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Отправлено: 15.05.10 21:56. Заголовок: Top Four Spelling R..
Top Four Spelling Rules (by Richard Nordquist)
Spelling rules are a bit like weather forecasts: we may use them, but we really can't depend on them to be right 100% of the time. In fact, the only fool-proof rule is that all spelling rules in English have exceptions. Nevertheless, many writers find that certain rules help them to remember how to spell particular types of words, especially those formed by adding suffixes (or endings). Here we'll look at four spelling rules that should be helpful to you. 1. Using I Before E
Use i before e, except after c, or when sounded as "a" as in "neighbor" and "weigh." EXAMPLES: believe, chief, piece, and thief; deceive, receive, weigh, and freight COMMON EXCEPTIONS: efficient, weird, height, neither, ancient, caffeine, foreign 2. Dropping the Final E
Drop the final e before a suffix beginning with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) but not before a suffix beginning with a consonant. EXAMPLES: ride + ing = riding guide + ance = guidance hope + ing = hoping entire + ly = entirely like + ness = likeness arrange + ment = arrangement COMMON EXCEPTIONS: truly, noticeable 3. Changing a Final Y to I
Change a final y to i before a suffix, unless the suffix begins with i. EXAMPLES: defy + ance = defiance party + es = parties pity + ful = pitiful try + es = tries try + ing = trying copy + ing = copying occupy + ing = occupying COMMON EXCEPTIONS: journeying, memorize 4. Doubling a Final Consonant
Double a final single consonant before a suffix beginning with a vowel when both of these conditions exist: (a) a single vowel precedes the consonant; (b) the consonant ends an accented syllable or a one-syllable word. EXAMPLES: stop + ing = stopping admit + ed = admitted occur + ence = occurrence stoop + ing = stooping benefit + ed = benefited delight + ful = delightful
Отправлено: 15.05.10 21:58. Заголовок: More than 150 sets o..
More than 150 sets of commonly confused words - doublecheck before using them!
A
* A, An, & And * Accept, Except, and Expect * Adapt and Adopt * Adverse and Averse * Advice and Advise * Affect and Effect * Aggravate and Irritate * All Ready and Already * All Together and Altogether * Allude and Elude * Allusion and Illusion * Allusive and Elusive * A Lot (Much, Many) * Altar and Alter * Ambiguous and Ambivalent * Amoral and Immoral * Amount and Number * Amuse and Bemuse * Anxious and Eager * Anyone and Any One * Appraise and Apprise * Are and Our * Assure, Ensure, and Insure * Aural and Oral
B
* Baited and Bated * Beside and Besides * Breath and Breathe
C
* Capital and Capitol * Censor and Censure * Choose, Chose, and Chosen * Chord and Cord * Cite and Site * Click and Clique * Climactic and Climatic * Clothes and Cloths * Collaborate and Cooperate * Complement and Compliment * Conscience and Conscious * Continual and Continuous * Council and Counsel * Credible and Credulous
D
* Days and Daze * Dazed and Dazzled * Defective and Deficient * Defuse and Diffuse * Deprecate and Depreciate * Desert and Dessert * Device and Devise * Discreet and Discrete * Disinterested and Uninterested * Distinct and Distinctive * Dual and Duel
E
* Economic and Economical * Eminent and Imminent * Envelop and Envelope * Epigram, Epigraph, and Epitaph * Eventually and Ultimately * Every Day and Everyday * Explicit and Implicit
F
* Fair and Fare * Farther and Further * Faze and Phase * Few (Fewer) and Little (Less) * Flair and Flare * Flaunt and Flout * Flew, Flu, and Flue * Flounder and Founder * Foreword and Forward * Formally and Formerly * Forth and Fourth * Fortunate and Fortuitous * Full and Fulsome
G
* Gourmand and Gourmet * Grisly and Grizzly
H
* Hanged and Hung * Hardy and Hearty * Have and Of * Historic and Historical * Hoard and Horde * Home and Hone * Hoping and Hopping
I
* Imply and Infer * In and Into * Incredible and Incredulous * Ingenious and Ingenuous * Intense and Intent * Its and It's
L
* Last and Latter * Later and Latter * Lay and Lie * Lead and Led * Leave and Let * Lend and Loan * Lessen and Lesson * Liable and Libel * Lightening and Lightning * Literally and Figuratively * Loath and Loathe * Loose and Lose
M
* Many and Much * Marital and Martial * Maybe and May Be * Media and Medium * Militate and Mitigate * Miner and Minor * Moot and Mute * Moral and Morale
N
* Noisome and Noisy
O
* Obsolescent and Obsolete * Official and Officious
