The History of the English Language

This is simply astounding. My words aren't needed.

Source: Source: Greg

Doubling consonants rules

In my first class of a new course, the subject of spelling came up, but because I didn't want to interrupt the flow of what we were doing at that time, I promised them that I'd explain the rules in the following class. This post accompanies that explanation.

One of the "strange" things about English language is the spelling, and one of the pet hates of learners is the doubling of consonants. Why do we have to spell "swimming" and "running", but "cooking" and "playing"?

There are rules regarding this which apply to endings -ed (past tenses, past participle), -ing (gerund, present participle), -er (comparative ) and -est (superlative):

1. If it's a one-syllable word and it ends in one vowel + a consonant, the final consonant is doubled: drop-dropped, swim-swimming, thin-thinner-thinnest.


2. If it has more than one syllable, we only double the final consonant if it satisfies rule #1 and if the final syllable is stressed: begin-beginning, prefer-preferred but visit-visited, endanger-endangered.


3. Exception: we don't double w, x, or y: sew-sewing, box-boxing, sway-swaying.


4. Another exception: In British English, l is doubled even though the final syllable isn't stressed: travel-travelled, cancel-cancelling; in American English, l is only doubled if the final syllable is stressed, but most of the time, they prefer one "l".

Can you think of words ending in -ed, -ing-, -er or -est associated with the above images?

Practice or Practise?

Practice or Practise? Both sound the same: /ˈpræktɪs/, but one is a noun and the other is a verb. The Americans don't make it better by spelling both the same way: practice.

The way I remember it is very simple. Noun comes before Verb in our alphabet, and similarly, C comes before S; therefore, the N corresponds to the C, and the V corresponds to the S; in other words, practice is the noun, and practise is the verb!

       

20 Most Commonly Misspelt Online Word Search Activity

Thanks to Nik Peachey and Janet Bianchini, I had the chance to put this online embeddable word search to the test. The pedagogical benefits of doing word searches (especially on paper) in classes is highly dubious, and I remember, with horror, how a CLIL teacher I worked with was so fond of doing group activities on them as a means of learning vocabulary. When I suggested other games, he went for bingo in a big way and promptly started using it all the time! Talk about variety!

Anyway, I digress. Being a paperless preacher, I'm naturally pleased to learn of this program. As I mentioned in Janet's blog, I believe word searches have a valid place in our teaching vocabulary resources box, but more as homework, or in the computer lab, as part of a range of other activities rather than using up valuable class time. I also believe, as does David Deubelbeiss, that it's useful to have students prepare a word search themselves. I'd done this last year with a class where a group was assigned the task of preparing a word search on rugby. Doing that on this word search program would have been a piece of cake, and would have freed the students to do other tasks.

Even though I'm very fond of this website, I did find some niggles. I found no way of making corrections, so you'd need to be very careful with your typo. I've requested the creators for some improvements, especially the ability to remove the clues. If and when they comply, I will prepare another word search.

Meanwhile, have a go at this (and your students, too!). Search for these 20 commonly misspelt words (apologies for the inconsistent upper- and lower-case letters). When you've finished, prepare a word search of your own commonly misspelt words. If you copy the embed code and send it to me as a comment, I'll publish it.

To select the word, all you need to do is to click on the first letter of the word, and then click on the last letter. You'll see that the word automatically gets highlighted for a second or two. Or, you can do it the other way by clicking on the last letter first.

Make Your Own Word Search now!

Tricky Spelling Game, Part 5

      

To play other versions of this game, or my other games, go to Zondle's web site, click PLAY, then MY TEACHER, then type in this user name: acLiLtocLiMB.

If you have any problems, please leave a comment.

Tricky Spelling Game, Part 4

    

To play other versions of this game, or my other games, go to Zondle's web site, click PLAY, then MY TEACHER, then type in this user name: acLiLtocLiMB.

If you have any problems, please leave a comment.

Tricky Spelling Game, Part 3

   

To play other versions of this game, or my other games, go to Zondle's web site, click PLAY, then MY TEACHER, then type in this user name: acLiLtocLiMB.

If you have any problems, please leave a comment.

Tricky Spelling Game, Part 2

In this game there are 2 types of question; you either have to listen to a word, and then spell it, or the word will be shown to you, and when it disappears, you'll have to spell it.

