Writing · Writing: Research, Forms and Conventions

Spelling and Vocabulary: Canadian Spelling, Tricky Words, Etymology and Precise Diction

3.1 3.2About 70 minutes

Learning goals

I can use Canadian spelling consistently and know where it follows British or American patterns.
I can tell commonly confused words apart and spell names of people, Nations and places exactly.
I can use word parts, spelling rules and a personal error list to correct my spelling.
I can decide when unconventional spelling is used deliberately for effect.
I can build my vocabulary with an etymological dictionary, academic terms and a word log, and choose synonyms by connotation and register.

Words to know

variant spelling
A different accepted spelling of the same word (colour/color, catalogue/catalog).

homophone
A word that sounds like another but has a different meaning and spelling (site/cite/sight).

morpheme
The smallest unit of meaning in a word: a root, prefix or suffix.

etymology
The origin and history of a word.

connotation
The feelings and associations a word carries beyond its dictionary meaning (its denotation).

register
The level of formality of language: formal, neutral or informal.

academic vocabulary
Words used across school subjects for analysis and argument, such as analyze, significant, ambiguous, juxtapose.

Your spell checker is not your editor

The principle reason the council excepted the proposal was it's affect on the environment. A spell checker finds nothing wrong with this sentence, because every word is a real word. A teacher finds four errors: principal, accepted, its and effect.

The Grade 11 curriculum asks you to use spelling rules and patterns, a variety of resources and appropriate strategies to recognize and correct spelling errors (3.1), and to build vocabulary for writing by confirming word meanings and reviewing and refining word choice (3.2). Its examples include noting variant spellings, keeping track of words you often misspell, using an etymological dictionary, using specialized academic terms, and even using irregular spelling deliberately for effect. This lesson covers all of them.

Remember from Grade 10

In Grade 10 you set your word processor to Canadian English, learned the common homophones (their/there/they're, its/it's, affect/effect, accept/except, principal/principle), kept a personal error list, and used word parts and families to spell. This lesson adds the patterns behind Canadian spelling, harder confused pairs, etymology and precise word choice.

Canadian spelling: a mix, used consistently

Canadian spelling borrows from both British and American English. Most Canadian publishers follow the Canadian Oxford Dictionary or the Canadian Press Stylebook; your teacher may name one. The key is consistency.

-our (British): colour, honour, neighbour, favourite, behaviour. But watch the suffixes that drop the u: humorous, glamorous, honorary, laborious.
-re (British): centre, theatre, metre (the unit), litre, fibre. But a measuring device is a meter (parking meter).
Doubled l before a suffix (British): travelled, cancelled, modelling, counsellor, jewellery.
-ize (American, and standard in most Canadian style guides): organize, realize, recognize, criticize. Analyze is the usual Canadian dictionary form, but analyse is also widely accepted in Canada; pick one and use it consistently.
Nouns with c, verbs with s (British): practice (noun) / practise (verb); licence / license; advice / advise (this pair is the same everywhere). Canadian spelling also uses defence and offence.
Other Canadian choices: cheque, grey, program, catalogue, tire, curb.

Quote sources exactly as spelled, even American ones: if the source wrote color, your quotation keeps color.

Names deserve exact spelling

Spell people's names, authors, characters and places exactly as the source or the people themselves do. That includes Nations and peoples: Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe, Mi'kmaq, Métis (with the accent), Inuit (already plural; one person is an Inuk, so Inuits is incorrect). Many First Nations use their own names and spellings for their communities; check the community's own website.

Strategies that beat spelling errors

Morphemes: spell by meaning. Dis + satisfied = dissatisfied (two s's); un + necessary = unnecessary; mis + spell = misspell.
Doubling rule: double the final consonant before a vowel suffix when the last syllable is stressed and ends in one vowel + one consonant: ocCUR → occurred, beGIN → beginning, reFER → referred. Not when unstressed: TARget → targeted, BENefit → benefited. (Canadian and British spelling make an exception for final l: travelled.)
Pronunciation traps: say the hidden letters in your head: Feb-ru-ary, lib-rar-y, gov-ern-ment, envi-ron-ment.
i before e? The old rule has many exceptions (weird, seize, science, their). Learn the words you use, not the rhyme.
Personal error list: most writers repeat the same 10 to 20 misspellings. Track them; search your draft for each one before you hand it in.

Commonly confused pairs at the Grade 11 level

complement (completes) / compliment (praise)
stationary (not moving) / stationery (paper; e for envelope)
discreet (careful, tactful) / discrete (separate)
elicit (draw out a response) / illicit (illegal)
allusion (indirect reference) / illusion (false appearance)
cite (quote a source) / site (place) / sight (vision)
council (a group) / counsel (advice; to advise)
emigrate (leave a country) / immigrate (come into a country)
lose (misplace) / loose (not tight)

Breaking spelling rules on purpose

The curriculum notes that writers sometimes use irregular spelling deliberately, for example in an advertisement aimed at teens. Unconventional spelling can be effective in:

Brand names and ads (Kwik Klean), when the audience is informal.
Dialogue, to suggest a speaker's speech: "Gonna be cold tonight." Use it lightly and respectfully. Representing a dialect or accent through spelling can easily turn into mockery or a stereotype; often word choice and rhythm show voice better than misspellings.
Poetry and texting styles in creative work, when the form invites it.

In formal writing (essays, reports, letters to the editor), use standard spelling. The test: would a reader see this spelling as a deliberate choice that serves the audience, or as a mistake?

Knowing roots and affixes helps you spell and define unfamiliar words. Bene (well) and vol (wish) also appear in benefit and volunteer.