P
* Pair, Pare, and Pear * Passed and Past * Peace and Piece * Perquisite and Prerequisite * Persecute and Prosecute * Personal and Personnel * Perspective and Prospective * Perverse and Perverted * Plain and Plane * Pole and Poll * Pore and Pour * Precede and Proceed * Premier and Premiere * Prescribe and Proscribe * Principal and Principle
Q
* Quell and Quench * Quiet, Quit, and Quite * Quotation and Quote
R
* Rack and Wrack * Rain, Reign, and Rein * Raise and Rise * Rational and Rationale * Ravage and Ravish * Recourse and Resource * Regretful and Regrettable * Respectively and Respectfully * Restive and Restless * Review and Revue * Riffle and Rifle * Role and Roll
S
* Sensual and Sensuous * Serve and Service * Set and Sit * Shall and Will * Shear and Sheer * Should and Would * Simple and Simplistic * Sometime, Some time, and Sometimes * Stationary and Stationery * Statue and Statute
T
* Tail and Tale * Temerity and Timidity * Than and Then * Their, There, and They're * To and Too * Troop and Troupe
V
* Vain, Vane, and Vein * Vale and Veil * Vary and Very * Venal and Venial * Veracious and Voracious
W
* Waist and Waste * Were, We're, and Where * Which and Who * Who and Whom * Whoever and Whomever * Whose and Who's
Отправлено: 15.05.10 22:01. Заголовок: Writers on English S..
Writers on English Spelling
Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens)
When it comes to spelling, even the pros can get tripped up in their prose. As Winnie the Pooh once observed, "It's good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places."
English spelling is complicated, inconsistent, and often downright ornery. But don't take our word for it. Consider what some well-known writers have had to say about English orthography.
* The Only Stupid Thing "The use of words is of itself an interesting study. You will hardly believe the difference the use of one word rather than another will make until you begin to hunt for a word with just the right shade of meaning, just the right color for the picture you are painting with words. Had you thought that words had color? The only stupid thing about words is the spelling of them." (Laura Ingalls Wilder, quoted by Donald Zochert, Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder)
* Taste and Fancy "'Do you spell it with a "V" or a "W"?' inquired the judge. "'That depends upon the taste and the fancy of the speller, my Lord,' replied Sam." (Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers)
* Spell Well "Take care that you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word, consider how it is spelled, and, if you do not remember, turn to a dictionary. It produces great praise to a lady to spell well." (Thomas Jefferson, letter to his daughter Martha)
* The Power of the Letters "As language was at its beginning merely oral, all words of necessary or common use were spoken before they were written; and while they were unfixed by any visible signs, must have been spoken with great diversity, as we now observe those who cannot read to catch sounds imperfectly, and utter them negligently. When this wild and barbarous jargon was first reduced to an alphabet, every penman endeavoured to express, as he could, the sounds which he was accustomed to pronounce or to receive, and vitiated in writing such words as were already vitiated in speech. The powers of the letters, when they were applied to a new language, must have been vague and unsettled, and therefore different hands would exhibit the same sound by different combinations." (Samuel Johnson, Preface to A Dictionary of the English Language, 1755)
* Spelling Counts "Spelling counts. Spelling is not merely a tedious exercise in a fourth-grade classroom. Spelling is one of the outward and visible marks of a disciplined mind." (James J. Kilpatrick)
* Spelling and Schoolma'ams "Correct spelling, indeed, is one of the arts that are far more esteemed by schoolma'ams than by practical men, neck-deep in the heat and agony of the world." (H.L. Mencken, The American Language)
* Reckless Inconsistency "With a new English alphabet replacing the old Semitic one with its added Latin vowels I should be able to spell t-h-o-u-g-h with two letters, s-h-o-u-l-d with three, and e-n-o-u-g-h with four: nine letters instead of eighteen: a saving of a hundred per cent of my time and my typist's time and the printer's time, to say nothing of the saving in paper and wear and tear of machinery. . . .
