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    Common Spelling Mistakes in IELTS

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    Khurshida Khushvaktova
    The document discusses common spelling mistakes made by IELTS students. It covers issues like single/double consonants, weak vowel sounds, spelling changes when words change form, silent letters, and frequently confused word pairs. It also lists some notoriously tricky English words of foreign origin.

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    Common Spelling Mistakes in IELTS

    Uploaded by

    Khurshida Khushvaktova
    178 views1 page
    The document discusses common spelling mistakes made by IELTS students. It covers issues like single/double consonants, weak vowel sounds, spelling changes when words change form, silent letters, and frequently confused word pairs. It also lists some notoriously tricky English words of foreign origin.

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    The document discusses common spelling mistakes made by IELTS students. It covers issues like single/double consonants, weak vowel sounds, spelling changes when words change form, silent letters, and frequently confused word pairs. It also lists some notoriously tricky English words of foreign origin.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    178 views1 page

    Common Spelling Mistakes in IELTS

    Uploaded by

    Khurshida Khushvaktova
    The document discusses common spelling mistakes made by IELTS students. It covers issues like single/double consonants, weak vowel sounds, spelling changes when words change form, silent letters, and frequently confused word pairs. It also lists some notoriously tricky English words of foreign origin.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 1

    Common Spelling Mistakes in IELTS

    Spelling is huge concern for my IELTS students. Writing scores are 25% determined by vocabulary, which includes spelling
    accuracy. Too many spelling mistakes can also seriously bring down your score in IELTS Listening.
    This list of common IELTS spelling mistakes includes some of the words most likely to appear in the test. Try to master these
    basic rules in order to minimise poor spelling in IELTS.

    Single and double consonants


    Spelling mistakes are common when single or double consonants occur nearby in a word.
    A single consonant is followed by a double consonant:
    Across, Process, Harass, Disappoint, Recommend, Tomorrow, Professor, Necessary
    A double consonant is followed by a single consonant:
    Parallel, Apparent, Exaggerate, Occasion, Occur (but Occurred), Commit (but Committed)
    Some common words with two pairs of consonants:
    Success, Possess, Access, Assess, Address, Accommodation, Embarrass, Millennium

    Weak vowel sounds


    Some words are difficult to spell because they contain the schwa or [ə], a weak vowel sound. It is almost impossible to know how to spell
    such words from their sound alone.
    Examples of words containing more than one schwa include:
    Separate (adj.), Definite, Desperate, Temperature, Literature, General, Relevant, Category
    Other problematic schwa words include:
    Describe, Decline, Despite; but Dispute, Discrete, Display
    Capable, Achievable, Understandable; but Possible, Visible, Accessible
    Performance, Attendance, Ignorance; but Independence, Sentence, Existence
    Sometimes the schwa sound conceals a barely-pronounced [r]:
    Opportunity, Pursue, Persuade, Surprise

    Changes of spelling when words change form


    A consonant can change when a noun becomes an adjective:
    Benefit > Beneficial; Influence > Influential; Circumstance > Circumstantial
    A vowel can change or be lost when a verb becomes a noun:
    Maintain > Maintenance; Pronounce > Pronunciation, Argue > Argument
    A vowel may double when a noun becomes a verb:
    Success > Succeed; Excess > Exceed; Process > Proceed
    A final consonant is often doubled when a verb changes form:
    Occur > Occurred; Refer > Referred; Begin > Beginning

    Silent letters in consonant clusters


    [nm] in Environment, Government
    [nm] in Column, Autumn
    [sc] in Science, Conscious, Discipline, Fascinate, Ascend, Descend
    [xc] in Excite, Exceed, Exception, Excellent, Excited
    [dg] in Knowledge, Acknowledge (but just [g] in Privilege, Oblige)
    [th] clusters in ordinals: Eighth, Twelfth, Hundredth

    Pairs of frequently confused spellings in IELTS


    Till ≠ Until (not *untill)
    Lose ≠ Loose (one is a verb; the other is an adjective)
    Affect ≠ Effect (one is a common verb; the other is its noun form)
    Forth ≠ Fourth (one means ‘forward’; the other means ‘number four’)
    Fourth but Forty (not *fourty)
    High but Height (not *hight)
    Great but Grateful (not *greatful)
    Precede ≠ Proceed (one means ‘go before’; the other means ‘go ahead’)
    Principle ≠ Principal (one means ‘truth’; the other means ‘main’)
    Site ≠ Sight (one is a place; the other is something to see, as in sightseeing not *siteseeing)
    Copywriter ≠ Copyright (one writes advertising; the other means ‘intellectual property’)

    Finally, some notoriously tricky spellings in English


    Here are 10 English words of foreign origin that even native speakers have difficulty spelling!
    Amateur, Entrepreneur, Hierarchy, Liaison, Medieval, Miscellaneous, Queue, Questionnaire, Rhythm, Vacuum

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