Ceremony used to present us with a spelling problem when the stress was on the first syllable and all the rest was a blur of indeterminate syllables. Now that we are following the American pattern and giving a secondary stress on -mon-, as in ‘se-ruh-mohn-ee’, perhaps it won’t cause the same problem.
The reason that Wednesday and secretary present a spelling problem to us is that over time we have elided a whole syllable in each word. Wednesday has gone from three syllables to two, secretary from four to three.
The solution has been to fill in the gaps, pronounce the word in an artificial way with every syllable intact, and retain that pronunciation memory as a guide to spelling. We call it rapping he word out, as if you were a rap performer putting the word to a beat. Say advertisement as ‘ad-ver-tize-ment’ and you will have no difficulty with the spelling. Say Wednesday as ‘wed-nesday’ and your problems are solved.
Here are some more to remember:
derogatory: The final o is usually not pronounced. Rap it out as de + rog + a + tor + y.
February: Many people don’t pronounce the sound of the r, but it should always be there when you spell it. Rap it out as Feb + ru + ar + y.
itinerary: Don’t forget the ary ending (although the a is not pronounced). Rap it out as i + tin + er + ary.
miserable: This word is usually pronounced without the middle er. Rap it out as mis + er + a + ble.
sanctuary: Don’t forget the u before the ary ending, which you often do not hear when the word is pronounced. Rap it out as sanc + tu + ar + y.
sovereign: The middle e is not usually pronounced. Rap it out as sov + er + eign.
temporary: This word has four syllables, although you hear only two when you say it. So concentrate on the orary ending and rap it out as tem + por + a + ry.
vegetable: Don’t forget the second e which you usually don’t hear when people say the word. Rap it out as ve + ge + ta + ble.
voluntary: Remember that voluntary ends with ary, although the a is usually not pronounced. Rap it out as vol + un + ta + ry.