hello lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy today I have prepared a lesson to help you with your spelling now I love English obviously I've called myself English with Lucy but I have to admit spelling is really frustrating even for native speakers for proficient learners for lots of people unlike with some other languages it isn't always possible to predict how to spell an English word based on how it sounds and vice versa you can't always predict how to pronounce an English word based on how it's spelled or written however I do have some good news for you English spelling does have a number of rules and although there are always exceptions the majority of words do follow these patterns I know that many of us have predictive text and spell Checkers that highlight spelling errors and can help prevent embarrassing mistakes but it is still worth dedicating a little bit of time to learning some spelling rules so I have put together five super helpful tips that will allow you to improve your spelling in no time at all you will notice a great Improvement in your spelling by the end of this video at the end of the video I have also included a good old-fashioned spelling test so you might want a pen or paper with you and to help you master some of the key spelling rules we're going to have a look at some of today's top news stories and disclaimer the hilarious news headlines that follow are 100% not real before we start I want to remind you that as always I have created a gorgeous free PDF to go with this lesson in that PDF you will find all of the spelling rules that we cover in today's video it also contains lots of extra examples to really help you get your head around really understand English spelling I have also included a list of the most commonly misspelled words in English so if you really want to take your spelling to the next level make sure you download the PDF all you have to do is click on the link in the description box you enter your name and your email address you sign up to my mailing list and the PDF will arrive directly in your inbox after that you will automatically receive my free weekly PDFs alongside my news course updates and off offers it's a free service and you can unsubscribe at any time okay let's get started with the lesson let's take a look at the first headline from today's edition of the absolute best newspaper in the UK The ewl Gazette I was actually reading the first headline as I was drinking my morning cappuccino sip sip huray caffeine received scientists backing as the espresso route to to higher patient and client satisfaction do you get it sip sip hooray instead of hip hip hooray and espresso root instead of Express root I love word play in English and you'll often find a lot of similar puns in headlines British newspapers love playing with words and often the worst the joke or pun the better this humorous headline illustrates our first spelling rule i before e except after c i before e except after C it rhymes on everything this is one of the very first spelling rules that I learned at school it's really catchy but what does it mean well when we write a word with the letters i and e next to each other we usually put the I first and we saw this in the headline with the words patient and client here are some more common words that follow this rule we have friend niece thief and review the second part of this rule is except after c i before e except after C and this means that after the letter c the order switches and we write EI I we saw this with the word receive C comes first so i and e switch and it's e and i some more examples are receip perceive deceit and ceiling now this is English and there are always exceptions in fact we saw a couple in the headline with the word caffeine caffeine which is spelled EI and the word scientist which is spelled c i e even though the rule is i before e except after C I'm going to give you some more examples of exceptions to this Rule and I've also included even more in the PDF that goes with this lesson some really common words that are spelled EI are weird weird and this one is an exception because it's weird I always remember it that way it doesn't follow the rule because it's weird we also have foreign protein height and the one that catches so many people out there there we also have the names Neil and Keith and Neil is my husband's middle name and every time I'm filling in a formal or official document and I have to write his full name I have to stop and think when I write Neil just to double check because it feels alien to me to put E before I when I know the rule is i before e but Neil is an exception some words that are spelled c iie we have Society ancient and efficient efficient now that might seem like a lot of exceptions uh out of all the rules I'm going to teach you today this is perhaps the one that has the most exceptions if you're ever in doubt make sure you double check in a dictionary let's move on to the second headline that caught my attention rats dismayed as butterflies declared prettiest creature on subways okay this one left me a little bit confused I've seen quite a few Rats on the London Underground but never any butterflies sadly or maybe happily for the butterflies the second spelling rule I want to show you is this if a word ends in a consonant plus the letter Y we change the