Spelling Lists for Semester 1 Week 11

Tip of the Week


I've come across the following phrases quite a few times in pupils' work.


When they want to describe a character having an idea, they write 'An idea strucked him."

Or in Intermediate Composition Semester 1 Week 9, the narrator's mother was tied up by the intruder and some pupils wrote 'Mother was bounded in ropes.'


In these cases, the pupils have the mistaken idea that 'struck' and 'bound' are the root or base verbs and that 'strucked' and 'bounded' are their Simple Past Tense forms.


Actually, the root verb for the first mistake is 'strike' which means 'hit'. 'Struck' is already the Simple Past Tense form. Hence the sentence should read:

An idea struck him.

As for Mistake Number 2, same thing. The root verb is 'bind' which means 'tie' and 'bound' is the Simple Past Tense form of 'bind'. In this case, the correct sentence would be:

Mother was bound in ropes.

Note:

There is a root verb 'bound'. It means to:
1. jump
2. run in leaping strides
3. recoil from a wall or the ground.

Its Simple Past Tense form is 'bounded'. But there is no such English word as 'strucked'.

~. ~. ~.

Advanced Composition

1. various frightening scenarios
2. pleasantly surprised
3. mysterious enemy
4. entangled
5. valiant
6. suppressed his sympathy
7. surrender his possessions
8. In the inky darkness, the distorted shadow resembled the silhouette of a demon which had escaped from hell.


Intermediate Composition

1. accidentally
2. recess
3. ashen
4. petrified
5. guilty
6. reprimand
7. courage
8. They whirled around and dashed off at a speed that would have made Usain Bolt proud.