Word spellings in english

Many ESL learners find it difficult to write correct spellings in English. To help such learners here is a collection of 30 English Spelling Rules to get mastery over English spelling. These Spelling Rules are important to understand how an English word is created and pronounced.

These rules are very useful for students of grades 1-10 and teachers as well.

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SPELLING RULE ONE

When a word ends with a short vowel followed by a consonant, double the last consonant before adding ‘ed’

Try yourself…

trip → 
mop → 
submit →
trot →
rub →
prefer →

SPELLING RULE TWO

When action words end with an ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘ss’, ‘x’, or a ‘z’ and ‘es’ is added to make the present tense.

Example:
Fiona waltzes most Tuesday nights with Jim.

Try yourself …
buzz →
watch →
push →
tax →
pass →
fix →

SPELLING RULE THREE

When an action word ends with a consonant followed by a ‘y’, change the ‘y’ to an ‘i’ before adding ‘es’.

SPELLING RULE FOUR

Double the consonant before adding ‘ng’ to words that have a short vowel followed by a consonant at the end.

When a word ends in a silent ‘e‘, drop the ‘e‘ before adding an ‘ing’ The magic ‘e’ runs away!

Example:
Ian loves platform diving on his weekends.

Exception — be → being

SPELLING RULE SIX 

When a word ends in a double consonant, do not double the last letter before adding an ‘ing‘.

As is well-known, English spelling is very irregular. However, there are rules and generalisations that can help us avoid making unnecessary mistakes. We should all be aware of the following spelling rules:

Most adverbs are formed through the addition of the ending —ly to an existing adjective (e.g. strangely, indifferently, supposedly). We need to be aware of the exceptions to this general pattern too (and we also need to pay attention to the fact that there are many adverbs that do not end in -ly at all, such as here and now):

• If the adjective has more than one syllable and ends in -y, remove the -y and add -ily (e.g. scarily).
• If the word from which the adverb is formed ends in -y, but only has one syllable, we normally add —ly, in accordance with the main rule (e.g. shyly). However, daily and gaily are exceptions.
• If the adjective ends in -ll, only add -y (e.g. fully).

The second and third forms of an adjective are called comparatives and superlatives. They are regularly formed through the addition of —er and —est to the existing adjective, as in strong — stronger — strongest. However, we need to be aware of the following five exceptions to this rule:

• If the adjective has three syllables or more, use more and most to compare them (e.g. interesting – more interesting – most interesting). The same goes for most adjectives with two syllables, for instance striking and awful.

• If the adjective ends with a consonant followed by a -y, the -y must be changed into an -i before the ending is added (e.g. lucky –luckier – luckiest).
• If the adjective has just one syllable, contains a long vowel sound, and ends with the letter —e, we must remove the -e before adding the ending (e.g. white –whiter — whitest).
• If the adjective has just one syllable, contains a short vowel, and ends with a single consonant letter (e.g. red), we must double the final consonant before we add the ending (e.g. red – redder – reddest).
• If the adjective ends in -l, we  normally just add the regular ending. The exception to this rule is cruel, to which an extra —l is added, so that we get cruel – crueller – cruellest.

A derived word is a word that is formed from an existing word through the addition of derivational morphology (i.e. affixes, like prefixes and suffixes).
When a derived word is formed, the original spelling sometimes stays the same, but sometimes it changes. This can be confusing, of course. The following cases ought to be remembered:

• If a noun ends in -our, e.g. honour and labour, we must keep the u when we add  -able or -er (e.g. honourable and labourer). The u in favourite should also be kept. However, before other endings, such as -ous, the u is often lost (e.g. humorous). The u is also lost in honorary and honorific. If you use American spelling, this is not an issue at all, since there is no u in words such as honor and labor in the first place.
• If a verb ends in —ur, add another r when you add —ence (e.g. occur becomes occurrence).
• If a verb ends in —er, add no r when you add —ence (refer becomes reference).
• If a verb ends in -ounce,we must remove the o when we add -iation. A frequent example of this is pronounce and pronunciation.

It is often difficult to know whether a word should be spelt with a double or a single consonant. There are several problematic cases, for instance the following:

• Some words have double consonants, even though this may not be entirely obvious. Examples of such words that are frequently misspelled include appoint (and also appointment and disappointment), address, occur, and suppress.
• Some words do not have double consonants, even though there is a short vowel before. Pay attention to the following words: canister,  banister, and pavilion. Other words that should only have single consonants, in spite of the fact that double consonants would perhaps make more sense, are anoint, apartment, biased, and omit.
• Some words have two sets of double consonants. It is easy to make the mistake of only doubling one of them. Examples include accommodate,  aggressive,  committee,  embarrass, and millennium.
• Some words have two different consonants, one of which should be doubled, while the other one should remain single. It can sometimes be difficult to know which one of them should be doubled. Likely candidates for this type of spelling mistake include appal, accumulate, and parallel.
• Sometimes a short vowel before the consonant that should be single makes the writer’s situation even more tricky. Examples of such words are the following: commemorate, desiccate, disappear, necessary, recommend, reconnoitre, titillate. Finally the Caribbean and the Mediterranean both cause problems.

It is frequently the case that writers remember one word that has a certain spelling, and think that another word that looks or sounds similar should have a certain spelling by analogy. For instance, even though accommodate has a double m following a double c, the m in  in accumulate is single; harass has only a single r even though the r in embarrass is double.
In general, many mistakes in the use of double and single consonants arise from comparisons with words that sound or look similar, or with related words. For example, many people spell inoculate with a double n, influenced by words such as innocent and innocuous.
Similarly, the number of words beginning with irr- (irregular, irritable etc.) makes the single r in iridescent harder to remember. Even trickier are words like fulfil and skilful, given the spelling of full, skill, and fill.

In English, the normal way to form a plural is to add an —s, e.g. teachers, lectures, and scholars.
If the word ends in -ch, -s, -sh, -x, -z, we should add -es instead, as in branches, masses, bushes, boxes, chintzes.
Most words that end in -f or -fe get the ending -ves (e.g. wives, calves). However, there are exceptions (e.g. beliefs, chiefs, dwarfs, gulfs, proofs, roofs).
For words that end in a vowel + y, add -s, e.g. days, boys.
If a word ends in a consonant + y, we must change the -y to -ies, e.g. babies and spies.
Words that end in -o normally just add -s, but there is a group of words that add -oes. This group includes echoes, vetoes, buffaloes, grottoes, dominoes,  goes,  haloes, heroes, mangoes, mosquitoes, potatoes, tomatoes, tornadoes, torpedoes, and volcanoes.

