SPELLING RULES

September 14th, 2013

 ENGLISH SPELLING RULES
Short and Long Vowels

1. To spell a short vowel sound, only one letter is needed:

at red it hot up

2. To spell a long sound you must add a second vowel. The second may be next to the first, in the VVC
pattern (boat, maid, cue, etc.) or it may be separated from the first one by a consonant in the VCV pattern
(made, ride, tide, etc.). If the second vowel is separated from the first by two spaces, it does not affect the
first one. This is the VCCV pattern in which the first vowel remains short. Thus, doubling a consonant can
be called "protecting" a short vowel because it prevents an incoming vowel from getting close enough to
the first one to change its sound from short to long:

maid, made, but madder; dine, diner, but dinner.

Spelling the Sound /k/

This sound can be spelled in any one of four ways:

1. c 2. cc 3. k 4. ck

1. The single letter, c , is the most common spelling. It may be used anywhere in a word:

cat corn actor victim direct mica

scat bacon public cactus inflict pecan

2. Sometimes the letter c must be doubled to cc to protect the sound of a short vowel:

stucco baccalaureate hiccups

Mecca tobacco buccaneer
occupy raccoon succulent

3. The letter k is substituted for c if /k/ is followed by an e, i, or y.

kin make sketch poker kind risky

skin token skill keep liking flaky

(Boring examples? How about kyphosis, kylix, keratosis, and dyskinesia?)

4. Similarly, the spelling ck, is substituted for cc if the following letter is an e, i, or y:

lucky picking rocking finicky

blackest mackintosh frolicked ducking
Kentucky picnicking stocking Quebecker

5. The letters, k and ck are more than substitutes for c and cc. They are used to spell /k/ at the end of a
monosyllable. The digraph, ck, ALWAYS follows a short vowel:

sack duck lick stick wreck clock

(Forget about yak. Your student will never need it.)

The letter, k, follows any other sound:

milk soak make bark

tank peek bike cork
tusk hawk duke perk

The Sound, /j/

The sound, /j/ is spelled in three ways: j ge and dge.

1. The letter j is usually used if the sound if followed by an a, o, or u.

just jam jungle injure major adjacent

jog jar Japan jury job Benjamin
adjust jacket jolly jaguar jump jalousie

2. Since the letter g has the soft sound of /j/ when it is followed by an e, i, or y, it is usually used in this
situation:

gentle ginger aging algebra

Egyptologist gem origin gym

2. If /j/ follows a short vowel sound, it is usually spelled with dge. This is because the letter j, is never
doubled in English.

badge ridge dodge partridge gadget

judge edge smudge judgement budget
 The Sound, /ch/

The sound /ch/ has two spellings: tch after a short vowel, ch anywhere else:

witch sketch botch satchel

catch hatchet kitchen escutcheon

Exceptions:
Which, rich, much, such, touch, bachelor, attach, sandwich, and ostrich.

The Sound, /kw/

This sound is ALWAYS spelled with the letters, qu, never anything else.

Using -le

Words ending in -le, such as little, require care. If the vowel sound is short, there must be two consonants
between the vowel and the -le. Otherwise, one consonant is enough.

li tt le ha nd le ti ck le a mp le

bo tt le pu zz le cru mb le a ng le

bugle able poodle dawdle needle idle people

Odds and Ends

1. The consonants, v, j, k, w, and x are never doubled.

2. No normal English words ends with the letter v. A final /v/ is always spelled with ve, no matter what the
preceding vowel sound may be:

have give sleeve cove

receive love connive brave
 Adding Endings

There are two kinds of suffixes, those that begin with a vowel and those that begin with a consonant. As
usual, the spelling problems occur with the vowels:

Vowel Suffixes Consonant Suffixes

- - - age - - -ist - - - ness - - - cess
- - - ant - - - ish - - -less - - -ment
- - -ance - - -ing - - -ly - - -ty
- - - al - - -ar - - -ful - - -ry
- - -ism - - -o - - -hood - - -ward
- - -able - - -on - - -wise
- - -an - - -ous
---a - - -or
- - -es - - -ual
- - -ed - - -unt
- - -er - - -um
- - -est - - -us
- - -y - - -ive

