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How do you spell improve


4 Tools to Help Your Memory

A mnemonic is a tool that helps us remember certain facts or large amounts of information. They can come in the form of a song, rhyme, acronym, image, phrase, or sentence. Mnemonics help us remember facts and are particularly useful when the order of things is important. Below, we’ll explore several examples of mnemonics that’ll help us remember everything from tricky spelling words to U.S. presidents.

mnemonic phrase fourteen hundred ninety-two columbus sailed ocean blue

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Examples of Spelling Mnemonics

Are you a fan of spelling bees? Who doesn’t love a bright blue ribbon hanging proudly by their desk? If you have some tricky words coming up on next week’s spelling bee or spelling test, see if you can come up with any spelling mnemonics. All you have to do is construct a phrase or sentence where the first letter of every word represents the difficult spelling word. Take a look:

  • ARITHMETIC: A rat in the house may eat the ice cream.
  • BECAUSE: Big elephants can always understand small elephants.
  • DOES: Daddy only eats sandwiches.
  • FRIEND: Fred rushed in eating nine doughnuts.
  • GEOGRAPHY: George's elderly old grandfather rode a pig home yesterday.
  • LAUGH: Laughing aunts under green hats
  • NECESSARY: Not every cat eats sardines. Some are really yummy.
  • OUGHT: Only unique goats have this.
  • RHYTHM: Rhythm helps your two hips move.
  • SAID: Snakes and insects dance.
  • TOMORROW: Trails of my old red rose over window.

Some of these words land on our list of the 100 Most Often Misspelled Words and 100 More Often Misspelled Words. For more on this, check out these ways to Improve Your Spelling.

Examples of Order Mnemonics

Often, we need to remember the specific order of things. This can include scientific principles, music-related teachings, mathematical equations, and more. Here’s a great list of mnemonics to demonstrate just how handy they are.

The Order of Taxonomy

In science, species are organized under a number of categories. Think of them like Russian nesting dolls. The order, from largest to most specific, is as follows:

  • kingdom
  • phylum
  • class
  • order
  • family
  • genus
  • species

To help students remember the order of taxonomy, the following sentence is often used:

Kids prefer cheese over fried green spinach.

The first letter of each word in the sentence represents the category. So, “kids” represents “kingdom,” “prefer” represents “phylum,” “cheese” represents “class,” and so on. Let’s look at a few more examples.

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The Order on a Music Staff

When reading music, the notes on the staff (the lines) with a treble clef are: E, G, B, D, F. To help new students of music remember the order of the notes, the following sentence can be memorized:

Every good boy deserves fun.

As for the spaces on the same staff, they read as follows: F, A, C, E. To remember that order, there’s this wonderful mnemonic device:

Furry animals cook excellently.

Next, we have the lines on the staff with a bass clef, as read from the bottom: G, B, D, F, A. For this, musical students often use this line:

Good boys do fine, always.

Order of the Planets

Let’s return to science. Do you know the order of the planets (from closest to furthest from the sun)? They are:

  • Mercury
  • Venus
  • Earth
  • Mars
  • Jupiter
  • Saturn
  • Uranus
  • Neptune
  • Pluto

To help you remember the order, try this:

My very excited mother just served us nine pies.

Since Pluto has been removed from planet status, there’s a new mnemonic device in town that doesn’t include it:

My very educated mother just served us noodles.

Order of Math Operations

Let’s move onto math. When working out equations, there’s an order of operations to follow:

  • parentheses
  • exponents
  • multiplication
  • division
  • addition
  • subtraction

To remember this order, try:

PEMDAS: Please excuse my dear aunt Sally.

The Order of the Great Lakes

Mnemonics are also useful when studying geography. To remember the order of the Great Lakes from west to east, try:

Super Man helps every one.

Technically, “Superman” and “everyone” should be one word each. But, mnemonics enjoy a little bit of wiggle room if the shoe fits. This device will help you remember the order of the lakes:

  • Superior
  • Michigan
  • Huron
  • Erie
  • Ontario

Just don’t forget to put the proper noun “Lake” before each title, as in “Lake Superior,” “Lake Michigan,” and so on.

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The First Eight U.S. Presidents

How about a little history? If you have a quiz coming up on the order of the presidents, you can easily remember the first eight with this sentence:

Will a jolly man make a jolly visitor?

