English Spelling Rules - Learn Spelling Rules and Common Mistakes Englische Rechtschreibregeln - Lernen Sie Rechtschreibregeln und häufige Fehler Reglas ortográficas del inglés - Aprende las reglas ortográficas y los errores más comunes Règles d'orthographe en anglais - Apprendre les règles d'orthographe et les erreurs courantes Regole ortografiche in inglese - Imparare le regole ortografiche e gli errori più comuni 英語のスペルのルール - スペルのルールとよくある間違いを学ぶ 영어 철자법 - 철자법 및 일반적인 실수 알아보기 Engelse spellingregels - Leer spellingregels en veelgemaakte fouten Regras de ortografia em inglês - Aprenda as regras de ortografia e os erros mais comuns Правила английского правописания - изучите правила правописания и распространенные ошибки İngilizce Yazım Kuralları - Yazım Kurallarını ve Sık Yapılan Hataları Öğrenin Правила правопису англійської мови - вивчаємо орфографічні правила та типові помилки 英语拼写规则 - 学习拼写规则和常见错误 英語拼字規則 - 學習拼字規則和常見錯誤

Hi, I'm Maria.

Welcome to Oxford Online English! Oxford Online English'e hoş geldiniz!

In this lesson, you can learn about English spelling rules, and see some of the most common

spelling mistakes that English learners make.

English spelling is famously illogical. Die englische Rechtschreibung ist bekanntermaßen unlogisch. İngilizce yazım kuralları mantıksızlığıyla ünlüdür.

Even native speakers commonly misspell words. Selbst Muttersprachler schreiben häufig Wörter falsch. Mesmo os falantes nativos costumam escrever mal as palavras.

Interestingly, ‘misspell' is a word which is often misspelled! Interessanterweise ist „falschbuchstabieren“ ein Wort, das oft falsch geschrieben wird!

In this lesson, you'll see four of the most useful rules that can help you to improve

your English spelling and avoid spelling mistakes.

You'll also get to test your spelling skills on several of the most common spelling mistakes

in English.

Let's start with our first rule.

Look at five words.

Which are spelled correctly, and which have mistakes? Quais estão escritas corretamente e quais têm erros? There are two mistakes.

Beginner should have two n's Anfänger sollten zwei n haben

and offering should have one r.

Here's a question: why do you need to double the n in planning or beginning, but not the r

in offering?

Why does sitting have a double t, but deciding just has one d?

Spelling mistakes with double consonants are common, but you can avoid them if you remember

the rule.

Here it is: Aqui está:

If a word ends with a short vowel sound plus a consonant, and the stress is on the last

syllable, then the final consonant is doubled if you add an ending which starts with a vowel.

That sounds complicated, although it's simpler than it looks.

Let's do some examples to make it clearer.

First of all, this rule applies to all one-syllable words which end with a short vowel plus a

consonant.

For example, Por exemplo,

hot -> hotter jar -> jarring

sad -> saddest cut -> cutting

win -> winner

Because of the way English spelling connects to English pronunciation, you can think of

it like this: if a word has one syllable, and it ends with one vowel and one consonant,

then you need to double the final consonant.

But, this depends on sounds, not spelling. Aber das hängt von Lauten ab, nicht von der Rechtschreibung.

So, if the final consonant is w or y, don't double it:

draw -> drawing grey -> greyer

Can you work out why this is?

It's because the words are written with a consonant, but the sound isn't pronounced

as a consonant.

If a word ends with two consonants, or with a consonant plus vowel, then don't double

any consonants:

think -> thinking write -> writer

If a word has two or more syllables, then you also need to think about the stress. Wenn ein Wort zwei oder mehr Silben hat, müssen Sie auch an die Betonung denken.

If the stress is on the last syllable, and the word ends with a short vowel plus a consonant,

then you need to double the final consonant; for example:

occur -> occurring commit -> committee auftreten -> vorkommendes Commit -> Komitee

forget -> forgetting

However, if the stress is not on the last syllable, you don't double the final consonant;

for example:

happen -> happening discover -> discoverer

water -> watery

Remember that for all these words, the rule only applies if the word ends in a short vowel

plus one consonant.

This is true if you're talking about words with one, two, three or however many syllables.

Let's do a quick test.

You're going to hear a sentence. Sie werden einen Satz hören.

Pause the video and write down the sentence.

You'll hear it twice.

Ready?

