Spelling Bee Rules & Regulations

I want to do this! What's This?

Spelling bee rules and regulations can vary according to the host, but the official rules are determined by the famous Scripps National Spelling Bee. The Scripps National Spelling Bee is the Super Bowl of spelling bees lays the foundation for all serious bees across the country.

Official Dictionary

1.     When it comes to spelling bees nothing is more important than making sure the spelling is proper. The official source of our spelling bee is Dictionary.com.

Time

2.     Each speller has exactly two minute and 30 seconds to provide the proper spelling. This official time begins from the second the announcer says the word that is to be spelled. At the 2 minute mark, the timing judge will hold up a red sign showing that there is only 30 seconds left.  The timing judge will blow a whistle when the time is up.

Misunderstood Words

3.     The speller himself is held responsible for any misunderstanding of a word with the following exceptions. The pronouncer must give the correct pronunciation of a word. The pronouncer must provide correct information regarding definition, the country of origin and the part of speech.  *It is very important that the speller be sure to asks questions if they need to before they start to spell.

Elimination

4.     The speller is automatically eliminated if he misspells a word and none of the rules regarding misunderstanding applies. All the spellers that are eliminated within the same round will be considered tied for that placing in the final results.

Pronunciation Repetition

5.     During a spelling bee the speller traditionally repeats the word before and after he has spelled. Spellers are encouraged to do this in order to make sure they heard the word correctly. It is entirely a misconception that a speller can be disqualified if she fails to pronounce the word either before or after spelling it.

 

Stopping

6.     A speller is allowed to stop at any point during the spelling process and begin again from the beginning. However, he is not allowed to change any letters that he began with before the point at which he stopped. If every letter in the process is not the same as it was before he stopped, the speller can be eliminated.

Final Two

7.     The rules change when the competition gets down to the final two. If the first speller misses a word, the second speller must correctly spell that word and then another in order to win. If the second speller misspells the new word, then the first speller gets the chance to correct it. If he spells it correctly he then gets a new word and if he spells that word correctly he is declared the winner.

*There was some confusion among the students about the words last year.  The words on the list are used in our language. The heading is the origin of the word.  So a French word has it's origin in French but is used in our language.