Information for teachers

Students can make a lot of mistakes in writing, even when they are quite advanced. Sometimes they do not notice a wrong spelling, and sometimes one word is not only spelt wrongly, but it also changes into another word as a result. 

Most of the exercises in this section are designed to give students practice in looking for small differences in detail, such as a word spelt wrongly, which can change the meaning of a sentence. Certain words have one letter missing, or one or two letters too many. The students need to look carefully to find out the words which need to be changed. The letters in question are alphabetical and not phonetic, and they alter the spelling, though, of course, this in turn alters the pronunciation. You may wish to focus on the resultant change in pronunciation as a result of the missing or extra letters, as well as the changes in meaning. Other exercises are just humorous plays on the meanings of words.

Most of the exercises are suitable for intermediate students, though some are quite advanced and would involve some extensive dictionary work, which is often a useful activity in its own right. We believe that it is up to each teacher to judge whether a class can cope with an exercise. Of course, apart from helping with spelling, error correction, dictionary work and vocabulary learning, the exercises are designed to be amusing so that students can enjoy playing with the words and seeing some of the amusing results. You could even get them to design exercises of their own.

Click on the links below to look at the free sample sheets.

In another world

In another world 1

Literal meaning of words derived from Latin and Greek

Also available under subscription: In another world 2, In another world 3

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Recalcitrant consonants

One consonant missing - Fatty foods	Find and put in the missing consonant
One consonant too many - Farm Animals	Find and take out the extra consonant

Also available under subscription: One consonant missing - Special occasions, One consonant missing - Sport, One consonant too many - Animal features

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Vagrant vowels

One vowel missing - Bears	Find and put in the missing vowel
One vowel missing - Detective story	Find and put in the missing vowel

Also available under subscription: One vowel missing - Entertaining children, One vowel missing - History, One vowel missing - Invitation

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Sundry switches

Knock out two

Find and take out the extra two letters

Also available under subscription: Replacements, Swap two

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Word games answers

Word games answers

Answers to all the games in this section