Each letter stands for the last name of each president, in order from the first:

  • George Washington
  • John Quincy Adams
  • Thomas Jefferson
  • James Madison
  • James Monroe
  • John Quincy Adams
  • Andrew Jackson
  • Martin Van Buren

The Articles of the Constitution

The United States Constitution has seven articles, or sections, which detail how the government works. They are:

  • Article I - The Legislative Branch
  • Article II - The Executive Branch
  • Article III - The Judicial Branch
  • Article IV - The States
  • Article V - Amendment
  • Article VI - Debts, Supremacy, Oaths
  • Article VII - Ratification

To remember each article, students often refer to this mnemonic:

Large elephants jump slowly and die rapidly.

The Value of Pi

We saved the best for last. This one’s really fun. Below, you’ll find a sentence containing eight words. Each word stands for the numerals in pi. They are: 3.1415927. How does each word represent each numeral? Well, the number of letters in each word equals each numeral. Here’s the sentence:

May I have a large container of coffee?

You’ll notice that:

  • “May” has three (3) letters.
  • “I” has one (1).
  • “Have” has four (4).
  • “A” has one (1).
  • “Large” has five (5).
  • “Container” has nine (9).
  • “Of” has two (2).
  • And “coffee” plus the question mark has seven (7).

Who said you couldn’t have fun with math?

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Examples of Acronym Mnemonics

Acronyms are short words formed by a series of letters. Typically, they’re the first letter of each word in a phrase. If you think it seems like they’d work hand in hand with mnemonics, you’re right! Take a look at this list of list of mnemonics containing acronyms.

The Spectrum of Colors

The spectrum of colors are as follows:

  • red
  • orange
  • yellow
  • green
  • blue
  • indigo
  • violet

They can be remembered using this acronym:

ROY G. BIV

Essential Amino Acids

The essential amino acids are as follows:

  • Phenylalanine
  • Valine
  • Threonine
  • Tryptophan
  • Isoleucine
  • Methionine
  • Histidine
  • Arginine
  • Leucine
  • Lysine

To remember them, try to recall this fictional fellow:

Pvt. Tim Hall

Pvt. is the abbreviation for “Private,” a class of soldier within the United States military.

Treating a Sprain

If you sprain your ankle (or any other body part), there’s a specific order for treating the injury. It is:

  • Rest the injured area.
  • Ice the sprain.
  • Compress with a wrap or bandage.
  • Elevate the injured area.

When the time comes, don’t panic. Just remember the following mnemonic:

RICE

Coordinating Conjunctions

Have you studied coordinating conjunctions yet? They’re the most popular form of conjunctions. They join ideas together with words like:

  • for
  • and
  • nor
  • but
  • or
  • yet
  • so

To remember these words, think of a crowd of boys at a rock concert, otherwise known as:

FANBOYS

The Great Lakes

Remember the fun we had with the Great Lakes above? Super Man helps every one? Well, if the order doesn’t matter and you just want to remember the names, here’s an acronym for you:

HOMES

You can probably guess the names this time around:

  • Huron
  • Ontario
  • Michigan
  • Erie
  • Superior

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Examples of Rhyme or Poem Mnemonics

Have you ever had a song stuck in your head? Sometimes it’s the melody that sticks; sometimes it’s the lyrics. There are some useful rhyming mnemonics that’ll help you remember essential life facts.

Thirty Days Hath September

If you’ve ever tried to remember which months have 30 days and which have 31 days, there’s a helpful rhyming mnemonic for that:

Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
Save February, with twenty-eight days clear,
And twenty-nine each leap year

Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue

History lessons are full of important dates to remember. When it’s time to study Christopher Columbus’ explorations, try this useful mnemonic:

In fourteen hundred ninety-two,
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

I Before E Except After C

Ah, grammar rules. Sometimes, all you can say about the rules of the English language are “because my teacher said so.” When it comes to spelling and vowels, the best way to remember the tricky “I” and “E” duo is to say this:

I before E except after C
Or when sounding like A
As in neighbor and weigh

Here are 11 more rules of grammar to consider! Next up, let’s take a look at two poems that will help sailors predict what tomorrow’s weather might look like.

Red Sky at Night

If you enjoy meteorology, you might consider some of these generally accepted truths:

Red sky at night
Shepherd's delight
Red sky in the morning
Shepherd's warning

A red sky means there’s dust in the air, which shows high pressure, meaning good weather is coming. At dawn, a red sky may also mean dust, indicating a storm is moving in from the west. Red may also mean humidity, which may foretell rain.

Rainbow in the morning
Travelers take warning
Rainbow at night
Travelers' delight

A rainbow in the morning would be visible in the west, so a storm is approaching. A rainbow in the evening means the storm has already passed from west to east.

