Ten tips for better spelling

This may be the best-known spelling rule:
i before e, except after c
or when sounded like "ay"
as in neighbor and weigh
Here are some words that follow the rule:

IE words: believe, field, relief
CEI words: ceiling, deceit, receive
EI words: freight, reign, sleigh
Some exceptions: either, foreign, height, leisure, protein, weird

"CIEN words" are another exception to the rule. These include ancient, efficient, and science.

Here's another familiar spelling rule: "Silent e helps a vowel say its name." This means that when a word ends with a vowel followed by a consonant and then silent e, the vowel has a long sound. That's the difference between rate and rat, hide and hid, and cube and cub.
Have you heard the expression "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking?" This means that when there are two vowels in a row, the first usually has a long sound and the second is silent. That's why it's team, not taem; coat, not caot; and wait, not wiat. Remembering this rule will help you to put vowels in the right order.
Learn the basic rules for spelling with plural nouns so that you know whether to use s or es and how to make plurals of nouns that end in y or f.
In general, though, memorizing rules isn't the most effective way to learn spelling. Most rules have exceptions—and besides, you are best at learning words that you have made an effort to understand. A good way to understand a word is to break it into syllables. Look for prefixes, suffixes, and roots. Practice each short part and then the whole word.
dis-ap-pear-ing
tra-di-tion-al
After you break apart a word, ask yourself: How is this word like other words I know? Spelling the word traditional may make you think of spelling functional and national. Finding patterns among words is one of the best ways to learn spelling.

It's also helpful to try making up a funny memory aids. For example, do you have trouble remembering which has two s's—desert (arid land) or dessert (a sweet treat)? Remember that with dessert, you'd like seconds. Similarly, do you have trouble remembering how to spell separate? Remember that there's a rat in the middle.
Another kind of memory aid is to make up a sentence in which the first letter of each word can be used to make the spelling word. The sillier the better—goofy sentences may be easier to remember.
chili: cats have interesting little ideas
physical: please have your strawberry ice cream and lollipops
Make sure that you are pronouncing words correctly. This can help you to avoid some common spelling errors, such as canidate instead of candidate, jewelery instead of jewelry, and libary instead of library.
Put together a list of words that you find difficult to spell. Go over your old papers and spelling exams to track down these troublemakers. Once you've got your list in hand, see if some of the tips above will help you.
And lastly: Don't rely on electronic spellcheckers! They can miss errors—especially when you have used the wrong word but spelled it correctly. To prove it, we've taken a sentence and messed up all the words. And the spellchecker thinks it's fine.
"I might need some new shoes for gym," Harry told our Aunt Ann.
"Eye mite knead sum knew shoos four Jim," Hairy tolled hour Ant an.

Some good tips. I like the idea of funny and crazy memory aids. The sillier the better: your mind responds to the unusual better than it does to the mundane.

How about this version:

"i" before "e", except after "c"
but only when it sounds like "ee"

Then there are fewer exceptions to the rule. Still, whether "leisure" is an exception to the new rule depends on your accent. It's no exception for me because it rhymes with "pleasure" not "seizure" (which is an exception) in my accent.

How about this:

Magic "e" helps a vowel-letter say its name.
Magic "y" or "i" can also do the same.

A magic "e" isn't silent: it changes to pronunciation of a word.

I'd advise people not to use the terms "vowel" and "long vowel" so lightly. It's better to reserve the words "vowel" and "consonant" for sounds rather than letters otherwise the result can be confusion. Also the vowels in "psalm", "turn", "thought", "me" and "moon" are the long vowels of most accents (plus "yeah" and/or "bad" in some accents). The sounds of "I" and "you" are never long vowels. The vowels in "hay" and "no" are diphthongs not long vowels in most (but not all) accents.

When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.

Take great care with this one: there are so many exceptions it's perhaps better forgotten. Here are some exceptions: "great", "mountain", "euro", "chaos", "caught", "doing", "oil", "vein", "Einstein", "phoenix", "malaria", "radio", "question", "food" and "book". Perhaps it's better to learn the various vowel digraphs that are used in spelling.

"Make sure that you are pronouncing words correctly. This can help you to avoid some common spelling errors," I agree but it gives no guarantee. For example, I pronounce "library" as /laibri(:)/ and won't be told that I'm wrong. This is standard pronunciation outside North America but "libry" is not standard spelling.

"Jewellery", on the other hand, is standard spelling outside of the USA but it's never pronounced /dZu:..l..ri(:)/ or /dZju:..l..ri(:)/ (as far as I know). It is still an easy word when you break it down into root plus suffixes: "jewel" + "er" + "y" = "jeweller" + "y" = "jewellery" (more logical than the blunt phonemic Webster spelling, think you not?).

''Still, whether "leisure" is an exception to the new rule depends on your accent. It's no exception for me because it rhymes with "pleasure" not "seizure" (which is an exception) in my accent.''

