Spelling
Two question types are common: choose the correctly spelt word, or pick the misspelt word from four. Most mistakes come from a few patterns.
Rules and traps
- i before e except after c: believe, achieve, siege, friend; receive, conceive. Exceptions: weird, leisure, height, foreign.
- Double letters: accommodate, address, aggressive, committee, commission, embarrass, harass (one r), millennium, necessary (one c, two s), occasion (two c, one s), occurred, occurrence, possession, questionnaire, recommend (one c, two m), successful, tomorrow (one m, two r), withhold.
- -ance / -ence, -ant / -ent: acquaintance, maintenance, perseverance; existence, independence, intelligence, occurrence, reference; dependent, independent, irrelevant.
- -able / -ible: changeable, noticeable (keep the e after soft c/g); indispensable; but possible, responsible.
- -cede / -ceed / -sede: precede, recede; succeed, proceed, exceed; only supersede ends in -sede.
- Silent letters: knowledge, rhythm, February, government, parliament, environment, lieutenant.
- Other often misspelt: separate, definitely, desperate, privilege, pronunciation (not pronounciation), forty (not fourty), truly (not truely), argument (not arguement), grammar (not grammer), calendar, cemetery, colleague, conscience, conscious, hygiene, liaison, mischievous (not mischievious), miniature, rhythm, schedule, vacuum, vehicle.