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Mnemonic Madness

Aren’t mnemonics fun? They can help you remember so many things in life. Whether it’s history, math, science, spelling, or generally accepted truths about life, a good mnemonic device can help you remember absolutely anything under the sun.

If you’d like to make the most out of mnemonics when studying for spekking, check out these Study Habits for Spelling Tests. They’ll be sure to help you ace the next bee or quiz.

Staff Writer

9 Fun DIY Spelling Word Games for the Classroom

Spelling can be fun to practice in the classroom. These spelling games are perfect for specific spelling words or for reinforcing spelling rules in class. Keep reading to find ideas for fun spelling word games for all levels.

spelling word game with letter pieces

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Baseball Spelling

Everyone loves a nice game of baseball! Use baseball terminology and rules to reinforce important spelling words in your language arts lesson.

  1. Draw a baseball diamond on the board (home, first, second, third plates).
  2. Split the class into two teams. Assign one team as the fielding team and the other as the batting team.
  3. Have each team write up a “batting order” that includes everyone’s names.
  4. Have the fielding team choose one “pitcher” to read the words.
  5. The pitcher reads the first word to the person who is listed first on the batting team’s batting order.
  6. If the batter gets the word right, they’re on first base. You can indicate this on the whiteboard baseball diamond.
  7. The pitcher reads the next word to the next batter. If they get it right, they move to first and the previous batter moves to second.
  8. If someone spells a word wrong, they strike out. When there are three strikeouts, the teams switch and the fielding team gets to “bat.”

Play as many innings as you need for everyone to get a turn and to review all the spelling words. Students can either stand in front of the class when they’re “at bat,” or they can spell from their seats.

Board Races

Students love writing on the board, running in the classroom and competing against each other – it’s a perfect fit! You can play board races with any subject, but it’s especially helpful for spelling because it’s so visual.

  1. Split the class into two or three teams, depending on how many students you have.
  2. Read the first word on the spelling list.
  3. The first student on each team races up to the board and writes out the word with its proper spelling. This includes capitalization for proper nouns.
  4. Whoever spells the word correctly (and legibly) gets a point for their team.
  5. Repeat the game until you’ve run through all the spelling words a few times.

For an extra challenge, use alphabet magnets instead of dry-erase markers for students to arrange in the correct spelling. You can also use this game to practice dictionary skills by calling out extra hard words that they’ll need to look up.

Catch the Spelling Word

Work on your students’ hand-eye coordination as well as their spelling. All you need is a spelling list and something soft to throw back and forth.

  1. Divide the class into small groups of 4-5 people.
  2. Get an inflatable ball, stuffed animal or anything that students can throw without hurting each other for each group.
  3. Have one group come to the front of the class with the ball.
  4. Set a timer for one minute.
  5. Read the first spelling word.
  6. The student with the ball says the first letter of the word.
  7. If it’s correct, they toss the ball to another student, who says the next letter.
  8. If it’s incorrect, they sit down and the next group stands up.
  9. If they drop the ball, they sit down.
  10. Once they’ve correctly spelled the word, read the next word.
  11. Repeat until the group’s minute is up. The group gets points for every word it has successfully spelled.
  12. Have the next group come to the front of the class.

You can adapt the game for groups to play at the same time or even for pairs to play. Middle and high schoolers may especially enjoy the physical part of tossing the ball back and forth.

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Disappearing Spider

Disappearing spider is played like hangman (or hang spider) in reverse. This is an entertaining and competitive game that is perfect to play right before a spelling test.

  1. Split the class into two teams.
  2. Draw two stick-figure spiders on the board, each with the same 10-15 body parts.
  3. The first person on the first team says the word, spells it and says it again.
  4. If they are correct, they erase one part of the other team's spider. If the word is spelled wrong, it is the next team's turn. Keep going until one spider is no longer visible on the board.

If your class wants to be more creative, have them choose another animal to be their team mascot. One student can draw the animal on the board, and the other team can erase parts of it when they get the spelling words right.

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Kaboom

If you need a whole-class spelling game to play with a list of spelling words, try kaboom. This game requires enough Popsicle sticks for every student to have at least two.

