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| Spelling Tips for Non-Native Speakers |  If you are not a native speaker of English you might come across some problems with the spelling of definite English words. Here are some tips for you to know to improve your spelling:
1. Be conscious of how your own mother tongue could influence your spelling. If your first language is Malay, for instance, you are inclined to drop the "ed" in the past tense of verbs or the "s" ending of plurals for the reason that these features do not exist in Bahasa Melayu. For Arabic speakers errors usually take place with the letters "v" "x" and "p" because these sounds are not found in that language.
2. Learn the rhyme "i before e except after c" to remember words such as chief, belief, thief as opposite to receive, perceive, deceive – but keep in mind the exceptions such as weigh, heir, neighbor.
3. To help you remember words you find difficult, you should make nonsense sentences. The spelling for "niece" may be remembered by recalling a sentence I made up: "Amira is a nice niece" to underline the "ni" beginning of both words "nice" and "niece".
4. Remember exceptions to the rule. ESL speakers who have just learnt about the "s" for plural words might have the tendency to add "s" to words such as "luggage" "furniture" "sheep" and "deer" which do not carry "s" in the plural form. Read English books, newspapers and magazines in order to get used to these exceptions.
5. People prefer visual, auditory or kinesthetic style when they learn something new. Visual learners can try to "picture" the right spelling in their minds. For a word such as "accommodation" you might want to visualize two double beds in a hotel room (for the double c and double m). In the same way, imagine three pairs of twins sitting around a conference table for a "committee" meeting to recall the double m, double t and double e in this word.
Kinesthetic learners might try cutting out the shapes of letters to reorganize into words to help remember the spelling they want to remember.
6. Scientific words are one more problem area, particularly with words such as "ophthalmology" where the third letter tends to be left out, and "anthropology". If you can imagine in color, visualize the "h" in red or purple or whatever exotic color you can imagine to make the letter stand out.
7. Foreign terms have been accepted and are regularly used in English language articles and reports: When in doubt, check it out. To give two examples, "succinct" has three "c"s and "de rigueur" has two "u"s.
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