade so that you run out of words to include in the spelling lessons. There are two types of word lists available on SpellQuiz-

• Spelling words lists
• Spelling bee words lists

This Spelling bee words lists are specially designed for spelling bee competitions so they will be of great help to the students that are preparing for such competitions. You can also use them in your spelling lessons.

 

Incorporating Spelling Words

As lots of words taught at this level are used as official terms in physics, chemistry, biology, music, geography, history, and many other fields, it is easy to incorporate spelling lessons into other subjects.

This way, students won’t need to put extra effort into learning spelling as the words will often come up in their everyday studies.

If you are a high-school student trying to master the spelling words, here are a few tips for you:

• Always learn the definition and root of the words.
• Highlight the words in your books.
• Keep a separate notebook for unfamiliar words. Write down the definition of the word in the notebook for better understanding.

It won’t be appropriate to ask a high school student to spell a word loudly in each class. If you are a teacher, you should include these activities in your lesson plan instead:

• Give them topics to write about and encourage them to use the words in their writing.
• Arrange debates and tell them to use the words in their arguments.
• Spelling games are mostly associated with younger students, but games like spelling bee competitions, scrabbles can be played with students of all ages. You can divide the students into groups and arrange a competition within the class.

 

Involving Traditional Ways

High-school students spend a good amount of time building their vocabulary as they sit for important exams such as SAT, ACT, GCSE etc. So, using traditional methods of teaching spelling is more fruitful for students at this stage than younger ones.

You can give them a word list, ask them to look up words in the dictionary and get a good output without hampering their interest which was not possible at previous stages. You should emphasize more on writing and reading spelling words to prepare them for the exams.

 

Regular Evaluations

At any grade, regular class tests or evaluating one’s spelling skill hardly has any other alternatives.

Traditional exams are indeed a good strategy to evaluate the spelling skills of the students, but you can try other methods too such as giving them assignments or taking online tests. SpellQuiz Spelling Tests can be of great help in this case.

Just like the words lists mentioned above, spelling tests are also divided into grades from 1 to 12 and available for adults. You can also check the vocabulary range of your students using the SpellQuiz Vocabulary Test. The test determines the level of one’s skill and suggests ways to improve it further.

Now that you can realize the importance of high school spelling lessons, try to design them with care as the focus of the course should not only be preparing the students for the exams but also helping them in their future ventures.

Happy Spelling!

Do you know why wizards and witches always do well in English class? Because they are good at ‘Spelling’! And why kittens are always punished? Because they are copycats! Spelling jokes like these are often used among friends or colleagues to lighten the mood. But do you know these can also be used to teach spelling?

Whether in the classroom to make boring lessons a bit more bearable, or at home, funny spelling jokes always come handy if you are trying to teach the kids correct spelling without putting much pressure on them.

In this article, we are going to explore various types of spelling jokes, riddles, wordplays, puns, and brain teasers that are often used by teachers and parents to teach spelling.

 

What Are Spelling Jokes?

Spelling jokes or wordplays are fun literary devices where someone utilizes the word, its definition, spelling, sound etc. for the sake of amusement. Consider the examples above- magic spells and word spelling are completely different things yet can be connected because of the word ‘spell’ having multiple meanings.

These puns often represent the verbal wit and cleverness of the person making the jokes. Authors often use these devices and other literary techniques in their works to keep the readers glued to the book. The readers find these puns and riddles challenging their intellect and pays more attention to the details. Teachers use them in class for the same reason.

 

How Does Spelling Jokes Help with Spelling?

Spelling jokes can do magic to your ‘spelling skill’ (pun intended). They add humor to the learning process and keep the students hooked to learning. It doesn’t only teach correct spelling; it motivates students to become active learners and understand the word properly. To make a successful riddle or pun, a student needs to reflect on word parts, word sounds, meaning, roots, relativity etc. that uses different types of memory and ensures successful memorization of the word.

Spelling jokes are comparatively more beneficial for dyslexic students rather than the traditional memorizing word list. The riddles require the listener to imagine different scenarios and then connect them via words. For example,

Why is dark spelled with K not C? Because you can’t see in the darkness!

For a student struggling with the use of K and C, this reason is tremendously helpful. They don’t need to memorize the spelling, just use their common sense. Just like this, spelling jokes develop their logical senses along with their spelling skills.

Also, you can teach different alternate spellings of words that are common in different countries. 

 

Spelling Jokes in The Classroom

Using spelling jokes in the classroom doesn’t need to be always planned. Whenever you feel that your students are getting bored and distracted, just use one or two jokes, and see how they are immediately charged up. You can find plenty of spelling jokes on the internet but be aware that many websites contain spelling jokes for adults that better stay away from the classroom. Think about using this joke in a class full of 5 years old kids:

“Those who frequently post on social media can best understand the importance of correct spelling. You just mix up two letters and suddenly your whole post is ruined!”

Or

“If you think no one cares about what you do, post something with spelling mistakes on it”

You can still learn a few to use in your next hangout with friends though.

One big advantage of spelling jokes riddles is that they can not only be used to teach spelling but to evaluate a student’s spelling skill. Consider the example below:

How do you turn a beagle into a bird?
Answer: Remove the B.

