11 Nov 8 Typical Spelling Errors That Have Been Ruining Your Scores

Be it IELTS, PTE or CELPIP, all the English Exams for International Education demand a good overall score. Spoiler alert! every little element contributes to the overall score. If you already knew it, or have just learned it, either way, it is time to improvise on every single element of importance. One such very important and exigent element is ‘correct spellings’. Spelling errors cannot be overlooked in any of the English tests. All three, the Listening, the Writing, and the Reading modules deduct your grades on spelling errors. This is obviously not the case with the speaking module, considering that the students don’t have to write anything.

How are you Graded?

Students must know that there is no leniency in terms of marks on spelling errors. Your answer might be correct, but, even one spelling error will cost you all the marks for the answer. This is true for all three modules. Even silly mistakes like spelling ‘environment’ as ‘enviroment’ is considered a wrong answer irrespective of the module.

British v/s American English

Those of you who have noticed two spellings for the same word, and do not know which one is correct, must know that they can both be correct. Words like favour, colour etc. might also be written as favor or color. The difference is that one spelling follows British English, while the other follows American English rules. The tricky part is, you must follow only one pattern in your answers. Using both ‘favour’ and ‘color’ in your essays or other answers highlights your lack of understanding of the two types. It is just like accent, you cannot mix different accents while speaking. For Indian students, since most of the pronunciation and spelling rules we know and follow are British, it would be more convenient to stick to them.

Common Spelling Mistakes

• Silent Letters: Pay extra attention when learning words that contain silent letters. Students easily get confused with their spellings and commit mistakes. For example, ‘government’, ‘knowledge’.
• Homophones: Homophones are similar sounding words and one of the most commonly misspelled words. For example, ‘Hear’ and ‘Here’, ‘There’, ‘Their’ and ‘They’re’. Be very careful while using them.
• ie v/s ei: Admit it or not, one time or the other you too have got confused in using the ‘ei’ words. For example, ‘Height’, ‘seize’, ‘foreign’, ‘friend’, ‘believe’, ‘species’ etc. Some of these words might be easy to remember by the way they are pronounced, the others, however, need to be memorized correctly.
• Double Consonants: Another common error is missing a consonant from the words that use double consonants. For example, ‘dragged’, ‘footed’ etc.
• Suffixes: Converting the words that end with ‘e’, may cause errors. For example, age: aging.
• When ‘y’ changes to ‘i’: Converting the words that end with ‘y’, is also to be handled carefully. For Example, apply: applied
• Plurals: Put an extra ‘s’ and most of the words turn into their plurals. Care is required for words that behave differently. For example, Thief: Thieves, child: children
• Negligence: Most importantly, frequent errors happen because of sheer negligence. For example, untill: until, begining: beginning

Stay tuned for more tips on spellings.

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