Y into I before adding a suffix in English we have five vowels A E I O and U all of the other letters are consonants apart from why which can be controversial that's not important here a suffix is a letter or letters added to the end of a word to create a new word let's look at one of the nouns in our headline butterfly ends in the consonant L plus the letter Y so if we want to make the word plural as we saw in the headline we need to change the Y into I before adding the suffix e s notice how we need to add e s to form the plural of this word not just s on its own this is wrong this is wrong this is correct butterflies f l i s we also saw this change with the adjective pretty now pretty ends in the consonant t plus y so the comparative and superlative forms are prettier and prettiest pretty prettier prettiest we changed the the Y to I and then add the suffix here are some more examples lucky plus ly luckily marry plus AG g e marriage try plus Ed tried cry plus e s cries and party plus e s parties remember with this rule we add e s not just s on its own to form the plural and the third person singular be careful when adding the suffix iing in we don't normally like to have two eyes together so keep the Y when adding ing fly plus ing flying not fleeing trying trying not tring now speaking of eyes don't forget to keep your eye out for exceptions see what I did there yeah in English we even have exceptions two exceptions and one of the most common is the word skiing ski plus ing skiing it's natural to want to write skying but it's skiing with two eyes and this one often catches my students out remember if a word ends in a vowel plus y there is no need to change the letter Y for example the words dismay and Subway from our headline both end in a vowel plus y so the Y stays dismay plus Ed dismayed Subway plus s subways here are some more examples we have jerseys buys surveyed enjoyed please be careful though there are several exceptions which we can see with some very common A1 y words for example daily paid and said careful with the pronunciation of said not say okay ready for your third headline beginner's luck upset judges suspect Foul Play a spelling B winner is spotted checking phone surely they shouldn't have allowed phones in the competition by the end of today's lesson you'll be ready to enter a spelling competition with no cheating necessary thank to me this headline clearly illustrates our next spelling rule when a word ends in a consonant vowel consonant pattern we double the final consonant before adding a suffix consonant plus vow plus consonant is often shortened to CVC we usually do this with one syllable words when we add a suffix that begins with a vow some of the most common suffixes to consider here are ing e d e r o r and e s t in Ed or EST in the headline we saw the words winner and spotted the base or root forms of both these words end in a consonant vowel consonant or CVC pattern so the final consonant is doubled when we add a suffix beginning with a vow win plus e r winner spot plus Ed spotted some more common examples are bigger hottest rubbing dropped and chatted this rule also applies when adding the suffix why mum becomes mummy we also have Daddy and sunny now we don't normally double the consonant when we add a suffix that begins with a consonant for example s or n SS plan plus s plans Fit Plus n SS Fitness one t there we also often double the final consonant with words that are stressed on the second syllable for example begin beginner upset upsetting refer referral we don't usually double the consonant if the word is stressed on the first syllable for example offer offered visit visitor open opening now there are of course exceptions to this rule one important exception is that in British English we sometimes double the final L even when the stress is on the first syllable in American English a single L is generally preferred for example traveler labeling cancelled Double L in British English single l in American English we're going to take a look at a few more differences between British and American spelling a little bit later okay let's look at our fourth headline content creator faces backlash after freely admitting to using Pets As writers now I absolutely swear this isn't me I love Diego dearly but he only ever provides me with inspiration and snuggles moving swiftly on to explain the rule we often drop the final E when we add a suffix beginning with a vowel we've already seen some common suffixes that begin with vowels such as e EST EST o r and ing in this headline the root word becomes Creator use becomes using and write becomes writers we don't normally drop the e if the suffix begins with a consonant for example freely useful agreement as always there are exceptions can you believe it can you believe there are exceptions for example we remove the E from argue to make the noun argument very common spelling mistake there argument no e in fact argument spelled like that even looks wrong to me I feel like the E should be there but no we also sometimes have alternative spellings to help us tell the difference between words for example to die as in the opposite of to live and to die with a Y as in to cut your hair or to permanently change the color of something dying dying pronounced in the same way spell differently okay let's move on to our final and perhaps