E19: FTCE | General Knowledge | English | Commonly Misspelled Words

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Welcome to episode 19 of FTCE seminar, a teacher certification exam podcast. I'm your host Mercedes Musto. In today's episode, I'll be talking about the FTCE general knowledge English subtest. This is part 10 of a multi-series review of what you need to know to pass the English section of the GK. Today we're going to talk about commonly misspelled words. Quick, spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I'm just kidding.

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It is a commonly misspelled word though. This is going to be fun. Concept 10, commonly misspelled words. There are a lot of words in the English language and some of them, they sound the same, like accept and accept, proceed and proceed, there, there, and there. It's important to be able to understand the sentence in order to select the correct word.

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You know what? I went to the website yourdictionary.com to check out the top 100 most commonly misspelled words. And guess what? The word misspelled is one of them. I just thought that was funny. Okay, there are two ways to approach this episode. You can follow along with like audio only, or you can take notes, the

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choice is yours. So let's get started. Listen carefully to the following sentences. Sentence one, I accepted the positive advice from my mentor. Sentence two, everyone went to the beach except Jeremiah. Here we have the words except A C C E P T and ACC EPT and accept EXCE PT Which one is which?

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Do I accept or accept? Advice. Oh, man. I'm glad you asked. In the first sentence, I accepted the advice from my mentor and we would use the word accept with the ACC EPT because it means to take or to receive. I accepted, I received the advice from my mentor. In the second sentence, everyone went to the beach except Jeremiah. The word except means not included or apart from.

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Basically saying that everyone went to the beach but not Jeremiah. Oh, I love the beach. I bet Jeremiah does too. Hey, the key here is to have an idea of like prefixes and suffixes. The word accept has the prefix ex, and ex means out of or out, like exit.

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Break down unfamiliar words into the word parts of meaning, and this will help you navigate the multiple choice options. Let's try another one. The flower girl will precede the bride at the wedding. Sentence two, we will proceed with the ceremony despite the rain. Precede, proceed, what's the difference?

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Let's take a look at the spelling of precede, P-R-E-C-E-D-E in the first sentence. The flower girl will precede the bride at the wedding. Now going back to that prefix suffix idea, the prefix pre means before, like pretest, preview, precede, so yes, precede is correct in this context. In the second sentence, we will proceed with the ceremony despite the rain.

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Proceed is P-R-O-C-E-D-E-D. And the prefix pro means forward or for something. And again, yes, to go forward with a ceremony despite the rain, that makes sense. You know what? You're doing great. And I can tell that this is starting to make sense. And in no time, no time at all. You will be a grammar guru

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Yes Last example. This is a good one After school, they're bringing their books to study at the table over there. Oh, no, you didn't Yes, I did. I told you this would be fun Here we have three different theirs. Listen again. After school, comma, they're, they are, T-H-E-Y, apostrophe, R-E,

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bringing their, T-H-E-I-R, books to study at the table over their, T-H-E-R-E. Okay, let's break it down. Notice the apostrophe in the first there, T-H-E-Y apostrophe, R-E. That's because it's a contraction for they are. And it sounds like this in the sentence, after school, they are bringing their books. The second there is T-H-E-I-R, and it's in possessive form. For example, whose books are these?

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These books are theirs, indicating possession. Lastly, the phrase at the table over there, T-H-E-R-E. In this example, there is a directional word indicating position. So remember it like this, T-H-E-Y apostrophe R-E, there, represents contraction. T-H-E-I-R, there means possession. And T-H-E-R-E, there means location.

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Contraction, possession, location. Great, you really knocked that out of the park. Let's review. We know that there's a lot of English words that are commonly misused or misspelled. However, now we know we can do three things to help us select the right word from the multiple choice options. Tip number one, read the sentence.

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Use context clues to decode the meaning of the sentence. Tip number two, look at the spelling of the word in question. Break the word down into its word parts. Use prefixes and suffixes to clarify the meaning of the word. And lastly, tip number three, take another look at the spelling of that word. Is it a contraction? Is it a possessive pronoun?

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Is it a noun or a verb? This will help you understand more about the context of the word. Use and apply your grammar guru knowledge to decode the words in question so you can better understand the sentence you're being tested on. For more practice with the English language skills, visit ftceseminar.com to study the English portion

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of the test. The important thing is to start studying and start studying today, so you can pass the teacher certification exam. Well, what are you waiting for? Check us out on YouTube at FTCE seminar and start studying today. This podcast was recorded at the Pickens Multimedia Studio at the University of West Florida.

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This is your host Mercedes Musto. Join me again on FTCE seminar, a teacher certification exam podcast, so you can pass the FTCE.

Transcribed with Cockatoo