  1. Write the spelling word on Popsicle sticks and put them in a cup. For every five words, add a stick with "KABOOM" on it. If there are 20 words, there would be four extra “KABOOM” sticks.
  2. The first student picks a stick without looking and hands it to the teacher.
  3. The teacher reads the word. The student spells it out loud.
  4. If the student spells it correctly, they keep the stick. If they spell it wrong, the stick goes back into the jar.
  5. When a student picks the “KABOOM” stick, they have to put all the sticks that they have collected back into the pile.
  6. The game is over when there are no sticks left in the jar. The student with the most Popsicle sticks is the winner.

If you don’t have Popsicle sticks, you can use pieces of paper or other supplies. You can also assign a student judge who has all of the words available to double-check their classmates’ answers.

Sparkle

Sparkle is a great game to practice spelling with a little competition. You can play sparkle as a whole class or split the students into smaller groups. It’s also a great way to pass the time when students need to wait in line for a long time.

  1. Have students stand in a circle or straight line.
  2. Choose a student to call words out or call them out yourself. For example: “window.”
  3. When the first word is called out, the first person starts spelling it, saying only the first letter (“w”).
  4. The second person says the second letter (“i”). If a student says the wrong letter, they sit down or leave the circle.
  5. The third person says the third letter (“n”) and so on, until the word is spelled correctly.
  6. Whoever says the last letter of the word turns to the next person and says "Sparkle!” The person who would have been next is out because he or she got "sparkled."

The game continues with the leader calling out another word. The game continues until everyone is out except for one player, who is the winner.

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Spelling Bee

Little kids can participate in a spelling bee game without the pressure of competition. This elementary spelling game is fun for young readers and older elementary students alike.

  1. One student is the bee and buzzes around the room while the students chant: "Buzz, buzz, spelling bee, you can't sting me!”
  2. The bee stops behind a desk and the teacher gives that student a word to spell.
  3. If the student spells it correctly, then the bee has to sit down and the student is the new bee.
  4. If the student is wrong, the whole class spells it together.
  5. Continue until every student has a chance to spell.

Another thing to do to keep the other students involved is to have them do a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" after the student spells the word. You can also have the students sit in a circle in a similar way to the game duck, duck, goose.

Step and Spell

Step and spell uses a shower curtain that has the letters of the alphabet taped or written on it. You’ll also need a "start" and "finish" spot written onto the shower curtain.

  1. Spread out the shower curtain on the floor.
  2. The students sit on the floor around the shower curtain.
  3. One student stands on the "start" box. The teacher reads the first spelling word.
  4. The student goes to the first letter of the word, stands on it, says the letter, and goes on to the next one, finishing on the "finish" box.
  5. If they make a mistake, they start all over again.

For an extra challenge, arrange the letters on the shower curtain in keyboard (QWERTY) order. If you don’t have a shower curtain, you can write the letters on pieces of paper and spread them on the floor. If you’d like to play outside, write letters in chalk on the asphalt and have kids jump to the right ones.

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Treasure Words

Spelling words correctly can be a treasure, but students don’t always know that! Send them on a treasure hunt for new spelling words with a game of treasure words.

  1. Write the spelling words on index cards and hide them in plain sight all over the room. You can tape them to walls, windows or wherever.
  2. Put the students in pairs and give each pair a spelling list.
  3. They find the word and one student turns his back to the word and spells it.
  4. The second student puts a check by the word if it was spelled correctly. Then they switch places and do it again.
  5. If the student spells it wrong, have them look at it again and do it over.
  6. By the end of the game, they will have two checks by each word.

This is a great activity because the students are seeing, saying and hearing the word. It’s best used when introducing spelling words to the class at the beginning of the week or a language arts unit.

Games Make Language Arts Fun

Drilling spelling words is boring for students, making it ineffective. Engaging class activities help students internalize spelling rules and practice high-frequency words. Use this list of fun spelling games for the whole class and small groups.

After playing these games in class, students are sure to enjoy language arts a lot more. Keep the fun going with these cool grammar activities, or reinforce parts of speech with a collection of noun games.

Staff Writer

4 rules + 15 recommendations ‹ Ingleks

Thanks to the popularity of Internet correspondence, we can confidently call our time the "era of spelling discoveries." We are in such a hurry to convey our thoughts to the interlocutor that we completely forget about spelling and sometimes come up with a new spelling of words. This approach can play a trick on you, especially if you are writing business letters. As they say, rely on Word, but don't make a mistake yourself. In this article, we will tell you how to learn the spelling of English words and start writing is correct is correct.

