How to Improve Spelling Mistakes in English With Simple Tips and Tricks | EnglishBhashi

Spelling in English can be a challenging aspect of language learning, even for native speakers. The irregularities, exceptions, and complexities of English spelling make it difficult to master. Learning to improve spelling mistakes in English is crucial.

However, with the right techniques and consistent practice, anyone can improve their spelling skills. This blog will provide a comprehensive guide on simple tips and tricks to enhance your spelling ability, making you more confident in your writing and communication.

How to Improve Spelling Mistakes in English?

Here are some simple steps you can take to improve spelling mistakes in English. 

• Make a list of all the words whose spelling you need to remember or with which you are struggling. Becoming a “spell-a-thoner” can be as easy as following the 3-columns tutorial. Jot down every word you wish to learn in the “first” column.

You can write the same phrases as many as you want in the “second” column—without looking at them—because

Once you’ve recalled and spelled all of the words properly, put them in the “third” column—the one where you’ll actually be tested. Finally, you’ll be able to observe your progress in this “feel good” column. 

• Use a three-column dictionary to choose new terms to learn and write them down.

• A thirst for knowledge isn’t fatal; rather, it builds strength by propelling you to acquire new vocabulary on a daily basis.

Use mnemonics

Recalling details could be challenging. However, memorization becomes easier when you assign greater significance to that information. Mnemonic devices make information simpler to recall by transforming it into an image, a statement, a rhyme, or anything else that sticks in people’s minds.

If you’re having trouble remembering specific spellings, try using one of these three mnemonic devices:

• Songs and rhymes help people recall new vocabulary and facts. “I before e except after c or when sounding like an as in neighbor and weigh.” is one of the most famous spelling rhymes.   
• Remember to write “ie” and “ei” at the appropriate times according to this rhyme. Another rhyming song on spelling is available to listen to on Between the Lions. Another option is to create your own!
• The initials of many words are combined to form an acronym. A lot of people already utilize acronyms when writing or chatting online. The acronym “LOL” stands for “Laughing Out Loud,” for instance.   “Be Right Back” is all it means.   

• Making a word out of each letter can help you recall some difficult spellings. Just keep in mind that “Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move” if you want to recall the word “rhythm.”   To help you recall them faster, try making up silly sentences using the tough words.
• The tricky element of spelling a word is explained in several mnemonics using sentences. Are you struggling to spell “island”? Keep in mind that you are on land that is “surrounded by water.”  
• Do you use an e or an in the middle of the word “separate”? “Separate, there’s a rat!”   On ThoughtCo., you can discover further helpful sentences or create your own.

How to Write Correct Spelling in English?

It is essential to master the English spelling system while studying the English language.

You might not give much thought to the significance of proper spelling and writing in English for day-to-day interactions.

But if you believe that writing is solely necessary for education, you would be mistaken.

More people are writing now than in the past.

On Facebook, we are revising our status updates. On Instagram, we’re describing our posts, leaving comments on others’ photographs, and sharing our tales. We are communicating over WhatsApp. We’re reviewing the Amazon products that we purchased.

During our workdays, we compose lengthy emails. Invitations are sent out. We compose reports. And there are a lot of other things that necessitate writing.

That’s the reason why correct spelling is crucial! Being able to spell properly enhances your communication skills. A deeper understanding of word structure and phonetics results from increased spelling knowledge, which in turn improves reading comprehension. With this background, you’ll have no trouble learning new terms and mastering their pronunciation.

Watch out for homophones, near-homophones, and other easily confusable words

There are a lot of English terms that sound the same yet have various spellings. An extremely prevalent spelling mistake that affects all authors is choosing the incorrect word out of a homophone pair. Make it a habit to thoroughly examine your work for these kinds of often misspelled words when proofreading.

accept/except	discreet/discrete	oral/aural
adverse/averse	elude/allude	palette/palate
affect/effect	eminent/imminent	populace/populous
altar/alter	ensure/insure	precede/proceed
boarder/border	elicit/illicit	prescribe/proscribe
broach/brooch	hanger/hangar	principle/principal
callous/callus	illusion/allusion	right/write/rite
casual/causal	incidents/incidence	stationary/stationery
censor/censure	isle/aisle	tenet/tenant
cite/site/sight	its/it’s	there/their/they’re
climactic/climatic	led/lead	tortuous/torturous
compliment/complement	liquor/liqueur	waver/waiver
conscience/conscious	lose/loose	whose/who’s
desert/dessert	naval/navel	your/you’re

Become familiar with English spelling rules

There are actual laws that govern the spelling of English words, despite popular belief to the contrary. By familiarizing yourself with these guidelines, you can steer clear of frequent spelling mistakes. Spelling standards are comprehensive and can be found in many writing manuals and style guides. As an example, here are four of the best. 

