Words with Initial and Final Blends

     Hi friends! How are you? 
     Today I am going to told you about singular sounds, which are very common in English, and sometimes the pronunciation of those sounds is a little complicated for people that  don´t have much oral practice; I mean blend  between consonants .Consonant blends may consist of two or three letters whose sounds are blended together. Each letter within the blend is pronounced individually, but quickly, so they blend together. Here are the words of the lesson:

          In them we can see some of the most frequent blends such as sm; br; pl; st; thr, to the beginning of words; and sk; ft,  to the end. Even, some in which the feature is observed at the beginning and end of the word at the same time. 

 twist----tw and st                      stink-----st and nk                  stamp----st and mp

      This lesson proved to be very useful, because it helps to get practice in pronunciation in English and to familiarize the ear with these sounds.

Initial Consonant Blends Word Lists
bl-	br-	cl-	cr-	dr-	fl-	fr-	gl-	gr-	pl-	pr-
sc-	sk-	sl-	sm-	sn-	sp-	squ-	st-	str-	sw-	tr

Final Consonant Blends Word Lists
-ct	-ft	-lb to -lt	-mp	-nd	-ng
-nk	-nt	-pt	-sk	-sp	-st

Plural Nouns

    Good afternoon guys! Today  we are going to talk about plural nouns. Here, there is the list of SpellingCity's plural nouns practice.

Most nouns make their plurals by simply adding –s to the end (e.g. cat/cats, book/books, journey/journeys). Some do change their endings, though, the main types of noun that do this are:

1. Words ending in a consonant + "y": "y" changes to "i" and add "es".

party / parties (fiesta/s)

city / cities (ciudad/es)

2. Words ending in a vowel + "and" add an "s".

boy / boys (chico/s)

toy / toys (juguete/s)

3. Words ending in "s", "ss", "sh", "ch", "x", "or" add "is".

bus / buses (bus/es)

glass / glasses (copa/s)

brush / brushes (cepillo/s)

watch / watches (reloj/es)

box / boxes (caja/s)

tomato / tomatoes (tomate/s)

 There’s one exception to this rule. If the -ch ending is pronounced with a ‘k’ sound, you add -s rather than -es:

singular	plural
stomach	stomachs
epoch	epochs

4. Words ending in "f" or "fe": change the "f" or "faith" to "see."

leaf / leaves (hoja/s)

wife / wives (esposa/s)

Many nouns are pluralized in an irregular manner. There are two cases:

1. When the plural and singular do not change.

fish (peces o pescados)        sheep (ovejas)

2. When the plural varies irregularly. Therefore, there is no rule which must be followed and learned the irregular shapes of each.

Singular	Significado	Plural	Significado
man	hombre	men	hombres
woman	mujer	women	mujeres
child	niño	children	niños
person	persona	people	personas/gente
tooth	diente	teeth	dientes
foot	pie	feet	pies
mouse	ratón	mice	ratones

Let´s go to review!

    Hi bloggers!  
    Today I will make a brief count everything I've been incorporating to my English vocabulary since I started the summer program with Spellingcity.com. Sometimes I know many of the words of the lesson, but they serve me to learn new words and review the words that I already know. 
    I found very useful class about homophones, words that are phonetically similar but with differences in their writing and meaning, so it is sometimes difficult to know which one is to be used and we must  inferred from the context. I also liked the vivid verbs, a completely new subject for me. I learned that vivid verbs refer to highly descriptive words that convey meaning or action in a much stronger way. For example, sauntering describes the process of walking more vividly. I had no knowledge about this topic so I found it very interesting. Moreover, the lessons about long vowel silent "e" pattern, long vowel patterns for /a/, /e/, /o/ and long /u/ sound were very useful to improve my pronunciation and thus achieve a higher level of diction.
However, all the lessons were very interesting.
    These are all new words that I incorporated into my vocabulary since I've been with Spelling City:
shelf, fox, bug, sort, hole, whole, wiggled, sipped, snorted, cuddled, hissed, giggled, begged, matter, firefly, fingerprint, snowflake, sunburn, trail, degree, throat, fluffy, empty, clever, sticky, polite, rude, smooth, chewy, clue, bark, sink, unable, refill
   I'm sure that I will continue learning many new things in the coming weeks. That´s a fact!!!

Reviewing the Summer Program

This blog is being used by Alexandra to study English and to learn a bit about blogging.  For VocabularySpellingCity, we have happily donated a free summer membership to her to help her learn English and to see how useful our site is for ESL (English as a second language).

I'm involved with VocabularySpellingCity. My first observation when I look at the summer assignments for her (which can be found inside the folder on this page) is that they are mostly taken from different teaching resources on VocabularySpellingCity.

For instance, the first day's assignment was High Frequency Words. This is taken from a teacher resource on sight or high frequency or dolch words (different names for much the same thing).  

The second assignment is on nouns and places with words such as:  home, school, library, farm, bank, mall etc.  Here's a question, are these vocabulary lists useful for building English skills?

