Although you may be good at spelling, test yourself in this KS3 quiz with these words beginning at al.
"... the English alphabet is pure insanity, it can hardly spell any word in the language with any degree of certainty." - Mark Twain.
English, unlike many other languages, is not spelled phonetically. For instance, the "ph" used in the spelling of "alphabet" is a substitution for the Greek letter phi, ϕ. (Remember that "alpha" is the name for the first letter in the Greek alphabet.) Although the sound can be made more efficiently by using one letter, f, English instead preserves the French spelling it borrowed when the word "alphabet" first made its appearance in the language. And while "spell" could perhaps be spelled with only one l (spel), the use of the double l preserves a link to the Old English verb "spellian". See? It all makes perfect sense!
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You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - Spelling
Remember not to get this word mixed up with "allowed"!
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"Alpha" is the name for the first letter of the Greek alphabet
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"Alphabet" + -ical
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If you can spell "though", you can probably also spell "although"
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"Amenity" is one of those words which has diminished over time. It is usually limited to describing features of the human environment in promotional materials
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The key part of this word to remember is the vowel combination, ou
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Being unstressed, the -an ending might be the trickiest part of this word. You'll also need to remember the use of ph to spell the "f" sound
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You might have to work at remembering "analyse" and "analysis"
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Did you know that the plural of "analysis" is "analyses"?
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Remember not to mix up "angles" and "angels". Otherwise your maths teacher might be rather surprised!
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