Is it important to write correctly in the computer age? Of course, we understand perfectly well what a person means when he writes something like “Hello! How are you?". But what do we think of it? It seems that a frivolous person is sitting on the other side of the screen. Agree, I would not want to make such an impression on a foreign colleague or friend. And sometimes mistakes make a real sensation on the network, you can read about this in the article “12 memes in English with hilarious mistakes”. Therefore, if you do not want to see your own pearls in such a selection, heed our advice.

We would like to note that spelling causes difficulties even for native speakers. That is why in America there are various competitions that are designed to test the literacy of people, such as Spelling bee. This is a competition in which people are called different words, and they have to spell them. Whoever made a mistake is out. At each stage of the competition, more and more difficult words are given until there is only one winner. The competition was first held back in 1925 and has not lost popularity ever since. Now Spelling bee is held in different countries of the world.

And now let's find out what errors we have to deal with. According to studies conducted in the UK, most spelling errors can be attributed to the following 4 groups:

  • 6% - errors in the suffixes -ful and -ly, for example: beautifull instead of beautiful, successfuly instead of successfully;
  • 20% - skipping a letter, for example: restarant instead of restaurant, goverment instead of government;
  • 28% - errors in homophones, that is, words that sound the same but are spelled differently, for example: no instead of know, to instead of two;
  • 42% - other mistakes, mostly people swap letters (beleive instead of believe) and forget to double the consonant (corect instead of correct).

These statistics are the most popular mistakes made by native speakers, but according to our teachers, the statistics for Russian-speaking students will be about the same. Therefore, we decided to give some practical tips, as well as talk about helper sites that will help you deal with the spelling of English words.

4 important rules for English grammar nazi

The Huffington Post published an interesting article on English spelling. The authors claim that there are 4 important spelling rules, the knowledge of which will help you write more competently.

Rule #1 - ei or ie

In English there is a simple rule: I before E except after C. That is, in most cases we write the letter combination ie, for example: believe, piece, chief, achieve, friend.

And after the letter C we write ei: receive, deceive, ceiling, receipt, deceive.

Exception : efficient, foreigner, height.

Rule #2 - -e at the end of a word .

If the suffix begins with a consonant, -e remains in place: white + ness - whiteness, use + ful - useful, state + ment - statement, care + ful - careful.

Exception : true + ly - truly, notice + able - noticeable.

Rule #3 - -y at the end of a word ,defy + ance - defiance.

However, if we add -ing, the letter y is preserved: try + ing - trying, cry - crying, copy + ing - copying, study + ing - studying.

Rule #4 - doubling the consonant when adding -ing to verb

If a verb ends in a stressed syllable with a short vowel between two consonants, the final consonant is doubled when -ing is added: plan-planning, begin-beginning, swim-swimming.

How to improve the spelling of words in English: simple tips

1. Learn the basic rules of reading

You must know the rules of reading English in order to understand which letters are pronounced in what way. For example, you'll know that s can be pronounced like z when it's between vowels, so you might want to consider writing noze or nose.

Materials on the topic :

  • "Rules for reading English: consonants".
  • English Reading Rules: Vowels.

2. Learn the rules for using silent letters

Silent letters are a trap that almost all English learners fall into: it makes you want to write iland instead of island or forein instead of foreign. There are quite a lot of such words in which the letter is written but not pronounced in English. Fortunately, there are certain general rules for their use that will make your life easier, so we propose to learn them.

Material on the topic :

  • “Silent letters. Unpronounceable letters in English.

3. Study with a special textbook

Spelling books are not the most popular textbooks and are not always easy to get. However, if you are constantly writing business correspondence and feel that you need to improve your spelling, it is worth learning from such a manual.

Related Materials :

  • “The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules” by John Fulford is a good compilation of English spelling rules without practice.
  • “The Essential Guide to Spelling, Style, Usage, Grammar and Punctuation” by Anne Stilman - spelling rules for compound words with comprehension tests.

4. Use a spell checker

Such services are the main allies of the novice grammar nazi in the difficult fight against illiteracy. Programs will detect and help correct most errors, but keep in mind that they will not check your text for logic and style, and will not give you clear information about the compatibility of English words with each other.

Related materials :

  • Grammarly

    The most famous spell checker. Checks the text for literacy, underlines errors and gives a brief comment on each error. You can install a free browser extension that will check the text of your emails.

  • OnlineCorrection

    This program checks common spelling rules and word compatibility (only partially). Enter text in the box, the program will highlight the errors. Hover your cursor over any misspelled word and a pop-up window will show the error comment as well as the correct spelling.