The cooking committee happened to notice that his soup was tastier than last year, but also Dem Kochkomitee fiel zufällig auf, dass seine Suppe schmackhafter war als letztes Jahr, aber auch

more watery.

Listen once more: the cooking committee happened to notice that his soup was tastier than last

year, but also more watery.

Could you write down the sentence?

Let's check: Did you get everything right?

No spelling mistakes? Keine Rechtschreibfehler?

If so, that's great!

Let's move on to our next rule.

You're going to see four spelling mistakes. Sie werden vier Rechtschreibfehler sehen.

Can you correct them?

The mistakes are all connected with i-e versus e-i

There's a well-known rule here: “i before e except after c.” Hier gibt es eine bekannte Regel: „i vor e außer nach c.“

That means that in most cases, i goes before e:

piece field Stück Feld

achieve leisten

After the letter c, put e before i:

receipt ceiling Empfangsobergrenze

conceive

But, there are exceptions. Aber es gibt Ausnahmen.

One of the exceptions has its own rule: e goes before i to make an /eɪ/ sound. Eine der Ausnahmen hat ihre eigene Regel: e geht vor i, um einen /eɪ/-Laut zu machen.

For example:

neighbour weigh Nachbar wiegen

eight

Other exceptions are true exceptions; they don't follow any rule and you need to remember Andere Ausnahmen sind echte Ausnahmen; Sie folgen keiner Regel und Sie müssen sich daran erinnern

them.

Here are some of the most common exceptions to this rule:

height leisure Höhe Freizeit

weird caffeine

species ancient

Let's test your skills!

You're going to hear another sentence.

Again, try to write the sentence down.

You'll hear it twice.

Ready?

Her weird neighbour weighed out eight pieces of ancient caffeine. Ihr seltsamer Nachbar wog acht Stücke uraltes Koffein ab.

Her weird neighbour weighed out eight pieces of ancient caffeine.

Here's the answer:

Her weird neighbour weighed out eight pieces of ancient caffeine.

Did you get everything right? Hast du alles richtig gemacht?

No spelling mistakes?

If so, well done!

If you made some mistakes, you can easily go back and review this section, and then

try again.

Let's look at our next rule

Here are five nouns. Hier sind fünf Substantive.

What are the plurals, and how would you spell them? Was sind die Pluralformen und wie schreibt man sie?

Do you know?

Here are the answers.

You can see that sometimes, you need to write plurals with es.

But, when do you add -es to make a plural, instead of just -s?

It depends on the last letter of the word.

If a word ends in -s, -ss, -z, -ch, -sh, or -x, then you make the plural by adding -es.

For example:

glasses buses Brillenbusse

quizzes beaches

dishes boxes

Okay, but what about tomatoes?

That has a plural with -es, but it doesn't fit the rule you just saw.

There's one more rule: if a word ends in a consonant plus -o, then the plural is written

with -es.

For example:

potatoes heroes Kartoffeln Helden

mosquitoes

However, if a word ends with a vowel plus -o, then the plural is written only with -s,

like this:

videos radios

All of these rules also apply when you add -s to a verb.

As usual, there are some exceptions, although most of them are uncommon words.

The most common exceptions to this rule are logos and pianos.

Let's do a quick test!

Here are five words.

How do you spell the plural?

Pause the video and write down your answers.

Ready?

Here are the answers.

Next, let's look at one more useful rule to improve your English spelling.

Listen to five words, and try to write them down.

Ready?

Truly, changeable, surprising, measurable, advancing.

Listen one more time: truly, changeable, surprising, measurable, advancing. Hören Sie noch einmal zu: wahrhaftig, wandelbar, überraschend, messbar, fortschreitend.

Here are the words; did you spell them all correctly?

This rule is about adding a suffix to a root word which ends with -e.

For example, true ends with -e.

When you add the suffix -ly, the -e disappears. Wenn Sie das Suffix -ly hinzufügen, verschwindet das -e.

Change also ends with -e, but when you add the suffix -able¬, the -e doesn't disappear.

Do you know why this is?

Whether the -e disappears or not depends on two things: the spelling of the root word, Ob das -e verschwindet oder nicht, hängt von zwei Dingen ab: der Schreibweise des Wortstamms,

and the suffix you are adding.

Firstly, the -e can only disappear if you add a suffix which starts with a vowel, like

-able, -ible, -ing, -ity or -ed.

