Commonly misspelt words · Grade 9
Some words trip up even confident writers because they aren't spelt the way they sound: definitely, separate, necessary, embarrass. The trick is to notice exactly where the difficulty is (a double letter, a silent letter, a hidden vowel) and to have a way of remembering it.
Key facts
- Double letters: accommodate (cc and mm), embarrass (rr and ss), address, tomorrow (one m, double r), necessary (one c, double s).
- Silent letters: knowledge, column, rhythm, guarantee, neighbour.
- Hidden vowels you don't hear clearly: say the word as it is spelt: Feb-ru-ar-y, Wed-nes-day, lib-rar-y, gov-ern-ment, en-vi-ron-ment.
- i before e (believe, achieve), but ei after c (receive, ceiling), and some words just break the rule: weird, height, foreign, leisure.
- Find a smaller word inside: there is a rat in separate, finite in definitely, end in friend, bus in business.
- Prefixes and suffixes keep every letter: dis + appear = disappear, un + necessary = unnecessary, sincere + ly = sincerely. American English spells some words differently (neighbor); both are accepted here.