Rules of Spelling: the building blocks of the English language
Learning a new language, such as English can quickly prove to be an extremely daunting task and one which may prove too great a challenge for the aspiring student. Whilst learning the correct pronunciation for a word is half the battle already, the rules of spelling are a fundamental component of any language as well and so it is necessary to take the time to learn the correct spelling.
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This is a common mistake made by the novice foreign language student, in their enthusiasm to press on and widen their vocabulary they end up overlooking the need to spell the word, and this is a mistake that is compounded by the fact that the spelling and pronunciation for many English words are totally different. Learning the rules of spelling will lay a solid foundation for the student, providing them with an excellent reference point. Learning English is a challenging and tedious task, however the one thing that the English language can be praised for is its consistency, meaning that a thorough grasp of the basics will allow the person to more readily spell words correctly throughout their usage of the language.
Whilst you may feel a little uncomfortable relying upon a small rhyme taught to children, the remarkable thing is that it works! Take a walk past any elementary school classroom and you will inevitably hear the chant “I before E, except before C!” Remarkable is it not, that such a small ditty could prove so powerful? It should be noted that for every rule there is an exception, and this particular spelling rule is no different, and so the main exception to is where the word makes a long “a” sound, such as weigh (which would be pronounced as way. See what I mean about words being spelt differently from how they are pronounced?)
In English grammar there are three objects:
Adjectives, Verbs and nouns. Adjectives are used to describe something, verbs are doing words, and nouns are things such as people and places. However you also get a special type of noun known as the “proper nouns” and these include the likes of the name of a person or place or a title. The reason these proper nouns are unique is that the first letter of each one must be a capital letter.
If you ever want to add a comparative or a superlative of something then you do this by adding either er or est.
So:
Fast, faster, fastest.
In the above example faster is the comparative whilst fastest is the superlative. There is only ever three forms, the normal, the comparative and finally, the superlative.