Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell shale

hear itshale/ʃeɪl/nounSounds

What it means: A type of sedimentary rock made from clay.

In a sentence: The geologist found a piece of shale by the river.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as shail or shalee.

Same family: shale gas, shale oil, sedimentary, rock, clay. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Shale comes from an old English word related to "scale" or "shell," referring to how the rock splits into thin sheets. Its flaky, layered structure is the reason it got a name connected to peeling or scaling off.

Patterns it uses: Drop the e before a suffix?

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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.

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