20 Spelling Rules:
Spelling Rule 1
If a word ends in –y, change the –y to –i to add any suffix, except with –ing or when –y follows a vowel.
eg. carry – carried; carry – carrying; play – played, playing
Spelling Rule 2
Always have 2 consonants follow a short vowel sound before adding –y, -ed, -ing or –er.
eg. run – running; jump – jumper
Spelling Rule 3
-e goes away when –ing comes to stay.
eg. come – coming fake – faking
Spelling Rule 4
When the words all, full and till are used as suffixes and prefixes, one ‘l’ is dropped.
eg. already; fulfil; until
Spelling Rule 5
Drop the –e at the end of a word when adding any suffix beginning with a vowel or –y.
eg. bake+ ing = baking; shake + y = shaky; nerve + ous = nervous
Spelling Rule 6
Keep the –e at the end of a word when adding a suffix beginning with a consonant.
eg. price + less = priceless; move + ment = movement
Spelling Rule 7
The prefixes –dis and –mis never drop their ‘s’ even when added to a word beginning with ‘s’.
eg. dis-ability; dis-satisfied; mis-understood; mis-spell
Spelling Rule 8
Words ending in –ce and –ge drop the –e when adding –ing, -er and –ed, but keep the –e when adding –able and –ous.
eg. notice – noticing – noticeable
Spelling Rule 9
One syllable word with short vowel sounds (a,e,i,o,u) are followed by ‘ck’; eg. pack, trick, stuck
‘k’ goes in front of ‘e’ and ‘i’; eg. keg, kiss. c’ goes in front of ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘u’;
eg. cat, cot, cut
Spelling Rule 10
‘k’, ‘g’ and ‘p’ are silent at the beginning of a word if followed by a consonant (usually ‘n’).
eg. knee, gnaw, pneumonia
Spelling Rule 11
Words ending in –e drop the ‘e’ before a suffix beginning with a vowel, but retain it before a suffix beginning with a consonant.
eg. move/movable/ movement
Spelling Rule 12
When the suffix ‘ice’ or ‘ise’ is written after a word, ‘ice’ is used for nouns and ‘ise’ is used for verbs.
eg. notice, practice (nouns)Exercise, practise (verbs)
Spelling Rule 13
Adjectives ending in –le after a consonant form adverbs by dropping the –e and adding –y.
eg. gentle = gently
Spelling Rule 14
‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ with the sound of ‘eeee’ (exception ‘seize’).
eg. brief, receive
Spelling Rule 15
Most words of 2 or more syllables ending in ‘l’ have only one final ‘l’
eg. initial, parallel, fulfil.
1 syllable words = double l: full, ball, roll)
Spelling Rule 16
Words ending in a single consonant following a long accented vowel do not double the consonant when adding a suffix.
eg. beat/beaten/beating/beater
Spelling Rule 17
Words ending in a single consonant other than ‘l’, but not accented on the last syllable, do not double the consonant when adding a suffix.
eg. gallop/galloper/galloping
Spelling Rule 18
Words ending in a single consonant following a short vowel sound double the consonant when adding a suffix.
eg. bat/batted/batting/batter
Spelling Rule 19
Words ending in a single ‘l’ double the ‘l’ when adding a suffix.
eg. chisel/chiselled/chiselling
Spelling Rule 20
To add ‘full’ as a suffix to a root word drop one ‘l’.
eg. wonder – wonderful, help – helpful
Subject: 20 Spelling Rules 
Mon Aug 11, 2014 4:23 pm
