by Donna | Jan 16, 2013
In my language arts series for grades two through twelve, I have a weekly lesson called “Wacky Words.” (Yeah, I’m all about alliteration. Um, Language Lady??!!) Anyway, the title fits a little better than calling them homophone lessons because not all confusing word are true homophones. Some are just, well, confusing–and wacky!
Here are some tricks and tips I have used recently in a Wacky Word lesson. Maybe some of these will help you remember which word is which (not witch!). Smile…
1. Hear—There is an ear in hear.
2. Here—There is not an ear in here.
3. There—It is here and there. There is a here in there!
4. Their—The word heir, which can mean ownership, is in the word their, and their is a pronoun that shows ownership!
5. See—Do you see two eyes in the word see ?
6. Boar–Boar has an a and is an animal.
7. Then—Then has an e and means next. According to one of my students (Isaac!), then means when.
8. Isle— Isle is like the word island.
9. Chord—Chord has an h like chorus (both musical).
10. Compliment—Compliment has an i–I like compliments.
11. Sensor—Sensor relates to the senses.
12. Herd—Herd of deer—almost the same letters in a different order!
13. Heard—Heard has the word ear in it
14. Through—It is rough when you go through hard times
15. Threw— He threw a new screw.
16. Pair—Love is in the air for this loving pair.
17. Pare—After he caught it, he was gong to pare the hare.
18. Pear—A pear half looks like an ear—and has the word ear in it.
19. Desert—has one s and you only want to be stuck in the desert one time!
20. Dessert—has two s’—and you want two desserts!
21. Main—The main (for first) murderer was Cain—both spelled ain.
22. Mane—The lion has a mane and is not tame!
23. Its—pronoun that shows ownership—never use an apostrophe to show ownership to a pronoun; that makes a contraction.
24. It’s—always say the two words uncontracted—if you say it is when you see this word, you will never use it’s for possession—the dog lost it’s (it is!?) collar—WRONG.
25. Sense— He was tense, so he lost his sense.
26. Cents—There are one hundred cents in a dollar and one hundred years in a century.
27. Since— Since the prince was tense he began to wince.
28. Presence— Can you think of a trick?
29. Present—have you ever heard the saying that “the present is a true present”?
by Donna | Jan 9, 2013
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Wordy Wednesday!
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Welcome to Wordy Wednesday! Did you know that strengthlessnesses is the longest word containing only one (albeit very repeating) vowel? Neither did I. And I don’t really care for it. I mean, it is cumbersome to say–and that is a whole lot of e’s and s’s to remember to spell the crazy word.
But I love unique and unusual–and strengthlessnesses is definitely both of those! Here are some vitals about this “longest word containing only one (albeit very repeating) vowel”:
1. It is a noun–did you know that when a word ends in ness, it is almost always a noun? This helps with standardized testing greatly. Ness words are nearly always nouns, so in a “fill in the blank” type of assignment, if the word in question ends in ness, it has to go in a spot where a noun fits.
Tricky Trick to Help It Stick: We have students learn key words to remember things. For instance, to remember that ness words are nearly always nouns, memorize a key word or two that you know is a noun and that ends in ness.
Other ness nouns: happiness, hopefulness, craziness, gratefulness, joyfulness, smartness
2. It has to do with having strength–we teach our students to think about what you already know–anytime–but especially when approaching a new word. Is there anything about the word strengthlessnesses that you already know?
a. You know what its base means. You already what strength means!
b. You know that less means less or not having that quality. (We do a lot of root and affix studies here!)
Because of those two “things you already know,” you can know that strengthlessnesses has something to do with not having strength (i.e. less strength).
Note: You know more than you think you know! Repeat this over and over to yourself: “I know more than I think I know. I know more than I think I know.” Use what you know to learn more!
3. It can be spelled syllable-by-syllable (if you are a biphonic man or biphonic woman!): strength-less-ness-es.
4. You can also make up a trick to remember how to spell it, such as “It contains four e’s and six s’s. Or that it has four syllables–which tells you that it will have at least four vowels in it (or y’s acting like vowels)–because a syllable always contains at least one vowel. A vowel is what makes a syllable!
