Growing up I’m sure you had spelling tests in school. I did at least, and I hated them, spelling has never been my strong suit*.  And unfortunately, I continue to make frequent spelling mistakes in my writing today. Part of the reason for this is that English has words that aren’t spelled the way they sound, which makes spelling tricky.

So, today I thought we would all practice our spelling with a spelling test. This is a bit more advanced than your spelling tests were in elementary school, as you will have to guess what the word is first, then spell it correctly. Give it a try. The answers are at the end of this post. Good luck and I hope you get an A+.

1. ____________
This word describes a mass of land in the middle of a body of water. If you think it is spelled funny now, look at all the ways it has been spelled in the past through English-language history: iglund, illond, ylonde, and ilande.

2. ________________
This is the word for the piece of paper you get after you buy something. For some reason I always mix up the spelling of this word and the word ‘recipe’.

3. ________________
This is the second month of the year. It is also the shortest month of the year and the month when we celebrate Valentine’s Day in the United States. Hint: There is a sneaky ‘r’ in this word.

4. _________________
This word designates a military rank for a senior commissioned officer. Even though hearing the word probably won’t help you spell it correctly take a listen here.

5. __________________
This is the word for a long, thin, green summer vegetable. Part of the reason this word is spelled funny in English is because we took the spelling straight from Italian! So if you speak Italian you should know exactly how to spell the name of this vegetable that starts with a ‘z’.

*strong suit – an activity that a person is very good at doing

Answers:

1. island; 2. receipt; 3. February;  4. colonel; 5. zucchini