Letters that are not pronounced may cause spelling problems. The silent p in psychology is an obvious example of a silent letter (but perhaps the silent p is not the main reason why psychology is difficult to spell, but rather the ch). 
Some letters are particularly likely to give rise to spelling mistakes:

• Many words are spelled with a silent c following an s. Examples include abscess, descend (with descent), omniscient; words ending in -esce, -escent, or -escence, such as acquiesce, effervescent, and convalescent. What can be regarded as a silent c may also occur before k or q, as in acknowledge, acquainted, and acquire.
• Silent d is easily omitted before j in adjourn, adjunct, adjudicate, and adjust (we leave it to others to debate whether it is actually the d that is silent, or the following sound [represented by the letter j] that has lost its first part).
• The letter g precedes n in words such as align, foreign, and reign. The letter g is also sometimes followed by a silent u, as in guarantee, guard, and beleaguered.
• Silent h is fairly common after r, as in diarrhoea (which is already difficult to spell, because of the double r and the final letter combination oea), haemorrhage (a double r increases the difficulty), rhythm.The letter c is also likely to be followed by h, as in saccharine, for example. We must also remember the h in silhouette.

Remember the t in mortgage and that debt and subtle both contain the letter b. Do not forget the i in parliament.
Sometimes writers leave out silent letters or syllables because they do not know the word’s correct pronunciation. This way many people fail to pronounce the c in Arctic and Antarctic, and therefore leave it out when writing the words.
Similarly, the first r in February is often left out in both speech and writing, just like the first r in secretary. Quantitative is frequently shortened in speech to the more manageable quantitive. However, spelling this word quantitive is not acceptable, of course.

Some words sound as if they contain (or are related to) other familiar words. However:

• There is no relation between cocoa andcoconut.
• Bated breath is not related to bait.
• Corridor is not related to door (and therefore has no double o).
• Sacrilege has the i before the e, unlike religion.
• Abseiling has nothing to do withsailing.

Sometimes it is just part of another word that causes a mistake of this type:

• Privilege contains no d, even though a word such as knowledge has one.
• Attach and detach end in -ach, not -atch, unlike dispatch.
• A protuberance is something that protrudes, but it has no r after the t.
• Dissect has a double s, but bisect has only one.
• Psychedelic has an e after psych, unlike psychology.

Many English words are difficult to spell because of the way their stress pattern affects their pronunciation. When they occur in unstressed syllables, the different vowel sounds merge into a sound like «uh» or «er» (called ‘schwa’ in literature on pronunciation).
Since these vowels are normally reduced in this way, it can be difficult to remember which vowel should actually be used in a particular word when you use it in writing.
Examples of what we have in mind include the following:

• It is common to confuse unstressed e and a in words such ascategory, desperate, separate, and grammar. It is also easy to confuse pairs such as allude/elude, and affect/effect, which have very similar pronunciations.
• Unstressed e is sometimes erroneously written as er, especially in words such as integrate, which it is easy to confuse with words beginning with inter-.
• The letter o can be confused with both a and e in unstressed syllables. Words that you may find difficult include corroborate (not -erate) and propaganda (not propo-).
• In unstressed syllables, e sometimes has a short i sound. You may find it hard to remember which words spell this sound with an e (e.g. artefact, benefit, indigenous, and liquefy) and which spell it with an i (e.g. dilapidated and purify). It is easy to confuse elicit with illicit.

Word endings are easy to misspell. They are often unstressed, so the pronunciation does not give much help with the spelling. There are several pairs of suffixes that differ only in the vowel they use:

• -ant and -ent. Words using -ant include arrogant, assistant, blatant, brilliant, defiant, flippant, malignant, and vacant. Examples of words using e are absorbent, complacent, innocent, reminiscent, independent, and transparent.

Confident and dependent, with an e, are adjectives; confidant and dependant are nouns. (But dissident and adolescent are spelled with an e, whether they are being used as nouns or as adjectives.)

• -ance and -ancy, -ence and -ency. A noun ending in one of these suffixes usually has a corresponding adjective ending in -ant or -ent, for example dominance (dominant), expectancy (expectant), absence (absent), and decency (decent).

Where there is a pair like confident and confidant, use -ence to correspond to the adjective rather than the noun. Some verbs have a noun ending in -nce or -ncycorresponding to them, but no adjective ending in -nt. In these cases it is almost always right to use a, e.g. annoyance (annoy); but watch out for conference, existence, and interference.

• -ary and -ery. It is very easy to confuse these two — or to spell them just as -ry. -ery is by far the less common, and is almost always used to form nouns — e.g. confectionery, jewellery. You may find this useful to remember if you tend to confuse stationery with stationary — it is the one ending in -ery that is the noun (‘paper, writing materials’) and the one ending in -ary that is the adjective meaning ‘ not moving’. -Ary can be used to form adjectives — such as complimentary — or nouns — such as secretary.
• -able and -ible. These two endings are very often confused. The commoner ending is -able: words that finish with this include acceptable, admirable, available, comparable, indispensable, and inseparable. All new words now created with this ending are spelled -able.

-ible is the correct suffix in words such as accessible, compatible, gullible, incredible, and irresistible. Pairs of words with similar meaning but different suffixes include comprehensible and understandable, irritable and irascible.

One helpful thing to remember is that -ible is not used after vowels: there can be no doubt about which ending to use in words such as agreeable, invariable, permeable, and replaceable.

Another quick check is that if you remove -able from a word, you are usually still left with a complete word, whereas if you do the same with -ible you are not. But this is definitely a tricky area — so you had better look up the word in your dictionary.

• -ative and -itive. The short a in the ending of words like imaginative sounds very much like the short i in definitive or sensitive, so it is easy to end up with spelling mistakes such as authorititive for authoritative. In fact -ative is much more common. It is used in words such as affirmative, alternative, demonstrative, illustrative, qualitative, and vegetative. Common words ending in -itive include acquisitive, competitive, fugitive, inquisitive, intuitive, and repetitive.

• -ise and -ize. Most words ending in -ise can also be spelled with a final -ize: for example antagonise/antagonize, capitalise/capitalize, centralise/centralize. For some words, however, you can only use the ending -ise in British English. Some of the most common of these are advertise, advise, enterprise, exercise, improvise, revise, supervise, surprise, and televise. You can read more about —ise and —ize if you following this link:

• British and American spelling: The case of -ise/-ize

• If you are writing for publication, please consult your editor/publisher, since they may have very specific instructions for you to follow.

