Latest blog posts
This month’s American English vs. British English blog post theme is shopping.
Click here to read an overview of the main differences between American English and British English spelling, and here for more detailed information.
Here are 20 shopping-themed words in American English and British English:
allowance – pocket money
bill – note
bookstore – bookshop
cart – trolley
check – bill
coin purse, change purse – purse
currency exchange – bureau de change
DIY shop – home improvement store
drugstore– chemist
gift...
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Here at Spellzone, we encourage our students to learn spelling using as many senses as they can. By learning in this way, we are able to connect as many associations as possible with the spelling of a particular word. These associations should help trigger our memories when we are trying to remember spellings.
So how we can be aware of the five senses when learning spelling?
SIGHT
When learning a word, LOOK closely at it. Then cover it up and try to remember how the letters are positioned on the page. Picture your own handwriting and the way the letters look beside each other.
Sometimes if you spell a word in a few different ways, one of the spellings will LOOK more familiar than...
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The key to remembering how to spell words with silent letters is, unfortunately, the same as that for remembering all spellings: practise, practise, practise! Here are Spellzone, we know that the ‘Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check’ method of learning and testing spelling provides results, and here are some of our other top spelling tips.
Some silent letters were pronounced hundred years ago, but over the years, because the words were difficult to say, some of the sounds died out. Get into the habit of pronouncing silent letters in your head whenever you think of the word. When taking a Spellzone Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check test, click on the loudspeaker icon to hear...
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What is a loanword?
A loanword is the term given to a word which is directly borrowed from another language and used in the recipient language without being translated first. One of the reasons why English is such a difficult language to learn (and why its spellings are so inconsistent!) is because the language is full of loanwords. Some loanwords are obvious, such as words used to describe food traditionally from other countries (such as ‘tsatsiki’ or ‘chow mein’), whereas others were borrowed so long ago that you might be surprised to discover they are loanwords at all (such as: ‘pyjamas’ or ‘breeze’).
Last week we shared a list of Japa...
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