Spelling can be strengthened best by reading and observing.
Few rules can minimise your errors and better understand the formation of words.
Understanding spelling also improves your pronunciation.
Common terms used:
Prefix: a group of letters added to the beginning of a word to change the word’s meaning or form
Suffix: a group of letters added to the end of a word to change the word’s meaning or form
1) The silent E:
E is silent when the word ends with E (dance, live, hope)
When the suffix (ING, ED) is added and it begins with a vowel, the E gets dropped:
Hope + ing= Hoping
Live + ing= Living Dance + ing= Dancing
When the suffix (LESS, FUL, MENT) is added and it begins with a consonant, the E stays:
Hope + ful = Hopeful
Move + ment = Movement Home + less = Homeless
2) IE to Y: Words ending in IE change to Y when the suffix ‘ing’ is added Die + ing = Dying Tie + ing = Tying
3) IE or EI?
Use I before E except after C
In words that have a C, use EI. For example: receive, deceive, perceive, ceiling, etc. For words where EI is used as a diphthong (pronounced as A), E comes first. For example: neigh, neighbour, eight, reign, freight, weight, sleigh, weigh, etc. For all other words, I comes first. For example: thief, friend, belief, chief, priest, field, grief, etc.
www.masterspellers.com However, there are some words which do not fall into any of these. For example: weird, conscience, science, either, neither, leisure, sufficient, species, seize, height, foreign, forfeit, heist, their, sovereign, etc.
4) The strong EE
Words ending in EE do not drop any letter when a suffix like ING or MENT are added to it
Words that end with Y change to I when a suffix is added, except if the suffix starts with I (e.g. ING) Beauty + ful= Beautiful Party + es= Parties Easy + ly = Easily
Try + ing= Trying
Copy + ing = Copying
6) Adding a Prefix:
A Prefix usually does not change the spelling of a word
Do: Undo Cycle: Bicycle Legal: Illegal
7) Long sounds need TWO vowels:
Tea, Peel, Laugh, Beat, Thief, Steal
8) U after Q and No S after X:
Every word that has a ‘q’ in it will be followed by ‘u’. A few examples of this case are given below.
Quest Queue Quench Plaque Quick
www.masterspellers.com Not a word in the English language will have the letter S following X. If there is a S sound after X, it will be spelt with C Check out the following words.
Excite Excellent Exceed Excessive
9) No word ends in J or V:
This is a peculiar feature of the English language. While there are words ending in every other consonant, you will never find a word ending with the letter ‘v’ or the letter ‘j’. 10) Letters that never double:
The consonants v, j, k, w and x are never doubled.
11) Doubling of consonants
If a one-syllable word ends vowel + consonant, double the final consonant before a vowel suffix.
Sit- sitting Big-bigger Tap- tappable
With multi-syllable words, apply the same rule if the final syllable is stressed.
