Tips And Rules To Differentiate B From V
Roof rack or cow ? ¿ Vaso or baso ? In this case, all the words are spelled correctly, but can you tell if the correct thing is there or there ? And boil or Boil ? The correct answer is the first in both questions, although if you have doubts to differentiate between b and v , read the following tips.
Problems differentiating b from v
The main problem with distinguishing b from v is that they are pronounced the same. Normally, in Spanish we have a different spelling or letter for each sound. However, in the case of b and v , although they were pronounced differently, their sounds have been merging into one.
Pronunciation is very important when writing, since both language and writing are supported by patterns that are often repeated. If we cannot use pronunciation to distinguish an error, we will have to focus on the grammatical aspects.
In addition, the use of the computer and the mobile phone is so frequent that everyone is used to the fact that, when writing, misspelled words marked in red appear and correct them. This is a great resource if we really pay attention to it, but not if we use it automatically. Not to mention that b and v appear side by side on keyboards, which doesn’t help much.
Spelling rules to differentiate b from v
There are dozens of rules (and maybe even more exceptions), so we are going to highlight the rules compiled by the Fundéu that will be most useful to us. They will solve the daily doubts of your children and yours, because we all use the spell checker when we write something important, right?
Rules of b
- Verbs ending in -bir and all forms of these verbs, except boil , serve, and live and their compounds.
- The endings -ba , -bas , -ba , -bais , -ban, that is, almost all the verb forms of the past tense of verbs (with some exceptions).
- The prefixes that derive from two , good and book : bi- , bis- , biz- (bilingual, great-grandson, great-grandson); good- and bene- (well-being, benefit); and bibl- (librarian, bibliography), respectively.
- All verb forms of the verb have, both simple and compound.
Rules of v
- The adjective endings -ava , -ave , -avo ; -eva , -eve , -evo, ivo -iva (octave, soft bravo new, slight, intensive) with a few exceptions.
- Always after the d : advent, adverse, warn .
- The words in which this sound appears after the letters b, d and n : obvious , adverse , winter.
- Prefix vice- , villa- , villar- and terminations -viro , -vira , -ívoro and -ívora (except Viper ): Vice President , Villaverde , Elvira , carnivore , herbivore.
Practical tips to differentiate b from v
Reading
Reading is essential to writing well. Much of our learning is by imitation and repetition, so the more times we see a word, the easier it will be to remember it.
Also, if we want to enhance the effect of reading even more, the best method is to read aloud. Not so much for the interpretive part, which also has multiple benefits, but because we better remember something in which we use sight and hearing at the same time to only one of these senses.
Writing
Another important part of learning is based on trial and error. These types of exercises can be more boring for children, but it is all a matter of perspective.
When we talk about writing exercises they do not have to be only exercises of writing sentences or repeating the same word or rule 20 times. We can opt for spelling games, which are much more entertaining and have even better results than other traditional methods. After all, you have to play with words to express your ideas.
Another similar more visual activity is to assign a color to the words that contain b and a different color to the words that contain v . It is an exercise similar to semantic fields, but related to spelling. In this way, we focus more on the words than on the norm, since over time we tend to forget it and we tend to resort to visual memory.