1. Words that end in the letter y must have the y changed to i before adding any suffix:

body - bodily marry - marriage

many - manifold family - familiar
happy - happiness puppy - puppies
beauty - beautiful vary - various
company - companion fury - furious
plenty - plentiful merry - merriment

2. In words that end in a silent e you must drop it before you add a vowel suffix. The silent e is no longer
needed to make the preceding vowel long as the incoming vowel will do the trick:

ride - riding cure - curable use - usual age - aging

fame - refuse
force - forcing slice - slicing
famous - refusal
convince -
pure - purity ice - icicle nose - nosy
convincing
globe - global race - racist pole - polar offense - offensive
 3. Words that end in an accented short or modified vowel sound must have the final consonant doubled
to protect that sound when you add a vowel suffix:

Quebec - Quebecker remit - remittance confer - conferring refer - referred

upset - upsetting shellac - shellacking occur - occurred concur- concurrent

Note that this doubling is not done if the accent is not on the last syllable. If the word ends in a schwa,
there is no need to "protect" it.

open - opening organ - organize

focus - focused refer - referee

4. Normally you drop a silent e before adding a vowel suffix. However, if the word ends in -ce or -ge and
the incoming vowel is an a, o, or u, you cannot cavalierly toss out that silent e. It is not useless: it is
keeping its left-hand letter soft, and your a, o, or u will not do that. Thus:

manage - manageable peace - peaceable

courage - courageous revenge - vengeance
surge - surgeon change - changeable
notice - noticeable outrage - outrageous

Gorgeous George bludgeoned a pigeon noticeably! Tsk.

5. Adding consonant suffixes is easy. You just add them. (Of course you must change a final y to i before
you add any suffix.)

peace - peaceful harm - harmless age - ageless

pity - pitiful child - childhood rifle - riflery

/sh/

When this sound occurs before a vowel suffix, it is spelled ti, si, or ci.

partial cautious patient vacation

special deficient suspicion suction
inertia delicious ratio pension
musician physician optician quotient
electrician nutrition statistician expulsion
 /ee/ before a vowel suffix

When /ee/ precedes a vowel suffix, it is usually spelled with the letter i:

Indian obvious medium

ingredient zodiac material

Spelling Determined by Word Meaning

1. Mist and missed sound alike, as do band and banned. To determine the spelling, remember that -ed is
a past-tense tending.

a. The mist drifted into the harbor.

b. I nearly missed my bus.
c. The movie was banned in Boston.
d. The band played on.

2. The endings of dentist and finest sound alike. Deciding which one to use can be tricky. One rule helps
but doesn't cover all cases:

a. --ist is a suffix meaning someone who does something:

artist - machinist - druggist
b. --est is the ending used on superlative adjectives:
finest - sweetest - longest

3. The sounds at the end of musician and condition sound alike. but....

a. cian always means a person, where...

b. tion or sion are never used for people.

4. How do you tell whether to use tion or sion?

a. If the root word ends in /t/, use -tion: complete, completion

b. If the root word ends in /s/ or /d/, use sion: extend, extension
suppress, suppression
c. If the sound of the last syllable is the "heavy" sound of /zhun/ rather than the light sound, /shun/,
use s: confusion, vision, adhesion

Exception: The ending, --mit becomes -mission:

permit - permission omit - omission

submit - submission commit - commission

 The Hiss

1. The letter s between vowels sounds like a z:

nose result noise

present partisan tease
preside resound reserve

2. The light "hissy" sound is spelled with either ss or ce. Predictably, ss, like any proper doubled
consonant, follows accented short vowels. Soft c is used anywhere else. (A soft c is one that is followed
by e, i, or y).

notice reticent massive bicycle

recent gossip russet rejoice
essence vessel discuss pass

3. The plural ending is always spelled with a single letter s unless you can hear a new syllable on the
plural word. In that case, use -es:

loss, losses bank, banks twitch, twitches tree, trees

box, boxes list, lists judge, judges