Some words that are already hard to spell can give further trouble when endings are added, for instance when we put a verb into the past tense. Enthral, for example, sounds as though it should be spelled with a double l but in fact has only one; but the lis doubled in enthralled and enthralling.
The i in profited and profiting is short, which makes it sound as though there should be a double t; but in fact there is only one, as in the present tense profit.
These examples may be confusing; but a few basic rules will help. When you form the past tense of a verb, or add -ing, remember the following:

• Verbs ending in a double consonant keep it (add, added, adding, embarrass, embarrassed, embarrassing).
• Double the final consonant if the verb has only one syllable and the vowel is short — e.g. clap, clapped, clapping.
• Double the final consonant if the verb has two syllables and the second one is stressed — e.g. occur, occurred, occurring, acquit, acquitted, acquitting, prefer, preferred, preferring . This rule explains the confusing enthral and enthralled, fulfil and fulfilled.
• Leave the final consonant single if the verb has two syllables and the first one is stressed — e.g. credit, credited, crediting, budget, budgeted, budgeting. This rule explains profit. It has some important exceptions: focused and biased are usually spelled with a single s in British English, and a final l is always doubled in British English.
• Leave the final consonant single if the verb has more than two syllables and the final syllable is not stressed — e.g. benefit, benefited, benefiting, develop, developed, developing.
• If a verb ends in e, just add d to form the past tense. Most verbs drop the e before -ing (timing, using). Ageing usually keeps the e; and singeing must keep it to distinguish it from singing.

We know that sometimes words contain hyphens. There is considerable variation in this area (that is, not everyone agrees on the proper use of hyphens), but there are a number of cases in which hyphens are used that we must bear in mind. Also always try to be consistent, so that you do not write the same word in different ways in the same text.
At the end of a line of writing

• If possible, put the hyphen between two parts of a compound word (eg. motor— at the end of one line and cycle at the beginning of the next one).
• Otherwise, put the hyphen before a suffix (understand —ably, instead of understa —ndably) or after a prefix (mono— transitive, instead of monot— -ransitive).
• Words that are not compounds and which do not contain affixes are normally not long enough to have to be divided at the end of a line.

In compounds
Generally speaking, compounds can be written in three different ways in English, namely as one word, as two words with a space between them, or with a hyphen between the first and the second part of the word. In many cases, there is variation among writers, and writing conventions change over time, so always consult a recent and trusted dictionary when in doubt. However, the following general rules and advice should be useful:
Compound adjectives are often (but not always) written with a hyphen. A compound adjective is typically an adjective that consists of an adjective + a participle (e.g. long-lasting and short-natured), a noun + a participle (thought-provoking and data-driven), or a noun + and adjective (camera-ready, lead-free).
It is extra important to use a hyphen when not using one could lead to ambiguity. For instance, we should not write ten year old children if we mean ten-year-old children, since ten year old children could equally well refer to ten children that are one year old (i.e. ten year-old children).
Generally speaking, compound premodifying adjectives, that is, adjectives that precede and modify the head of a noun phrase, are more often written with a hyphen than compound adjectives functioning as predicatives. This is especially important to remember when the compound adjective contains the adverb well. For example, even though we could very well write as in (1), we have to use the hyphen in (2):

(1) I find this paper well written.
(2) This is really a well-written paper.

Similarly, we have to use hyphens if a premodifying adjective is formed from a phrase (3), even though we may leave out the hyphen when such a compound adjective functions as predicative (4):

(3) A new state-of-the-art laboratory on Deeside marks a big step ahead in Wales’ drive for economic renewal and green jobs.
(4) This document is part of a series of reviews of the state of the art in cognitive systems.

Compound numbers less than 100 are spellt with a hyphen (e.g. seventy-six, thirty-five). 

Phrasal verbs

(5) Long queues started to build up at these security checkpoints.
(6) There was a build-up of fluid in the inner ear, and the doctors drained the fluid out so the child could hear.

After a prefix
We insert a hyphen between a prefix and a number or a proper noun (name):

(7) This is a pre-2004 phenomenon.
(8) This would reduce the risk of the further deterioration of Iraq into a post-Yugoslavia type of situation.

We also include a hyphen in order to avoid words getting mixed up, so, for instance, we write re-cover, if we do not mean recover, as in (9):

(9) I would like to know how to re-cover dining-room chairs.

It is (or used to be) common practice to insert a hyphen between a prefix ending in a vowel and a word starting with a vowel, as in (10), but this use appears to be losing ground, so we also frequently find such words written as one word without a hyphen, as in (11):

(10) Nato and Russia have made a historic agreement to co-operate over the creation of a missile defence shield protecting more than one billion people in a move aimed at bolstering the “reset” in relations between Moscow and the west.
(11) Although the duty to cooperate would render it more difficult for local authorities to refuse a transfer outright, it did not override their discretion when deciding whether this would be compatible with other of their statutory duties or whether they could fulfil the terms of an offender’s licence conditions.

There are also a number of prefixes that are always supposed to be followed by a hyphen, for instance all-, cross-, ex-, self-, half-, and anti—, as in (12) to (17):

(12) In principle this could be done by an all-knowing central planner.
(13) Cross-Cultural Research (CCR) publishes peer-reviewed articles that describe cross-cultural and comparative studies in all human sciences.
(14) After a year or so, my friend and ex-colleague John. Murray VII offered help again.
(15) Self-esteem has to do with how one sees and experiences oneself.
(16) There is no way anyone in attendance left this show thinking it was half-hearted. 
(17) To illustrate what types of behaviour are anti-social, below are examples of ASB.

And please remember the practice of spelling premodifying compounds with hyphens, as illustrated in some of the examples above.

For more useful advice on spelling, please follow this link:

• Oxford Dictionaries Online: Spelling rules and tips

It should be noted that this AWELU page on spelling was inspired by a previous version of the web site to which this link refers.

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
Use in English
Alphabetical word list
Retroalphabetical list
Common misspellings

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English is notorious for its many varied, inconsistent and irregular spellings. This can be seen at its most extravagant in the field of proper nouns—for example, simply adding an ‘h’ to ‘Maria’ to make it rhyme with ‘pariah’, or calling oneself ‘Cholmondeley Featherstonehaugh’ while pronouncing it ‘Chumley Fanshaw’. An example of a common misspelling is ‘disasterous’ for ‘disastrous’, retaining the ‘e’ of ‘disaster’. Many words do not turn out to have the pronunciation they appear to have: ‘do’ and ‘to’ do not rhyme with ‘go’ and ‘no’, while ‘seismic’, instead of being ‘seezmic’ or ‘sayzmic’, or even ‘sayizmic’, is in fact ‘size-mic’. The above grid (reproduced and explained below) provides links to three lists and a cluster of articles devoted to these things.

To show pronunciation, these articles use correct spellings with added accent marks, instead of relying on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). In some cases incorrect respellings are placed next to the correct ones, signalled by a preceding asterisk, like thís *thíss. The accent marks show pronunciation, thús. A table of these accents (which are not part of the language^[1]) can be found below; there is also an IPA key at English phonemes. Where there is more than one accent, the first is stressed, and the same is true after a hyphen, so in the respelling of Tchaikóvsky, *Chŷ-kóffskỳ, it is ‘kóff’ that has the main stress. (Another way of showing new stress is with a bar: Tchaî|kóvsky.) A sentence from the preceding paragraph can thus be rewritten as follows: «An example of a common misspelling is *disāsterous for disāstrous, retaining the E of disāster.» Respelling may be used to exemplify an incorrect spelling, or show a correct pronunciation, or a bit of both. Unlike the IPA, where there can only be one version per pronunciation, as there must be an unambiguous one-to-one correspondence, there can be many respellings: if *disāsterous for disāstrous is a common mistake, we can also represent the pronunciation as *dizāstrus or *dizāstrous or *dizāstrəss (with ‘ə’, a special character – the only one used – for schwa); or we can contrast British English *dizàstrus with American *dizástrus.