  • LanguageTool

    The principle of operation is the same: enter the text in the box, select the language of the text in the drop-down list and click the Check text button. The program will highlight errors in different colors. Click on the highlighted word to get a brief summary of the error and a sample of the correct spelling.

5. Be aware of the difference between British and American English

There are quite a few words in the English language that people in the US and the UK spell differently. Because of this, confusion occurs: it seems to have found a word in the dictionary, wrote it out, and the spell checker or even Microsoft Word underlines it and imposes its own spelling. For example, instead of color, you will be asked to write American color, and the program will replace realise with realize. In this case, it is worth knowing frequently used words that are spelled differently in British and American versions.

Helper materials :

  • Spellzone - you can see the general rules with examples.
  • Oxford Dictionaries - A large list of terms that are spelled or even called differently in the UK and the US.
  • Article "British and American English: word differences".

    We have compiled a document for you that contains words on this topic. You can download it from the link below.

    Download British and American English Word Differences Word List (*.pdf, 276 Kb)

6. Check with the dictionary

When writing a compound word, do not rely only on your memory, check the spelling in the dictionary. It is better to write slowly, but correctly, than quickly and illiterately. Don't worry, after a few "peeping" you will memorize the word and write it confidently without any prompts.

I was reading the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything.

I was reading a dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything.

7. Make up your own dictionary of difficult words or use a ready-made one

In your personal dictionary, include those words that you have difficulty writing. Try to look at it more often, read the words, make sentences with them and memorize their spelling. In addition, you can use ready-made lists of words that are difficult to write. You should also pay attention to words that are similar in sound and spelling, but have different meanings. Only the correct spelling of such words will allow the interlocutor to understand your thoughts.

Help materials :

  • 100 most often misspelled words in English.
  • 50 words Britons have the most difficulty spelling.
  • "20 words that are often confused in the English language. "

8. Read as often as possible

How to remember the face of a new acquaintance? Need to see him more often. You can and should memorize the spelling of words in the same way: try to meet them often. The easiest way to do this is through reading: read articles and books in English. This technique is perhaps the most interesting and unobtrusive, because you memorize spelling automatically while reading with the help of visual memory.

Help materials :

  • What books to read in English and how to do it correctly.
  • "10 magazines in English that you can't put down."
  • "6 great sites with newspapers in English."

9. Test your knowledge

There are hundreds of online tests available online to help you improve your English spelling skills. We recommend that you take them from time to time to track your progress and delight grammar nazi inside .

Helper Materials :

  • Howtospell - Dozens of spelling tests on a variety of topics.
  • INTERLINK Language Center - spelling tests of various difficulty levels.

10. Play the right games

Learning English should be fun. A variety of educational online games will help to make it so. They can be used in between exercises, so you get a little distraction and at the same time continue to learn English.

Help materials :

  • Word Games.
  • Merriam-Webster.
  • Funbrain.

11. Practice, practice and practice again

“Write always, write everywhere” is the motto to work on spelling. To learn how to drive a car, you need to drive as often as possible, and to write competently, you need to sit down at the table and write as often as possible. Try to make various notes in English, you can practice like this:

  • When you do your homework, write or type it, not just mark the correct answers in your textbook. This is hard work, but it will pay off handsomely.
  • Like an interesting quote or idiom in English? Do not copy it to your computer, but print it manually.
  • Select an interesting book or blog on the Internet. Rewrite 1-2 pages of text daily, word for word. This is one of the most boring, but also the most effective methods for improving spelling.

For more ideas on where to practice, see How to Write Properly in English.

12. Work with Microsoft Word

"Good" program Microsoft Word corrects almost all of our flaws. Use automatic spell checking not only for its intended purpose, but also for learning. As soon as you see that the program has corrected a word, erase it and manually write the correct version. This will slightly increase the time of working with the document, but will be a useful exercise for improving English spelling.

13. Use a technique from school

Remember when we made a mistake in dictation, the teacher made us write the word 5-10 times. He did this not out of harm, as we always thought, but in order to firmly fix the correct spelling of the word in our memory. Try to do the same with English words: as soon as you make a mistake, take a notebook and write the concept correctly several times. Performing such an exercise, you turn on the mechanical memory, and this greatly facilitates the memorization of the word.

Little trick : Many linguists advise to abandon capital letters. They recommend typing the word on the keyboard or capitalizing it. During the experiments, it turned out that printed letters have a clear shape, so it is easier for the brain to remember the spelling. As for capital letters, handwriting is different, and in fact every time we write a letter a little differently. This complicates the perception of information.

