People are forever apologizing on Twitter for spelling mistakes, but to be honest, being a former primary school teacher I can read just about anything. I also have a knack for reading upside down.
Funnily though, I used to be a very good speller until I started teaching, now I look at everything twice. Sometimes the way children spell is incredibly logical. For example, ‘fone’ it makes perfect sense and does apply the rules of phonics and I’m not surprised children find it difficult to spell ‘phone’. However, I do want them to learn to spell correctly and I hate seeing text speak anywhere but on a mobile, msn or twitter.
Over the years I’ve developed a few quirky ways of helping me to spell……
Island – ‘is land surrounded by water’
Tomatoes – ‘I squished the tomato with my toes’
Broccoli – ‘Two lion cubs and one lioness’ (two c’s and one l). This one is courtesy of the zany @iaingilmour
Stationery – I think of the ‘e’ in envelope
And of course the good old ‘i before e except after c’. So, you could imagine my surprise when Stephen Fry, the all-round English genius, reported on QI that is not the case and that there are over 900 instances when this rule doesn’t apply (e.g. Weird, ancient, glacier, policies, society, science). Now I’m scuppered!
Can you think of any others?
Do you have any tricks for remembering spellings?
Does anyone have a Mnemonic for the word Mnemonic?
How many spelling mistakes did you find in this post?
Good ole Matilda – Mrs D Mrs I Mrs FF Mrs I Mrs C Mrs U Mrs LTY
And for the word ‘Because’ – Birds Eat Crumbs As Uncle Sits Eating
But the I before E rule has troubled me for years because it noticed that rule had some mistakes but I never knew it had over 900! And I most certainly didn’t realise that science was in this list
Do you something this is my biggest pet hate – about myself I mean. People are constantly telling me I need to improve my spelling and my grammar. It makes me feel very stupid indeed, especially now that I am a mother (not to mention nearly 27 and a graduate at that).
I use ‘Big Elephants Cant Always Use Small Exits for Because.
I too saw the QI episode where Stephen got increasingly agitated with Lee Mack for not understanding what he was saying about the i before e ruling etc. Very funny but also very confusing too. Thanks for sharing. Happy New Year xx
http://www.katecollings.blogspot.com
I don’t tend to pull people up on spelling for a number of reasons. Firstly, on twitter and texting we’re limited on characters so not always possible to be grammatically correct. Secondly, I have learned that a few of my followers are dyslexic.
Rhythm: Really Has Your Two Hips Moving
Necessary: Never Eat Cod, Eat Smoked Salmon And Remain Young