Particular attention is given to homophones, words with the same pronunciation but different meanings. English is rich in homophones, many of which are also homonyms, having also the same spelling, as, for example, cán able, tin (the italicised words suggest meanings, in this case two); while homographs are words with the same spelling whose meanings are distinguished by different pronunciations.

Also of special note are words that many writers incorrectly divide. ôver and dûe, for example, combine to form overdûe, without a space in the middle. Such examples are included with ‘one word’ alongside them: alongsîde one word.

An equals sign = is placed between homophones (in some cases the approximately equals sign ≈ is more appropriate). Homographs and other similar-looking words are included after ‘cf.’ (Latin conferre, ‘compare’).

Some words from other languages, in most cases French, may sometimes appear in English with accents from those languages. Here, such spellings are shown using bold italics: touchè may be written with a French accent: touché *tooshây.

The apostrophe is an important part of spelling and so it is treated as a letter, with its own place at the end of the alphabet.

Fragments of words are in bold when correctly spelt: Ukrâine has —âine, not -âne.

Words in italics are used to suggest meanings (e.g. sêa water = sêe vision, where the equals sign denotes identical pronunciation). Words beginning with an initial capital may have no word in italics following: these are names of people, either personal or family, and/or commercial or place names. Such words are included because they often contrast with the spellings of homophones: a bank clerk might be named Clàrk or Clàrke, but probably not ‘Clerk’ (though BrE clerk = Clàrk/Clàrke). Unusual spellings can be explained by regular ones: Cloúgh = Clúff. An American called Maurìce Mŏrris could just as well be called Mórris Maurice («Morris Morris») in Britain, where Maurice = Mórris (although it would be putting the conventional surname before the conventional given name).

Links to letter articles and lists

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
Use in English
Alphabetical word list
Retroalphabetical list
Common misspellings

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In the navigation table above (reproduced at the top of each article in the cluster) the cells in each row link as follows:

• Top row: articles on each letter and its use in English. There are similar articles on GH, the apostrophe and the hyphen.

• Second row: alphabetical lists of of commonly misspelt and/or mispronounced words, alongside more regular words they may be confused with (words beginning with an apostrophe are here). Some incorrect spellings are also listed, signalled by an asterisk: *dispánd disbánd means that the word is ‘disband’. (The bottom row is devoted entirely to misspellings and typos.)

• Third row: retroalphabetical lists, arranged alphabetically according to the final letter of the word and continuing backwards through it:

In the retroalphabetical lists the headword is on the right. In this way, suffixes and other word endings can be seen grouped together, just as prefixes can be seen in normal alphabetical order. So, instead of ádd båll coúsin, we have réplicA fláB plástiC; and so for mûsiC, see under —C, for mûsicaL, see under —L, for pàrticlE, see under —E, and so on.

Some suffixes are included separately; their pronunciation may or may not apply to following words («always —ãrian» means there is no other pronunciation of —ãrian).

Throughout, the apostrophe is treated as the last letter, after Z. (Words ending in an apostrophe are also here.)

For clarity, italic association words are to the left of the example word:

woman mâid = make mâde

Some incorrect spellings are listed retroalphabetically, in which case the misspelling goes on the right, just as in the alphabetical list:

wêasel *wêasal

• Bottom row: common misspellings including typos (blue-linked for checking purposes), followed by the correct versions.

Two main varieties are distinguished: British English (BrE), that of the UK and much of the Commonwealth (see also Commonwealth English), and American English (AmE), that of the USA and Canada (without the cåught = cót merger that has occurred in some parts of North America).

Unlike dictionaries, the lists include personal and place names for their own sake and for contrast.

Table of accents

These accents are intended to show the pronunciation while retaining the spelling: they are not part of the language. Those on i and y show the same sound; similarly with u, oo and w. Accented vowels are stressed (ỳ is normally unstressed, as in háppy). ā, not in the table, means that the sound is à in standard British and Commonwealth pronunciations but á in American and other British and Commonwealth speech.

	Front vowels	Back vowels
e	i	y[2]	a	o	u	oo	w[3]
The typical short sound, never occurring at the end of a word (acute accent)	pét	pít	crýpt	cát	dóg[4]	nút
The typical long sound, corresponding to the names of the letters A, E, I, O and U (circumflex accent)	sêe	nîce	mŷ	nâme	nôse	rûle	toô	neŵ
Sounds shown with the grave accent (ẁ— and qù— indicate the BrE ó sound of the following a, ẁad rhyming with qùad; òu and òw are diphthongs sounding like àù in àùtobahn: nòw has this sòund)	èight (= â)	machìne (= ê)	quaỳ water = kêỳ lock (= ê)	àre	òther, blòod (= ú)	fùll (= oò), qùantity (= w)	foòt (= ù)	ẁant (= wó)[5]
The ër sound (umlaut accent)	përson	bïrd	mÿrtle	(ëarth)	wörd	pürr
The åw/ŏr sound (ring accent)[6]		(cŏin)	(jŏy)	åll	mŏre	(for some BrE speakers) sůre
The ãir sound (tilde accent)	(thére)	(ãir =	Ãyr)	stãre
Irregular (respelling needed)	sew (= sô)	meringue (*məráng)		because (*bikóz)	woman (*wùmən), women (*wímən)	business (*bízníss)

Example sentences

These sentences show how the accents may be used, for example, when teaching pronunciation. Words without accents are monosyllables with the schwa sound, a neutral grunt.

The usual short sound, acute accent:

The gínger cát was jéalous of the bláck cát: howéver, the tábby was a véry dífferent mátter — the stúff of réveries, ín fáct.

The usual long sound, circumflex accent:

Sây mŷ nâme thrêe tîmes with stŷle and Î’ll gô and fînd a tûne to plây for yoû.

The third sound, grave accent:

Christìna Grèy shoùld (and dòes?) lòve her mòther and fàther.

The ër sound, umlaut:

But fïrst, Mÿrtle, fürther dïrty, ïrksome and distürbing wörk for the nürses.

The ŏr sound (sůre here is with British pronunciation = Shåw), the ring, or half-ring:

Sůre yoû ŏught to cråwl ón åll fŏurs, m’lŏrd?

Irregular, without accent, instead with respelling:

Many women? Any woman! (pronounced: *Ménny wímmin? Énny wùman!)

