6. Spelling Determined by Word Meaning

1. Mist and missed sound alike, as do band and banned. To determine the spelling, remember that -ed is a past-tense tending.
   1. The mist drifted into the harbor.
   2. I nearly missed my bus.
   3. The movie was banned in Boston.
   4. The band played on.
2. 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:
   1. --ist is a suffix meaning someone who does something:
         artist    -   machinist    -   druggist
   2. --est is the ending used on superlative adjectives:
         finest    -   sweetest    -   longest
3. The sounds at the end of musician and condition sound alike. but....
   1. cian always means a person, where...
   2. tion or sion are never used for people.
4. How do you tell whether to use tion or sion?
   1. If the root word ends in /t/, use -tion: complete, completion
   2. If the root word ends in /s/ or /d/, use sion: extend, extension
      suppress, suppression
   3. 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