Scripps National Spelling Bee Semifinals to Begin in Washington

The semifinals for the 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee, one of the country’s most competitive and well recognized spelling bees, are set to begin in Washington this Thursday after three rounds of preliminary selection, which began on Tuesday.

During the first round of preliminaries, contestants took part in a 30-40 minute written test where they were quizzed on the spelling of 25 words. For each of the 25 words, the pronouncer, Jacques Bailly, recited the word, gave any alternate pronunciations, indicated the word's part of speech, gave the origin and definition and used it in a sentence. Before moving onto the next word, Bailly first repeated the word and all of the accompanying information and paused for 30 seconds. Candidates received one point for each correct spelling in the test.

On Wednesday, all of the contestants will compete on stage in the second and third round of preliminaries. The scores from the first three rounds will be tallied and by the end of the day, all spellers, such as Mateen Sharif, 12, will know whether they qualify for Thursday’s semifinals and whether they get to stay in Washington D. C. for another day.

On Tuesday, Sharif seemed calm under the competitive pressure. “If you win, that is great”, he said. “But basically just being here is a real experience”.