Double letters

The following alphabetical table shows examples of how letters can be doubled in English.

Double consonant letters before suffixes are used (as often elsewhere) to preserve short vowel sounds, as in flípped (not *flîped), rebélled (not *rebêled) and pégged (not *pêged, which if regular would in any case be pronounced *pêjed). Compare scrâped, past of scrâpe, and scrápped, from scráp. In the case of t, doubling it after an unstressed vowel and before a suffix may seem unnecessary, but in some cases it can be doubled before —ed: either tàrgeted or tàrgetted (but always commítted).

The sign # indicates a double letter that is rare in that position; capital-letter words indicate that the double letter in this position is only found in names. An asterisk (*) indicates a respelling to show pronunciation, and an equals sign (=) introduces a homophone.

letter	initial	medial	final	final + silent e
A	àardvark #[7]	bazàar #	bàa #
B		ríbbon	ébb #	Crábbe (= cráb)
C		sóccer (*sócker), accépt (*əxépt)
D		hídden	ádd
E	êel	bêen	sêe
F	Ffoùlkes	éffort	óff	Clíffe (= clíff)
G		aggréssion (-g-), exággerate (-j-)	égg #	Légge (= lég)
H		hítchhike # (accidental)
I		skìíng #	Hawàìi #
J			hàjj # (also spelt hàdj)
K		púkka; boòkkeeper (accidental)[8] #
L	llàma[9] #	fílling	wéll	bélle beauty (= béll ring)
M		súmmer	Crámm (= crám)	grámme (= grám)
N		dínner	ínn # pub	Ánne (= Ánn)
O	oôze, oòmph #	foôd, foòt, flòod, doŏr	toô	Loôe (= loô)
P		flípped		stéppe Asia # (= stép foot)
Q		Sadìqqi #
R		érror	pürr
S		méssy	lóss	crevásse
T		bétter	ẁatt	couchétte -sh-
U		vácuum # (*vákyoôm)
V		révved #
W		Lawwell # (accidental)
X		Éxxon ™ #	Bób B. Sóxx #
Y		Khayyàm #
Z		fízzy	búzz

Names of the letters

The names of the letters of the alphabet are rarely written out in English (a simple capital being the normal usage: «with a C, not a K») so that, unlike in many other languages, most of their spellings have a rather unofficial status. But they can be shown as follows, using real words where possible:

A: â (the indefinite article, when stressed), èh? what?

B: bê exist, bêe sting

C: occasionally cêe; sêe look, sêa ship

D: Dêe River, surname

E: ê as in êmail, ê-mail

F: éff as in the euphemism éff óff

G: gêe up, exclamation *jêe

H: âitch as in drópping your âitches

I: Î me, eŷe vision

J: jây bird

K: Kây person

L: él elevated railway (AmE)

M: ém dash

N: én dash

O: ôwe debt, ôh! exclamation

P: pêa pod, pêe urine, p pence (BrE)

Q: queûe line, cûe ball, prompt

R: àre be, BrE àh exclamation

S: occasionally éss

T: têa drink, têe golf, tì do-re-mi

U: yoû me, eŵe sheep

V: Vêe Bobby

W: «doúble you» (*dúblyu; cf. vácûum, which actually does have a doúble Û)

X: éx- past

Y: whŷ reason (voiced w, as in BrE)

Z: BrE zéd, AmE zêe

The Chaos

by Gerard Nolst Trenité

This poem on pronunciation irregularities was first published in 1920. Accent marks, respellings and editorial comments have been added to reflect current British English pronunciation. The unadorned poem, with an introduction, can be found here.

The Châós (*câyóss)

Dêarest crêature ín creâtion

Stúdying English (*Ínglish) pronunciâtion,

Î wíll têach yoû ín mŷ vërse

Sòunds lîke cŏrpse, cŏrps (*cŏr), hŏrse and wörse.

Î wíll kêep yoû, Sûsy, busy (*bízzy),

Mâke yŏur héad wíth hêat grôw dízzy;

Têar ín eŷe, yŏur dréss yŏu’ll téar;

Quêer, fãir sêer (*sêe-er), hêar mŷ prãyer.

Prây, consôle yŏur lòving pôet,

Mâke mŷ côat loòk neŵ, dêar, sew (=sô) ít!

Júst compãre heàrt, hêar and hëard,

Dîes and dîet (*dîət), lŏrd and wörd.

Swŏrd (*sŏrd) and swård, retâin and Brítain

[Mînd the látter hòw ít’s wrítten].

Mâde hás nót the sòund of báde,

Sây–said (*séd), pây–pâid, lâid but pláid.

Nòw Î sůrely wíll nót plâgue yoû

Wíth súch wörds as vâgue and âgûe,

Bút bê cãreful hòw yoû spêak,

Sây: gúsh, bùsh, steâk, strêak, breâk, blêak,

Prêvious, précious, fûchsia (*feŵsha), vîa,

Récipê, pîpe, stúdding-sâil, choîr (=quîre);

Wôven, óven, hòw and lôw,

Scrípt, recêipt (*rissêet), shoe (=shoô), pôem, tôe.

Sây, expécting fråud and tríckerỳ:

Dåughter (*dåwter), làughter (*làfter) ánd Terpsíchorê (*Terpsíckery),

Brànch, rànch, mêasles, tópsails, aîsles (*îles),

Míssîles, símilês, revîles.

Whôlly (=hôly), hólly, sígnal, sîgning (*sîning),

Sâme, exámining, but mîning,

Schólar (*scóllar), vícar, and cigàr,

Sôlar, mîca, wår and fàr.

From «desîre»: desîrable — ádmirable from «admîre»,

Lúmber, plúmber, biêr, but brîer,

Tópsham, broûgham (*breŵəm), renòwn, but knôwn,

Knówledge, dòne, lône, góne, nòne, tône,

Òne (=wòn), anémonê, Balmóral,

Kítchen, lîchen (=lîken), låundry, laurel (lórrel).

Gërtrude, Gërman (J-), wínd and wînd,

Beau (=Bô), kînd, kíndred, queûe, mankînd,

Tŏrtoise (*tŏrtus), türquŏise, chámois-léather (*shámwà-),

Rêading, Réading, hêathen, héather.

Thís phonétic lábyrínth

Gíves móss, grôss, broòk, brôoch, nînth, plínth.

Háve yoû éver yét endéavoured

To (=toô)^[10] pronòunce revêred and sévered,

Dêmon, lémon, ghoûl, fòul, sôul,

Pêter, pétrol and patrôl?

Bíllet dòes nót énd lîke bállèt (*bállây);

Boûquèt, ẁallet, mállet, chálèt.

Blòod and flòod are nót lîke foôd,

Nŏr ís môuld lîke shoùld and woùld (=woòd).