Rule 1: I before e except after c, or when sounded like /ay/ as in neighbour or weigh

• If you’re confused about how to improve spelling mistakes in English (with an i before an e) and receive (with an u after a c), this easy rhyme should assist. Typically, the sequence is ie: shield, field, fiend when the long /e/ sound (ee) is written with the letters i and e. Typical outliers are unusual, seizure, and leisure.
• Sleigh, feint, and terrible are examples of words that typically utilize the ei spelling of the letters i and e to represent the long /a/ sound.
• Their, seismic, and alien all use the spelling ei when the sound is neither long /e/ nor long /a/. Friend, sieve, and mischief are a few words that don’t follow this criterion.

Rule 2:  When adding suffixes that begin with a vowel (-able, –ible, –ous, etc.) to words ending in silent e, drop the final e.

• A word like desire has an e, but a term like desirable does not, and this rule explains why. Some more instances are responding to someone’s responsibility, continuing to be continuous, and disputing.
• To keep the unique “soft” sound of consonants like -ce or -ge, we keep the last e in words like notice (pronounced notice), bravery (pronounced courageous), and advantage (pronounced advantageous).
• Words that end with a double e, like pleasing and fleeing, also keep the final e for phonetic reasons.

Rule 3: When adding suffixes to words ending in y, change the y to an i.

• The following word pairings undergo a spelling shift according to this rule: happy → happier, abundant → numerous, and body → bodily.
• The y is kept when the suffix starts with an i, as an i cannot usually follow another i in English spelling: babyish for baby, carry for carrying, and so on.

Rule 4: When adding a suffix, don’t double a word’s final consonant unless one of these situations applies.

• Before the last consonant, there is a single vowel sound: bar → barred. Failure is not transformed into failed because the consonant is not doubled when there is more than one vowel preceding the last consonant. The consonant is not doubled when another consonant comes before the final consonant, as in barking.
• The words fit, commit, and prefer all have one syllable or stress on the last syllable. The last consonant is not doubled in words with more than one syllable that do not have stress on the last syllable, such as benefit → benefitted and offer → offered.
• The suffix “preferred” starts with a vowel sound. As an example, the consonant is not doubled in prefer → preference if the stress on the syllable changes due to the suffix. The same holds true for final consonants: prefer → preferment, as long as the suffix starts with a consonant.
• Consonants that end in l or p are typically doubled in Canadian spelling: worship → worshipped and journey → travelled. You should know that American spelling does not adhere to this norm.

Important Tips on how to Improve Spelling mistakes in English

Put flashcards everywhere

How can I have fun while learning spelling to improve spelling mistakes in English? That’s the subject we tackle in the second part of our list. Making flashcards and posters of the words you misspell the most and displaying them around the house is a fun way to practice. 

Give them a quick review every day or see if you can commit them to memory without looking. To make studying more enjoyable, you might adorn them with drawings or utilize your mnemonic devices.

Take the time to read

Reading in English to improve spelling mistakes in English on a regular basis will help you spell words more accurately. From social media to signage and commercials, we encounter English-language content on a daily basis. That, however, is not enough to become fluent in the language. 

One of the best ways to learn English and memorize spelling is to read books, short stories, or even blog posts written in English. Your spelling and vocabulary will surely benefit from regular reading.

Take spelling tests and crossword puzzles

One of the best ways to challenge your brain and improve your spelling is to play puzzles and crosswords. A wide variety of spelling quizzes are available, such as:

• crossword puzzles, in which you use clues to fill in horizontal and vertical boxes with words;
• word searches (in which players attempt to uncover hidden words horizontally, vertically, and diagonally in a table of letters), codewords (which are essentially crosswords with additional digits), and online spelling tests.

Play word games

Playing with others can take your learning experience to the next level if you’re the kind of person who enjoys being among pals. Playing games like Hangman or organizing friend-based spelling bees are great ways to work on your vocabulary’s spelling. 

Of course, if you’re feeling really competitive, there’s always the classic game of Scrabble, where you’ll have to work a little harder to come up with the winning word.

Watch TV with subtitles

Finally, why not make something you already enjoy doing into a way to learn something new without actively doing it? Subtitles in movies are like music and podcasts: they aid with listening and spelling. 

Whether you’re viewing an English-language film or TV show or a program in your native language, it’s a good idea to enable English subtitles. The fact that you won’t have to concentrate as intently on the spoken word and may instead go over the written word makes this an even more attractive option.

