Beneath the Surface of Words: by Sue Hegland https://learningaboutspelling.com/2021/12/07/beneath-the-surface-of-words/ The written form of communication is perhaps the most problematic area of language learning for non-native English speakers. The English Writing System Hyphenation is used for clarity too. For example, in the sentence: ‘ the pub has an old-world charm’, the hyphen tells the reader that the pub’s appeal lies in its ‘old world’ charm. This difference between homophones is not always clear in English spelling and in these cases you will have to work it out from the context. These kinds of words are called homographs in English orthography because they have different meanings but the same spelling. Hyphenation in English orthography

For example, the words ‘hour’ and ‘our’ are pronounced identically in some accents. However, they are distinguished from each other in English orthography by the addition of the letter ‘h’. Another example of unresolved homophones in English orthography is the word ‘bay’, which has many meanings (i.e. a recess, a parking space, a kind of herb, a wide inlet of sea, a noise from an animal, a kind of tree and a colour).

We also sometimes use three letters to make a sound, such as in the word ‘scotch’, the three letters ‘tch’ indicate the correct pronunciation. Sometimes four letters can also make a common sound, such as ‘sion’ or ‘tion’ as in ‘television’ and ‘attention’. Confusing pronunciations from English spellings Other examples include ‘ph’ sounding like ‘f’ (e.g. the diagraph ‘ph’ in ‘telephone’ and ‘graph’ perform the same function as the ‘f’ in ‘golf’ and ‘beef’ and ‘yourself’). Another example is the pair of homophones plain and plane, where both are pronounced the same but their difference in meaning is marked by their different orthographic representations. The the words ‘bough’, ‘trough’, through’, thorough’, ‘enough’ all contain the letters ‘ough’ yet have a different pronunciation. This can seem very confusing and illogical to EFL learners. This is one of the most troublesome areas of English orthography and English phonology, where sounds and spellings do not correspond.

Be careful not to hyphenate all adjectives in a list. For example, take the sentence: ‘the small, frightened, ginger cat ran up the long, dark, concrete path’. In this sentence, each adjective here stands alone and is not compounded with any other adjective. wprowadzić treść do sprawdzenia. Jeśli tekst jest długi, warto przełączyć widok na tryb pełnoekranowy, używając przycisku „Pełny ekran”; However, when used in the words ‘Ghana’, ‘ghetto’ or ‘ghost’, the diagraph ‘gh’ rhymes with the ‘g’ in ‘garden’, (a hard ‘g’) because it is used at the start of the word. The English language has quite a weak connection between the written form of a word and the spoken form of that word. For example, the letter combination ‘ough’ can be pronounced in many different ways depending on the rest of the letters surrounding it.

Hyphens are also used with compound verbs, that is verbs that are made up of two or more words. These compound verbs are often creative and humorous. For example: ‘she fast-talked her way out of the situation’. If we had not used the hyphen, it could mean that the pub’s ‘world charm’ is old. In other words, it can sometimes difficult to tell which words are the adjectives if we don’t use hyphens. Application Polish grammar is intended for anyone who wants to practice the principles of Polish spelling. It is suitable not only for elementary or middle school students but also for adults who want to repeat the ones they no longer remember. The letter ‘c’ is usually pronounced like ‘car’, cash’, ‘crazy’ (a hard ‘c’), but when used before the vowel ‘i’ is changes to sound like an ‘s’. This can be seen in the words ‘circle’, ‘cinema’, ‘cider’, ‘circus’, cigarette’ and ‘city’.

They had a long-standing friendship’– without the hyphen it could mean the ‘standing friendship’ is long. Explore this section further to learn more about English punctuation and genre, form and register in English writing.You will be able to choose from a huge number of tests that are assigned to several categories. The vast majority of tests are for free. Your results will be evaluated and saved so you will be able to review your mistakes later. At the moment, our application, which we continually expand and refine, covers the following thematic areas:

Explore more about the connection between spelling and pronunciation in our English phonology section.

The diagraph ‘gh’ in English orthography can be used in many circumstances with different pronunciations, however, such as in the words ‘high’, ‘through’ and ’borough’. The last two words here are part of the notorious ‘ough’ letter combination. Ough Words