Bánquet ís nót nêarly pàrquèt,

Whích exáctly rhŷmes wíth khàkì. —not usually nowadays

Díscòunt, vîscòunt (*vîcòunt), lôad and brŏad,

Towård, to fŏrward, to (=toô) rewård,

Rícochèted and crôchèting, crôquèt?

Rîght! Yŏur pronunciâtion’s OK.^[11]

Ròunded, woûnded, griêve and síeve,

Friénd and fiênd, alîve and líve.

Ís yŏur R corréct ín hîgher?

Kêats assërts ít rhŷmes Thalîa.

Hûgh, but húg, and hoòd, but hoôt,

Buŏyant, mínute, bút minûte.

Sây abscíssion wíth precísion,

Nòw: posítion ánd transítion;

Woùld ít tálly wíth mŷ rhŷme

Íf Î méntioned páradîgm?

Twòpence, thréepence, têase are êasy,

But cêase, crêase, grêase and grêasy?

Cŏrnice, nîce, valìse, revîse,

Râbíes, but lúllabîes.

Óf súch púzzling wörds as nåuseous,

Rhŷming wéll wíth cåutious, tŏrtious,

Yoû’ll envélop lísts, Î hôpe,

Ín a línen énvelôpe.

Woùld yoû lîke some mŏre? Yoû’ll háve ít!

Áffidâvit, Dâvid, dávit.

To (=toô) abjûre, to përjure. Shèik

Dòes nót sòund lîke Czéch but âche.

Líberty, lîbrary, hêave and héaven,

Râchel, lóch, moustàche, eléven.

Wê sây hállôwed, bút allòwed,

Pêople, léopard, tôwed but vòwed.

Màrk the dífference, moreôver,

Betwêen mover (*moôver), plòver, Dôver.

Lêaches, brêeches, wîse, precîse,

Chálíce, bút polìce and lîce,

Cámel, cònstable, únstâble,

Prínciple, discîple, lâbel.

Pétal, pênal, and canál,

Wâit, surmîse, pláit, prómíse, pál,

Sûit, suìte, rûín. Cïrcuít, cónduít

Rhŷme wíth «shïrk ít» and «beyónd ít». —still?

Bút ít ís nót hàrd to téll

Whŷ ít’s påll, måll, but Páll Máll.

Múscle, múscular, gâol (=jâil), îron,

Tímber, clîmber, búllion, lîon,

Wörm and stŏrm, chaise (*shézz), châós, chãir,

Sénator, spectâtor, mãyor,

Îvy, prívy, fâmous; clámour

Hás thê Â of dráchm and hámmer.

Pùssy, hússy ánd posséss,

Désert, but desërt, addréss.

Gôlf, wolf (=Woòlf), còuntenance, lieuténants

Hŏist ín lieû of flágs léft pénnants.

Coùrier, cŏurtier, tomb (*toôm), bómb, cômb,

Còw, but Cowper (=Coôper), sòme and hôme.

«Sôlder, sôldier! Blòod ís thícker»,

Quôth hê, «than liqueûr ŏr líquor»,

Mâking, ít ís sád but trûe,

Ín bravàdo, múch ado (*adoô).

Strânger dòes nót rhŷme wíth ánger,

Neîther dòes devòur wíth clángour. —neither does anger: *áng-gə

Pîlot, pívot, gåunt, but āunt,

Fónt, frònt, wônt, wånt, gránd and grānt.

Àrsenic, specífic, scênic,

Rélic, rhétoric, hygìênic.

Goòseberry, goôse, and clôse, but clôse,

Páradise, rîse, rôse, and dôse.

Sây invèigh, nèigh, but invêigle,

Mâke the látter rhŷme wíth êagle.

Mînd! Mêándering but mêan,

Válentîne and mágazìne.

Ánd Î bét yoû, dêar, a pénny,

Yoû sây máni-(fôld) lîke many (*ménny),

Whích ís wróng. Sây râpier, pìêr,

Tîer (òne who tîes), but tìêr.

Àrch, archângel; prây, dòes ërring

Rhŷme wíth hérring ŏr wíth stïrring?

Príson, bîson, tréasure trôve,

Trêason, hóver, còver, côve,

Persevêrance, séverance. Ríbald

Rhŷmes (but pîebåld dòesn’t) wíth níbbled.

Phâeton, paêan, gnát, ghåt, gnåw,

Liên, psŷchic, shóne, bône, pshåw.

Dôn’t bê dòwn, mŷ ôwn, but roúgh ít,

Ánd distínguish bùffèt, búffet;

Broôd, stoòd, roôf, roòk, schoôl, woòl, boôn,

Worcester (*Wùster), Boleýn, to (=toô) impûgn.

Sây ín sòunds corréct and stërling

Hëarse, hêar, heàrken, yêar and yëarling —yëar and yêarling are about as likely

Êvil, dévil, mézzotínt,

Mînd the Z (zéd)! (A géntle hínt.)

Nòw yoû nêed nót pây atténtion

To (=toô) súch sòunds as Î dôn’t méntion,

Sòunds lîke pŏres, påuse, pŏurs and påws,

Rhŷming wíth the prônòun yŏurs;

Nŏr are próper nâmes inclûded,

Thôugh Î óften hëard, as yoû díd,

Fúnny rhŷmes to ûnicŏrn,

Yés, yoû knôw them, Våughan and Stråchan —nowadays regularised to *Strákhən

Nô, mŷ mâiden, cŏy and còmely,

Î dôn’t ẁant to spêak of Chòlmondeley (*Chúmley).

Nô. Yét Froûde compãred wíth pròud

Ís nô bétter thán McLeod (*McClòud).

But mînd trívial and vîal,

Trîpod, mênial, denîal,

Trôll and trólley, réalm and rêam,

Schédule, míschief, schísm, and schême.

Àrgil, gíll, Argŷll, gíll. Sůrely

Mây bê mâde to rhŷme wíth Råleigh,

Bút yŏu’re nót suppôsed to sây

Pìquèt rhŷmes wíth sóbriquèt.

Hád thís ínvalid inválid

Wörthless dócuments? Hòw pállid,

Hòw uncoûth hê, còuchant, loòked,

Whén for Pŏrtsmouth Î had boòked!

Zeûs, Thêbes, Thales, Aphrodîtê,

Páramour, enámoured, flîghty,

Épisôdes, antípodês,

Ácquiésce, and óbsequies.

Plêase dôn’t mònkey wíth the gêyser,

Dôn’t pêel ‘tâters wíth mŷ râzor,

Rāther sây ín áccents pûre:

Nâture, státure ánd matûre.

Pîous, ímpìous, límb, clîmb, glúmly,

Worsted (wùsted), wörsted, crúmbly, dúmbly,

Cónquer, cónquest, vàse, phâse, fán,

Ẁan, sedán and àrtisan.

