5 mistakes learners make with spelling patterns, each one named and explained.
English spelling follows patterns more often than it breaks them, so the pattern is worth knowing even when the exceptions are famous.
Separate is written 'separrate', whisper as 'whissper', or immediately as 'imediately'.
Doubling is one of the least audible features of English spelling: separrate and separate sound identical, so nothing in the saying of it tells you how many letters to write.
Question. sep + arate
A common answer. separrate
The answer. separate
Why. There is only one r in the middle, and no rule of sound will tell you that: it has to be seen and remembered.
Doubling cannot be heard. Picture the word, or look it up, rather than sounding it out.
Believe is written 'beleive', receive as 'recieve', or friend as 'freind'.
Both orders appear in common words, and the rhyme that is supposed to settle it has as many exceptions as cases.
Question. bel___ve
A common answer. beleive
The answer. believe
Why. The i comes before the e, because there is no c in front of it.
The c is the signal. After c the e comes first, and otherwise it does not.
Separate is written 'seperate', important as 'importent', or definitely as 'definately'.
The vowel in the middle is not pronounced clearly by anybody, so there is genuinely nothing in the sound to tell you which letter it is.
Question. sep_rate
A common answer. seperate
The answer. separate
Why. There is a rat in the middle of separate, which is the only way anyone remembers it.
Where the vowel cannot be heard, a memory hook beats sounding it out.
Deliberately is written 'deliberatley', and untie becomes 'unite' without being noticed.
The hand runs ahead of the eye: every letter is present and the word shape looks right at a glance, which is exactly why a transposition survives proofreading.
Question. deliberate + ly
A common answer. deliberatley
The answer. deliberately
Why. All the letters are there, but the l and the e have traded places.
Read the word backwards when you check spelling. Transpositions hide from forward reading.
Whisper is written 'wisper', friend as 'frend', or nervous as 'nervus'.
Sounding a word out is the strategy that was taught first and works for most words, so it keeps being used on the ones where it does not.
Question. the word meaning to speak very softly
A common answer. wisper
The answer. whisper
Why. The h is silent but it is written, as it is in when, where and why.
Silent letters are common in English. Picture the word as well as hearing it.
WAJD spots these patterns in your child's answers and names the one behind their wrong answers, instead of just marking them wrong.