The smell...

When writing, we are required to write with good descriptive adjectives and phrases.  We are also reminded to write using the five senses to help in writing.

Here is a collection of some to do with 'SMELL':
- strange smell wafting in the atmosphere
- mysterious whiff of an odour permeated the entire house and invaded my nostrils
- the pungent scent of perfume enveloped me
- the malodorous stench pervaded the air
- inhaled the fragrance from my mother's Christian Dior perfume
- the acrid smoke clogged up the room
- the offensive pungent gas stunk the whole flat
- smelt ten times worse than the smelliest garbage dump of the face of Earth!
- sniffed with enlarged nostrils, as if I were a German Shepherd on a mission with the police to scour for hidden drugs
- I was a goldfish, using only my mouth to take in precious gasps of air
- held my breath like an underwater diver without his oxygen tank
- pinched my nose hard and my face contorted like sour plum
- my breakfast of century-egg porridge threatened to bolt upwards in my windpipe
- felt nauseous and dazed, like the whole world was spinning before my eyes
- I gasped for valuable fresh air - an essence of life which I had often taken for granted

Commonly misspelt words

Here are some commonly misspelt words uncovered as I mark my students' writing (each correct version is in parenthesis):

- reffered, refered (referred)
- momment (moment)
- develope (develop)
- imediately, immediatly (immediately)
- anouncement, annoucement (announcement)
- permernent (permanent)
- goverment (government)
- enviroment (environment)
- embarass (embarrass)
- neccessary, neseccary (necessary)

I will add more as I go along...

Types of phobias!

A phobia is "a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation, that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it' (dictionary.com).

I came across this listing of types of phobias on http://www.phobia-fear-release.com/types-of-phobia.html.

Among those, the common ones would be acrophobia (listed as altophobia) (heights), arachnophobia (spiders), claustrophobia (confined spaces), etc.

I thought there were more common ones?

The mysterious silent letters

There are instances where the letters are written, but not pronounced in words.  It is a mystery why they are there then.  Nevertheless, here are some examples of words with silent letters:


SILENT 'B'
- climb
- doubt
- dumb
- comb
- crumb
- debt (added 20 Aug 12)

SILENT 'H'
- heir
- herb, herbal
- honest
- honour, honorable, honoraray
- wheel
- whether

SILENT 'K'
- knee
- kneel
- knife
- knob
- knock
- knot
- know, knew, known, knowledge
- knuckle

SILENT 'L'
- calm
- half
- salmon

SILENT 'P"
- physic
- physical, physique
- physics
- pneumonia
- psychiatry, psychotic, psychotherapy, psychiatrist, psychic

SILENT 'S'
- aisle
- Arkansas
- debris
- Illinois
- island
- isle

SILENT 'T' (added on 20 Aug 12)
- beret
- buffet
- castle
- chestnut
- Christmas
- depot
- ditch
- fasten
- kitchen
- listen
- merlot
- mistletoe
- mortgage
- often
- stitch
- valet
- witch

SILENT 'W'
- answer
- sword
- who, whom, whose
- whore
- wrap
- wreath
- wreck
- wrestle
- wrist
- write
- wring
- writ


Do let me know if you come across more words with silent letters!

Verbs and their noun forms

This list is not exhaustive.

There are some words the noun and verb forms that are often mixed up (nouns, verbs):

1.   advice, advise
e.g.  What advice did you give him?
e.g.  The teacher gave good advice.
e.g.  Grandfather advises me to work hard from time to time whenever he comes over to visit.

2.  complaint, complain
e.g.  Mother lodged/filed a complaint against our neighbours for their fortnightly late-night parties.
e.g.  "Ah Boy hit me again," Sally complains to Teacher Susan.

3.  practice, practise
e.g.  I attended volleyball practice after school yesterday for primary four students.
e.g.  "If you want to improve in Math, you need to practise, practise and practise..." Brother Bob advised.

4.  device, devise (added 19 Aug 12)
e,g,  This is a clever device to catch unsuspecting thieves!
e.g  We can devise a way to stop theft in the neighbourhood by working hand-in-hand.

I will continue to add more when I can think of more...