Spelling Rules (Rules of spelling in English)

 

Spelling Rules

Spelling and plural:

• If a word ends with s, ss, ch, sh, z or x, we add es

Example:- Bus - Busses,  Church -Churches, Guess - Guesses, Dish - Dishes

(tip: if you hear the sound of 'iz', use es) 

• If a word ends with y then 2 things happen-

1. If there is vowel before y, add s

Example:- key - keys,  boy - boys, day - days

2. If there is consonant before y, change y to i and add es

Example:- baby - babies, cherry - cherries,  party - parties 

• If a word ends with o, add es

Example:- mango - mangoes,  go - goes,  hero - heroes

(note:- 1. If there is a vowel before o, add only s; such as: pistachio - pistachios

2. There are some words that end with o but we don't add es, we only add s; such as: piano - pianos,  photo - photos)

• If a word ends with f or fe, we change f or fe to v and add es

Examples:- leaf - leaves, wife - wives

(note: some words ending with f don't change when become plural;  such as: chef - chefs) 

• If a word ends with e, add only s

Examples:- face - faces, lose - loses, judge - judges

 

Irregular plurals:- irregular plurals don't follow the normal pattern.

Examples:- child - children, tooth - teeth,  ice - ice

 

Prefix and suffix:

Prefix:- a prefix is a word part added to the beginning of a word that changes the word's meaning. 

For example:- in + secure = insecure

Spelling Rules - Prefix

Note:- When the first letter of a word is l, m, p or r, the prefix in is regularly changed to il, im or ir.

Word starts with l - il

Word starts with m, p - im

Word starts with r - ir

Suffix:- a suffix is a word part added to the end of a word that changes the word's meaning.

For example:- flavor + less = flavorless

Spelling Rules - Suffix

Vowels:- a, e, i, o, u

Consonant:- other (b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z)

Syllable:- a word or part of a word which contains one vowel sound.

(consonant + vowel + consonant)

Skip has one syllable 

Visit has two syllables

Doubling consonant:

• One syllable word:- if there is one syllable word, we double the last consonant of the word when add suffix. 

Examples:- skip - skipped, stop - stopped, run - running,  put - putting,  rub - rubbed

• Two syllables word:- there are 2 situations-

1. Stress on first syllable:- if the stress is on first syllable, we don't double the last consonant of the word. 

Examples:- visit - visiting, open -opening,  happen - happened,  enter - entered 

2. Stress on second syllable:- if the stress is on second syllable, we double the last consonant of the word.

Examples:- prefer - preferred,  admit - admitting,  begin - beginning 

Note:

1. If there is s in the last of the word, we don't double the last consonant of the word. (and if the sound of s is z, we don't double it) 

Examples:- as, is, was, has, his, gas, bus, this, us, plus, yes

2. If the word ends with 2 consonants, don't double the last consonant of the word. 

Examples:- export - exported, find - finding

3. If there are two vowels together in the word, don't double the last consonant of the word.

Examples:- meet - meeting,  rain - rained, repeat - repeated,  train - trainer 

 4. If a one-syllable word has only one vowel and ends in f, l or s, double the last letter. 

Examples:- stuff, bill, fill, glass, kiss, miss, small, call, well, kill, fall, tall

Dropping and adding letters:

• If there is e in the last of a word and we add suffix (beginning with vowel) in it, we drop the e.

Examples:- taste + y = tasty, ice + y = icy,  noise + y = noisy,  approve + al = approval

• Similarly, if there is y in the last of a word and we add suffix, we change y into i. 

Examples:- happy + ly = happily, Funny + ly = funnily,  day + ly = daily,  easy + ly = easily,  busy + ness = business

Exceptions:- there are some word in which the rule doesn't apply-

Dryness, shyness, worrying, flys, buyer, studying

Some other spelling rules:

1.     Every word has at least one vowel. 

2.     Every syllable has vowel. 

3.     Capitalise  names.

4.     Capitalise the name of places.

5.     Q is always followed by u. (queen, question, quite, query ,quite, quick, quality, quotes)

6.     Words don't end in v or j. We add a silent e at the end of the word (have, come).

7.     C has two sounds- s and k.  If there is e, i or y after the c, the sound of c will be s. (cent, city, cycle) But if there is everything else after c, the sound become k (cat, clip).

8.     G has two sounds g or j. If there is e, i or y after g, sound become j. (gym, gem, giant). But if everything else after g, aound will be g (game, garden, glad).

9.     To spell the sound of k at the end of a word, we use ck or k. Use ck after a short vowel. (sick, pick) use k after everything else (milk).

10. We use ei after c. (ceiling) use ie with all others (believe).