Spelling q4 2013

The Proof Angel is the trading name of Sarah Perkins, freelance editor and proofreader.www.theproofangel.co.uk or http://ow.ly/sNlFs © Sarah Perkins 2014

Spelling: December 2013

Remember the difference between:

• desert and dessert

You wouldn't think it could be hard would you? One is a large area ofarid land, while the other is a pudding (or perhaps a very sweet wine).

So the double "s" in the pudding stands for "sweet stuff". So you have2 Sugars in a dessert.

I saw a desert on a menu once, but I didn't order it. I was worried itmight be dry.

The old ones are the best!

• stationary and stationery

This is easy. You just think about who sells you the stationery: thestationer.

If you are not talking about anything to buy then you must be talkingabout being still, stationary.

The same thing works with:

• confectionery from the confectioner and

• jewellery from the jeweller.

But of course you are less likely to mess these two up, as spell checkwill help you.

• heard and herd

Heard using your ears.

Herd lots of animals. so there can't be Asingle one on its own. So there is no "a" init.

How to improve your spelling

My Mum used to say that the easiest way to learn to read was tosound everything out.

If you are used to doing that, there are only a few words based onforeign languages that will catch you out.

The same trick works when you are spelling but only when youpronounce the words correctly. Bad pronunciation is the root of manycommon errors, such as:

• "Could of" & "should of" instead of "could have" & "shouldhave".

• Using “president” instead of “precedent”, as in "I can't allowthat exception as it would set a president".

Read more at:

http://ow.ly/sPklG

Spelling traps

Here is a nice little summary of the different problems arising inspelling:

http://ow.ly/sPkx0

It is rather depressing that there are 10 of them. And that excludesthe universal cause of problems not paying enough attention to whatwe are doing.

As ever, it is much easier to spot the cause than the cure!

Spelling words ending in ise or –ize

In British English it is a matter of personal preference whether to endyour verbs with ise or ize.

Just remember:

• Using both versions in the same piece looks odd. Make adecision about which form you will use and apply it to allrelevant words.

• If you are writing for an organisation (or publisher) checkwhether the house style says anything about this. The purposeof a house style is to make sure that everything produced bythe organisation looks as though one person produced it, sothey often cover this point.

www.theproofangel.co.uk or http://ow.ly/sNlFs © Sarah Perkins 2014

• If you prefer to use ize you need to remember that someverbs always end in ise. Because it would be too easyotherwise, wouldn't it?

The ise words you will come across regularly are:

• Advertise

• Compromise

• Despise

• Devise

• Disguise

• Exercise

• Franchise

• Improvise

• Merchandise

• Premise

• Reprise

• Supervise

• Surprise

• Televise

And here are some that are common for some of us, depending onwhat we do:

• Apprise

• Chastise

• Circumcise

• Comprise

• Demise

• Excise

• Incise

• Surmise

Of course it is a good idea to keep an eye on your spell checker tomake sure it is doing what you expect.

I keep a list of ideas for posts that occur to me when I am out andabout, but in general when I sit down to write a blog post I use theidea that prompted me to make a start. From time to time I look at the


list of ideas, and this one has been puzzling me. I'd typed ise words. ithad been autocorrected to "I've words". Sometimes a piece of paperis easier, isn't it?

Remember how to spell:

• because

At school, we were told that this is the answer to the question why, soyou use it to explain the cause of something, so the word includescause.

Some people find it easier to remember this sentence:

Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants.

• deliberate

The key is to remember the inner word.

It was a deLIBERATE plan to liberate the hostages.

• diarrhoea

Not a nice thing, and difficult to write on your sick note afterwards.Remember:

Diarrhoea: Dash In A Real Rush, Hurry Or Else Accident.

• eczema

Not the easiest word to sound out! Try this:

Even Clean Zealots MAy get eczema.

• embarrassed

Another one where you need to remember which consonants todouble:

We go Really Red and Smile Shyly when embarrassed.

• haemorrhage

Why are these unpleasant medical words so hard? As if there isn'tenough to cope with when you need this sort of spelling!

Help! Accident, Emergency Often Ruins Routine HospitalAppointments Giving Excitement.

• indispensable

Only the most able people are indispensable.


• innocent

It is amazing how many errors can slip into this word. Remember thissentence: IN NO CENTury is a murderer innocent.

• interrupt

The hard part is remembering the double r. But if you remember yourbasic manners it isn't nearly so difficult.

What do you know for certain about interrupting people? It is reallyrude.

That's Really Rude.

So there are 2 rs in the word interrupt

• jodhpurs

OK, so perhaps this isn't a word that you use every day. But when theneed arises, it is still an odd one to remember.

Context often helps us to remember. And what is usually around whenpeople have jodhpurs? A horse, of course.

The h goes in the middle of the word jodhpur, just as the horse is "inthe middle" of the rider: between their legs.

• liaison

This is another one of those words that always looks odd.

But remember that it is only dangerous if you fail to use your twoeyes.

Use them to check you have included the letter i twice.

• miniature

This is easy if you remember that the word means tiny, and there aretwo tiny words hiding in the middle of it. Those words are I & a.

So it is not, as many of us try to make it, minature.

It is miniature.

• necessary

This word is like a shirt. It has:

1 collar, and

2 sleeves

So it is necessary. Easy.


• pneumonia

One of those pesky words with extra letters. As if there isn't enough tocope with when the need arises for a word like pneumonia.

People Never Expect Us to get PNEUmonia.

• possessions

Very sweet word, possessions. You can tell that because it needs 4Sugars to make it right.

So it has double s twice.

• potassium

Now my bet is you don't use this word very often. But that doesn'tstop it being a pain in the neck, does it?

Potassium.

That's one Tea & 2 Sugars.

• separate

This is an easy one if you think about what you are doing.

Pull apart to separate.

• supersede

I avoided this word for years. I was in a rush towards the end of anaudit & wrote "SUPERCEDED" in large red letters all over some of theworkings. The manager spotted the error & made some very sarcasticcomments.

However, this is a word with a very unusual construction. It is the onlyword in the English language ending in sede. In contrast we haveantecede, concede, accede...

In amongst all those words, doesn't that make supersede a bit special?


Education

Spelling q4 2013