# Are there spelling bees in languages other than English? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 21, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-spelling-bees-in-languages-other-than-english/318017 "2005-08-21T21:43:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kiminy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Kiminy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiminy)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-spelling-bees-in-languages-other-than-english/318017/21 "2005-08-22T19:19:48Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Yes, it’s massively used during all primary school. I actually assumed that it was more or less an universal thing, and not specifically a french thing (now I’m wondering how kids learn to spell in other countries). And it’s definitely not fun. In the States, we have spelling bees. 🙂 These are done one word at a time, usually with the classroom divided in teams. Each team lines up on one side of the room, and teacher reads a word. The person at the head of line A tries to spell the word correctly out loud. If it’s wrong, then the person at the head of line B tries the same word. It goes back and forth between teams until the word is spelled correctly, then the same thing starts with another word. If a student misspells the word, they normally have to quit playing, meaning that by the end of the game, only the best two or three spellers remain. The exact rules depend on the age group and the venue, but there are official spelling bees, including a national spelling bee that is held once a year. It’s only for school kids, but it’s always one word at a time, although the participant can request that the word be used in a sentence before trying to spell it. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-spelling-bees-in-languages-other-than-english/318017/22 "2005-08-22T19:40:58Z")
> [@csharpmajor](#): > > Cunctator: Well, I’m 16 and I’ve been to Australian and Canadian schools, and neither system did dictations. :: shakes himself to relieve the horrors :: We most certainly had _dictées_ in French class in our run-of-the-mill non-immersion small-town Canadian (Whitby, Ontario) highschool back in the seventies. Even after all these years I remember them. _twitch_ As others have said, they’re to test comprehension of larger blocks of text than a single word. French is more regularly spelt than English; so much of its trickery is in how words join. I used to say that French was regularly misspelt and English was irregularly misspelt. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-spelling-bees-in-languages-other-than-english/318017/23 "2005-08-22T22:19:36Z")
When I studied in Madrid, my classmates were surprised that we taught spelling as a subject, let alone had spelling bees. Spelling in Spanish is not much of a challenge. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-spelling-bees-in-languages-other-than-english/318017/24 "2005-08-22T23:04:40Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Yes, we have that in America too - it’s called Fictionary here. Except in the midwest, where we call it the dictionary game. ---
**Author:** ![Kiminy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Kiminy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiminy)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-spelling-bees-in-languages-other-than-english/318017/25 "2005-08-23T00:09:38Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > It’s you language but I’ve always had the idea that although French has some rather cumbersome vowel combinations, once you learn how those combinations are pronounced the spelling is pretty regular. I.e. a particular sound is pretty much always spelled the same way. Actually, while it is relatively easy to go from spelling to pronunciation in French, it is quite a bit more difficult to go from pronunciation to spelling. In other words, while any given letter combination is generally pronounced only one way (with some exceptions), there may be several different ways to spell a particular string of sounds. Add to that all of the “silent” letters that are tacked onto the ends of words, and it really isn’t very regular. For example, the verb /asist/ could be spelled _assiste_, _assistes_, or _assistent_, depending on its subject. The word /fasõ/ could be spelled _façon_ or _façons_ correctly, but the spellings _fasson_ and _fassons_ would not violate any French spelling rules. (cf. _passons_) Then there are just unpredictable ways of spelling things. For example, why does _dictionnaire_ have two n’s, and _appartement_ have two p’s? (I don’t expect an answer–I realize that it is a question of etymology, but the average Francophone would not know the historic roots of the word.) _Net_ and _nette_ are pronounced the same, but not _jet_ and _jette_. (In fact, _jet_ rhymes with _trait_, _succès_, and _paix_.) Add in liaison, ellipsis, and other fun games with sounds that French does, and going from the audio to the written really isn’t all that easy. