Question
Answer
Accommodate
"Two Cs
Achieve
i before 'e' — achieve
Acknowledge
Contains the word 'knowledge' — ack-knowledge
Acquire
cq not 'kw' — ac-quire
Address
"Two Ds
Aggressive
"Two Gs
Apparent
"Two Ps
Argument
Drop the 'e' from 'argue' before adding -ment
Atheist
the is hidden inside — a-THE-ist
Believe
i before 'e' except after 'c' — believe
Business
"Contains 'busi'
Calendar
"Ends in -ar
Category
"Ends in -ory
Cemetery
All three vowels are 'e' — cEmEtEry
Changeable
Keep the 'e' before -able to keep the soft 'g' sound
Colleague
"Ends in -eague
Column
Silent 'n' at the end
Committed
Double 't' — com-mit-ted
Conscience
Contains 'science' — con-SCIENCE
Conscious
"Ends in -cious
Consensus
"No 'c' in the middle — con-SEN-sus
Definitely
"Contains 'finite' — defiNITEly
Dilemma
Double 'm'
Disappear
"One 's'
Disappoint
"One 's'
Ecstasy
"Ends in -asy
Embarrass
"Double 'r'
Environment
Contains 'iron' — envIRONment
Exceed
"Ends in -ceed
Exhilarate
Silent 'h' — ex-hil-a-rate
Existence
"Ends in -ence
Experience
"Ends in -ence
Familiar
"Ends in -iar
Fascinate
Silent 'c' — fas-cinate
Fluorescent
"Starts with 'fluor'
Foreign
e before 'i' — an exception to the usual rule
Forty
No 'u' (unlike 'four')
Fulfill
Double 'l' at the end
Gauge
au not 'ua' — gauge
Grammar
"Ends in -ar
Guarantee
gua not 'garu'
Harass
"One 'r'
Height
No 'e' at the end (unlike 'weight')
Humorous
Drop the 'e' from 'humor' before adding -ous
Hypocrisy
"Ends in -isy
Ignorance
"Ends in -ance
Immediately
Double 'm'
Independent
"Ends in -ent
Indispensable
"Ends in -able
Inoculate
"One 'n'
Intelligence
"Double 'l'
Jewelry
jewel + 'ry' — no extra 'e'
Judgment
No 'e' after 'judg' in American English
Kernel
Not 'colonel' — that's a different word with the same sound
Knowledge
"Silent 'k'
Laboratory
labor + 'atory'
Leisure
ei not 'ie' — an exception to the usual rule
Liaison
Contains two 'i's — li-ai-son
Library
"Don't forget the first 'r' — lib-rary
License
c then 's' — licen-se
Lightning
"No 'e' — lightning
Maintenance
"Comes from 'maintain'
Maneuver
eu in the middle
Mediocre
"Ends in -re
Millennium
"Double 'l'
Miniature
Contains 'mini' + 'ature' — don't drop the middle 'a'
Minuscule
"Starts with 'minus'
Mischievous
"Ends in -vous
Misspell
Double 's' — mis + spell
Necessary
"One 'c'
Neighbor
ei — neighbor
Noticeable
Keep the 'e' before -able to keep the soft 'c' sound
Occasionally
"Double 'c'
Occurred
Double 'r' — oc-curred
Occurrence
"Double 'r'
Official
"Double 'f'
Omission
"One 'm'
Opportunity
Double 'p'
Outrageous
Keep the 'e' before -ous to keep the soft 'g' sound
Parallel
"One 'r'
Pastime
"One 't' — pas-time
Perceive
e before 'i' after 'c' — perceive
Perseverance
Ends in -ance — per-se-ver-ance
Personnel
Double 'n'
Playwright
"Contains 'wright' (one who makes)
Possession
"Double 's'
Precede
"Ends in -cede
Privilege
"No 'd' — privi-lege
Pronunciation
Drop the 'o' from 'pronounce' — pro-NUN-ciation
Publicly
No '-ally' — just 'public' + 'ly'
Questionnaire
Double 'n'
Receive
i before 'e' except after 'c' — receive
Recommend
"One 'c'
Referred
Double 'r' — re-ferred
Relevant
"Ends in -ant
Restaurant
Contains 'rest' + 'aurant' — remember the 'au'
Rhythm
No vowels except 'y' — rhythm
Ridiculous
"Ends in -ous
Sacrilegious
Not spelled like 'religious' — it's 'sacri' + 'legious'
Schedule
Silent 'c' — sched-ule
Secretary
Contains 'secret' — a secretary keeps secrets
Separate
Contains 'a rat' — sep-A-RAT-e
Sergeant
ser + 'geant' — an unusual spelling for how it sounds
Siege
i before 'e' — siege
Similar
"Ends in -ar
Sincerely
Ends in -ely — sincere + ly
Subtle
Silent 'b'
Supersede
The only common English word ending in -sede
Surprise
"Don't forget the first 'r' — sur-prise
Threshold
One 'h' in the middle — thresh-old
Tomorrow
"One 'm'
Twelfth
Don't forget the 'f' — twelf-th
Tyranny
"Double 'n'
Underrate
Double 'r' — under + rate
Until
"One 'l' at the end
Vacuum
Double 'u' — one of the few English words with 'uu'
Weird
e before 'i' — an exception to the usual rule
Wherever
where + 'ever' — no extra letters
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