How did you learn to spell certain difficult words?

[bif]

A few of mine:

Renaissance
I used to work in the Renaissance Center in Detroit.

Abyssinian
I am the manservant to an Abyssinian cat.

Chocolate
A friend opened an ice cream parlor called the Chocolate Bar Cafe.

Odyssey
I used to coach an Odyssey of the Mind team.

[dlilafae]

1. I used a tape recorder

Nat'l spelling bee.

[Sneederbunk]

2. A dictionary is helpful.

[bif]

4. Sure. But that doesn't help you remember them.

[stopdiggin]

3. you've caught me out ...

I never really did. And I more or less surrendered to that failing ..... in the years that followed formal education

[SamKnause]

5. I would write them 10 or 15 times.

It seemed to help me retain their spelling in my memory.

[EYESORE 9001]

6. Familiarity would seem to be a factor

For example, if someone lived in a house on Wapakoneta Street, they would surely learn the proper spelling pretty quickly. Word association is another way - mnemonics. In my experience, however, some words can be challenging anyway, and that requires rote memorization - not my favorite method.

[flor-de-jasmim]

7. I would make up a melody and sing.

I did the same when learning foreign languages.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Mnemonic rules & Sounding slowly in mind. 3 of your 4 have double S so I would split the SS in sound

Sounds: Odd iss-see (three S to emphasize hissiness of sound I play in my head)

"it's" vs "its": The possessive form keeps the s close to itself.

[hlthe2b]

9. I'm a "visual", not phonetic speller, so if I see it repeatedly, I will know if it does not "look right..."

Thus, writing it down, if I am unsure, usually does the trick unless it is a term I am unfamiliar with.

[North Shore Chicago]

10. Sing the word!

That is how I spelled Mississippi. Remember the bouncing white ball on children's programming way back when? They made learning so much fun!

[Marthe48]

11. Still working on it

I'll spell a word out, and if it doesn't look right, I'll try a different spelling. More often now that I'm older, I check the spelling with Google.
I especially have trouble with I before E, and also words such as conscious, incense, and license.

[AllaN01Bear]

12. together was the mose difficult word for me

so mom and i solved the problem as a team
to get her in my mind i added a mental picture of a train switch engine switchenge backing up and coupling them together.

[1WorldHope]

13. I was an ASL interpreter at the college level.

So muscle memory and a certain rhythm helped because there are not signs for every word so they had to be finger spelled.

[mitch96]

14. I was horrible in math and spelling...It was not till later in life I learned "See it, say it, write it down"...

Over and over and over again till it stuck.. Time consuming? yes and it works for me..
I also say it in a silly way
Renaissance re NAIS sance
Abyssinian a BYS sinian
etc....

[LogDog75]

15. My problem used to be with desert and dessert

I used to get the spelling of the wrong "desert" sounded like "dessert" for spelling. The word "desert" is pronounced "des-sert" and "dessert" is prounced "de-sert." I figured an easy way to remember the difference in spelling. "Dessert" is twice as sweet as "desert" so "dessert" has two "s's".

[ProfessorGAC]

16. I Agree On The Pronunciation

In fact, that's how I remembered which was which as a kid.
Always use the word that's the opposite of what it "should be".

[CTyankee]

17. Be forced to take Latin in high school. I was.

I absolutely hated it and thought it was a big waste of time. I wanted to take French cuz I thought it was glamorous, but Latin was a prerequisite before you could take French or Spanish.

At the time I thought my school was being SO MEAN TO ME!

But, I was wrong. It helped me enormously. Probably it was the most important one subject I took that benefited me the most as I went though my undergrad work and then went for a Master's.

Oh, and it helps with lots of Jeopardy questions, too!