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-spelling-bees-in-languages-other-than-english/318017/26 "2005-08-23T03:06:14Z")
> [@Kiminy](#): > > Actually, while it is relatively easy to go from spelling to pronunciation in French, it is quite a bit more difficult to go from pronunciation to spelling. In other words, while any given letter combination is generally pronounced only one way (with some exceptions), there may be several different ways to spell a particular string of sounds. Add to that all of the “silent” letters that are tacked onto the ends of words, and it really isn’t very regular. > > . Thinking about it, it might be the reason why spelling exercise are done word by word in english-speaking countries, and with whole texts in France (or at least you need whole sentences). Manger, mangé, mangées, mangés, mangeait, mangeaient are all pronounced the same, for instance. Without a whole sentence, there’s no way to tell whether or not you can spell this verb correctly and apropriately in its various forms. If the teacher pronounce the word and ask you to spell it, any version is correct. Meanwhile, if he says “la tarte qu’il a mangée”, or “il a mangé la tarte” or “habituellement, il mangeait la tarte” you have to learn your grammar to make the correct choice. While with english, with very few different forms for verbs (and all sounding different), no gender for words, and the plural sounded, there’s no possible mistake so you only need to know how to write the various forms individually. The teacher just need to say “ate”, and ask you to spell it. Adding a whole sentence wouldn’t change anything. There must be a reason, because, from what I gather in this thread, people don’t get english dictations in english speaking countries, but they do get french dictations when they learn french. And similarily, we do have french dictations in France, but there’s no dictation when we’re learning english. So, it’s related to the language you’re taught, no to local teaching customs. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-spelling-bees-in-languages-other-than-english/318017/27 "2005-08-23T04:09:05Z")
**clairobscur** , the same problem exists in English. Admittedly we don’t have the difficulties of gender agreement, conjugated verbs and silent endings that result in confusions like _il venait / ils venaient_. But we do have words that sound the same but are spelt differently e.g. there / their / they’re I assume that was why we used to do dictations when I was in primary school, where we had a subject specifically called _Spelling and Dictation_. The nun would read out a passage like: _Where are the boys ? They’re over there in the park, playing with their kites._ and we’d have to write it out, correctly distinguishing and spelling the similar sounding words. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-spelling-bees-in-languages-other-than-english/318017/28 "2005-08-23T05:28:26Z")
Japanese has some formal tests for _kanji_ proficiency, but they don’t commonly have public contests. The tests are sometimes useful for employment or school. Even the students at my current school, which is not that academically oriented, commonly take the [_Kanji Kentei_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji_kentei). Passing the first level means that you thoroughly know over 6,000 characters. Most college students could pass anything up to about level 2 or so with some studying, but level 1 is pretty darn hard, from what I’ve heard. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-spelling-bees-in-languages-other-than-english/318017/29 "2005-08-23T08:45:08Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > While with english, with very few different forms for verbs (and all sounding different), no gender for words, and the plural sounded, there’s no possible mistake so you only need to know how to write the various forms individually. The teacher just need to say “ate”, and ask you to spell it. Adding a whole sentence wouldn’t change anything. I assume you know that ‘eight’ is also an acceptable spelling for that syllable in English. It means something completely different but you cannot tell unless it’s used in a sentence. But beyond that and other exceptions, you’re largely right. English doesn’t seem to have near as many homophones (different words with the same pronunciation) as French. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-spelling-bees-in-languages-other-than-english/318017/30 "2005-08-23T17:07:45Z")
I did _dictées_ in French class in grade school and high school, as many people here, but I also did them in English class (as a second language) in high school. I don’t know if this is unusual, but no one else seems to have mentioned it. I’ve never seen anything like a spelling bee in French, but the _dictée_ is probably the closest thing. Now, to brag a little (I don’t do it often, so I hope you can forgive me :D). In the first link posted by **Exapno Mapcase** , we see the following post: > [@Barbarian](#): > > I’d say a French Dictée is one of the hardest tasks known to mankind. It’s a frigging difficult language to spell correctly. People who win [la Dictée des Ameriques](http://www.dicteedesameriques.com/) are frequently recognized while walking on the street years later. I have to say that I have won the _Dictée des Amériques_ a few years ago. OK, I was a junior, and since I’m a senior, I can’t seem to be able to qualify for the final anymore, but anyway. On the other hand, I haven’t been recognized in the street for this reason. One person I met did mention it to me after Googling my name, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-spelling-bees-in-languages-other-than-english/318017.md?page=1)