Words ending in 'ory' Our spelling pattern for August is words ending in 'ory'. In these words, the weak vowel sound before a 'y' is spelled with the letters 'or'. Practise this spelling pattern in Unit 25. Compound Words A compound word is a word that is made up of two or more other words. While the compound words in this list do not require hyphens, other compound words do. Test yourself on these words and then learn more. 10 Words for... HOT Who’s feeling the heat? Our 10 Words series is designed to help you expand your vocabulary. In this li...
Punctuation marks have a variety of functions which help make writing as clear as possible. Among other things they are used to indicate when sentences begin and end, when the reader should pause, and what part of the sentence is the most important. While you might feel like using some punctuation marks comes instinctively, others may feel a mystery. In this article we'll look at the correct punctuation to use in specific situations. Abbreviations Should you capitalise an abbreviation? Does it need an apostrophe? What about full stop after it? The appropriate punctuation mark will change depending on the type of abbreviation ñ click here to learn more. Apostrophe Apos...
There are two types of brackets: round brackets and square brackets. Round brackets are used for parenthesis while square brackets are used for clarification. This week, we’ll look at how to use both types of brackets as well as other ways to offset a parenthesis. Parenthesis A parenthesis is a word or phrase inserted into a grammatically-complete sentence as an explanation or afterthought. The sentence would still make sense if the parenthesis was removed. There are three main ways to mark off a parenthesis: Click here to make sure you don’t confuse em dashes with hyphens. Round brackets Daisy’s parents (Sally and James) are visiting France next mo...
A hyphen is a short dash which is used to link words together. Last week, we learned how to use hyphens in compound words. Today, we will look at how to use hyphens when adding a prefix to another word, how to use hyphens to denote word breaks, and how to use hyphens to stand in for repeated parts of words in lists. Using Hyphens to Join Prefixes to Other Words What is a prefix? A prefix is a collection of letters that is added to the beginning of a word in order to modify its meaning. Prefixes are not usually words in their own right. Here are some examples of prefixes: un- pre- multi- post- super- Do I need to use a hyphen every time I add a prefix to a word?...
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