• 3-minute read
• 14th September 2017

Spelling Tips: Tricky Vowels and Consonants

Some English words, like ‘plop’, are spelled exactly how they sound. However, not every word is quite as simple as ‘plop’. Some words like to keep you guessing.

It’s often these words – the ones that aren’t written the way they sound – that get spelled incorrectly. Usually, this comes down to one letter being wrong. Today, then, we’re looking at a few cases of tricky vowels and consonants.

Incorrect Vowel Choice

Since vowels can be pronounced in different ways, it’s easy to pick the wrong one in some words.

One commonly misspelled word, for example, is ‘separate’, which is often misspelled as ‘seperate’. The ‘e’ spelling may even seem closer to the standard pronunciation of this word, especially when it’s used as an adjective. But it should always be spelled with an ‘a’.

This shows us that it pays to be careful with certain words, as their pronunciation may not be a perfect guide to how they should be spelled. Other tricky terms include:

In some cases, the unusual spelling is because of the origin of the word (e.g. ‘cemetery’ has roots in the Greek word koimētērion, so the third ‘e’ comes from there). But in other cases, it’s just because two vowels sound similar. The key thing is checking any term you’re unsure about.

Incorrect Consonant Choice

Consonants can also vary in pronunciation. The letters ‘c’ and ‘g’, for example, have both hard (e.g. ‘carrot’ and ‘grape’) and soft (e.g. ‘celery’ and ‘ginger’) pronunciations.

This makes it easy to pick the wrong letter when spelling some words. ‘Absence’, for example, sounds like it should be spelled with a second ‘s’ (i.e. ‘absense’). But this is another word whose pronunciation is misleading.  In addition, it’s easy to miss a letter out in some combinations of consonants, such as the ‘c’ in ‘acquit’ or the second ‘n’ in ‘environment’. Other examples include:

There are even a few words that people misspell despite their pronunciations! ‘Supersede’, for example, is often wrongly spelled as ‘supercede’ because we spell the word ‘cede’ with a ‘c’.

As with vowel errors, the key thing when you’re unsure about which consonant to use in a word is looking it up in a dictionary. And if you need any more help, you can always ask a proofreader!