by Donna | May 29, 2013
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| Picture by Lisa Rivera |
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Oh my word! My tips and tricks for peek, peak, and pique aren’t nearly as cute and memorable as the ones Lisa Rivera has created in the picture above! In our curriculum materials, and on the web, I don’t have access to that kind of graphic representation of words. I might have to look into that in the future!
In the meantime, her picture says a thousand words–okay, well really just three:
1. Peek
a. Verb meaning a secretive look–And then I am going to peek into the package.
b. Noun meaning a small glance–She took a peek into the package.
c. Thus, the two EYES in the middle of the word peek in the graphic. (We do have that in our books, but we just tell it not show it–showing it is so much better!)
2. Peak
a. Verb meaning to reach the highest point—They said that the dancer was going to peak at just the right time.
b. Noun meaning the highest point—They reached the mountain’s peak.
c. Adjective meaning highest point—They were at their peak performance.
d. Love the graphic with the A being a high, mountainous point.
3. Pique’
a. Verb meaning to arouse curiosity–They really tried to pique’ our attention with those pictures.
b. Noun meaning resentment–He slammed the door in a fit of pique’. (Use it interchangeably with “quick anger.”
c. Noun or adjective meaning nubby fabric–He wore his pique’ bright yellow polo shirt.
d. The verb is the most common meaning; and thus, we see the cat at the bottom of the q in the picture because “curiosity killed the cat.” CLEVER!
If you don’t have that great picture above, here are ways to remember these three:
1. Peek–has two e’s, and we have two eyes and peek with our eyes
2. Peak—not two e’s OR They have a lEAK in the pEAK of their roof.
3. Pique’–Ends with que—question begins with que
Happy Wordy Wednesday! If you like our blog, share it with others! Put the FB link on your timeline, so others can learn with Language Lady each week! Smile…
by Donna | May 15, 2013
In my complete language arts books, I have a weekly lesson called “Wacky Words.” When I began writing language arts books for a different publisher fourteen years ago, I did not have this section in my books.
Then I began testing…and testing…and testing…my materials. As I tested them, I discovered that even mature writers have difficulties with homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings). Then along came message boards, email groups, and FaceBook, and I discovered EVERYBODY has trouble with homophones. From these experiences, the Wacky Word lessons were born.
This week I was thinking of the plays that our daughter is directing for a community youth program called The Young Playwrights. I have seen the word playwrights before, but this week, it struck me that we do not have that word in our Wacky Word lessons with write, right, and rite.
Then, of course, I thought more (thinking is what I do!) and wondered why, if the children are writing plays, the term is not playwrite. So…that takes us to this Wordy Wednesday/Wacky Word post!
The picture above gives us some idea of why the word is playwright and not playwrite. The picture is of a wheelwright shop–that is, a shop in which one crafts wheels.
Though the word “wright” is most commonly associated with crafting with wood (wheelwright), the word “wright” is used in other contexts to indicate crafting or creating as well:
playwright
wheelwright
shipwright
millwright
wainwright
In that way, a playwright is not simply “writing” a play, but he or she is “crafting” something–perhaps he or she is even meticulously creating the script, like a wheelwright meticulously creates wheels.
So our four “Wacky Words” for “Wordy Wednesday” can be remembered with the following tips:
1. Write–to pen or scribe the written word
2. Right–correct; opposite of wrong; from the fight, might, light family, phonetically speaking
3. Rite–a ritual or ceremony; a rite of passage (This makes the Rite-Aid stores all spelled wrong–unless they mean “aid” for a ceremony or passage, which I don’t think they mean. I think they want to say that their stores give the “right” kind of aid/assistance.)
4. Wright–a crafter, especially of wooden creations
by Donna | Apr 20, 2013
Are you confused by antidote and anecdote–like I have been a lot of the time?
Remember these tips:
~antidote–has anti in it, like an antibiotic–so it is a treatment, like an antibiotic
~anecdote–a little tidbit of info (an/ec/dote—not ECT….just EC...I often misspelled this one!)
by Donna | Apr 20, 2013
It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s…..you want to say it is!
by Donna | Apr 20, 2013
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| Would you take adviCe from this guy? Or do you like to have more sophisticated people adviSe you? |
Anybody out there tired of seeing people give other people adviSe (zuh–wrong one!) and trying to adviCe (suh–wrong one!) them? Yeah, me too.
Generally speaking, when you have two word choices with C and S as their options for spelling, it is because you need two completely different sounds:
-adviCe—The c is here because this word needs the soft sound of C (suh)
-adviSe–The s is here because this word needs the hard sound of s (zuh)
Remember: When a c is followed by an e, i, or y, it usually says its soft sound–suh.
Also remember that when a multi-syllable word has se in it as the end of a syllable, it often makes the zuh sound: please, wise, fuse, close, etc. (though certainly not always).
The real key is that there ARE two spellings–and one is the noun and is soft (adviCe) and one is the verb and is hard (adviSe).
When you set out to adviSe somebody, be sure you have enough wisdom to give sound adviCe….. 🙂
