Are beleive, beleiver, and beleived the correct spelling, or is it believe, believer, and believed? Here’s a fun lesson about how to remember one of the most frequently misspelled words in English: the one that means to have faith in something.
As background, my name is Ms. Marshall and I’ve been an English teacher for nearly twenty years. I illustrate each and every drawing on this site by hand, with love — including “Grateful vs. Greatful!” On to today’s teaching…
Beleive?
The good news in this entry into our hard words to spell list is that there is a simple answer. In the beleive vs. believe quandary, “beleive” (with “ei” in the middle) doesn’t exist, and should not be used.
The other variants like beleives, beleiving, beleiver, beleived, and beleiving are simply wrong. The same goes for using this erroneous spelling in phrases like: “Make beleive,” “I beleive I can fly,” and “I can’t beleive my eyes!”They are all misspellings like truely, and should be tossed in the trash, never to be seen again.
How to Remember the Correct Spelling
The good news is that in this case, the classic rhyme, “i before e except after c” holds true, just as it did for our “recieve vs. receive” lesson, and as we saw in the recent tutorial on “peice vs. piece.” However, this cartoon shows another way to remember the letter order…
Eve the Spelling Assistant
Yes that’s right: Remembering this cartoon lady Eve saying “I am Eve” can help, because it reminds us that there’s a letter “i” directly in the middle of the word, and the letters “eve” at the end. A similar visual helped us distinguish “Lens or Lense.”
VIDEO: How to Spell Believe
Beleive or Believe, in Sum
I hope this lesson on remembering how to correctly spell believe (not beleive) has been entertaining and useful. What else would you like me to illustrate and explain besides “Flies or Flys?” Do share!
Want more? Check out my “Aquire vs. Acquire” lesson…
The author and artist, Lillie Marshall, is a National Board Certified Teacher of English who has been a public school educator since 2003, and an experienced Reiki practitioner since 2018. All art on this site is original and hand-drawn by Lillie. She launched DrawingsOf.com Educational Cartoons in 2020, building upon the success of her other sites, AroundTheWorldL.com (established 2009), TeachingTraveling.com (founded 2010), and ReikiColors.com. Subscribe to Lillie’s monthly newsletter, and follow @WorldLillie on social media to stay connected!