Building vocabulary for writing

Etymological dictionaries (for example, the free Online Etymology Dictionary) trace a word's original and later meanings. Knowing that muscle comes from the Latin for little mouse, or that companion means one you share bread with (Latin com + panis), makes words memorable and shows how meanings shift.
Words from Indigenous languages are part of Canadian English: Canada comes from kanata, an Iroquoian word for a village or settlement, recorded by Jacques Cartier in 1535; kayak from Inuktitut qajaq; caribou from Mi'kmaq through French; muskeg from Cree.
Academic vocabulary lets you analyse precisely: analyze, evaluate, significant, ambiguous, juxtapose, implicit, explicit, perspective, nuance, undermine, reinforce. Use these in essays and reports instead of shows, good, bad, big.
Subject-specific terms in their correct sense: protagonist, foil, irony, motif in English; variable, sample, hypothesis in a report.
A word log: the curriculum suggests keeping a list of new words from your reading and checking them off when you use them in your writing. Record the word, the sentence where you found it, a definition and your own sentence.
Confirm meaning in a dictionary before using a word you met only once. A thesaurus gives options, not equivalents.

One word's history, from its oldest known form (left) to modern English (right). The Online Etymology Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary give histories like this one.

Synonyms share a basic meaning but differ in connotation. Check each thesaurus word in a dictionary and pick the one whose feeling and register fit your sentence.

Worked example

Let's edit a paragraph for spelling and diction

Draft: The principle theme of the novel is how loneliness effects the protagonist. Her neighbours complement her garden, but she is to discrete to answer. The author uses alot of imagry of the colour gray to show this, which is really big.

Homophones and confused words: principle → principal (main); effects → affects (verb); complement → compliment (praise); to → too; discrete → discreet (reserved, tactful). Actually shy or reserved may be the better word here, since discreet suggests keeping secrets. Choose by meaning, not sound.
Common misspellings: alot → a lot; imagry → imagery (image + ry).
Canadian spelling, consistently: colour is already Canadian; gray → grey.
Diction: really big is vague. Use academic vocabulary: which reinforces her isolation or which is significant because grey appears only in scenes where she is alone.
Revised: The principal theme of the novel is how loneliness affects the protagonist. Her neighbours compliment her garden, but she is too reserved to answer. The author uses recurring imagery of the colour grey, which reinforces her isolation.

Nine corrections: five confused words, two misspellings, one Canadian spelling, and one vague phrase replaced with precise academic diction.

Hands-on activity

Start a word log and an error list

You need: a notebook or a document, any book, magazine or news article at home, a dictionary (print or online) and, if possible, the free Online Etymology Dictionary.

Go back through two pieces of your recent writing (or a teacher-marked assignment). List every spelling error in an error list, with the correct spelling and a strategy or memory trick for each.
Read for 20 minutes. Log five new words: the word, the sentence you found it in, a definition, its etymology, and a sentence of your own.
Look up one word with interesting history in an etymological dictionary, and tell someone at home the story.
Search a draft you are working on for every word on your error list, and tick each word in your log when you use it well in your writing.

What to look for: an error list with a strategy for each word (not just the correction); word-log sentences that use the word in its correct sense and register; at least one etymology explained in your own words.

Just for fun

The word queue is the letter Q followed by four silent letters, all standing in line waiting their turn.

Your turn

Correct to Canadian spelling: The theater program in the city center is my favorite.

Choose the correct word: The new bike rack will (complement / compliment) the park design.

Why is Inuits incorrect?

Add -ed: occur, target, travel (Canadian spelling).

Is humourous correct?

What does an etymological dictionary tell you?

Replace the vague word with academic vocabulary: The ending is kind of unclear on purpose.

More practice: warm-up

Spell the noun and the verb: practice / practise. Which is the verb in Canadian spelling?

Which means paper and envelopes: stationary or stationery?

Correct: alot

What is connotation?

Is centre or center standard Canadian spelling for the middle of something?

More practice: on your own

Correct every error: The councel asked for discrete feedback, but people's responses were to loose to be useful.

Explain the difference between allusion and illusion, and use each in a sentence.

A teen-focused ad says Get Kool for Skool. Is the spelling acceptable? Explain.

Use word parts to define malevolent and spell misspelled.

Choose the best word for a formal essay and explain: The protagonist's decision (shows / reveals / proves) her loyalty.

Challenge

A student writes dialogue for an older Newfoundland character by misspelling almost every word to show his accent. Give two reasons this may be a problem and suggest a better approach.

Look up (or recall from this lesson) the etymology of companion and explain how it adds meaning to the sentence She was his companion through the long winter.

Write three sentences of literary analysis that correctly use ambiguous, juxtapose and reinforce.

Check your understanding

Quiz

Which sentence uses Canadian spelling consistently?

Which is spelled correctly?

The noise was enough to (illicit / elicit) a complaint.

Which word correctly adds -ed to refer?

An etymological dictionary is most useful for:

Which synonym for smell has the most negative connotation?

When is unconventional spelling most acceptable?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: expectations 3.1 (spelling) and 3.2 (vocabulary) ask Grade 11 students to use strategies and resources to spell correctly and to build a precise, varied vocabulary, including academic and subject-specific words.

How to help: spelling errors that remain in Grade 11 are usually a small personal set. Help your teen build an error list from marked work and quiz them on it. Share interesting word histories at dinner. If your teen speaks other languages at home, talk about words that came into English from them.

Common difficulties:

Trusting spell check with homophones.
Mixing American and Canadian spellings in one piece.
Choosing thesaurus words with the wrong connotation or register.
Using vague words (big, good, shows) where precise academic terms are needed.

Canadian spelling varies a little between style guides; if your teen's teacher names one, follow it.