Spelling Words Worksheets

Tips for Spelling Difficult Words

Learning to spell correctly is one of the ongoing challenges for students. There are thousands of words in the English language. It is difficult to remember the pronunciation and spelling of complicated words. Most often, people remember the correct spelling of the words they use in daily conversations at work or at home. If you want to learn to spell words correctly, we have some helpful tips for spelling difficult words.

You may not be alone if you get stuck spelling a complicated word. There are many English language speakers and writers who face the same problem. Learning to spell most words correctly may be possible, but memorizing all the words of the language may not be easy.

Word Chunking

If you struggle to spell long words, chunking is one of the easiest ways to learn to spell them correctly. Word chunking refers to breaking down long words into smaller chunks. You can learn to spell each chunk and combine them to spell the word. There are many complicated words in the English language. They can be challenging to memorize and spell out.

To try the chunking method, consider the word “Catastrophe.” Learning to spell the whole word can be overwhelming. However, if you split it into smaller pieces, you may get something like Cat-Astro-Phy. Now, you can learn to spell the three chunks separately and combine them.

Look, Cover, Write, Check

One of the most effective techniques to learn to spell correctly is using the look, cover, write, check method. This method can take the hard-to-spell words and quickly research them. You can look up their meaning in the dictionary, cover examples to find out how to use them, write them down, and check their correctness.

Following this process can help you memorize the spelling accurately. You can also use the new words in your daily conversations (when applicable) to improve your learning.

Spelling Rules

It never hurts to learn some of the basic spelling rules in the English language. Many words change their spelling when you use them in different forms. If you know the rules of changing the spelling, you can learn to spell correctly in no time. For example, consider the word “Party.” If you want to use the plural, you must replace the ‘y’ with ‘ies.’

Similarly, you will have to replace the ‘y’ with ‘ies’ in the word “Fry” using the plural form. Learning to replace the letters correctly can help you learn the spelling of different forms of the same word.

Commonly Misspelled Words

There are several words in the English language that most writers and speakers misspell. You can create a list of these words and focus on spelling them correctly. Such words often have one or two recurring letters, making it difficult to memorize them. You can improve your spelling skills daily by taking one word at a time.

Some commonly misspelled words include interrupt, across, immediate, bureau, severe, foreign, believe, receive, etc.

Word Sounds

This technique is similar to word chunking. You can split the words into smaller pieces and sound them out individually. An easy way to do it is by chunking the words on paper. Once done, you can say each part loud to understand how it sounds.

For example, by chunking the word “Catastrophe” into Cat-Astro-Phy, you can learn the sounds of each chunk. These sounds can help you remember the correct spelling of the word.