14. Engage eidetism

Eidetism is a photographic memory that is responsible for remembering visual images. Use it when learning a new word. Look at it carefully, try to remember its shape, the order of the letters, then close your eyes and try to imagine it. You will have a visual image of a new concept in your memory. Simultaneously with viewing, say a word so that you associate these sounds with a specific correct spelling. Perform these actions with each repetition, then the exercise will quickly bear fruit.

15. Use the Restorff effect

The effect is as follows: we best remember information that stands out from the crowd. How to make a word memorable? Highlight it from other words in the literal sense - using a bright pen or colored font on a computer. The brain will extract this information from the rest of the words and remember it. Remember, at school we were forced to do the same in Russian lessons: we highlighted vocabulary words with multi-colored pens. Maybe our teachers did not hear about this effect, but they intuitively understood that the eyes would “cling” to bright words and memorize them.

Little trick : Foreign psychologists advise not only to highlight the word, but also to write each letter in a different color. It will take more time to write, you will work with the concept longer, and therefore it will be remembered faster. Be sure to try this simple exercise.

As you can see, being literate is easy: just put in a little effort and you can consider yourself a spelling fighter. We have given a lot of tips, so we suggest choosing the simplest and most convenient for you, try to use them daily, then spelling English words will no longer seem difficult to you. And remember that being literate is fashionable!

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How to improve listening skills in English

Larisa Khorikova

teaches English

Author profile

Learning a foreign language often begins with the accumulation of vocabulary: students write out words on cards and memorize them 10, 20, 30 a day.

At the same time, it is important not only to know how a word is spelled and what it means, but also how to pronounce it correctly. In this material, I will tell you how to develop listening comprehension and improve pronunciation and what techniques can be used for training.

Learn and practice articulation

To sound good in English, you need to develop certain muscle groups of the tongue, lips and throat, since differences in phonetics are also associated with the peculiarities of the articulatory apparatus of native speakers.

Descriptions of how to correctly position the lips and tongue for pronunciation of certain sounds are found in textbooks or course materials: they are usually accompanied by drawings and transcription marks.

There are good descriptions in Vladimir Arakin's textbook, you can buy it at the Labyrinth - in the material I focus on them

For example, Russian does not have an interdental sound /ð/ as in the article the or the pronoun them, so it is useful to look at the position of the tongue relative to the teeth for correct pronunciation, and then practice in front of a mirror.

The English sound /i/ sounds the same as the "and" in the word "sew". Saying "sew" in front of the mirror, pay attention to the position of the lips - they are slightly stretched. Then practice the sound /i/ separately, controlling the desired position of the lips.

When pronouncing the sound /w/, the tense lips are strongly rounded and slightly pushed forward. When articulating, make sure that the lower lip does not touch the upper teeth, otherwise the sound /v/ will be heard. In the sounds /p/ and /b/, tense lips form a tight bow, then the air breaks the barrier with noise - track the bow in front of the mirror.

This is how the arrangement of the organs of speech looks like when the speaker utters an interdental sound. Source: Tamara Matyushkina-Gerke's 1st year textbook for philological faculties, 4th edition

Work with video materials, they are more effective than pronunciation only from descriptions: you not only see the location of the organs of speech, but also hear the pronunciation of sounds. Also, the pronunciation of sounds may differ depending on the accent: think about which pronunciation option is more relevant for you.

YouTube channels and sites to help you practice your accent

British Oxford Online English, A-bit Dotty, English with Lucy
American Sozo Exchange
Australian mmm English

British

Oxford Online English, A-bit Dotty, EnglishwithLucy

American

Sozo Exchange

Australian

mmmEnglish

Ask Siri or use voice dialing on your mobile phone to see how much you understand your own pronunciation. They will show you how accurately you pronounced the word, recognizing or not recognizing your speech.

You can also use Voicebook with voice input and the ability to translate speech from audio and video to typed text. I recommend using it like this: first enter the printed text, select the British or American version of the dubbing and listen to it. Then, repeat the text yourself while the notepad records it, and compare it with the sample: Voicebook will show the percentage of recognized words and it will be clear what needs to be worked on further.

Learn to understand transcription

Transcription, or International Phonetic Alphabet, is something like musical notation: looking at the transcription of a word, you can find out what sounds it consists of. Correct pronunciation and the ability to recognize speech by ear are two sides of the same coin: to accurately recognize words in a native speaker's coherent speech, you need to know how they should sound.