most bizarre headline headline number five ape creates new app by hugging huge hat in bathtub oh what a headline now I am super excited about rule number five because to explain it we're going to have to take a brief dive into pronunciation my favorite topic so normally when a word has a CVC or consonant vowel consonant pattern the vowel in the middle is pronounced with a short sound for example hat pet win not hug if there is a silent e at the end of the word The Vow sound changes and is pronounced the same as the letter from the alphabet a e i o u so the a in hat becomes the a in hate the e in pet becomes the e in Pete the i in win becomes the i in wine the O in not becomes the O in note and the uh in hug becomes the U in huge I'm sorry but how cool is that that is the coolest rule ever this spelling rule can really help help you especially if you hear the word before you've ever seen it written now that's what we've got from the headlines but I have a couple more tips I'm going to go through super quickly because they are going to help you make big improvements to your spelling accuracy extra tip number one learn common consonant clusters English is jam-packed with consonant clusters and a consonant cluster is a group of consonants with no vowel in between it's a really good idea to learn how to spell and recognize common clusters like ght we find this cluster in many irregular past simple and past participle forms such as bought thought caught and fought and we also find it in other common words like write tonight eight and height notice how the letters GH are not pronounced they are silent and this can make spelling these words correctly particularly challenging we have so many silent letters in English and I've included some common words with silent letters in the PDF so make sure you download it the link is in the description box knowing those silent letters will help you with your pronunciation accuracy as well extra tip number two American or British my final tip for you is to be aware of the differences in American and British spelling we've already seen an example of this with the words which ended in L traveled for example but there are quite a few more differences that I would like to draw your attention to it doesn't really matter which spelling you choose but you should try to be consistent especially if you're taking a formal exam here are some common differences firstly in American English most people tend to drop the U in words that are spelled with the letters o Ur in British English for example color favor neighborhood also in American English a zed as we would call it or a z as they call it often replaces the s in many words ending in is e in British English for example organize analyze in British English both spellings are acceptable again just try to be consistent in British English some words that are spelled with a single L like skillful enroll and fulfill are spelled with a double l in American English the only thing we can agree on is to disagree I've left some more examples in the PDF for those of you who are really interested in learning more about the differences right it is time to see how many of these rules you remember grab a pen and paper it is time for a spelling test okay I need you to fill in the gaps or add the suffixes to the words on screen and I want you to pause the video and take your time when you're ready press play and I will give you the correct spelling along with the explanation okay here are your words please pause the video whilst you write your answers okay here are the answers receive n weird the rule is i before e except after C weird is a common exception to the rule because it's weird it doesn't follow the rules don't get caught out number two ladies replies Keys we only change Y into I when we have a consonant plus y like with the words lady and reply did you remember to add the e s after the I key ends in a vow plus y so the Y stays don't forget to share your scores in the comment section and tell me if you got any wrong which ones you found most difficult number three helper Runner opener we double the final consonant in the word run as we have a CVC pattern help ends in VCC and open is stressed on the first syllable so we don't double the consonant number four hopeful careful hateful we only usually drop the e when adding a suffix that begins with a vow and number five removal proposal reversal these words end in a silent E and we're adding a suffix that begins with a vow so the E is dropped okay how did you do what was your score out of 15 please let me know which ones you didn't get right the ones you got wrong so I know what to work on with you in the future don't forget to check out the PDF which has lots more examples and exceptions for you to study the link is there I really hope you enjoyed this lesson I hope you learned something if you like learning with me here on YouTube you will love my B1 B2 and C one courses they are 12we programs across the programs we teach reading listening pronunciation grammar vocabulary conversation writing they are truly amazing I have to say so our course students have had the most fantastic results and we're very proud of them i' would love you to join them if you do want to check out my programs just visit englishwith lucy.com I will see you soon for another lesson [Music] m [Music] [Music]