6. Spelling Determined by Word Meaning
- Mist and missed sound alike, as do band and banned. To determine the spelling, remember that -ed is a past-tense tending.
- The mist drifted into the harbor.
- I nearly missed my bus.
- The movie was banned in Boston.
- The band played on.
- The endings of dentist and finest sound alike. Deciding which one to use can be tricky. One rule helps but doesn't cover all cases:
- --ist is a suffix meaning someone who does something:
artist - machinist - druggist - --est is the ending used on superlative adjectives:
finest - sweetest - longest
- --ist is a suffix meaning someone who does something:
- The sounds at the end of musician and condition sound alike. but....
- cian always means a person, where...
- tion or sion are never used for people.
- How do you tell whether to use tion or sion?
- If the root word ends in /t/, use -tion: complete, completion
- If the root word ends in /s/ or /d/, use sion: extend, extension
suppress, suppression - If the sound of the last syllable is the "heavy" sound of /zhun/ rather than the light sound, /shun/, use s: confusion, vision, adhesion
Exception: The ending, --mit becomes -mission:
permit - permission |
omit - omission |
submit - submission |
commit - commission |