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6. Some Rules to Spell By
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Yes, there are some spelling rules in English that one can depend on, at least more often than we can depend on politicians.  Some of the rules may be confusing, but there will be examples to guide you.

When to double the final consonant: When a one-syllable word has a single vowel followed by a single consonant at the end, the final consonant is doubled before a suffix beginning with a vowel. Confusing? Let's look at some examples.

• One-syllable words = run, hit, push, shoot, jump, fly, spin, eat
• One-syllable words with a single consonant at the end: run, hit, shoot, spin, 
• One-syllable words ending with a single vowel followed by a single consonant: run, hit, spin

Do you see why some of the words were eliminated?  push and jump have 2 consonants at the end, not one;  shoot and eat have two vowels in front of the final consonant.  Those words do not follow this rule, so you will not double their final consonants when you add a suffix.

• Suffixes: Syllables added to the end of a word to change or modify the meaning of the original word.  Examples: ed, er, ing, s, ly, est, ment, ness, ful, ance, or.  For this rule, only the suffixes ed, er, ing, ance, or fit the description by beginning with a vowel. Lets see how it works.

The same rule works with a large group of words having more than one syllable IF those words end in a single vowel followed by a single consonant AND if the final syllable is the accented, or stressed, syllable.  Examples: commit, equip, confer, excel.  Words that do NOT fit this rule are: happen, benefit, retreat - the first two do not fit because they are not stressed on the last syllable, and retreat does not because there are TWO vowels before the final consonant.

Special Exceptions:  picnic, panic, traffic all add K before the suffix to keep the Hard K sound in front of the vowel which begins the suffix; picnicked, panicked, trafficker, trafficking.

Adding suffixes to words that end with 'e': 

• Drop the E when the suffix begins with a vowel.
• Keep the E when the suffix begins with a consonant.

Exceptions: When a word ends with ce or ge the final e usually remains in order to maintain the soft c or g sound in the word:  courage + ous = courageous, notice + able = noticeable. This rule is explained on the More Rules page.

Adding suffixes to words ending with Y:

• When there is a vowel before the Y, simply add the suffix.
• When there is a consonant before the Y, change the y to i and add the suffix.
• Exception #1: When you add ing to a word ending with a consonant + y, keep the y and add ing.
• Exception #2: To form the Third Person Singular or the past tense of a verb ending with a consonant + y, change the y to i and add es or ed.

Forming plurals of Nouns: There are several different rules, each with its list of words that follow the rules and another list of words that do not.  We will just give a brief summary  and a few examples of the major rules.

• Rule #1: Most English nouns form their plurals by adding S, including most words that end with F.  This chart covers some of the words that do not obey Rule #1.

This will get you started learning to spell English correctly.  As we have noted a few times, the final solution is to READ, STUDY, PRACTICE, WRITE, MEMORIZE.  If you are taking the time to read these pages, then you are motivated enough to learn on your own how to spell these strange English words.  Our suggestion is:

• Write all the Spelling Words from this site in a notebook.
• Arrange the words in a manner that is sensible to you - by spelling similarities, by sound similarities, whatever.
• Study  5 or 10 words at a time.
• Write a brief definition of the words you are studying.
• For the more difficult words, think of a clue, a key, a guide to help you remember them and to make them stand out from the other words.
• Use the word in a sentence, then write the sentence.  Read the sentence aloud.
• Close your eyes and picture each letter, in glowing colors if possible, as you spell it to yourself.
• Ask a friend or relative to drill you, to say the words to you so you can spell them.

We guarantee that if you follow this procedure, you will not only learn to spell the words, you will make these words a permanent part of your English vocabulary.  Good Luck!

To learn some more spelling rules, go to the Next Page.

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