by Donna | Jun 9, 2011
So many of my students have trouble spelling today’s day of the week! Wednesday is definitely not phonetic, so students (and adults!) get stuck on the spelling of it. Most people say Wednesday without the sound of the d at all.
We teach our students to spell difficult words in many ways, giving them as many tools as we possibly can.
1. Syllable by syllable—longer words that are phonetic in nature can often be syllabicated and spelled syllable by syllable by a student who is fairly phonetically-savvy: con/se/quence.
2. Tricks and mnemonics—we call these “Tricky Tricks to Help It Stick” and use them often with our “Wacky Words”—words that have a wacky counterpart that can be confusing, such as the homophones their, there, and they’re. I had an elementary student this year who told the class that they could easily spell Nebuchadnezzar if they just divided it up and pronounced the ch as choo (not kuh): Neb/U/Chad/Nez/Zar! Of course, any tricks that help a person are handy tools to have (though the trick must help that person in order to be effective).
3. Visual tricks—many visual people spell by “seeing” the word—its shape, its sequence of letters (and the shapes those letters make), etc.
4. Memorization—some people are just naturally good spellers (it is now thought to be a specific skill set separate from intelligence) and can memorize a word’s spelling once it is seen.
More on “Wednesday” in the next post!
by Donna | Jun 7, 2011
Another Wacky Word pair for you!
With all of the storms in the US over the past month, I have seen my share of lightning/lightening used incorrectly. So, let’s get it right before the next bout of bad weather! 🙂
Lightning
1. This is the electricity in the sky!
2. It’s light + ning
Lightening
1. This is when something is lightened or made lighter.
2. It comes from the base word lighten–This will lighten my load.
3. Lighten+ing
If you think of the base word of each, you will not mistaken them for each other so easily–light (for lightning) and lighten (for lightening).
I hope the amount of lightning (and thunder and tornadoes!) starts to lighten (lessen) soon!
by Donna | Jun 6, 2011
I love a new site I just discovered–and thought any wordy people (or anyone writing practically anything–letters, thank-you notes, stories, essays, etc.) would enjoy hearing about it.
It is called Phrase Up–and I give it a hearty thumbs up! This amazing “search engine” allows you to type part of a phrase (colloquialisms, analogies, metaphors, or just common phrases) and put an * in the parts that you are missing. Then voila! It brings up a list of possible phrases that you might be looking for. (Watch out! It’s addicting for wordsmiths!)
Again, this may be a great help to get just the right phrase or tone in a cover letter or thank-you note. To get the perfect metaphor for a story. And so much more. I think you’ll like it!
https://www.phraseup.com/
by Donna | May 30, 2011
Another pet peeve of mine is popping up everywhere, so I thought I would share with our readers what it is and why it sounds so incorrect to me.
This pet peeve is people using the preposition with as an adverb (or, in the case of my daughter–with an understood object of the preposition–her way of using grammar terms to justify its use!).
Here is the run down on what I see as this pet peeve’s problem:
1. First of all, yes, words have multiple uses and parts of speech everywhere all the time. This is one reason why we advocate only using grammar programs for children that have the words used–not lists of words in which the student is to identify what part of speech it is. A part of speech is determined by the word’s use, not the word itself:
a. jump–a student might determine that jump is a verb…which it can be. But it can also be a noun (she made a huge jump) and an adjective (it was a jump start program).
b. to–a student might determine that to is a preposition…which it can be. But it can also be part of a verbal phrase known as an infinitive (to run).
2. With is not one of those “multiple use” kinds of words. With is almost always (and probably always) a preposition.
a. With is a preposition because a preposition is a word that shows possession, has an object with it (the object of the preposition), and is the beginning of a prepositional phrase: with her, with the show, with the leader.
b. With is seldom, if ever, used alone as an adverb (like many other prepositions can be):
i. She is going along. (Along is an adverb here.)
ii. She ran along the trail. (Along is a preposition here.)
iii. I told him to jump down. (Down is an adverb here.)
iv. He ran down the street. (Down is a preposition here.)
3. With is not an adverb by itself. It is not the kind of word that can stand alone as another part of speech. It is a preposition that needs an object to show a relationship (with whom? with what?).
So…tell who you are going with–and use with as a preposition, the way it was intended to be used! Smile…
by Donna | May 30, 2011
The other day as I was reading aloud to my sons out of a book about Clara Barton, I came across a sentence that i read, then re-read, then re-read again. It was about Clara Barton, the founder of the US Red Cross during the Civil War, becoming weary on the battle front. I was sure that the author had misused the word weary–and really needed wary. It was then and there that I decided that the concept of weary and wary warranted its own “Tricky Trick to Help It Stick”!
Weary is a word that means tired or overwhelmed from something, such as too much work, no rest, difficult circumstances, etc.
Wary is a word that means to be paranoid or suspicious.
Both words are adjectives, meaning they describe nouns (or sometimes pronouns, in the case of predicate adjectives: I am weary.).
So, what can we use for a Tricky Trick?
Well, I will propose one that has worked for me since my Clara Barton encounter–see if it helps you as well:
1. The day was dreary, so she grew weary–just remember that the spellings are the same–dreary and weary (dreary weather makes you tired or weary!).
2. The salesman was scary, so the buyers were wary–just remember that the spellings are the same–scary and wary (a scary saleperson makes you wary or suspicious/paranoid).
Now, I hope you don’t get weary in your grammar studies–or wary when you write a sentence using weary/wary!
by Donna | May 23, 2011
In writing Mother’s Day, I reminded you that the day belongs to one mother–your mother. Thus, you write Mother, then you show possession to the word mother: Mother’s Day.
Possession can be so tricky because we think of whether the word is singular or possessive; we contemplate whether the apostrophe should be on the inside or outside of the s, etc. It doesn’t need to be that complicated! You are probably thinking too hard!
Tricky Trick to Help It Stick: Do not worry about whether the word you want to show possession to is singular or plural.
1. Just write the word you want to show possession to
2. Then see if it does or does not end in an s:
a. If it DOES end in an s, just put apostrophe on the outside of the s that is already there (s’)
i. glass
ii. glass’ rim
b. It it does NOT end in an s, add apostrophe s (‘s)
i. cup
ii. cup’s rim
