Silent ‘b’
Learning to spell many English words correctly can be a long and difficult journey. Why for example do we have a silent ‘b’ in words like bomb, climb, debt and doubt? Often the answer lies in tracing the word back … Continued
Spelling in Middle English
If you are a poor speller, you may wish that you were a scribe in the 13th century. During this Middle English period there was a huge amount of variation in the spelling of words. For example, in that era … Continued
Master Morphemes
Morphemes are the smallest unit of meaning in a word and each morpheme provides either semantic (an understanding of meaning) or syntactic (set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences) information. Many English words often consist … Continued
Short Vowel Sounds
From a linguistic perspective, using the terms short and long vowel sounds in modern English is not strictly correct as the vowels are not actually short and long versions of the same sound. However, it is useful terminology when teaching … Continued