Learners have asked me "Why do you spell one without a w although you pronounce a w in it? And then why does two have a w when you don't pronounce it?" Great questions!
So why? The simple answer is that these two words are not phonetically spelled. Their spelling shows lexical or semantic links with other words - we are spelling by meaning not sound. All of the words below contain the letters o-n. Can you see how each of them relates to the idea of one?
one, alone, only, lonely, once, none
And how about two? (I'll deal with that now as I may not still be blogging on 22/2/22!) Where did that w come from? Again - it's about meaning not sound. What's the link with the number 2 in these words containing tw?
two, twenty, twice, twelve, twin, between
Pointing this pattern out to learners can help prevent them writing *tow*, instead of two, and mixing the homophones. It also helps them to see there is some logic and that you shouldn't rely too much on sound when spelling.
Some questions for you:
- Can you think of any more words related to the number one that include the letters on (together)?
- And any more tw words related to the number two?
- Do you know other sets of words in which the spelling can be learned by linking meanings rather than sound? (There are more in my book.)
Johanna
Two further relatives of one: atone (originally at one) and lone (originally short for alone and the root of lonely; now less common than either, but Texas is still the Lone Star State from its flag).
ReplyDeleteAnd here are some other relatives of two: twain, twig (the exact connection with two is not understood; possibly connected with the idea of forking or branching), twilight, twill/tweed (woven cloth in which the weft threads pass over two or more warp threads at a time, not just one; the -d in tweed is from confusion with the name of the River Tweed), twine (two or more strings twisted together), twist itself.
Love this. Highlighting these, and talking about them really should help. Is that our experience?
ReplyDelete