5. You can learn the variations of this word–because you can remember from your vocabulary studies with Language Lady that suffixes (affixes added to the ends of words) might change the SPELLING of the base word (pity is changed to piti in pitiful) but does not change the MEANING of the base word. Even with three suffixes added (less, ness, and es), the base word of strength still means strength.
a. stengthless–adjective meaning without strength (less words are often adjectives!)
b. strengthlessly–adverb meaning without strength (ly words are often adverbs)
c. strengthelessness–a noun describing someone or something that is without strength (ness words are often nouns)
d. strengthlessnesses–a noun that means more than one someone or something that is without strength (es makes the word plural).
So there you have it–the longest word with only one repeating vowel. Did you know that you could learn so much from one word? You know a lot more than you think you know! Smile…
by Donna | Jan 8, 2013
Students writing stories this week? Parents/teachers helping kids with stories this week? Follow this “describing tip” we use with our student to help with the descriptions in your writing:
“Only use an adjective that will cause your reader to have a different picture in his mind than he would have without the adjective.”
For example, do not write “small, wooden, isolated cabin.” The picture that a reader gets when reading that is not much different than he would get if he just read “cabin.” By their nature, most cabins are small, wooden, and isolated (or at least we picture them as so).
Only use an adjective if it creates a different picture of the noun than the noun alone paints. Use specific and vivid adjectives–or omit them altogether.
P.S. Are you following us on Facebook? We offer a lot more tips and tidbits daily at our Facebook page than we can get put up on the blog. Join us!
by Donna | Jul 13, 2011
I missed Wordy Wednesday, and it’s nearly time for another one! Keeping with our root word theme, today we are going to look at TEN and variations of it.
TEN, TENS, TEND, TENU
Definition: STRETCH or THIN
What words do we already know with this root? What can we know about each word—even if we do not know it before?
- tension
- extend
- tendency
- tendon
- tent
- distend
- intent
- tenable
- attention
- detention
- extent
- retention
- ostentatious
- malcontent
- potent
by Donna | Jul 8, 2011
So why do you need to know the difference between subjective and objective pronouns if you are not likely to say Me going to town or Give that to I?
The problem with the subjective and objective pronoun does not occur when only one pronoun is present (though I do occasionally hear someone say something like, “Them aren’t ripe yet…”
The problem comes when you have two pronouns at or near the beginning of your sentence (subjective pronouns, hopefully!) or two pronouns at or near the end of your sentence (objective pronouns, hopefully!):
Subjective:
1. She and I are coming over.
2. He and she are late.
Objective:
1. Give that gift to him and her.
2. We will present them and her with a gift later.
“Single Pronoun Test”: The key to using the correct pronouns in this case is to say each pronoun by itself in the sentence (without the second one) to see if it sounds correct:
1. Correct: She and I are coming over.
a. She is coming over.
b. I am coming over.
2. Incorrect: Her and I are coming over.
a. Her is coming over (wrong!).
b. I am coming over.
3. Correct: Give that gift to him and her.
a. Give that gift to him.
b. Give that gift to her.
4. Incorrect: Give that give to him and she.
a. Give that gift to him.
b. Give that gift to she (wrong!).
The problem also occurs with a pronoun and noun combination:
1. Correct: Jon and I are coming over.
a. Jon is coming over.
b. I am coming over.
2. Incorrect: Jon and me are coming over.
a. Jon is coming over.
b. Me is coming over (wrong!).
3. Correct: Give that gift to Jake and her.
a. Give that gift to Jake.
b. Give that gift to her.
4. Incorrect: Give that gift to Jake and she.
a. Give that gift to Jake.
b. Give that gift to she (wrong!).
Again, unless you are 100% sure of your subjective and objective pronouns (and even then you might have tricky situations in which the “Single Pronoun Test” would help), you can run into problems with pronoun use.
Use the “Single Pronoun Test” when you are unsure—and you will almost always “hear” the correct way to write it/speak it.
