Unit 18 - Spelling some common words

The more common the word, the more people expect us to be able to spell them. There are some tricky common words, though, because the English language is complex—partly because it is made up of lots of different languages.

Short words can be just as tricky as long ones:

Often they are not spelled as they sound
They can look very similar to other words.
Our brains are good at covering up our mistakes, making our misspellings look correct!

A lot of our question words begin with wh. For example:

why	Why are you crying?
when	When is it time to go home?
which	Which house does she live in?
what	What are you wearing that hat for?
where	Where is it? It's not here and it's not there.
who	Who ate the last chocolate cookie?
whose	Whose smelly socks are these?

In English, most words that end in the /v/ sound, end with the letters ve

live	They live in a very small house.
give	I'll give you a ride home.
love	This letter comes with all my love.
have	What have I done with my car keys?

Remember:
We drop the e when adding a vowel suffix but, even though the vowel is short, we never double the letter v:

living

given

lover

having

Learn the Words:

Learn the Words: Some short common words - part 1

'Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check' spelling exercise

We’ve learned that a split digraph can make the first vowel say its name:

pale	here	life	bone	tune
a-e	e-e	i-e	o-e	u-e

Words that do not follow this rule can make things tricky for us. Here are some common exceptions that you will need to learn:

one	One by one they went through the gate.
done	At last I've done all my work.
gone	They've gone to Florida for a week.
some	Would you like some fish and chips?
come	I'll come round to your house.
were	What were you doing out late last night?
before	Pierce the lid before before cooking.
	Remember: /or/ on the end is usually -ore.
sure	I'm sure I paid that bill.
because	He's not coming because he's ill.

Some words have vowels that are not sounded in them. Again, we have to learn these:

friend - friend

Learn and remember:
I to the end
Will be your friend

build - build

Learn and remember:
U and I
Build a house

people - people

How many people watched the game?

beautiful - beautiful

That's a beautiful dress you're wearing.

their - their

Their means 'belonging to them.'

Learn the Words:

Learn the Words: Some short common words - part 2

Remember:
Some words use the letter o to spell the short /u/ sound.

some	I'd like some help with this work.
come	Come and sit beside me.
one	You are the only one for me.
once	I'll only tell you once.
done	What have you done to your hair?
other	Let's walk on the other side of the street.
another	Would you like another cup of coffee?
love	I'd love to visit Africa.