Pairs That Agree
Adjective and noun, chained together by the vowel they share.
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The vowel never changes between the pair. Know one, and you know the other.
-ent or -ant, -ence or -ance: they sound the same, so your ear can't help. Learn which words take which ending.
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Eight words, one missing vowel. Your ear will not help you here.
Which spelling is correct? — easy to use, not causing trouble
No ear will solve this one — but one rule cuts your memorising in half.
In English, the vowel in an unstressed ending collapses. -ant and -ent both come out as a small, flat "uhnt". So do -ance and -ence.
relevant and permanent rhyme perfectly.
performance and evidence rhyme perfectly.
This means no amount of listening, repeating, or saying it slowly will tell you which vowel to write. Learners who try to "sound it out" here are working hard at something that cannot work.
This is a visual memory task. You learn what the word looks like, or you guess.
Adjective and noun, chained together by the vowel they share.
The vowel never changes between the pair. Know one, and you know the other.
Twenty words, two piles. If you know one member of a pair, you know the other.
Sort each item into the correct category
Three words you do not know, worked out from three you do.
Chain 1
You are sure about: confidence
The vowel in it is:
So the adjective must be spelled:
Chain 2
You are sure about: important
The vowel in it is:
So the noun must be spelled:
Chain 3
You are sure about: independence — you have seen it on a national holiday.
The vowel in it is:
So the adjective is spelled:
And this settles the misspelling that almost every Band 5 candidate writes, which is:
Eight pairs of sentences. Get one right and the other follows.
1. Online banking is extremely ______ for people in rural areas. The ______ of online banking is what changed rural habits. (convenient family)
2. Nothing in this arrangement is ______; it can be reviewed each year. The ______ of the settlement was never guaranteed. (permanent family)
3. That argument is not ______ to the question being asked. The ______ of the second paragraph is questionable. (relevant family)
4. She felt ______ about the result for the first time. A loss of ______ affects performance more than a lack of skill. (confident family)
5. The report offers no ______ for its central claim. It is ______ from the figures that the policy failed. (evidence family)
6. The team's ______ improved sharply after the coaching change. (performance — noun only)
7. The building's ______ was restored to its 1890s design. (appearance — noun only)
8. Many students want to be financially ______ before they turn twenty-five. Financial ______ is harder to reach than it was a generation ago. (independent family)