Panettone - mine's from Fellini in Hatch End. Fellini and the other Italian restaurants had parties for Xmas and New Year. How do you remember the spelling of Fellini and Penettone? 

FELLINI - SPELLING MEMORY AID

Fellini - double ll like legs eleven (as they call in UK Bingo halls). 

PANETTONE - MEMORY AID

Pan is bread in French. Pane bread in Italian. 

Panettone - think Pa-net-tone. Or Pa-nett-one. Pa-netto-ne. Pane-TT-one.

Or keep looking at the word and spell it aloud three times. There are two letters N, two letter E, two letters N, but the N is at both ends separated by the double TT. Pa-NE-TT-0-NE.

More muddled and misheard words? Don't worry. Here's the answer

I heard this at a Toastmasters Public speaking training evening.
WORRY was the word. A Spanish speaking speaker was given a topic (by somebody whose first language was from the Indian continent) about worrying and fretting. Since the speaker who repeated the word fretting was unsure of its meaning, he wisely concentrated on talking about worrying.

PRONUNCIATION
worry - pronounced to rhyme with hurry (not woe - re, nor war - re, nor to rhyme with warren)

SOUNDALIKES - DIFFERENT MEANINGS
gate and gait

French words

French O sound eau sounds like OH!
et sound like ay
ge the e softens the g. Think of rag and rage.
e after c makes an s sound, hissing - think of picnic but mice.

beau
bouquet
connoisseur
finesse
garage (pronounced arge not idge)
mortgage (silent t)

English
er (hesitation)
err (make a mistake)

More memory aids for necessary and desert and dessert

It is not necessary to be baffled by spelling.

N
E
C
E
S
S
A
R
Y

Now Everybody Can Excel Super Spellers Are Really Yummy

Now Everyone Can Excel Simple Sentences All Remind You

One C is enough but two SSes are Necessary.

DeSert
Sand. Just Sand. One S.

DeSSert
Too much Sugar Stop!

I just made this up.

Make up your own memory aid. (Technical term for memory aid is mnemonic.)

Here are some I've read previously:

NeCeSSary
One collar and two sleeves - are NeCeSSary.

Never Eat Cheese Eat Salad Sandwiches And Remain Young.

Desert is just Sand but
Dessert is So Sweet.

Please read my posts on travel.
Angela Lansbury is an author and teaches English and public speaking.
More about Angela Lansbury's books on Lulu.com including quotations. See her reading her poetry on YouTube. Also a YouTube video of Angela talking about spelling.
Connect with Angela Lansbury author on Facebook, LinkedIn or through Toastmasters International clubs.

Soundalikes (homophones)

air, hair, heir
ate, eight
be, bee
bate, bait
beer, bier
coir, choir
complement, compliment
dear, deer

Pronunciation - H and TH

H and TH - practise
'I used to hear the thump and thud of three thousand thick shod hooved horses.'

To make the TH sound, put your tongue out under your top teeth, touching your top teeth with the middle of the top of your tongue, and blow gently. This is the sound at the end of the word teeth.

A different, stronger sound can be made by voicing or humming. This is the sound at the start of the word Them.

Angela Lansbury B A Honours, English teacher, tutor, workshop leader, speaker.

Spelling Practice and Practise. E softens C and makes s sound.

American Webster simplified English spelling for immigrants to the USA.
In the UK we still use the older spelling. We have lots of French words from the time we were invaded by William the Conqueror.

Verb practise
Noun practice
Notice the letter c
like police and palace
the e after c softens the sound

Noun practice, the practice, good practice
but verb practise with an s

Learn to practise your spelling. It is good practice.


Similarly, the letter e softens G.
George (j sound twice in the name - now you can easily see the goerge is wrong and George is right.
gorge - first g is hard, second ge is soft
gorgeous same sound