For example:

achievable taking erreichbare Einnahme

activity

However, if a word ends with -ue, then you can sometimes drop the -e, even if the suffix

begins with a consonant.

For example:

truly argument

Even when you're using a suffix which starts with a vowel, you don't always drop the

-e.

If the word ends -ce and the ending has an /s/ sound, or if a word ends -ge and the ending

has a /dʒ/ sound, then you might need to keep the -e in order to keep the pronunciation

the same.

For example:

manageable encouragement

graceful unpronounceable

As always, these rules have exceptions.

Even if a word ends -ce or -ge, you still drop the -e when you add an -ing suffix.

One important exception is the word ageing, which can be spelled both ways: with an -e

(in British English) or without (in American English).

Also, you don't drop the -e if this would change the pronunciation.

For example, the word agree needs to keep two -e's in order to keep its pronunciation: Zum Beispiel muss das Wort "Zustimmen" zwei -e behalten, um seine Aussprache beizubehalten:

agreeing agreement Vereinbarung vereinbaren

agreeable angenehm

Let's do a quick test to see how well you can use these rules!

Listen to five more words.

Write them down carefully.

You'll hear the words twice.

Valuable, interchangeable, faking, seeing, activity. Wertvoll, austauschbar, vortäuschen, sehen, Aktivität.

Valuable, interchangeable, faking, seeing, activity.

Here are the answers.

How did you do?

Finally let's look at some words which are very commonly misspelled, even by native English

speakers.

Look at four words.

They all have spelling mistakes; can you correct them?

Here are the four words; did you get them all right?

What makes these words difficult to spell?

In words like accommodation, it's difficult to know where to put double letters.

What other words are like this? Welche anderen Wörter sind so?

How about committee.

How many -m's?

How many -t's?

What about embarrassed, millennium, possession, correspondence, or harassment? Was ist mit peinlich, Jahrtausend, Besitz, Korrespondenz oder Belästigung?

These are difficult because they aren't very consistent.

Why does embarrass have two -r's, but harass only has one? Warum hat embarrass zwei -r, aber harass hat nur eines?

It's not logical; you have to remember them.

In words like conscious or guarantee, the relationship between the spelling and the

pronunciation is strange, even by English standards.

It's rare that the letters ‘sci' make a /ʃ/ sound. Es kommt selten vor, dass die Buchstaben „sci“ einen /ʃ/-Laut erzeugen.

There are many words with the letters ‘sci', but normally, these letters make a /saɪ/

sound—like science—or a /sɪ/ sound—like discipline.

It's similar with guarantee.

Normally, the /g/ sound is produced by the letters ‘ge' or ‘gi'.

There's only one other word family where ‘gua' makes a /g/ sound. Es gibt nur eine andere Wortfamilie, in der 'gua' einen /g/-Laut macht.

Do you know which?

The word guard, and words made from it, like guardian, are the only other words which behave Das Wort guard und daraus gebildete Wörter wie guardian sind die einzigen anderen Wörter, die sich verhalten

like this.

Again, these spellings are not consistent, and you need to remember them as exceptions. Auch diese Schreibweisen sind nicht konsistent, und Sie müssen sie sich als Ausnahmen merken.

Finally, what's the problem with independent? Und schließlich, was ist das Problem mit unabhängig?

This is difficult because there are two endings which have the same pronunciation: A-N-C-E Das ist schwierig, weil es zwei Endungen gibt, die dieselbe Aussprache haben: ANCE

and E-N-C-E. und ENCE.

So, you have audience with an ‘e', but ambulance with an ‘a'; competence with

‘e', but clearance with ‘a', interference with ‘e', but importance with ‘a'.

You can't hear the difference between these two endings.

Again, you have to remember the spellings. Auch hier müssen Sie sich die Schreibweise merken.

However, it's not all bad news: there is some logic here. Es sind jedoch nicht nur schlechte Nachrichten: Hier steckt eine gewisse Logik dahinter.

Important is written with an ‘a', so the noun importance keeps the same spelling. Important escreve-se com um 'a', pelo que o substantivo importance mantém a mesma ortografia.

Interfere ends with an ‘e', so again the noun keeps the same spelling.

Now, we want to ask you something: which words in English do you find most difficult to spell? Nun möchten wir Sie etwas fragen: Welche englischen Wörter finden Sie am schwierigsten zu buchstabieren?

Let us know in the comments!

Check out our website for more free English lessons: Oxford Online English dot com.

Thanks for watching!

See you next time!