৩১তম BCS — Spelling & Commonly Confused Words
This exam tested 3 questions from this topic — Voluntary, Accelerate, Tsunami.
Q31: Voluntary — correct spelling
Correct: Voluntary ✓
Spelling structure
| Letters |
Notes |
| V-O-L-U-N-T-A-R-Y |
volun + tary |
Common mistakes
- ❌ Volontary / Voluntory (O instead of U)
- ❌ Volantary (A instead of U)
Memory trick
- Voluntary contains 'volun-' (will, choice) — similar to 'volunteer'
Q32: Accelerate — correct spelling
Correct: Accelerate ✓
Spelling structure
| Letters |
Notes |
| A-C-C-E-L-E-R-A-T-E |
acc + el + er + ate (Latin 'accelerare' = to hasten) |
Key rules
- Double C (acc-)
- Single L, single R
Common mistakes
- ❌ Accilerate (i instead of e after L)
- ❌ Accelerrate (double R)
- ❌ Accilarate (i and a swapped)
Memory trick
- 'Accelerator' (the car pedal) — visualize it as 'acc-el-er-ate'
Q33: Tsunami — correct spelling
Correct: Tsunami ✓
Spelling structure
| Letters |
Notes |
| T-S-U-N-A-M-I |
Japanese: 津波 (tsu = harbour, nami = wave) |
Key rule
- The T is silent but written — distinguishing feature
Common mistakes
- ❌ Sunami (missing T)
- ❌ Suname / Sunamee (creative endings)
Memory trick
- Many Japanese-origin English words start with silent letters: 'Tsunami', 'pneumonia' (Greek), 'psychology' (Greek)
- Practice writing T+SU together — distinct from English-origin S-words
BCS-favourite Spelling Traps — Quick Reference
| Word |
Common wrong spellings |
| Accommodate |
accomodate (single m), acommodate (single c) |
| Receive |
recieve (i before e wrongly) |
| Definitely |
definately, definitly |
| Separate |
seperate (a→e error) |
| Necessary |
neccessary (double c) |
| Occasion |
ocassion, occassion |
| Embarrass |
embarass (single r) |
| Mischievous |
mischievious (extra i) |
| Conscience |
conscence |
| Maintenance |
maintainance |
| Beautiful |
beautyful |
| Bureaucracy |
bureacracy |
| Privilege |
priviledge (with d) |
| Foreign |
foriegn |
| Curriculum |
curriculam |
| Committee |
comittee (single m or single t) |
| Schedule |
schedual |
| Government |
goverment (missing n) |
| Restaurant |
restraunt |
| Voluntary |
Volontary, Voluntory |
| Accelerate |
Accilerate, Accelerrate |
| Tsunami |
Sunami |
Memory rules for tricky spellings
- 'i before e except after c' — receive, perceive, believe, achieve
- Double consonants — accommodate (2 c, 2 m), embarrass (2 r, 2 s), occasion (2 c, 1 s)
- Silent letters — pneumonia (p), psychology (p), tsunami (T), knight (k), wrist (w)
- '-ary' vs '-ery' — voluntary, necessary, dictionary (most common: -ary)
Exam shortcut
- Read all 4 options aloud — the wrong ones often sound slightly 'off'
- Look for silent letters and double consonants — they're often the test point
- Eliminate options with obvious phonetic errors first
টপিকটি গভীরে শিখুন
Spelling & Commonly Confused Words — মূল লেকচার শিট — 300+ BCS-favourite spelling traps, double-consonant words, silent letters, '-ary/-ery/-ory' suffixes, Greek/Latin/French/Japanese-origin spellings, homophones (their/there/they're, your/you're, its/it's), and a curated word list from past BCS papers।