Letter Patterns Workbook - Amazon Web Services

Letter Patterns Workbook

by Joanne Rudling www.howtospell.co.uk

Letter patterns are also called letter strings

Parts of this is from my book Spelling Strategies and Secrets by Joanne Rudling (available from Amazon)

JoanneRudlingwww.howtospell.co.uk 2

-ight -tch pl- bl- spr- br- pr- light match play blue spring brown princess bright watch plan blow sprung bring prince tight catch plastic blank spritz brought print might hutch plenty blast sprat bright price flight butch plain blew spray brand practise uptight notch plank bland sprinkle Britain practice Good spellers know letter patterns and use them to help recall spellings or guess the spelling by rhyming a word with another word that has the same letter pattern. There are some strings of letters which occur very often. Good spellers are able to remember these easily and can visualise the letter patterns in words.

Basic Skills Agency: Starter Pack It is only through visual familiarity with language that you can learn about the probable spelling of words. Spelling is about visual sequences of letters.

Sue Abell: Helping Adults Spell According to Johanna Stirling: There are certain letter strings/patterns that occur so often that we need to be able to write them automatically as “chunks” of spelling, rather than letter-by-letter. For example: beginning patterns: st-, br-, pl-, bl-, gl-, thr-, spr-, sk- end patterns: -nt, -ed, -ful, -ness, -sure vowel patterns: ou, ow, ie, ei, oy, igh, ough, au consonant patterns: ng, th, ch, sh pattern related to history: -ough, igh, kn-, gn-

Good spellers have an excellent visual memory for what looks right. They know the beginning “kw” sound in qualification is spelled with qua like the other qua words, such as quarter, quantity, quaint, quality

They know that the suffix ending that sounds like "shun" is either: -tion, -sion or -cian. If they spell quolificasion like this, they can usually see that this looks wrong.


How can letter patterns help with spelling? When you’re spelling it helps to remember letters as a group or pattern rather than remembering each letter on its own. For example: -ough is found in the words through and enough. You only need to learn to spell a letter pattern once to help you spell lots of different words that have the same pattern. Letter patterns are especially useful in English because English words are not always spelt the way that they sound. This means we can’t always rely on the sounds of letters to help us spell or read. For example: -tion sounds like shun.

http://teach.files.bbci.co.uk/skillswise/en20memo-l1-f-what-are-letter-patterns.pdf

A good strategy is to make a letter pattern dictionary. The pattern might make different sounds so you can put them into sound groups to help.

-ight: sight, right, fight, light, flight, uptight -ite: site, write, bite, quite, kite, invite -eight: eight, weight, freight You can develop this skill, too, by practising (BrE)/practicing (AmE) spelling and noticing the patterns and rules. Spelling won't happen by just reading about it — you have to study it, notice it, work at it, and use it. -ou- Pattern

-ound: round, pound, sound, found, hound, bound, ground, mound... If you have trouble spelling one on these, you can try rhyming, or use a letter pattern story rhyme: “My hound found a round pound on the ground on top of a mound.” -ouble: double, trouble -ouple: couple -ouse: house, mouse… “There's a mouse in my house.” -our: our, scour, flour, sour, devour… But your, four, pour, tour… -oud: loud, proud, cloud… “He’s loud and proud with his head in a cloud.” -out: out, outside, about, pout, spout, sprout... -outh: south, mouth -ount: count, mount, mountain, fountain...


British/American council/council councillor/councilor counsellor/counselor Our house is your house. young — See the you in young — “You are so young.” doubt “It’s natural to be in doubt.” This helps with the silent b. Sounding Out and Visual Memory

A lot of letter patterns can be put into sound groups, which means we can rhyme an unfamiliar word with a possible letter pattern.

