Spelling Problems in English

Spelling words in English is challenging work. As a matter of fact, many native speakers of English have problems with spelling correctly. One of the main reasons for this is that many, many English words are NOT spelled as they are spoken. This difference between pronunciation and spelling causes a lot of confusion. The combination "ough" provides an excellent example:


Tough - pronounced - tuf (the 'u' sounding as in 'cup')
Through - pronounced - throo
Dough - pronounced - doe (long 'o')
Bought - pronounced - bawt




It's enough to make anyone crazy!!


This feature provides a guide to the most common problems when spelling words in English.


Swallowed Syllables - Three Syllables Pronounced as Two Syllables


Aspirin - pronounced - asprin
Different - pronounced - diffrent
Every - pronounced - evry


Swallowed Syllables - Four Syllables Pronounced as Three Syllables


Comfortable - pronounced - comftable
Temperature - pronounced - temprature
Vegetable - pronounced - vegtable
Homophones - Words That Sound the Same


two, to, too - pronounced - too


knew, new - pronounced - niew
through, threw - pronounced - throo
not, knot, naught - pronounced - not
Same Sounds - Different Spellings


'Eh' as in 'Let'


let
bread
said
'Ai' as in 'I'


I
sigh
buy
either


The following letters are silent when pronounced.


D - sandwich, Wednesday
G - sign, foreign
GH - daughter, light, right
H - why, honest, hour
K - know, knight, knob
L - should, walk, half


P - cupboard, psychology
S - island
T - whistle, listen, fasten
U - guess, guitar
W - who, write, wrong


Unusual Letter Combinations


GH = 'F'


cough, laugh, enough, rough


CH = 'K'


chemistry, headache, Christmas, stomach


EA = 'EH'


breakfast, head, bread, instead


EA = 'EI'


steak, break


EA = 'EE'


weak, streak


OU = 'UH' country, double, enough