There are 44 transcription marks in English - 24 consonants and their combinations, 12 vowels and 8 diphthongs. The styles of many icons coincide with the styles of the letters of the alphabet, but some of them are unlike letters - /ŋ/, /θ/, /ð/, /ə/. Learning such signs is not difficult: when working on the articulation of English sounds, you automatically learn the signs of transcription, since these processes are interconnected.

You can find the correct transcription in dictionaries. On some YouTube channels - for example, Crown Academy of English with British pronunciation and Sozo Exchange with American - native speakers clearly explain how to read transcription marks and how to pronounce them correctly.

You can also choose a suitable channel among BBC Learn English, Oxford Online English, A-bit Dotty

You can make a transcription of a large text on the tophonetics website. This is useful when preparing for a speech in English, to make sure that you pronounce all the words correctly and the audience will understand you exactly.

The more often you transcribe the text that you are going to pronounce, the fewer pronunciation errors you will make and then you will be able to selectively check the correct pronunciation - only for unfamiliar or unfamiliar words.

Pay attention to intonation and logical stress

Intonation is the unity of speech melody, phrasal stress, rhythm, timbre and tempo of speech. She draws up a sentence, reveals its semantic center, makes it clear whether it serves as a simple message, question, request, motivation or exclamation, helps to express the speaker's attitude to the statement.

The fundamental principle in working out intonation and logical stress is complexity. Correct intonation cannot be achieved without the correct pronunciation of sounds, stress in words and phrases, and compliance with the desired pace of speech.

Why is correct intonation important? Educational video on YouTube channel Oxford Online English

You can understand the intricacies of English intonation with the help of educational videos from BBC Learning English. The site has materials for both beginners and those who are more advanced: as a rule, they consist of audio or video on a particular topic, followed by tasks for understanding and decoding. Before starting classes, switch the site from Russian to English, so more materials will be available.

American English learners will benefit from the Ello platform

To work, simply choose the material of the appropriate level and on the topic of interest. First, watch the video without subtitles two or three times, trying to understand the content as fully as possible. Then check if you understood the speaker's speech correctly by completing the tasks on the page.

If there are errors, watch the video again, but with subtitles, or read the transcript. Unfamiliar words can be clarified in a dictionary. Then select a short excerpt from the audio or video in the exercise, turn it on and read in sync with the presenter, trying to pay attention not only to sounds, but also to intonation.

If your level is B1 or higher, work with expert presentations on various topics. Here are a few resources to find the right videos:

  • English Central - site with courses and materials from beginner to advanced level;
  • TED - a platform with speeches by professionals in various fields;
  • YouGlish - here it is convenient to work with subtitles for YouTube videos, for example, to find out the meaning of a word by clicking.

/list/english-with-ted/

How to Learn English with TED: 5 Techniques

You can work with the videos from there in different ways: look at the passage and say it aloud to practice pronunciation and intonation, make sure you have a general understanding of what you hear, find new vocabulary for yourself and translate individual sentences . The main thing is systematic work, not one-time work.

Create an artificial language environment for yourself

Reading aloud and synchronized reading partly replaces speaking practice. This is a good opportunity to check your pronunciation, intonation with the pronunciation of the native speaker and develop listening skills.

When choosing a book to work with, make sure it has an audio version and assess your language level. For reading, a text with up to 10 unfamiliar words on each page is best, otherwise it will be difficult to read. You can find the book in online libraries or shops:

  • Lit2Go - free text and audio versions of works by old authors like Dickens or Dumas;
  • LearnEnglishKids - Free British Council resource with short stories and activities for children;
  • PDF and audio versions of books for different levels are available from Macmillan Education, Bookhunter or from Relod, the official distributor of Oxford University Press books, you can search for books in the online store.

/list/science-for-free/

9 free and legal resources with cognitive literature intonation.

The next step is synchronous reading. The algorithm is as follows:

  1. Read the passage yourself.
  2. Listen to the same fragment voiced by the native speaker.
  3. Read it yourself by copying media.
  4. Read synchronously.

If you want, learn tongue twisters - there are many voiced by native speakers on the Learn English website

At first, the reader will most likely lag behind the announcer, but this is a matter of training. After reading the same passage several times, you may find that you are already doing well.

Finally, record your reading on a voice recorder - 30-40 seconds is enough. Listen to the recording and compare it with the recording of the carrier. So mistakes will be heard right away, you will clearly define the aspects that need to be worked on: accent, inaccuracies in pronunciation, intonation, unnatural tension of speech, discontinuity.

Learn more