The TH (*têe-âitch) wíll sůrely troúble you

Mŏre than R, CH ŏr W (*àh, cêe-âitch ŏr doúble-û)

Sây thén thêse phonétic géms:

Thómas, thŷme, Therêsa, Thames (*Témz).

Thómpson, Chátham, Wåltham, Stréatham,

Thére are mŏre but Î forgét ’em —

Wâit! Î’ve gót ít: Ánthony,

Lîghten yŏur anxîety.

Thê archâíc wörd ålbêít

Does nót rhŷme wíth èight — yoû sêe ít;

Wíth and fŏrthwith, òne hás vŏice,

Òne hás nót, yoû mâke yŏur chŏice.

Shoes (=shoôs), gôes, dòes. Nòw fïrst sây: fínger;

Thén sây: sínger, gínger, línger.

Rêal, zêal, mauve (*môv), gåuze and gâuge,

Márríage, fôlìage, mìràge, âge,

Hêro, héron, quêry, véry,

Párry, tárry, fûry, bury,

Dòst, lóst, pôst, and dòth, clóth, lôth,

Jób, Jôb, blóssom, bosom (*bùzm), ôath.

Fåugh, oppúgnant, kêen oppûgners,

Bòwing, bôwing, bánjo-tûners

Hôlm yoû knôw, but nôes, canoes (*canoôz),

Pûisnê (*poôny), trûísm, ûse (*yoûss), to ûse (*yoûz)?

Thôugh the dífference sêems líttle,

Wê sây áctual, but víctual,

Sêat, swéat, châste, càste, Lêigh, èight, heîght,

Pùt, nút, gránite, ánd unîte.

Rêefer dòes nót rhŷme wíth déafer,

Féoffer dòes, and zéphyr, héifer.

Dúll bùll Géoffrey, Geŏrge ate (*ét) lâte,

Hínt, pînt, sénate, but sedâte.

Gáelic, Árabic, pacífic, —Scottish; or regular Gâelic if Irish

Scîence, cónscience, scientífic;

Toûr, but òur, doûr, súccour, fŏur,

Gás, alás, and Àrkansås.

Sây manoeûvre, yacht (*yót) and vómit,

Néxt omít, whích díffers fróm ít

Bôna fîdê, álibî

Gŷrate, dòwry ánd awrŷ.

Sêa, idêa, guínea, ãrêa,

Psàlm, Marìa, bút malãria.

Yoûth, sòuth, soúthern, cléanse and clêan,

Dóctrine, türpentine, marìne.

Compãre âlien wíth Itálian,

Dándelîon wíth battálion,

Rálly wíth állŷ; yeâ, yê,

Eŷe, Î, ây, aŷe, whèy, kêy, quaỳ! —ây mê, archaic expression of sadness, ây = èh

Sây avër, but éver, fêver,

Neîther, léisure, skèin, recêiver.

Néver guéss — ít ís nót sâfe,

Wê sây càlves, válves, hālf, but Râlf.

Stàrry, gránary, canãry,

Crévice, but devîce, and éyrie,

Fâce, but préface, thén grimâce,

Phlégm, phlegmátic, áss, glāss, bâss.

Báss, làrge, tàrget, gín, gíve, vërging,

Ŏught, òust, jòust, and scòur, but scoürging;

Êar, but ëarn; and ére and téar

Do (*doô=) nót rhŷme wíth hêre but héir.

Mînd thê Ô of óff and óften

Whích mây bê pronòunced as ŏrphan, —scarcely heard nowadays

Wíth the sòund of såw and såuce;

Ålsô sóft, lóst, clóth and cróss.

Pùdding, púddle, pùtting. Pútting?

Yés: at gôlf ít rhŷmes wíth shútting.

Réspîte, spîte, consént, resént.

Lîable, but Pàrliament.

Séven ís rîght, but sô ís êven,

Hŷphen, roúghen, néphew, Stêphen,

Mònkey, dónkey, clerk (=Clàrk) and jërk,

Ásp, grāsp, ẁasp, demèsne, cŏrk, wörk.

 of válour, vápid vâpour,

S of neŵs (-z) (compãre neŵspâper (-ss-)),

G of gíbbet (j-), gíbbon, gíst (j-),

Î of ántichrîst and gríst,

Díffer like divërse and dîvers,

Rívers, strîvers, shívers, fîvers.

Ònce, but nónce, tôll, dóll, but rôll,

Pólish, Pôlish, póll and pôll.

Pronúnciation — thínk of Psŷchê! —

Ís a pâling, stòut and spîky.

Wôn’t ít mâke yoû lose (=loôs) yŏur wíts

Wrîting grôats and sâying ‘gríts’? —no longer

Ìt’s a dàrk abýss ŏr túnnel

Streŵn wíth stônes lîke rôwlock, gúnwale,

Íslington, and Îsle of Wîght,

Hòusewîfe, vërdíct and indîct.

Dôn’t yoû thínk sô, rêader, ràther,

Sâying làther, bâther, fàther?

Fînally, whích rhŷmes wíth enoúgh,

Thôugh, throûgh, bòugh, cóugh, hóugh, sòugh, toúgh??

Hiccoúgh hás the sòund of súp.

Mŷ advîce ís: GÍVE ÍT ÚP!

Notes

Teaching English spelling is a daunting challenge, especially to the kids. A lot of it has to do with the mismatching correlation between the spellings and the pronunciations.

For example, let’s consider the word “knee.” It might sound like “nee” but it spelling suggests something like “kuh – nee!”

We, adults, are already familiar with unusual spellings — we know that there’ a silent K in knife and knee. But kids are only getting to know these rules and laws.

So today, we would try to talk about some of the established spelling rules.

How Many Spelling Rules Are There in the English Language?

You should understand one thing — there is no fixed number of hard and fast rules when it comes to English spelling. Linguistic experts have only identified and categorized some spelling patterns.

That’s why you’re seeing different numbers online!

Some are preaching 5 Spelling rules, some talk about 31 spelling rules, and so on. Also, the English language has its fair share of exceptions when comes to spelling grammar.

How so?

There is a common spelling rule that says English words don’t end in I. If that’s true, what about the words — alumni, broccoli, or graffiti? Some may argue that these words are originated from other languages.

True! But it’s also true that the English language has picked these words.

As we’re talking about exceptions, let’s talk about the doubling consonant issue. Some suggest that while adding suffixes, like -ed or -ing after a verb, you should double the final consonant.

Thus, refer becomes referred, or incur becomes incurring following this rule.

Nice! Oh wait, there’s an issue!

What about enter?

It doesn’t become enterred or enterring! Rather, it becomes entered or entering.

This why many experts refrain from making every spelling pattern a rule. And, that’s why we don’t have a fixed of spelling rules in the English language.

So, while studying the English spelling rules, you should always keep in mind that — rules are made to be broken!

