The contextual for me is based in the morpheme more often than not; that is, if I can connect the word to a word family, I can figure out how to spell it (and a few dozen related words besides.) That's why "bO-tiful" works for me; I'm connecting it to its French origin. When I can't do that, the next best method for me is auditory or oral, which is where I start pronouncing things in my head according to how they sound. I put the two together when spelling words like "definite," which to me becomes "de-finite", as in finite mathematics. I don't mistake the second i for an a that way.
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The contextual for me is based in the morpheme more often than not; that is, if I can connect the word to a word family, I can figure out how to spell it (and a few dozen related words besides.) That's why "bO-tiful" works for me; I'm connecting it to its French origin. When I can't do that, the next best method for me is auditory or oral, which is where I start pronouncing things in my head according to how they sound. I put the two together when spelling words like "definite," which to me becomes "de-finite", as in finite mathematics. I don't mistake the second i for an a that way.