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3.6 Follow the rules of spelling
ОглавлениеRules? Yes, there are some rules that can help you. If you try to understand these rules, any exceptions will then be easier to remember. The table below summarises some of the most troublesome spelling rules, with just a couple of examples and exceptions in each instance.
| Rule | Examples | Exceptions (some only) |
| IE / EI | ||
| I before E except after C, but only when the sound is ‘EE’ as in shield(Pronounce these as you read them, and note that they do not contain the ‘EE’ sound: neighbour, friend, height, foreign. Thus, they are not governed by this rule.) | achievebelieveshielddeceivereceiptceiling | seizeweird |
| Final silent E | ||
| Drop before ending that begins with a vowela such as -ing, -ed, -ous, -er,-en. | wipe/wipingtaste/tastedfame/famousjoke/jokertake/taken | Retain E after soft C and soft G before suffix beginning with A or O: noticeable, manageable, advantageous. |
| Keep before ending that begins with a consonanta such as -ly. | polite/politely | |
| Final Y | ||
| Change Y to I if preceded by a consonant and followed by any ending except one that begins with I. | beauty/beautifulBUThurry/hurrying | dry, drynesssly, slynessBUTugly, ugliness |
| Keep the Y if preceded by a vowel | valley/valleys | day/dailypay/paidsay/said(Did you notice that the root words here are all one-syllable words?) |
| Double the final consonant | ||
| When adding -ed, -er, est, -ing to a final consonant with a single vowel before it. | drop/droppedbeg/beggingfat/fatterthin/thinnest | Final consonant is NOT doubled if:word ends with two consonants: farm/farmerfinal consonant is preceded by two vowels: beat/beating |
| When the consonant is at the end of a word of more than one syllable, where the stress is on the last syllable of the root word | omit/omittedtransfer/transferred/transferral | Final consonant is not doubled if stress is on other than the last syllable:differ/differing(but note transference) |
| Double the final L | ||
| If there is one vowel before it but not if there are two vowels before it – with endings -ed, -ing, -er | pedal/pedalledrebel/rebellingtravel/travellerBUTfeel/feelingcoil/coiling | parallel/paralleled |
| Add K to words ending in C | ||
| Before ending that begins with E or I | picnicpicnickingpicnicked | |
| -CEDE, -CEED, -SEDE | ||
| Except for supersede, exceed, proceed and succeed, all words that have this sound end in cede | accedeconcedeprecede |
a For the purposes of this book, vowels are the letters of the alphabet that make the sounds of speech – a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y. The other letters of the alphabet are known as consonants.