But mastering the common spelling rules will help the language users in many ways. You can stop yourself from making common and silly mistakes.

7 Basic Spelling Rules for Kids

1. Every Syllable (And Word) Must Have One Vowel

Example: It, cat, old — all have a vowel.

2. I, E, or Y Changes the Sound of C to /s/

The letter C has two sounds — /s/ or /k/. If C is followed by I, E, or Y, it sounds like /s/. in all other cases, it sounds like /k/.

Example: City, cement, and cyber (C followed by I, E, or Y) have the /s/ sound — but cold, catch, or cool has the /k/ sound.  

3. I, E, or Y Changes the Sound of G to /j/

Similar to the previous rule, the letter G has two sounds — /g/ or /j/. So, if G is followed by I, E, or Y, it sounds like /j/. Otherwise, it has the /g/ sound.

Example: Gist, gem, and gyro (G followed by I, E, or Y) have the /j/ sound — but game, get, or good has the /g/ sound. 

4. Q and U Are Used in Pairs! (Has Exceptions)

The letter Q is almost always paired with the letter U in the English language. So, blindly put a U after every time you spell anything with a Q.

Example: Queen, Quit, Quite, Quill — all of these words have Q and U paired together.

Exceptions: faqir, cinq, qi – these words don’t follow the QU pairing rule. However, all of these words have different etymological roots.

5. -CK Is Used Only After a Short Vowel

There two ways to create the sound /k/ at the end of the words — using -CK or -K. Which one should you use?

Remember one thing — -CK is used only after a short vowel!

So, after short vowels, that sound like — -ah, -eh, -ih, -oh, and -uh, you’ll use -CK. But we use -K after long vowels.  

Example: Sack, deck, pick, rock, buck — these words have at the end -CK as there are short vowels. But words like meek, milk, book, hook — these words have -K at the end.

6. F, L, And S Doubles at the End of Mono-Syllable Words

Mono-syllable or one-syllable words are the words with one vowel. Now, if such a mono-syllable word ends with the letters F, L, or S, they become double!

Example: Riff, spell, fuss — are mono-syllable words ending with F, L, and S.

Exceptions: Bus, sis.

7. Capitalize Proper Nouns

Proper nouns, meaning the names of people, titles, places, or things must be capitalized.

Example: Jerry, Tom, President, London, Bitcoin — these proper nouns have capital letters in the beginning.

Are you looking for a spelling baseline assessment? Here’s a guide that discusses everything revolving around the topic with a convenient way for conducting one. 

5 Spelling Rule for Adults

1. I Before E, Except After C [*Not A Rule but A Spelling Tip!]

This is perhaps one of the most well-known spelling rules of the English language. And, there is a strong reason behind this. Despite the age, a large portion of English users often get confused with the IE or EI issue.

Let’s be honest, even you got confused while spelling words like believe or receive without any auto-correct tool.

So, the extended version of this spelling rule goes like this — I before E, except after C, or sounds like A.

That makes everything simple, write?

Despite having a three-layer guideline, there a number of words that don’t follow this spelling pattern. For example, weird, foreign, or leisure don’t follow the spelling pattern.

Example: Field, believe, lie, piece — I before E. Receive, ceiling, deceit — uses EI as there is a C. Neighbor, beige, weigh — sounds like A so EI is used.

Exceptions: As we said earlier, this is one of the spelling tips, not a concrete rule. There is a long list of exceptions to this spelling tip. This list should help you out (try to memorize them if you can) —

Exceptions of the I before E, except after C rule
Seize	Weird
Height	Foreign
Leisure	Conscience
Counterfeit	Forfeit
Neither	Science
Species	Sufficient

2. Spelling Rules for Adding Suffixes After the Words Ending with Y

Words ending with Y change in different ways as you add suffixes to them. So, we’d break this one rule multiple layers —

2(A). e-Based Suffixes (-er, -est, -ed, -es) Change the Y to I

Example: Cry > cried (-ed), dry > dried (-ed), baby > babies (-es), story > stories (-es), ugly > uglier (-er) > ugliest (-est).

2(B). -ing Suffix Doesn’t Change The Y

Example: Cry > crying, dry > drying, fry > frying.

2(C). -ly Suffix Changes the Y to I

Example: Happy > happily, merry > merrily, sloppy > sloppily, scary > scarily.  

Exceptions: Dry > dryly, shy > shyly.   

2(D). -ment Suffix Doesn’t Change the Y

Example: Employ > employment, enjoy > enjoyment, repay > repayment, deploy > deployment.

Exception: Merry > merriment.

3. Spelling Rules for Plural Nouns (-s or -es?)

This is another confusing spelling issue for the adults. Should we be using -s or -es for nouns?

Follow this one rule — add -es for words ending with -s, -sh, -x, -z, or -ch.

Everything else uses -s.

Example: Boss > bosses, dish > dishes, box > boxes, batch > batches — has -s, -sh, -x, -ch in the end. Monkey > monkeys, boy > boys.

Exceptions for the Spellings of Plural Nouns (Ending with -es or -s)
Singular	Plural
Mango	Mango/Mangoes (both are correct!)
Tomato	Tomatoes
Dwarf	Dwarves/Dwarfs (both are correct)
Knife	Knives
Wife	Wives
Embargo	Embargoes
Torpedo	Torpedoes
Volcano	Volcanos/Volcanoes (both are correct)
Echo	Echos/Echoes (both are correct)

4. Only Use Double Consonant While Adding Suffix for One-Syllable Words

There are many arguments regarding whether to use double consonant or not while adding the -ed or -ing suffixes.

To be on the safer side, you should only double the ending consonant for one-syllable words.

Example: Gut > gutted, rub > rubbed, rob > robbing, mop > mopping.

Exceptions: Burn > burning.  

5. Drop the Silent E in the End While Adding a Vowel Suffix

A lot of English words have silent E in the end. As you add a suffix, this silent E gets dropped.

Example: Bite > biting, care > cared, race > racing, come > coming.  

Expectations: Noticeable, truly.

Common misconceptions and False spelling rules

Many sources strongly enforce different spelling rules that are baseless and can easily be debunked. Here are some of these false spelling rules —

1. No English word has double I in it!

Proof that it’s false: Radii, skiing, shiitake.

2. English words don’t end in I, U, V, or J.

Proof that it’s false: Hi (ends in I), Emu (ends in U), Rev (ends in V), Hajj (ends in J)  

3. Consonant suffixes don’t the spelling.

Proof that it’s false: Argue > argument, judge > judgment/judgement (both are correct).

4. The silent E in the end always gets dropped while adding a suffix.

Proof that it’s false: Mile > mileage, canoe > canoeing.

5. In a compound word (room and mate form roommate, house and keeper form housekeeper), spellings of the separate words always remain unchanged.

Proof that it’s false: Past + time > pastime, where + ever > wherever.