Choose the misspelt word in the sentence. The new intern was extremly…

Concept: Spelling questions test the standard written form of words, not merely how they sound. A reliable method is to examine a word’s base and suffix, then verify the complete form in an authoritative dictionary.

When the adverbial suffix ‘-ly’ is added to the adjective ‘extreme’, the final ‘e’ is retained: ‘extreme’ + ‘-ly’ forms ‘extremely’.

Application

1. ‘intern’ is the standard spelling of the noun for a trainee or beginner in a workplace.

2. ‘young’ is the standard spelling of the adjective used with ‘age’.

3. ‘knowledgeable’ is a standard spelling formed from ‘knowledge’ and ‘-able’.

4. ‘extremly’ omits the ‘e’ that remains before ‘-ly’; the standard adverb is ‘extremely’.

Contrast

• ‘intern’ is a correctly formed noun in this sentence.

• ‘young’ is a correctly formed adjective in the phrase ‘young age’.

• ‘knowledgeable’ is a correctly formed adjective describing the intern.

Cross-check

Dictionary entries record ‘extremely’ and ‘knowledgeable’. Replacing the nonstandard form makes the phrase read ‘extremely knowledgeable’.

Result

The misspelt word is ‘extremly’.