Keep Quiet Letters: Cord and Craft

Repair a draft without losing a letter that belongs in the word.

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Practice 2: more quiet-letter repairs

5 questions0m 0s

Learn the skill

Read the sentence for meaning, then inspect the whole spelling. In familiar words such as knee, write and climb, we keep k, w or b even though we do not hear that letter separately. A quiet letter is still part of the spelling. These are patterns to notice, not permission to remove every k, w or b. Choose a complete word for each draft, then check the explanation.

Worked example

Draft: I can clim the steps. Repair: climb. The action is going up; the standard spelling ends in mb. We keep b. Compare number: its b is heard. Check the whole word, not just a matching pair of letters.

Three worked word cards show knee with k underlined, write with w underlined, and climb with b underlined. The underlines mark written letters kept in these words. — Keep the underlined letter in the spelling, even when it has no separate sound.

Would you believe it?

Knot and not can sound alike but mean different things. A quiet written letter can help you tell a tied cord from a word that says no. Meaning and spelling work together.

Question 1 A draft says, "Tie a not in the cord." Which spelling means a tied loop or fastening? not knot knott

Question 2 A draft labels a small bird "ren." Which spelling repairs the label? wren ren wrenn

Question 3 A draft says, "One crum fell from the bread." Choose the standard spelling for the tiny piece. crum crumm crumb

Question 4 A craft note says, "We nit a scarf with yarn." Which spelling names making fabric with loops of yarn? knitt knit nit

Question 5 The b is quiet in climb, but heard in number. What should you conclude? Erase b whenever it follows m. Every b is quiet. Check the whole word; b is not always quiet after m.

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