Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell helpful

What it means: Providing assistance or serving a useful function.

In a sentence: The helpful puppy found the lost shoe. ▶

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as helpfull or helful.

Same family: help, helper, helping, helped, unhelpful. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Helpful is formed from the verb "help," which comes from Old English "helpan," meaning to assist, plus the suffix "-ful," meaning "full of" or "having." So "helpful" literally means "full of help."

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

carefully · wonderful · powerful

Spelling.School is a spaced-repetition spelling practice: ten minutes a day, every word spoken aloud, every miss explained, and every word coming back just before you would forget it. Try five words without signing up.