This joke can be taught to the student who is struggling with spelling the word, or you can ask a student to see if they found out the hidden eagle in the word.

Read More: Mnemonics for Spelling High Frequency Words

 

List of Spelling Jokes

Here are some spelling jokes you can use in the classroom:

• What begins with T ends with T and has T in it?
  A: Teapot
• What is at the end of the world?
  A: Letter D
• What is at the end of the rainbow?
  A: Letter W
• Which word uses all the vowels in the English alphabet?
  A: Unquestionably
• Which is the longest word in English?
  A: Smiles (because it has a ‘mile’ between the first and the last letter)
• Which word becomes shorter if you add extra letters at the end?
  A: Short
• Which English word has 3 consecutive double words?
  A: Bookkeeper
• Where can you locate an eye?
  A: between H and J
• How do you make seven even?
  A: Remove the S
• Can you spell jealousy with just two letters?
  A: NV (Envy- indicate the positions of those letters in the word)
• Can you spell composition with two letters?
  A: SA (Essay)
• How do you spell opponent with three letters?
  A: NME (Enemy)
• How do you spell cold with two words?
  A: IC (Icy)
• How do you spell a mousetrap?
  A: C-A-T
• Which cheese is made backwards?
  A: Edam
• What is the color of the wind?
  A: Blew

Read More: Find the link to Grade Spelling Words and Spelling Bee Words in grade 10-12 now!

 

Spelling Jokes Using Homophones

Spelling jokes using homophones are immensely useful to understand the meaning of the word so make sure to include them in your lesson. Below are some examples:

• Which instrument do we all have inside our body?
  A: Organs
• Which vegetable should you eat to become a good musician?
  A: The beet
• What did the bee say to another bee?
  A: Just Bee yourself
• What fruit grows on the power line?
  A: Currants
• Which fruit is the favorite of the history professor?
  A: Dates
• Which one is the most educated animal?
  A: Fish, because it travels in schools (This joke is helpful for improving vocabulary, especially for ESL learners)
• Which letter in the English alphabet has the most water?
  A: Letter C
• Which two words, when put together, has the most letters?
  A: Post office

The best way to make use of spelling jokes is to encourage the students to make their own jokes. Make puns in the classroom and ask them if they can make a similar spelling joke with a similar word or any of the words you are teaching that day. Tell them to look at the prefix, suffix, spelling etc. carefully. When they successfully make one, don’t forget to praise them for their effort.

Students might dig into more complex words to show off their skills. I have no objection against it, but to get the true essence of these wordplays, you should teach them how to use familiar words cleverly. Sight words are often a great source of spelling jokes as they have frequent usage, therefore can be used in different ways. You use the SpellQuiz Printable Sight Word Lists that are divided into grades and are available for adults too.

 

Spelling Jokes and Pranks

These types of brain teasers are more suitable for advanced level students. Check the examples below:

• What are Santa’s elves called?
  A: Subordinate clause (Grammar jokes come in handy too)
• The past, present and future went to a bar. It was pretty tense.
• What ten letter word starts with g-a-s?
  A: Automobile
• A: Name two pronouns.
  B: Who, me?
• A: Are you smart?
  B: Yes, I am
  A: Then spell it.
  B: S-M-A-R-T
  A: No, I said spell ‘it’
  With this prank, they will memorize both ‘smart’ and ‘it’.
• Ask your students which of the following is correct- ‘Egg yolks IS white’ or ‘Egg yolks ARE white’. Chances are they will argue over ‘is’ and ‘are’ forgetting the main part- it is never white!
• Name three consecutive days but you cannot name any of the seven days of the week.
  A: Yesterday, today, tomorrow.
• What word is always spelled wrong?
  A: Wrong (W-R-O-N-G)

 

Searching for words in another word is a clever strategy to master spelling effortlessly. And there are lots of spelling pranks utilizing it. You can use these pranks to teach your students about spelling and pronunciation.

Here are some spelling pranks for you to get started:

• How do you spell yes? Then how do you pronounce E-Y-E-S?
• How do you spell dying? Then how do you pronounce S-T-U-D-Y-I-N-G?
• How do you spell laughter? Then how do you pronounce S-L-A-U-G-H-T-E-R?
• How do you spell ice? How do you spell just? Then how do you pronounce J-U-S-T-I-C-E?

Below are some words you can use to make these riddles. You can also use compound words.

Other- Bother, Brother, Another

Mage- Image

Rush- Brush, Crush

Raft- Craft

Over- Lover

 

Final Thoughts

Remembering spelling in such a funny way guarantees that the words are permanently memorized. Just remember the puns while taking a spelling test. You can check how efficient these spelling jokes are for you by taking the SpellQuiz Spelling Test online.

Find the test suitable for your grade and hear the sentence carefully. There are also vocabulary tests and other quizzes to evaluate different areas of your language skill.

You can also join the SpellQuiz Spelling Bee Online Competition where you will be competing against students around the world. There are also scoreboards and badges for daily, weekly, and monthly top spellers and top spellers of all time. Join today to show off your skill.

 

Lastly,

I am cracked, I can be made

I am told but I can be played

What am I?

A joke!

Happy spelling!