Some Commonly Misspelled Words

accelerate	fiery	pastime
accessible	fluorescent	pejorative
accessory	fluoride	penultimate
accommodate	foresee	perennial
acknowledge	fulfill / fulfil	perseverance
acquaint	government	persuade
acquire	grammar	phenomenon
across	grievous	pneumonia
aficionado	guarantee	Portuguese
aggressive	handiwork	preeminent
amphitheatre	handkerchief	prerogative
anecdote	harass	privilege
anomaly	heinous	pronunciation
apparent	hemorrhage	proverbial
arctic	hygiene	pursue
asphalt	hypocrisy	quandary
auxiliary	idiosyncrasy	receive
bachelor	indispensable	remuneration
berserk	inedible	rendezvous
besiege	innocuous	renowned
bizarre	inoculate	repertoire
manoeuvre/maneuver	intercede	restaurateur
caffeine	invigorate	rhyme
camaraderie	iridescent	rhythm
Caribbean	irresistible	sacrilegious
category	laboratory	seize
collaborate	leisure	seizure
committee	liaison	separate
concede	fulfill/fulfil	sergeant
consensus	mayonnaise	silhouette
corollary	medieval	smorgasbord
curriculum	Mediterranean	solely
deceive	memento	soliloquy
de rigueur	millennium	sophomore
desiccate	minuscule	subtle
dilapidated	miscellaneous	supersede
diphtheria	mischievous	susceptible
diphthong	misspell	synonymous
dissension	non sequitur	tariff
duly	noticeable	tenterhook
dysfunction	nuptial	threshold
ecstasy	occasion	tortuous
embarrass	occurrence	tragedy
exaggerate	offered	Ukrainian
excerpt	ophthalmology	vaccinate
exhilarate	pageant	vacillate
experiential	parallel	vague
February	parliament	weird

Using a Dictionary

In the past, using an English dictionary was the standard method for checking spelling.

You may find more words to use and learn where words come from by looking them up in dictionaries. They also provide intriguing usage histories and alternative words.  Some individuals may find this enjoyable!

An alphabetical list of all the words found in a dictionary. Finding the first letter of a word allows you to continue searching for words that start with that letter and the following letter, and so on. If you’re not sure about the spelling, it can take a few tries until you get it correctly.

For Example:

• Words beginning with the letter d should be your first stop when searching for the right spelling of a word in a dictionary. Finding this part was the first step; the next was to search for terms that began with the letter di. 
• Searching for words that begin with the letter dic should be your next move. Repeat this process for every letter of the word until you get the one you’re looking for. It could be useful to keep track of the words you look up in a running list.

5 Tips for working adults to improve spelling mistakes in English

There is nothing wrong with using supportive technology for writing. However, there’s no reason why you can’t work on improving your spelling skills at the same time. Here are some simple and practical exercises that can make a difference when you do them regularly, over an extended period.

Try transcription

When you hear a word and write it at the same time, you are connecting the sounds with the letters that represent them, and this can strengthen your English encoding and decoding skills. An easy way to do this is with a multi-sensory typing program like Touch-type Read and Spell – you’ll additionally learn typing which is a great skill to have for completing longer or timed writing tasks for work or school.

Drill vocabulary

If you work in an industry with a highly specialized vocabulary, many of the words you struggle with are likely low-frequency in general English. This means they’ll be harder to spell because you have less experience with them, particularly if you’re relatively new to your job. 

Create a list of the most difficult words that you encounter and then actively study them. You could use flashcards, make posters to put up around your house, or even create a desktop background so the words are in constant rotation in your field of view. 

The more you see a word, the easier it will be for your brain to call up an image to help with spelling. The Touch-type Read and Spell platform also allows you to add your own vocabulary to create custom typing modules. Typing a word repeatedly can help establish the spelling of specialist words in your long term memory.

Analyze your mistakes

Everyone has words they commonly confuse. Use your smartphone or a notebook to keep a running list of your mistakes to improve spelling mistakes in English, then every so often sit down to copy the correct version next to them. Have a closer look at each word to see which letters you got wrong. 

Get a piece of paper and try to relearn the correct form of the word by writing it multiple times (or typing it). Use a different colored pen when writing the letter or letters you mixed up. This will help you notice the correct spelling and remember it visually. If you struggle with homonyms, try to come up with visual images to tell them apart. 

Test yourself

An easy way to test yourself when it comes to spelling is to fold a piece of paper in half simply. On one side copy the correct form of the words you struggle with, one word per line. Use the other side to cover the words up and then re-write them from memory. You can easily compare the two versions and flag any words that need more attention.

Use imagery, rhymes and chunking

When you have an English word you just can’t seem to master, try developing a mnemonic where you combine imagery and rhymes to help you remember the correct letters and sequence. 

Browse magazines and read

The more you encounter words in their written form, the better because your brain will strengthen its receptive knowledge of them. This makes words easier to produce and spell correctly. Just flipping through a magazine or a newspaper can be effective spelling practice if you’re reading content that contains industry specific language, even better.

Final Thoughts

If you want to become better at something, the only thing you can do is practice. You can also take help from English language apps online.

Particularly when it comes to picking up a new tongue, this is the case. No more second-guessing the placement of the “I” or “e” or the reasoning behind the ‘ch’ in a word that sounds like “yot” when written; following these spelling guidelines will become automatic with practice, perseverance, and dedication. You will become an expert speller in no time if you continue to practice, write, and speak English.

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