For example — the hard c/k sound is represented by “k” in words of Germanic origin, by “c” in words borrowed from Latin (directly or via French).

Related to this, you might know, for example, that certain letters or letter combos are NEVER used in German, so if you discover the word you are asked is borrowed from German, that will likely rule out those letters/combos.

Even if you do not know the actual WORD, knowing which LANGUAGE it comes from, may tell you the “spelling system” to use, or at least limit the choices.

That’s the main value in asking for the word origin. But there are other ways the info may help:

a) You might not know the word you are given to spell, but you MAY know a related word from the same root. Knowing that it is RELATED to some word you DO know (and presumably know how to spell!) will take you a long way.

b) Perhaps the form you are given has “silent letters”, but the ROOT form does not. Knowing/hearing the sound in the root form may clue you in to include it in the word you are spelling.

Simple example — “autumn” has a silent “n” at the end, because it has dropped all endings, but you can hear the /n/ in the original Latin word “autumnus”

One final reason — this is one of the questions you are ALLOWED to ask, and every question you ask can extend you time and opportunity to think your answer through.

Latin is especially helpful because a person usually pronounces just about every letter in Latin.

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