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Hippopotamus is a Long Word – How Do You Spell IT With Two Letters?
Two students were sitting in the play ground. One said to the other “Hippopotamus is a Long Word. How Do You Spell IT with Two Letters?” The other said, “I don’t know.” The first said “IT”.
This is an old joke I remember from school days. It is a twist on using the English language. Did you get IT? The way to spell the word IT is with the letter I and T. The first part of the sentence on Hippopotamus is as we say in Australian, a Furphy (pronounced ferfee). In other words it has nothing what so ever to do with the real question.
Why did this joke arise? It was because Hippopotamus is such a long word and can be difficult to spell. If you look at it you may see a Hippo in your mind. Why did I use the word Hippo? We have a tendency to shorten words when they are too long to either say or spell. Every now knows that a Hippo and Hippopotamus is the same.
So how can you remember how to spell Hippopotamus? Well the way I was taught at school for long words was through rhyme. Rhyme is used to help us flow through the different letters by just remembering the first letter. The rhyme I was taught was to follow a tune for the letters. So I would effectively sing the letters like I was singing a song.
The down side with learning this way is that I can only remember how to spell it now using the rhyme. Also I cannot spell the word backwards because I have linked the letters to sound rather than picturing the actual letters. If I use my spelling technique, then I can learn the word and spell it forwards, backwards and even from the middle. This means that I can see the letters and spell the word rather than sing it and still not really be able to spell the word.
By the way…do you want to learn how to spell so that you have the confidence in your life to learn and develop? Download a free chapter of my ebook: 9 Steps to improve spelling by going to my website.
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Source by David Donahoo