To play other versions of this game, or my other games, go to Zondle's web site, click PLAY, then MY TEACHER, then type in this user name: acLiLtocLiMB.

If you have any problems, please leave a comment.

Tricky Spelling Game, Part 1

To play other versions of this game, or my other games, go to Zondle's web site, click PLAY, then MY TEACHER, then type in this user name: acLiLtocLiMB.

If you have any problems, please leave a comment.

Superlative Adjectives Online Game (Zondle)

A simple game on 10 superlative adjectives. Don't forget to type 'the' in the answers, for example, 'the best'. You can play other versions of this game at the site itself by following the instructions in the next paragraph.

To play my other games, go to Zondle's web site, click PLAY, then MY TEACHER, then type in this user name: acLiLtocLiMB.

If you have any problems, please leave a comment.

Comparative Adjectives Online Game (Zondle)

A simple game on 10 comparative adjectives. You can play other versions of this game at the site itself by following the instructions in the next paragraph.

To play my other games, go to Zondle's web site, click PLAY, then MY TEACHER, then type in this user name: acLiLtocLiMB.

If you have any problems, please leave a comment.

Zondle again! Try this game! Spell the plural of the spoken word

As I mentioned in the previous post, Zondle is a beta site, and I can't help but be excited about it. They have a whole section on phonics which is screaming to be investigated. I've been doing some tests and suggesting certain things to the creators. Meanwhile, here's a simple game on plurals.

There are 10 easy questions (to begin with). You will hear a word being pronounced. Listen to the word, but spell the PLURAL form, and not, like the instruction says, the word itself. Feedback will be much appreciated.

You can play other versions of this game at the site itself by following the instructions in the next paragraph.

To play other games, go to Zondle's web site, click PLAY, then MY TEACHER, then type in this user name: acLiLtocLiMB.

Plurals Spelling rules + Games

Regular Plurals

The plural of most nouns are formed by adding 's' at the end of the singular noun: cup - cups, snake - snakes, bicycle - bicycles. However, there are some special cases.

We add 'es' to nouns that end in s, x, z, ch, or sh.

bus - buses
box - boxes
waltz - waltzes
match - matches
brush - brushes

We also add 'es' to nouns ending with o.

echo - echoes
tomato - tomatoes
potato - potatoes
hero - heroes

However, not all nouns ending with o have an -es ending.

For nouns ending in a vowel + o, we just add an s.

kangaroo - kangaroos
radio - radios
zoo - zoos

The following words also have just an s added. Most 'new' words also follow this rule.

commando - commandos
concerto - concertos
Eskimo - Eskimos
kilo - kilos
logo - logos
photo - photos
piano - pianos
solo - solos
soprano - sopranos

Some words ending with an o can have either s or es added.

tornado - tornados, tornadoes
mosquito - mosquitos, mosquitoes
volcano - volcanos, volcanoes

For nouns ending in a consonant + y, we remove the y and add ies.

baby - babies
city - cities
ferry - ferries
lady - ladies
party - parties
strawberry - strawberries

However, if the y is preceded by a vowel, we just add an s.

holiday - holidays
monkey - monkeys
boy - boys

Irregular plurals

For irregular nouns ending in f or fe, we remove the f or fe, and add ves.

calf - calves
half - halves
knife - knives
leaf - leaves
thief - thieves
wife - wives
loaf - loaves

Some nouns ending in f are considered regular.

belief - beliefs
cliff - cliffs
proof - proofs

These nouns below, mostly of old English origin, are irregular plurals that do not follow the other spelling rules. The plurals have a different vowel sound from its singular version.

foot - feet
goose - geese
man - men
mouse - mice
person - people
tooth - teeth
woman - women

Some nouns referring to groups of animal have the same singular and plural form.

bison - bison
deer - deer
moose - moose
salmon - salmon
sheep - sheep
trout - trout

Words of foreign origin have special plurals, which generally follow the original rules.

analysis - analyses
bacterium - bacteria
cactus - cacti
fungus - fungi
criterion - criteria
medium - media

Here are some games for you to practise. These games have been designed to be played more than once if you want to reap the benefits. The objective is to keep on improving your scores, and you will learn the plural forms even if subconsciously.

 Arcade Game: shoot the plural form!

The list of nouns changes each time you play a new game!

 

Point and click the regular plural form

 Point and click the irregular plural form