Spelling – Teaching Spelling

Spelling – Teaching Spelling – Spelling Word Lists

pipable

obesity

ossify

digit

nagging

cantonment

enculturate

tractile

ciguatera

prosody

minnow

elicitor

cumulus

greffier

spasmolytic

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Ode to Plurals

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,

But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.

One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,

Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,

Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,

Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,

And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,

Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,

Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,

And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,

But though we say mother, we never say methren.

Then the masculine pronouns are he, his, and him,

But imagine the feminine: she, shis, and shim!

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language.

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;

neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins weren’t invented in England .

We take English for granted, but if we explore its

paradoxes,

we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are

square,

and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea, nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing,

grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?

Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one

amend.

If you have a bunch of odds and ends

and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian

eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English

should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play

at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.

We have noses that run and feet that smell.

We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.

And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,

while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language

in which your house can burn up as it burns down,

in which you fill in a form by filling it out,

and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And in closing,

if Father is Pop, how come Mother is not Mop?

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Teaching Spelling – Words frequently mispronounced, or improperly accented

Teaching Spelling – Words frequently mispronounced, or improperly accented.

Lesson 198.

Words frequently mispronounced, or improperly accented.

in’nate       chol’er ic      se’cre to ry
ter’mites     gon’fa lon      dec’re to ry
way’lay       cen’tu ple      ex’ple to ry
slaugh’ter    re’tro cede     con sis’to ry
frag’ile      nu’cle us       pre cep’to ry
car’riage     cen’tau ry      rep’er to ry
thor’ough     co quet’ry      chi rur’ger y
sched’ule     sto mach’ic     sperm a ce’ti
grand’eur     in’ter stice    pan e gyr’ist
hir sute’     ce ram’ic       pan’e gy rize
ben’zine      re volt’ing     mel lif’lu ous

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Teaching Spelling – Words properly accented on the first Syllable

Lesson 187. Words properly accented on the first Syllable. 

con’strue    com’bat ant      pu’is sance
trav’erse    dis’pu tant      in’ter im
ramp’ant     gon’do la        au’top sy
ath’lete     pleth’o ra       tym’pa num
syr’inge     mis’chiev ous    wise’a cre
ex’tant      blas’phe mous    or’ches tral
brig’and     con’ver sant     im’po tent
con’cord     san’he drim      con’gru ent
dis’cord     con’tra ry       im’be cile
do’nate      pro’te an        pha’e ton
ob’long      dis’ci pline     ret’i na

Teaching Spelling – Spelling Words

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Teaching Spelling – Prefixes – FORE PRE ANTI

Affixes – Prefixes
Lesson 160.

Fore adds its own meaning to the word; as foretaste, to taste before; pre is from the Latin prae, before; ante (Latin), before. Anti (Greek), means against or opposite.

fore’sight   fore tell’er      fore bod’ing ly
fore’most    fore knowl’edge   fore de ter’mine
fore know’   fore’cas tle      pre med’i tate
pre fix’     pre cau’tion      pre oc’cu py
pre judge’   pre ced’ing       pre-em’i nent
pre serve’   pre des’tine      an te pas’chal
pre sage’    an’te past        an te mun’dane
pre text’    an’te date        an te nup’tial
fore warn’   an’ti pode        an ti cli’max
fore’front   an’ti dote        an ti feb’rile

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