The third assignment is short vowel sounds. This list derives from the teaching resource on beginning spelling curriculum.

So, I'd like to know which of these lists she finds the most useful to her learning English and which ones are not so useful?

Prefixes un- & re-

   Hello!   
   A prefix is a word part (afix) that is added to the beginning of a root word.Today's lesson was about the prefixes un-and re-: the prefix un- means "not" or "opposite of"; the prefix re- means "again" or "back to". Learning prefixes will help us better understand meanings of words.
    The words that were the basis for the explanation were:

    When the prefix re- and un- are added to a base word the meaning of the base word changes. The structure of the preset words is:

Prefix

+

Base Word

=

New Word

Meaning

re-	make	remake	to make again
re-	tell	retell	to tell again
un-	fair	unfair	not fair
un-	sure	unsure	the opposite of sure

Multiple Meaning Words

   Good aftenoon, guys! As in Spanish, in the English language there are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings based on the context in which it is used; these are called homonymous.

Today Spellingcity.com provided the following list:

 bark = ladrido                              I reconize the sound of my dog´s bark.                                        

bark = corteza                              The bark protects the outside of the tree.

 sink = hundirse                             Wood floats in water, but a metal hammer would sink.

 sink = fregadero, pila, lavabo        The faucet in the kitchen sink is dripping.

 watch = observar                          The boys like to watch TV.

 watch = reloj de pulsera                He checked for the time on the watch he wore.

 rock = balancearse                        I rock the baby by moving her back and forth.

 rock =  roca                                  A boulder is a large rock than a pebble.

 park = parque                               I will go to the parkto have a picnic.

 park = aparcar                              Mom will park the car in the driveway.

    To further I invite you to read the articles section in Spellingcity.com or by clicking here. However, I leave a list with 30 of these words. See you soon, bye!

string - noun

a thick thread or cord

string - verb

to connect as in making a line

fight - noun

a battle or combat

fight - verb

to carry on or maintain

track - noun

1.) evidence left by an animal 2.) a guide rail for a train

track - verb

to hunt down

point - noun

1.) a sharp edge 2.) a particular purpose

point - verb

to aim

spring - noun

1.) a coil 2.) the season after winter

spring - verb

to jump or move upwards

place - noun

a particular area

place - verb

to arrange or put down

swing - noun

1.) an object that you set on that goes back and forth 2.) a style of dance

swing - verb

to move back and forth

paint - noun

a liquid that covers up things

paint - verb

to coat, cover, or decorate

block - noun

1.) a wooden piece usually cut into square or rectangle 2.) a stop of an opponent from coming toward you in sports

block - verb

to stop or prohibit from going

dress - noun

1.) a formal piece of clothing for girls 2.) clothing

dress - verb

to put clothing upon

board - noun

1.) a piece of wood cut into a long strip 2.) daily meals

board - verb

to get on a train, plane, boat, etc.

raise - noun

increase in the amount of money for a job

raise - verb

to lift up or increase something

picture - noun

a photograph or illustration

picture - verb

to imagine or see in ones mind

shovel - noun

a tool used to dig up dirt

shovel - verb

to remove from the ground with a tool

dream - noun

1.) images of thoughts while sleeping 2.) a goal or aspiration

dream - verb

to see or imagine

                

Long /u/ Sound

     Hello everybody! After seeing the long vowel sounds for a to i, it is the turn of the u. The long u is a 2-sound vowel similar to a y sound followed by an oo sound.
  Part 1: The long u begins with the jaw mostly closed and tip of the tongue very close to the tooth ridge (similar to a y sound).
   Part 2: The sound transitions into an oo sound by closing the lips into a small circle while lowering the front of the tongue. At the same time as the front of the tongue lowers, the back of the tongue raises.
   The spellings for long u and oo sound are quite similar. (The oo sound has one additional spelling, oo.)

spelling	example		other pronunciations for spelling
u_e (VCe)[1]	cute cube huge		oo sound (rude)
ue[1][2]	fuel hue rescue		oo sound (clue)
ew[1]	few pew skew		oo sound (chew)

  A long u spelling is generally pronounced as a long u (not an oo sound) sound when it comes after the following consonant sounds:

• m sound
• k sound
• f sound
• b sound
• v sound
• h sound

   Following other consonant sounds, these spellings are more likely to be pronounced as the oo sound.
   The -ue spelling is usually silent when it occurs at the end of a word and follows the letters g, ng, or q (examples include the words fatigue, tongue, and unique). An exception is the word argue, which ends in a long u sound.
    In Spellingcity.com these were the words that were used in lesson 13 to sample the long /u/ sound.
-The rude man insulted neighbors.
-You have no excuse for your bad attitude.
-The human race is in danger of extinction.
-He makes music with his voice.
-You do not have any proof against me.
-The surface is very smooth and you can slip.
-The chewy candies can damage teeth.
-The class group prepared a nice presentation for the biology project.
-We have no clue to find the treasure.
-Eating fruits is a healthy habit.