Jim, I pronounce ''leisure'' to rhyme with ''pleasure'' but why would it rhyme with ''seizure'' anyway, if it were pronounced with the ''ie'' sound in ''shield''. The sound of the ''s'' in ''leisure'' and the ''z'' in ''seizure'' are different. The ''s'' sound in ''leisure'' is [z/_j] and the ''z'' sound in ''seizure'' is [z_j]. (I'm using X-Sampa]

P.S.- My name is Jim too, so I called myself ScotsJim because I'm from Scotland.

''For example, I pronounce "library" as /laibri(:)/ and won't be told that I'm wrong. This is standard pronunciation outside North America but "libry" is not standard spelling.''

In Scotland we pronounce ''library'' with three syllables and Scotland is not part of North America. The pronunciation ''libry'' sounds like RP to me.

''"i" before "e", except after "c"
but only when it sounds like "ee"''

Jim, ''ie'' and ''ei'' don't sound like ''ee'' in Scotland (or at least not in my dialect). So, that rule won't work for us. ''ie'' and ''ei'' make a completely different sound from ''ee'' (in my accent).

''Some good tips. I like the idea of funny and crazy memory aids. The sillier the better: your mind responds to the unusual better than it does to the mundane.''

Here's some more hints to spelling,

Want to spell ''believe'' correctly. Well remember that ''believe'' has the word ''lie'' in the middle of it, as in, ''do not believe a lie.''

Having trouble with ''hear'' vs. ''here''. See that ''hear'' has the word ''ear'' barred into it and only deals with ''hearing''.

There are also some patterns,

This, that, what

Here, there, where

Now, then, when

hence, thence, whence

thou, you

their, heir

'''''''''''

Also, a hint in spelling the word ''lawyer''. The word ''law'' (what they work in) plus ''yer''.

ANOTHER HINT - LISTEN TO THE PRONUNCIATION OF RELATED WORDS

Also, a hint in spelling words like ''hymn'' (if you don't make the distinction between ''m'' and ''mn'' as I believe some people do) is to listen to the pronunciation of the word ''hymnal''.

Other pronunciation of related word hints,

Crumb, crumble
dumb, dumbo
idiot, idiotic
Southern, south
janitor, janitorial

etc. etc.

ScotsJim says:
>Jm, I pronounce ''leisure'' to rhyme with ''pleasure'' but why would it >ryme with ''seizure'' anyway,

In the "standard American" accent leisure and seizure rhyme perfectly.
The s in leisure is voiced. That's why.

The ''s'' in ''leisure'' is voiced for me as well, but it's still different from the ''z'' in ''seizure''.

I don't know but I've just look in my dictionary it agrees with me that the ''s'' sound in ''leisure'' and the ''z'' sound ''seizure'' are different. I don't understand who would confuse the two.

I just asked my boss at work if the ''s'' sound in ''leisure'' and the ''z'' sound in ''seizure'' were the same and he told me ''no''. So, he agrees with me. Are you telling me that Americans can't tell the difference? I also asked my neigbour if the ''s'' sound in ''leisure'' and the ''z'' sound in ''seizure'' were the same and he also told me ''no''.

''I don't know but I've just look in my dictionary it agrees with me that the ''s'' sound in ''leisure'' and the ''z'' sound ''seizure'' are different. I don't understand who would confuse the two.''

Typo-''I don't know but I've just looked in my dictionary and it agrees with me that the ''s'' sound in ''leisure'' and the ''z'' sound ''seizure'' are different. I don't understand who would confuse the two.''

ScotsJim, Your boss and neighbor were stupid and wrong. There's no difference between the ''s'' in ''leisure'' and the ''z'' in ''seizure''.

ScotsJim, Why don't you hang around some smarter people? Everyone in my area knows that the ''s'' sound in ''leisure'' and the ''z'' sound in ''seizure'' are the same. How possibly can the ''s'' sound in ''leisure'' and the ''z'' sound in ''seizure'' be different?

"Another kind of memory aid is to make up a sentence in which the first letter of each word can be used to make the spelling word. The sillier the better—goofy sentences may be easier to remember."

To me it would be MUCH more difficult to remember the whole sentences like these, than to remember how to spell the word. I guess non-natives just learn to spell differently from the natives.

''Jim, I pronounce ''leisure'' to rhyme with ''pleasure'' but why would it rhyme with ''seizure'' anyway, if it were pronounced with the ''ie'' sound in ''shield''. The sound of the ''s'' in ''leisure'' and the ''z'' in ''seizure'' are different. The ''s'' sound in ''leisure'' is [z/_j] and the ''z'' sound in ''seizure'' is [z_j]. (I'm using X-Sampa]''

Actually, I used the wrong X-Sampa symbol for the sound. It's [z`_j] not [z/_j] in X-sampa.

That post above was by me. It mistyped my name.