Which word in each pair of words is more likely to be misspelled or too difficult for a student to read?

Prediction: Even though each word pair has the same number of letters and syllables and begin with exactly the same two letters, the mode and the median score will be 100% correct. The mean will be close to 90% correct! Reason? We all intuitively know that we haven't been taught or haven't been systematically exposed to the phonic patterns in one of each pair of words. Believe it or not, all the words below are phonically regular!

Answers: 1. partial, 2. precious, 3. chateaux, 4. boutique, 5. mechanized, 6. unions,
7. missions, 8. petites, 9. collusion, 10. specials.

Reasons:  1.  The word partial contains two phonic patterns not systematically taught.  The first is the ti digraph for the /sh/ phoneme.  The second is the ending -al that rather than rhyme with pal and gal and Sal it is the same as the -el in nickel, the -le in pickle, the -ol in pistol, the -il in pencil, and the -ul in mogul.  Note that there is not one single word in the English language in which the ending "shul" sound is spelled "shul."  The sound "shul" is either spelled tial as in initial or cial as in crucial.

2.  The word precious  has two phonic patterns not systematically taught.  The first is the ci digraph for the /sh/ phoneme.   The second is the ending -ous that rather than rhyme with mouse rhymes with us.

3.  The word chateaux contains three phonic patterns not systematically taught.  The first is the ch digraph for the /sh/ phoneme.   The second is the eau vowel trigraph used for the long o sound.  The third is the x which may or may not be pronounced as a /z/ phoneme indicating a plural.

4.  The word boutique contains three phonic patterns not systematically taught.  The first is the ou having the "oo" sound as in boo rather the the "ow!" sound as in out.  The second is the letter i having the sound of a long e.  The third is the ending -que that has the sound of the phoneme /k/.  Thus unique rhymes with peek and peak and, of course,  pique.

5.  The word mechanized contains only two spelling patterns not systematically taught.  The first is the ch digraph having the sound of the phoneme /k/.  The second is the letter a as a schwa.

6.  The word unions has three spelling patterns not systematically taught.  The first is the "invisible" y.  The very first phoneme has no letter for it.  Normally the letters un are sounded as "un" as in unable, under, unless, until, etc.  But in the word unions the letters un are used to represent the "yoon" sound.  The second is the letter i being used as the consonant y for the phoneme /y/.  The third pattern is the ending -on that rhymes with fun.  Note that in our language the "yun" sound is never spelled yun.  It might be nice if we could spell onion as "unyun" and union as "yoonyun" but we just don't.  We like to consider the letters i and y as identical twins that just love to switch identities.  The y can sound as a long i as in try or a short i as in gym.  The letter i can sound as the consonant y in senior and onion.

7.  The word missions has two patterns not systematically taught.  The first is the ssi trigraph for the /sh/ phoneme.  The second is the ending -on pronounced to rhyme with fun.  Note, there are four common spellings of the sound "shun:"  tion as in nation, cion as in suspicion, sion as in tension, and ssion as in passion. 

8.  The word petites has only one pattern not systematically taught.  This pattern is the letter i having the sound of the long e.   Petites rhymes with beets and beats.

9.  The word collusion has two patterns not systematically taught.     The first  is the si digraph for the /zh/ phoneme.  Note that although the /zh/ phoneme is used as "zh" in dictionary diacritics, there is not one word in the English language that spells the /zh/ phoneme with the letters zh!  The third pattern is the ending -on pronounced to rhyme with fun.  The "zhun" sound is spelled either sion as in vision or sian as in Asian.

10.  The word specials has two spelling patterns not systematically taught.  The first is the ci digraph for the /sh/ phoneme.  The second is the ending -al that rather than rhyme with pal and gal and Sal it rhymes with the -el in nickel, the -le in pickle, the -ol in pistol, the -il in pencil, and the -ul in mogul.  Note that there is not one single word in the English language in which the ending "shul" sound is spelled "shul."  The sound "shul" is either spelled tial as in initial or cial as in crucial.

If you would like a listing of patterns not systematically taught, we will send you a copy of The Mechanics of English Spelling if you will send us $1.00 for the postage.  Just request it in a letter to the AVKO Foundation, 3084 Willard Road, Suite W, Birch Run MI, 48415.  Or you can visit our web page Essential Patterns Seldom Systematically Taught.

If you still are a Doubting Thomas, we challenge you to make a spot check on one of your students who is reading somewhere in the vicinity of 3.5 and have him/her read an article from a newspaper or magazine.  Mark the words missed.  If you don't quite understand which patterns are taught and which aren't, send the results to me and I'll mark each word missed with a notation as to the phonic pattern that is or isn't taught.

If you send me the article that you choose to use, I can mark the words beforehand that contain the patterns not systematically taught and you can then easily judge whether or not your student missed 3 out of 4 of those words and whether 3 out of every 4 words he/she missed contained one or more of those patterns.  You can do this by eMailing info@avko.org

If you have comments about this website, you are encouraged to e-mail DonMcCabe@aol.com.  We appreciate any comments that will help us make this website even more useful. 

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Don McCabe, Research Director

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Birch Run, MI 48415-9404

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