Adjetives

      Good morning! Today we are going to talk about adjetives in English because Lesson 12 precisely focused on them.  Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person, place or thing in the sentence. Adjectives nearly always appear immediately before the noun or noun phrase that they modify. Sometimes they appear in a string of adjectives, and when they do, they appear in a set order according to category. When indefinite pronouns — such as something, someone, anybody — are modified by an adjective, the adjective comes after the pronoun:
    Ex.1: Anyone capable of doing something horrible to someone nice should be punished.
    Ex.2: Something wicked this way comes.
And there are certain adjectives that, in combination with certain words, are always "postpositive" (coming after the thing they modify):
     Ex.3: The president elect, heir apparent to the Glitzy fortune, lives in New York proper.
  Adjectives are often used to describe the degree of modification.
  The adjective forms are positive, comparative, and superlative:
-This tree is tall. (positive)
-That tree is taller. (comparative)
-The last tree in the row is the tallest. (superlative)
  A handful of adjectives have irregular forms of positive, comparative, and superlative usage.
  These include good/better/best, bad/worse/worst, little/less/least, much-many-some/more/most, far/further/furthest: My lunch was good, hers was better, and yours was the best.

   This was the list provided by Spellingcity.com and I did not know the meaning of some words:

----------- suave, esponjoso

------------ vacío




------------ inteligente


------------ pegajoso




------------- cortés


I invite you to search lists with new adjectives to expand your vocabulary.

Long Vowel Patterns for /a/, /e/, /o/

      Hello bloggers!  
   In the eleventh lesson I learned about long vowel patterns for /a/, /e/ and /o/.We must know that a long vowel is a vowel that is pronounced the same as the name of the letter. For example, the "U" is pronounced like "you," not like "a" which would be the sound of a short vowel. Sometimes a long vowel is combined with another vowel. Such is the case of the following words given in Spellingcity.com

   For this lesson, Audio Word Match activity was very important because it is convenient to associate the sounds that takes the vowel in each case. Thus listening skills are developed.

    These are the sounds that can take the long vowels. They are organized according to their frequency of use:

        A                                            E                                        O

        a                                             e                                         o

      a_e                                           ee                                      o_e

        ai                                            ea                                       oa   

       ay                                            -y                                       ow

      eigh                                          e_e                                     ou

       ei                                              ie                                       oe

       ey                                             ei

       ea 

                                           

Compound Words

    Good morning everybody! Compound words are very common in Spanish and also in English. Precisely the lesson today was about them. This was the list provided by Spellingcity.com

    In this list there were some words that I ignored. So I sought its Spanish translation.
        firefly (luciérnaga)                                  fingerprint (huella dactilar)
        handstand (parada de manos)                snowflake (copo de nieve)

                                     sunburn (quemadura de sol)

    An activity of this lesson that I find very useful is "Which word completes the sentence" because it helps develop thinking in English. We must analyze what is the correct word in context to complete blanks in sentences.

-We swam in the aftenoon before dinner.

-A fireflyis also called a lightning bug.

-I canot see without my glasses.

-I touched the glass and left a fingerprint.

-I went to the beach and got a red sunburn.

-The girl held a handstand until she got dizzy.

-Is there anyone who wants to go?

-I did my math homework after school.

-A snowflake is a beautiful frozen crystal.

-The lonely boy ate lunch by himself.

     Well guys, see you tomorrow. Bye!

Science Vocabulary

    Hello guys! I´m here with another installment of my blog, to tell you how I increased my English skills. To increase our vocabulary in English is very important to cover all branches of life, I mean the words related to home, work, technologies, and also with the different subjects we received in school. Earlier, in one of the lessons, we saw words related to mathematics; today we will approach science. And here is the list of words that give me Spellingcity.com:

        Matter---anything that has mass and takes up space

        Melt------to change from solid to liquid

        Boil-------to form gas bubbles in a liquid with heat

        Liquid-----a sustance that flows, a fluid

        Solid------state of matter that has definite shape

        Gas--------invisible state of matter, like air

        Heat-------energy felt by warmth from the sun

        Mass------amount of matter in an object

        Change----to turn into somethingelse or become different

        Atom------smallest building block of matter

    Look, with this other list you can also expand your vocabulary as I have done:

Science Vocabulary Word List

A astrophysics astronomy atom B beaker biochemistry biology botany Bunsen burner burette C cell chemical chemistry climate climatologist control cuvette D data datum E electricity electrochemist element energy entomology evolution experiment

F fact flask fossil funnel G genetics geology geophysics glassware graduated cylinder gravity H herpetology hypothesis I ichthyology immunology L lab laboratory laws lepidoptery

M magnetism mass matter measure meteorologist meteorology microbiologist microbiology microscope mineral mineralogy molecule motion O observe observatory organism ornithology P paleontology particle Petri dish phase physical science physics pipette Q quantum mechanics

R radiology research retort S scale science scientist seismology T telescope temperature test tube theory thermometer tissue V variable virologist volcanology volume volumetric flask W watch glass weather weigh Z zoology

  
Don´t forget to visit Spellingcity.com! Knowledge is waiting for you there.Bye!