Page 130 - (DK) Help Your Kids with Language Arts

128 SPELLING

Alphabetical 0rder SEE ALSO

126–127 Why learn to spell?
Capital letters 158–159 
ALPHABETICAL ORDER IS A SIMPLE WAY OF ORGANIZING
Abbreviations 172–173 
GROUPS OF WORDS. Planning and research 186–187 
From a short list of students in a classroom to a long index in a
book, alphabetical order makes information easy to store and find.

• If a long word has the same
letters as a short word, but then
Sorting a list goes further—such as cave
Alphabetical order is the arranging of words based on where and caveman—the short word
their initial letters are in the alphabet. Using this system, words (e.g. cave) will always come first
are sorted by their first letters, then by their second letters, and in a dictionary.
so on. For example, the words buy and biscuit both begin with • The alphabet is useful for locating
the letter b, but the second letter in each word is different: The a seat in a theater or a book in a
letter i in biscuit comes before the letter u in buy, so biscuit library, as rows are usually labeled
would come before buy in an alphabetical list. in alphabetical order.

RANDOM ORDER REASON ALPHABETICAL ORDER

O A
orange First letter a is before first letter b apple
L B
lemon First letter b is before first letter c banana
A C
apple First letter c is before first letter g cherry
C G
cherry First letter g is before first letter l grape

P L
pear First letter l is before first letter m lemon

G M
grape First letter m is before first letter o mango

B O
banana First letter o is before first letter p orange
P P
plum Fourth letter c is before fourth letter r peach
P P
peach Second letter e is before second letter l pear

M P
mango Last word remaining in the list plum