Learn English - Basic rules to improve your spelling

TRANSCRIPT

To be or not to be? [Laughs] Spelling bee. In North America, we have this competition called "spelling bee". It's where children take words -- adults give children words, long words, and the children have to spell them correctly. Now, if you're from Saudi Arabia or Japan or Korea or other countries, right now, you're going, "Oh, my God, no!" Because you have to do this in English, and your alphabet is not ours. Latin speakers tend to go, "Oh, we'll do very well", and you're bad as well. And you want a secret? I'm bad at spelling. So just share it between you and the other hundred thousand people watching this, okay? So I'm bad at spelling. You're bad at spelling. But I have to teach the rules at school, and I do. I actually do. And if you ask me something, I'll tell you the rule. But you might catch me spelling it incorrectly. So this lesson is for you and for me. And I call it Spelling 101.

English is not a phonetic language. It makes it very difficult to learn how to spell. So I'm going to give you English or Spelling 101, which are two little rules that will help you spell when dealing with English vowels. "The long and the short of it", I like the call this lesson. It's a joke in there. The long and the short. Whatever. Okay. Let's go to the board.

Are you hoping -- and "hope" is when you pray. You know? You say, "Please let me win the lottery. Really. I want to win the lottery. Please let me win the lottery. Please let that beautiful girl think I'm nice. Please let me pass the test. I hope. I hope. I hope. I wish. I pray." Or are you "hopping"? Are you hopping, like boink, boink, boink? Like a little bunny rabbit. Are you hopping? You notice one has a P, and one has two Ps. Some of you would have written this because you'd say, "Well it's more than 'hope'. It's long, right?" Because "hop" looks like this, h-o-p. "Hope" looks like this. And anybody from a natural language would probably say, "Well, E -- this must be the correct one." I would think so. It's the longer word. But not in English, no. We don't work like that. The shorter word gets it, and the longer word gets this. When I was I kid, I was always told: Short words, you double it. That's what it was. Okay. It made sense. But there's something a little more to it, and today, I'm going to make it easy for you.

Now, there's a lesson that has been done called "The Magic E". Go check that out. That will help you -- you know, it's a longer lesson that gives you more examples. But just to give you an idea of long versus short, okay? The magic E states this: If you have -- let's look over here. "Wipe", for instance. This is an I, a long vowel sound. There's a consonant and then, an E. If the E is on the end of a word, you have a consonant and then, a long vowel sound. Okay? The E actually causes it to be "wipe", not "wip". Right? So here's how we change it. Because we know this E helps to modify this, we have to drop the E. Okay? Because it's actually silent. You think "wipe", so it looks like this. That's what it looks like. "Wipe", not "why-ppe". Sorry, people from Brazil. No "why-ppe". No "why-ppe" here. Okay? That's part of the problem. Nobody tells you this stuff. But I do. Okay. So it's not "why-ppe" or "ray-tte" or "ho-ppe", just "hope", "rate", and "wipe".

Now, the magic E helps us because we see this, and we know it's a long vowel sound. Yay! But when we're adding is it like, "wipes" or "wiping", "rate" or "rated", hoped or hoping, we have to drop that E. We're told, "Drop the E." It's silent. It's not doing anything, anyway. It's like your unemployed brother in your basement. He's not doing anything. Get rid of him. So "wipe" becomes "wiped" or "wiping". Drop the extra E. Not "wipeed". All right? "Rate" becomes "rated". Oops. Sorry. It becomes "rated". Just add the ED. Or "hoping", in the case up there, it becomes "hoping". We get rid of the extra E. We know it's the long vowel because there's only one consonant. Right? One consonant. One consonant. So we know this must be "wiped", "rated", "hoping". It could even be "hoped". "I hoped you would come." Okay? Don't double the consonant. Don't add two E's. It's just single, single. Easy? Easy. The magic E. Now, we know how it creates a sound. And now, we know how to change it. That's the long of it. The long vowel. You like that?

[Danijones]

As an English speaking adult who left school early and can't spell 100% this is very help full. Thank you :)

[Matalic]

i like your laugh "MUHUHUHAHAHAAAA"

[lucarubinetti]

James you're the best teacher I've ever had!!! keep on doing these amazing lessons :D

[WiCapitalco]

I'm 29 and I've always struggled with language. The way you teach is awesome! Thank you.. now I can learn more than just math logic and numbers lol

[codythep]

Teacher: “Just share with The other hundred thousand people watching this.”

Me: “yeah right, weird flex”

Also me: *checks views... millions.

[anamariamihai]

i just found you, and feel like you’re the kind of teacher that makes one learn only because you’re so watchable. You also make it so fun to watch.. I am in love. 😍

[pokemonfanrock]

You're the god of english lessons, I'm brazilian and I intend on going to the United States for college. Needless to say, your videos have helped me immensely. Thanks

[easyrevenge_]

im really good in grammar but i needed to improve on my spelling so i needed this thank you! :)

[wstemly]

I have a competition of spelling with my classmates . You truly help me !thank you so much teacher . From Morocco !😁

[ViniciusLamegoo]

OMG... best ESL teacher eveerrrr.... I'm from Brazil, but now Im living in Massachusetts.

[michaelsie]

Lesson was made simple and lively with that touch of humour. Amazing!

[jasonvia]

James, you're a great teacher! I wish my daughters teachers are as great as you are

[gracegallagher]

Thank you so much, you are one of the best teacher ever come cross with. Stay blessed 🙏

[wendsonmonteiro]

This what I'm used to saying to my students down here. In the beginning they tend to pronounce the letter E in final words just like in Portuguese. I laughed a lot when you mentioned that.

[paulinho]

To my mind, the right thing to do is not to think if the word is large or short. If the word ends with a sequence of "consonant", "vowel" and "consonant" (CVC pattern), we have to double the last consonant and add ING or ED in the end. For example:

Rub (Consonant/vowel/Consonant) = rubbed
Sit (Consonant/vowel/Consonant) = Sitting
Stop (Consonant/vowel/Consonant) = Stopping

But, like everything in life, there are exceptions. For instance, in words with two syllables if the stress is on the first syllable, we do not have to double the last consonant, even if the word ends with a CVC pattern. For example:

Visit (CVC pattern, but the stress is on the first syllable 'vis') = visited
Enter (CVC pattern, but the stress is on the first syllable 'en') = entering

Simple as that.

And yes, we Brazilians have problems with the pronunciation of certain words that do not have a vowel in the end or the sound of it is silent.

[nicoleandfriends]

Thank you so much for this lesson! It's very helpful.

[justsaying]

I needed a teacher like this all my life!

[Michelle-xoje]

This is great, thank you. I am a good speller but I couldn't remember what the rule was to teach my 3rd grader how to convert his verbs. I love your humor 😊

[MeadowSchool]

Important 'how to spell' teaching on this video. Thanks.

[obidahsaed]

i could't continue the video without making a comment to say you are great teacher