Sometimes we think of how to spell certain words in order to spell other words.

–E.g. We think of the base word ‘compete’ to help with spelling the word ‘competition’

Compare ‘volcano’ and ‘volcanic’ – the /a/ sound moves from long to short in the different forms of the word.

Now compare ‘compose’ and ‘composition’ – what sound does the middle /o/ make?

–It’s not quite a short /o/ as it lacks any ‘oomph’.

–Compare how the short /a/ in ‘volcanic’ sounds compared to the /o/ in ‘composition’.

–The sound here is a schwa – an unstressed neutral vowel sound

Sort the words in your book according to long vowel/short vowel pairs and long vowel/schwa pairs and check your sort in the next section.

Notice how the long to short pairs don’t change in how they are accented but they do for the long to schwa pairs.

Look up the meanings for any words you don’t know and write them in your book.