Sunday, 20 May 2012

‘I’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’, when the sound is double ‘ee’.

Running-through to be a spelling bee is really pathetic, if the case is of English language. Certainly English adores the cachet of global lingua franca, and is equipped with many good reasons and assets to attract the foreign learners, they find it simple to learn; a relaxed grammatical structure based on ancient Latin nonetheless, with its own exceptionality of simplicity; supplemented with metropolitan vocabulary; and assisting with its neutral gender; but enduring with spelling’s liability arises frowns on the other side.
Spellings are actually important for any one; the skill is used almost throughout the life. Spellings along with grammar are the tools to be a standard writer and help in good reading practices besides. Sometimes a minute spelling error in one’s resume or cover letter can lead the candidate towards the failure in his/her purpose, where the fault is taken as an inconsiderate approach towards serious matters.
How to spell correctly?  Is the most normally raised question by many learners. Fair or not the habit to learn correct spelling should be ingrained earlier in young’s. The responsibility lies on both parents and teachers to set the way for the young learners, they are needed to be encouraged to use safe spelling after learning and memorizing them accurately, the use of good handy dictionary is also helpful for the improvement. Kids should know the syllable structure of the words and better knowledge towards the word building including suffixes and prefixes, their exposure to the optional writing and reading for their self-pleasure without being scared of the criticism, along with the habit to look closely at words support them  for their spelling knowledge to get mature. Playing with word games like hangman, boggle, and scrabble are measured as additional approaches at schools and homes.
Basic strategies to write correct spellings are few but useful, in a sense that at least for certain situations we can follow them blindly as: a silent final ‘e’ is not dropped in compound words if a suffix begins with consonant, (careful) but the rule reversed in case of the vowel, (admirable). But never forget Likeable, rate able, saleable, sizable, unshakable are exclusions here. Another rule we have regarding placing double or single ‘l’, in making compounds double ‘ll’ becomes single as all + mighty=Almighty, joy + full = joyful. Letter ‘c’ is pronounced soft before the vowels ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’ e.g. icy or city, but with other vowels it sounds hard, as in comb and come. Many others interesting and customary rules are discussed by the linguists, regarding the use of ise/ize, able/ible; the dealing with ‘y’ in compound words; making formal plurals; considering the permanent nature of diagraphs; they all should be learnt carefully with all the exceptions as they are several in English.
Spellings being the mechanics of the language can never be avoided. Learn out of authentic sources; try a lot of practices and take every step to combat the weakness with confident learning for the perfection of the skills.

No comments:

Post a Comment