Spelling Rules

Improved spelling comes from recognizing situations in which misspelling frequently occurs. Most misspelling does not involve outlandish forms of a word. Rather, most misspelling is a matter of a single wrong letter or of letters reversed in a word: is it thier or their, occurence or occurrence? To learn to avoid these minor spelling errors, it may be helpful to remind yourself of some basic spelling rules.

i before e except after c

This is the familiar grade-school rule of spelling. Remember the rhyme?

As is so often the case with "rules" in English, there are exceptions. Here is a clever sentence that combines eleven words that are exceptions to the rule:

Because of their height, neither sheik dared leisurely seize either weird species of foreign financier.

doubling consonants when adding endings

The simple rule for most one-syllable words (tap) ending in a consonant (p) preceded by a single vowel (a) is to double the final consonant before adding an ending (suffix) that begins with a vowel.

If there are two vowels before the final consonant (shoot) or a vowel and one or more consonants before the final consonant (park), do not double the final consonant when adding a suffix.

shooting

parked

realize

fighter

With words of more than one syllable (patrol) ending in a consonant (l) and preceded by a single vowel (o) and with the accent on the last syllable (pa TROL), the rule for one-syllable words also applies: double the final consonant when adding a suffix.

patrolling

submitted

occurrence

beginner

Do not double the final consonant for multi-syllable words that have two vowels before the final consonant (conceal), a vowel and another consonant (relent), or do not have an accent on the last syllable (benefit / BEN e fit).

This is a slippery rule according to current spelling preferences. You will often see two spellings of some two-syllable words with added endings (suffixes): traveller / traveler, counsellor /counselor, labelling / labeling. Choose one form and be consistent.

keeping or dropping a final silent e

The simple rule, barring exceptions, is to drop a silent e when a suffix begins with a vowel. But do not drop the silent e when the suffix begins with a consonant.

Exceptions to this rule are words with a c or g before the final silent e. In these words the e is present to give a soft sound to the consonant:

Other notable exceptions are judgment, truly, duly, argument, ninth.

keeping or dropping a final y

Words ending in y observe two rules when an ending is added:

1) When the letter directly before the y is a consonant, change the y to an i and
add the suffix:

2) Keep the y if it follows a vowel or when adding -ing:

When forming plurals of words ending in y, add s if a vowel precedes the y or if the word is a proper name:

As you are editing your own writing, keep an eye out for the wordy phrases on the left. Whenever sense allows, replace them with the one-word alternative.