Two! Not ‘tow’ : Not ‘to’ : Not ‘too’

Students often use the wrong homophone, to or too instead of two. Or they misspell it, tow being the most common misspelling.

Several things make this misspelling likely to happen.

• The w is silent
• The consonant team tw is not very common
• The vowel team ow is common,

Hence, tow, is written and quite frankly looks better to their eyes than two.

I find that sharing the two word family helps students recall the correct spelling and the correct word choice. Now this is a word family based on a common root, not the ending rime pattern (like bat, cat, fat, hat, mat...)

the two word family

I begin with the word twice, and continue through the list.

• We write each word, sounding it out slowly, paying particular attention to the consonant team “tw-” strongly sounding both /t/ and /w/.
• We discuss the meaning of each word, connecting it to the common thread of “2″
• When we finish the list, I ask students which word is missing. That’s when we put two at the top of the list. We make note that even though it isn’t sounded, the w has to be in two. It’s a characteristic of the family.

Here’s a list of the words with their meanings that reflect the thread of 2 running through them

twice — to do something 2 times
twin — one of 2 born at the same birth
twenty — 2 tens
twelve — literally, 2 left over (10 and 2 more)
between — a position or connection involving 2 (betwixt, archaic for between)
twine — a strong string made from 2 (or more) strands
twilight — literally, half (1/2) light
twain–Old English meaning 2; Kipling “never the twain shall meet”