What are the words most commonly misspelled by the averagehigh school pupil? In an endeavor to solve this problem,two thousand letters, with five postal cards in each, were sent torepresentative high schools in every state in the United States,requesting the heads of the various departments to report thewords most commonly misspelled in their classes. From themany thousand replies, this text-book has been compiled.
The first word in Lesson I was sent in by seven hundredhigh school teachers; the other words in this lesson show, bytheir order, the frequency with which they appear in thereplies. No word has been considered unless suggested by atleast two teachers. This book, then, built on the judgment ofthose best qualified to know—the teachers themselves—containsonly the words most frequently misspelled by the averagehigh school pupil.
A simple phrase is placed after each word, illustrating itsuse, and serving to identify it better than would a short,abstract definition. The division of words into syllables withaccent marks will be of great assistance to the pupil, shouldthere be any question in his mind as to the correct pronunciation.The typography is based on the idea that it will be agreat help to the pupil in visualizing the words if he sees themin script as well as in print.
When the diphthongs ei and ie are pronounced [=e], c is followedby ei, all other letters by ie. Examples: ceiling, receive, siege,believe. Exceptions: leisure, seize, weird. The word slice willhelp pupils to remember this rule—i after l and e after c whenapplied to believe and receive.
Final y following a consonant changes to i before a suffixnot beginning with i. Examples: busy, business; dry, dried.When the suffix begins with i, as in -ing and -ish, the y isretained to avoid having double i. Examples: try, trying;baby, babyish.
When the final y follows a vowel, the y is retained before asuffix. Examples: toy, toyed; betray, betrayed; annoy, annoyed.
To form the plural of words ending in y following a consonantchange the y to i and add es. Examples: quantity, quantities;factory, factories.
When the final y follows a vowel, the y is retained and s added.Examples: journey, journeys; delay, delays; money, moneys.
Monosyllables and words accented on the last syllable, whichend in a single consonant, following a single vowel, double thefinal consonant before a suffix begin