| |
Writing and Speaking > Writing > Five Simple Spelling Rules
0
Reviews [ add review ],
Article rating : 0.00, 0 votes. Author : AE Wise
1. “I before E except after C”
I was first introduced to this little chant in the first grade and it has served me well ever since. However, its simplicity is deceiving! Remember this is American English and with that comes "the exception to the rule!"
The Exception: “I before E except after C or with words that make the long A”: freight, beige, sleigh, weight, vein, reign, and weigh.
Oh, one last thing, there is an exception to the exception: either, neither, feint, foreign, forfeit, height, leisure, weird, seize, and seizure.
Don't let the exceptions wear you out, the rule still works for the majority of "ie" words.
2. “Dropping Final E”
When adding a suffix ending begins with a vowel to a word that ends with a silent "e", drop the final "e":advancing,
surprising, pricing, etc.
However, if the suffix begins with a consonant, keep the final "e":}/c} advancement, likeness, princely
The Exception: If the silent "e" is preceded by another vowel, drop the "e" when adding any suffix: argument, argued, truly.
This is to avoid confusion and mispronunciation, the final "e" is kept in words where the final "e" is preceded by a soft "g" or a soft "c": changeable, courageous, manageable, management, noticeable. This is because of the rules of pronunciation that take precedence over spelling rules.
3. “Dropping Final Y”
When adding suffix to a word that ends with y, change the "y" to "i" when it is preceded by a consonant: supply becomes supplies, worry becomes worried, merry becomes merrier.
The Exception:
This does not apply to the ending -ing: crying,
studying. Also, it does not apply when the final "y" is preceded by a vowel: obeyed, saying.
4. “Doubling Final Consonants”
When adding a suffix, doubling consonants at the end of words is sometimes determined by the number of syllables. For example, double the final consonant before adding a suffix that begins with a vowel when the last syllable of the word is accented and that syllable ends in a single vowel followed by a single consonant. Do not be frightened by the complexity of the sentence. Here's an example: "submit" is accented on the last syllable and the final consonant is preceded by a vowel, (submit). We double the "t" before adding, for instance, -ing or -ed: submitting, submitted. Here's another example: flap contains only one syllable which means that it is always accented. Again, the last consonant is preceded by a vowel (flap, so we double it before adding, for instance, -ing or -ed: flapping, flapped also referring, referral, or beginner, beginning.
I have mentioned words with accented last syllables but what about words where the accent falls on the first syllable. The word "open" contains two syllables and the last syllable is preceded by a single vowel, (open), but the accent falls on the first syllable (OPen), not the last syllable, so we don't double the "n" before adding an ending: opening, opened. This rule also applies to words when the final consonant is preceded by either another consonant or two vowels: or relented, relenting, or dealer and dealing, also despairing, despaired.
The Exception:
This rule does not apply to verbs that end with "x," "w," "v," and "y," because these are consonants that cannot be doubled: box becomes boxing, snow becomes snowing.
5. “Adding Prefixes”
After all of that, the simplest rule involves the addition of prefixes because adding a prefix to a word does not change its spelling. Oddly enough, the most often misspelled word is...misspell! When adding a prefix you merely attach it to the word regardless of duplication of consonant, syllabication, or accents: unnecessary, dissatisfied, disinterested, misinform.
AE Wise is not only a theatre teacher with over twenty years of experience but is an author on a site for
Creative Writers as well.
Article reviews
Post your review
[ Note : no HTML/URLs - will removed automatically ]
More articles from Writing and Speaking > Writing
|