So rhyming a word with another word that has the same letter pattern is a great strategy to help you recall spellings, and to see how the word might be written. But there are often exceptions that you need to learn too. Look at these examples; they have the same patterns but with some sound exceptions:

found, pound, round but young eight, weight, weigh but height

autumn, August but Australia how, now, cow but blow, know

match, batch, hatch but watch soon, moon, tycoon but book, took

Now look at these words with the same sound but different letter patterns to see how developing your visual memory for what looks right is important.

believe, achieve but receive Light, flight, right, bright slight but write, site, kite

air, hair, flair, affair but hare, flare, aware, care plain, train, vain, rain but plane, lane, vein, reign, champagne

read, bed, ted but read (past tense) dead, head, bread, said

Rhyming a word can offer clues or even very clear indications of likely letter patterns if we know all the possible variations.


Common errors think or thing — I think I understand everything now, except this thing. -ink: think — to think = verb. I think I need a drink! ink, think, pink, drink, rink, sink, blink, slink, brink, wink, mink, think pink, -ing: thing — a thing = noun. That ring thing is so bling. ping, ring, sing, bling, swing, wing, ting, zing One-word pronouns: everything, something, nothing, anything than or then It’s much bigger than I thought, but then again it’s cheaper than the smaller one. than — can, tan, flan, ban, pan... comparative adjective — bigger than. I’m happier than, taller than, more than… then —ten, hen, pen, men, when, send in Ken then Ben then Len, then this happened, then this, then that... Anyone with problems with p and b use different coloured/colored pens and visual clues with the shape of the word.

bed looks like a bed pl - play, place, plate, plenty bl - blue, black, blow/blew/ pr - print, princess, prince, br- bring, brought, bright,


Initial Letters str- street, strip, stripe, strap, straight, strength… scr- scrap, scrape, scream, scrub, scrutiny… spr- spring, sprint, sprinkle, sprocket… sp- spit, spot, spat, spoon, spacious st- stint, stop, stunt, stance, standard sn- snip, snob, snap, snatch, snoring sc- scare, scale, scowl, school, scallop sl- slip, slap, slob, slipper, slippery pl- play, place, plate, plane/plain, plentiful bl- blue, black, blow/blew, blimey pr- print, prod, predict, princess, prince br- bring, brand, brought, bright, brilliant cr- cream, crease, crinkle, crazy, crept, crank

èMake a letter pattern dictionary and add more words and patterns. brought and bought Do you get these confused? Memory trick Remember: brought is the past of bring bring — brought bought is the past tense of buy. I brought (bring) a cake to work that I bought at the deli. He bought some flowers and brought (bring) them to work.


Exercise Write in the initial letter patterns

1. First meal of the day = ___eakfast

2. The part of the head that thinks = ___ain

3. What you need when you are thirsty = ___ink

4. It’s nice on apple pie = ___eam

5. The day before Saturday = ___iday

6. When a floor is wet, it becomes ___ippery

7. This is a ___aight line

8. The past tense of bring is ___ought


Answers

1. First meal of the day = breakfast

2. The part of the head that thinks = brain

3. What you need when you are thirsty = drink

4. It’s nice on apple pie = cream

5. The day before Saturday = Friday

6. When a floor is wet, it becomes slippery

7. This is a straight line

8. The past tense of bring is brought

Write a sentence with as many initial letter patterns as you can.

Exercise Add than or then, brought or bought, think or thing 1. It’s bigger _______ I expected. (than/then) 2. What do you ________ about the _________ he _________ from Amazon? (think/thing bought/brought) 3. I’ll go to the baker and _______ I’ll go to the post office. (than/then) 4. The ________ is, I didn’t ________ you’d want to come. (thing/think) 5. She ___________ it from the market and ___________ it to work. (brought/bought)


Answers 1. It’s bigger than I expected. 2. What do you think about the thing he bought from Amazon? 3. I’ll go to the baker and then I’ll go to the post office. 4. The thing is, I didn’t think you’d want to come. 5. She bought it from the market and brought it to work.

Letter pattern dictionary and stories To help you learn to spell these, you need to develop your visual memory for what looks right, and one strategy is to make a letter pattern dictionary and list the words by patterns, and also their sound groups. Then write letter pattern sentences or stories. If you’re not sure of the pronunciation of a word (American and British) go to https://dictionary.cambridge.org

Documents

Letter Patterns Workbook - Amazon Web Services