Tips for Remembering How to Spell Wednesday and Other Tricky Words

Tips for Remembering How to Spell Wednesday and Other Tricky Words Some words are tricky to spell even when you’re an adult, so imagine being a young learner trying to remember all those spelling rules. There are many tricky words in the English language and spelling rules don’t always apply.  The old adage â€Å"rules were made to be broken† is certainly true when it comes to spelling rules. â€Å"I before e except after c† is usually true  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ except for words like weird, heist, and feisty. If your student (or you!) always has a particular word or two that prove challenging, try these tricks, a  mnemonic device, or even a rhyme to help you remember. These tips can help your students remember how to spell commonly confused words like Wednesday, weird, niece, Renaissance, dessert, beautiful, accommodate, separate, and together.   How to Spell Wednesday One of the easiest ways for remembering how to spell Wednesday is to break it down into its individual syllables- Wed nes day. Pronounce it â€Å"Wed NEZ day† in your mind so that you don’t forget the d in the first syllable or the e in the second. Another trick is to use a mnemonic memory device. A mnemonic device is a technique to improve one’s ability to remember something. A common mnemonic trick is to create an acronym with the beginning letter of each word. For example, a mnemonic device for remembering the planets might be, â€Å"My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos.† This helps us to remember Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Try these mnemonic devices to help you remember how to spell Wednesday or make up one of your own: â€Å"WE Do Not Eat Sandwiches on WednesDAY† or â€Å"WE Do Not Eat Soup DAY.† How to Spell Weird The best way to remember how to spell weird is keeping in mind that it’s  a weird word because it doesn’t follow the â€Å"I before e except after c† rule. If that doesn’t help, try this trick for remembering how to spell it: We are weird.  We is the beginning of weird. How to Spell Niece Niece nicely follows the i before e, except after c rule; but it can still be confusing. Here is a tip to help you remember how to spell niece. My niece is nice.  Ni is the beginning of nice and ni is the beginning of niece. It may also help to remember that niece is spelled like piece, so make up a sentence using those two words to help you remember. Try something like, â€Å"My niece ate a piece of pie.† How to Spell Renaissance One way to remember how to spell renaissance is to think: â€Å"Rena is sance.† This can be particularly helpful if you know someone named Rena. How to Spell Dessert Dessert is tricky because it seems that it would only have one s, making the e a long vowel sound, Similarly, it would seem like desert would need two s’s to avoid the same. These sayings are helpful in remembering which word has one versus two ss. Dessert is twice as good as the desert. Strawberry Shortcake dessert and Sahara desert How to Spell Beautiful One helpful trick is the saying it is important to be a beautiful person inside and out. That way you will remember  beautiful begins with be a. You might also try a mnemonic device such as â€Å"Big Elephants Are Under Trees In Forests Until Light† or make up one of your own. How to Spell Accommodate Remember that accommodate is a big enough word to accommodate two c’s and two m’s. How to Spell Separate Many people misspell separate because of the as and es in the word. An easy way to remember to spell separate is to remember that there is a rat in the middle of the word. How to Spell Together As a young student just learning to spell, a trick to spelling together is by breaking the word down to â€Å"to get her.†