Spelling & Punctuation + Abbreviations

•→Sounds of The Alphabet⇐

¤  English Spelling

Chaotic though it may seem, the English spelling system has its own rules, like most languages do. English borrowed thousands of words from all over the world, which is why there are so many exceptions.

Φ  Spelling Rules  →[01]← / →[02]←

•→ Spelling & Pronunciation ⇐click «Magic …-e»

∞ ⇒DOUBLE letters & SUFFIXES⇐

↓  When to Double Consonants  

◊  Silent Letters  ↓ … ⇒[01] ⇔ [02] ⇔ [03] ⇔ [04]⇐

A ‘silent letter’ is a letter that appears in a particular word, but does not correspond to any sound in the word’s pronunciation. The bad news is that English has a lot of silent letters, and they create problems for both native and non-native speakers of English, because they make it more difficult to guess the spelling of many spoken words or the pronunciation of many written words.

Not all silent letters are completely redundant

• Silent letters can distinguish between homophones, e.g. ‘in’/’inn’; ‘be’/’bee’; ‘lent/leant’. This is an aid to readers already familiar with both words.
• Silent letters may give an insight into the meaning or origin of a word, e.g. ‘vineyard’ suggests vines more than the phonetic ‘vinyard’ would.
• The final <fe> in ‘giraffe’ gives a clue to the second-syllable stress, where ‘giraf’ might suggest initial-stress.
• Silent letters help to show long vowels e.g. ‘rid’/’ride’
• Silent letters help to show ‘hard’ consonants e.g. ‘guest’/’gest’
• They can help to connect different forms of the same word e.g. ‘resign’/’resignation’.

Since accent and pronunciation differ, letters may be silent for some speakers but not others. In non-rhotic accents, <r> is silent in such words as ‘hard’, ‘feathered’; in h-dropping accents, <h> is silent. A speaker may pronounce <t> in «often» or «tsunami» or neither or both.

Here are some examples of silent letters in use:-

A – artistically, logically, musically, romantically, stoically
B – climb, comb, crumb, debt, doubt, numb, plumb, subtle, thumb, tomb,
C – acquire, acquit, blackguard, czar, muscle, scissors, victual
D – handkerchief, Wednesday
E – When added to the end of a word, it changes its pronunciation, but is in itself, silent.
F – halfpenny
G – align, alight, champagne, diaphragm, gnash, gnaw, high, light,reign, though,
H – choir, exhaust, ghost, heir, hour, khaki, thyme
I – business
K – blackguard, knead, knell, knickers, knife, knight, knock, knot, know
L – calf, calm, chalk, folk, half, psalm, salmon, talk, yolk
M – mnemonic
N – autumn, chimney, column, condemn, damn, hymn, solemn
O – colonel – opossum
P – corps, coup, pneumonia, pseudo, psychology, ptomaine, receipt
R – butter, finger, garden, here, myrrh
S – aisle, apropos, bourgeois, debris, fracas, island, isle, viscount
T – asthma, ballet, castle, gourmet, listen, rapport, ricochet, soften, thistle
U – catalogue, colleague, dialogue, guess, guest, guide, guilt, guitar, tongue
W – answer, sword, two, whole, whore, wrist, writ, write
X – faux pas
Z – laissez-faire, rendezvous

←Graded English language dictations

You’ll hear each passage four times:

•   first, the whole passage is read at normal speed for you to listen for gist;

•   second, each phrase is read slowly twice, with punctuation, as you write;

•   then the whole passage is read again for you to check your work;

•   finally, the written text is shown so you can count your mistakes.

¤  Guide to  PUNCTUATION  →

⇒ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks.htm

⇒www.writingcentre.uottawa.ca/punct.html

•→evolving-compounds⇐

•→www.usingenglish.com/pdf/punctuation⇐

♦  Computer symbols  ↓

⇒Abbreviations ⇐  [Merriam-Webster]

Shortened form of a written word or phrase used in place of the whole. Abbreviations began to proliferate in the 19th century and have been prevalent since; they are employed to reduce the time required for writing or speaking, especially when referring to the myriad new organizations, bureaucratic entities, and technological products typical of industrial societies. An abbreviation can now easily become a word, either as an initialism in which the letters are pronounced individually (e.g., TV or FBI) or as an acronym in which the letters are combined into syllables (e.g., scuba, laser, or NAFTA).

→http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/abbreviations.htm ⇐

◊  Essential English Acronyms for Writing ↓

∇   Texting  ⇓

•→Texting: Picture Vocabulary Matching Quiz⇐    /    •→ QUIZ ⇐[m/c]

♦  Chat Acronyms  ⇓ «ASAP» – «OMG» – «IMHO» – «XOXO»

◊  ♦  Business English  ↓

∇  David Crystal on Texting ↓ [2009]