"We try to extend our alphabet by writing two letters instead of one; but we make a mess of this device. With reckless inconsistency we write sweat and sweet, and then write whet and wheat, just the contrary. Consistency is not always a virtue; but spelling becomes a will o' the wisp without it.
"If the introduction of an English alphabet for the English language costs a civil war, or even, as the introduction of summer time did, a world war, I shall not grudge it. The waste of war is negligible in comparison to the daily waste of trying to communicate with one another in English through an alphabet with sixteen letters missing. That must be remedied, come what may." (George Bernard Shaw, Preface to R.A. Wilson, The Miraculous Birth of Language, 1948)
* Mark Twain on Spelling "I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way." (Mark Twain)
* "They spell it "Vinci" and pronounce it "Vinchy"; foreigners always spell better than they pronounce." (Mark Twain)
* "I don't see any use in having a uniform and arbitrary way of spelling words. We might as well make all clothes alike and cook all dishes alike. Sameness is tiresome; variety is pleasing. I have a correspondent whose letters are always a refreshment to me, there is such a breezy unfettered originality about his orthography. He always spells "Kow" with a large "K." Now that is just as good as to spell it with a small one. It is better. It gives the imagination a broader field, a wider scope. It suggests to the mind a grand, vague, impressive new kind of a cow." (Mark Twain, reported in the Hartford Courant, May 13, 1875)
* "I never had any large respect for good spelling. That is my feeling yet. Before the spelling-book came with its arbitrary forms, men unconsciously revealed shades of their characters and also added enlightening shades of expression to what they wrote by their spelling, and so it is possible that the spelling-book has been a doubtful benevolence to us." (Mark Twain, Autobiography)
* Archaic, Cumbrous, Ineffective "English orthography . . . is archaic, cumbrous, and ineffective; its acquisition consumes much time and effort; failure to acquire it is easy of detection." (Thorstein Veblen)
* The Wuss Speller "It is a pity that Chawcer, who had geneyus, was so unedicated. He's the wuss speller I know of." (Artemus Ward, Artemus Ward in London, 1867)
* Reforming the Abuses "The question now occurs; ought the Americans to retain these faults which produce innumerable inconveniencies in the acquisition and use of the language, or ought they at once to reform these abuses, and introduce order and regularity into the orthography of the AMERICAN TONGUE? Let us consider this subject with some attention.
"Several attempts were formerly made in England to rectify the orthography of the language. But I apprehend their schemes failed to success, rather on account of their intrinsic difficulties, than on account of any necessary impracticability of a reform. It was proposed, in most of these schemes, not merely to throw out superfluous and silent letters, but to introduce a number of new characters. Any attempt on such a plan must undoubtedly prove unsuccessful. It is not to be expected that an orthography, perfectly regular and simple, such as would be formed by a 'Synod of Grammarians on principles of science,' will ever be substituted for that confused mode of spelling which is now established. But it is apprehended that great improvements may be made, and an orthography almost regular, or such as shall obviate most of the present difficulties which occur in learning our language, may be introduced and established with little trouble and opposition." (Noah Webster, "An Essay on the Necessity, Advantages, and Practicality of Reforming the Mode of Spelling and of Rendering the Orthography of Words Correspondent to Pronunciation," 1789)
Отправлено: 15.05.10 22:03. Заголовок: Five year phas..
Five year phase-in plan for "EuroEnglish"
The European Commission have just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five year phase in plan that would be known as "EuroEnglish".
In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump for joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of the "k". This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with the "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20% shorter.
In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent "e"s in the language is disgraseful, and they should go away.
By the 4th year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".
During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters. After zis fifz year, ve vil hav a realy sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand each ozer
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