Word for Wednesday: Believe

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Our Word for Wednesday theme for 2023 is tricky spelling words. This year, after sharing the definition and etymology of each week’s word, we will end every blog post with some tips and tricks to help you spell it.

Last week we looked at the word beginning and this week's word is believe.

If you believe something, it means you regard it to be true. If you believe in someone it means you are confident in their ability to do a specific thing. 

Here is believe used in some example sentences:

  • The teacher didn’t believe that the dog ate my homework.
  • I believe you will reach your goal.
  • She believed in god.

Believe comes from the Middle English ‘bileven’, which in turn comes from the Old English ‘belyfan’ which means ‘to have confidence in someone’. 

Until the seventeenth century, this word was more commonly spelt 'beleeve' . The more recent spelling – believe – follows the popular spelling rule 'i' before 'e' except after 'c'. You can view the ie words spelling list and learn more about the word believe in Unit 21 of the Spellzone course.

A quick way to remember how to spell believe is using the sentence: ‘Try not to believe a lie.’ Notice that believe has the word lie in it.

 


11 Jan 2023
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