2. Spelling
Introduction
Spelling in English can be very tricky because, although there are some rules, there are many cases
where rules don't apply, and there are often exceptions to the rules themselves.
Many words in English vocabulary come from a variety of languages including Old English, Ancient Greek, Latin, and French, among others. Because of this, English words like physics, pneumonia, and pizza aren't spelled the way they are pronounced.
English is also famous for silent letters. Some English words with silent letters include knight,
right, gnaw and night.
Often the way we say a word is different from how the word is spelled when it is written. It is
common when speaking not to pronounce every sound in some words. For example, the word recognize may be pronounced reconize or library may be pronounced libery. But in writing these words must be spelled correctly: recognize, library.
Another cause of spelling errors in English is homonyms: words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings and spellings. Some examples are principle/principal, write/right, know/no, accept/except.
The same problem often occurs with words that are not exact homonyms, but that are similar in sound. For example: except/expect, suppose/supposed, formerly/formally.
The problem of spelling can be compounded for people whose first language is not English. Words in English may be similar to words of Spanish, French, Italian, or German, but the rules of spelling are often different. For example, many words that begin with es- in Spanish, begin with s- in English. For example special.
Also, unlike in some languages, the same sound may have several possible spellings in English. For example, the sound [i] pronounced ee, may be spelled any of the following ways:
e as in complete
ee as in feet
ea as in read
ei as in receive
ie as in piece
y as in happy
The best thing to do is to keep a list of words that you misspell. It may be helpful to try to analyze them for the types of errors you make most often. The rules outlined below may help you in some cases, but often you will simply have to memorize and practice. To aid memorization, try reading, saying, and writing each word several times.
RULE #1: i BEFORE e
If you learn this short poem, you will be able to spell many hard-to-spell words correctly:
Write i before e except after c or when sounding like a as in neighbor and weigh.
Does this rule apply all the time? No, there are exceptions, but it does work most of the time for
most of the words you use on a daily basis. Now, let's examine the parts of the rule.
"Write i before e"
Examples: believe piece priest
"or when sounding like a/as in neighbor and weigh"
Examples: reign feint freight
EXCEPTIONS: Now, let us discuss the exceptions to this rule.
1. The rule applies only when the ei/ie cluster is pronounced as one syllable; it does not apply
when the letters are divided between two syllables, as in deity and science.
2. If the word is borrowed from a foreign language, then the rule may not be applicable;
examples are sheik and reichsmark.
3. Some words simply don't follow the rule; examples are heir, height, weird.
The following is a list of some of the exceptions to this rule.
ancient
caffeine
codeine
counterfeit
either
Fahrenheit
financier
height
leisure
neither
prescience
protein
reveille
seize
sheik
sleight
stein
surfeit
their
weird
RULE #2 drop the final SILENT e
This rule concerns words that end in a silent e, such as make and argue. When a suffix is added to a word ending in a silent e, drop the e if the suffix begins with a vowel, for example -ing, -ile, ; keep the e if the suffix begins with a consonant, for example, -ment, -ly,
-ful.
Example: word + suffix = new word
serve + -ile = servile
page + -ing = paging
educate + -ing = educating
rampage + -ed = rampaged
time + -ly = timely
atone + -ment = atonement
EXCEPTIONS: Once again, there are exceptions to this rule. Here are a few of the exceptions:
argue + -ment = argument
due + -ly = duly
intervene + -tion = intervention
judge + -ment = judgement
true + -ly = truly
canoe + -ing = canoeing
convene + -tion = convention
RULE #3: CHANGING y TO i
This rule applies when you add a suffix to a word that ends in y. Change y to i before a suffix when the y is preceded by a consonant. For example, apply + -ance = appliance. Do not change y to i when the y is preceded by a vowel; for example, pay + -s =pays.
Examples: word + suffix = new word
flabby + -est = flabbiest
lazy + -er = lazier
byway + -s = byways
pray + -ed = prayed
Of course, there are exceptions to this rule.
EXCEPTIONS:
1. If the suffix itself begins with an i, as in, -ing or -ine, then do not change the y to i before
adding the suffix.
Example: word + suffix = new word
fry + -ing = frying
marry + -ing = marrying
worry + -ing = worrying
2. Certain irregular verbs have exceptions to this rule in their past tense form. You can
memorize the irregular past-tense pattern of these three verbs:
Present Past
pay paid
say said
lay laid
Rule #4: Doubling the Final Consonant
This rule is very useful, but it is a bit more complicated than the previous ones. You may find it a bit confusing, yet the rule is worth studying, because it explains why there are two r's in preferred, but only one in preference.
The rule for doubling a final consonant has three parts.
1. A final consonant may only be doubled before a suffix beginning with a vowel; e.g., -ed, -ing.
2. The final consonant must be preceded by a single vowel, e.g., get + -ing = getting
but greet + -ing = greeting.
3. The base word must either be only one syllable, sit, stop, spit or it must have an accent on the final syllable when the suffix has been added, beginning, occurrence, but not reference, or development.
An accented syllable is one that is emphasized or is the loudest one you hear.
Examples--Double the consonant:
mop + -ing = mopping
begin + -ing = beginning
submit + -ed = submitted
tan + -ing = tanning
Do not double the consonant:
Jump + -ed = jumped
develop + -ing = developing
prefer + -ence = preference
The above rules may be helpful in some situations, that is, assuming you can remember all the parts of each rule and all the exceptions too. Finally, English spelling is a complex, challenging, and even chaotic system. Your surest resources have to be a good memory and a good dictionary...and good luck.
If it's any comfort, English is somewhat famous for being hard to spell, as the poem below,
published anonymously in 1965, illustrates:
I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird,
And dead: it's said like bed, not bead--
For goodness' sake don't call it "deed"!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.)
A moth is not a moth in mother
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's dose and rose and lose--
Just look them up--and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart--
Come, come, I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive.
I'd mastered it when I was five