Some useful spelling rules

When the word ends in a consonant

If the accent falls on the last syllable, the consonant is doubled to form the past tense.

So we have

Occur –> occurred

Transfer –> transferred

When the word ends in a short vowel + consonant, the final consonant is not usually doubled
to form the past tense.

Therefore

Offer –> offered (NOT Offerred)

Budget –> budgeted

Short monosyllabic words always double their final consonant.

Examples are:

Shop –> shopping

Let –> letting

Cut –> cutting

‘ie’ and ‘ei’

The general rule is ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’

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Some useful spelling rules

Examples are:

Siege, believe, friends

But

Receive, deceive, ceiling (after ‘c’, we use ‘e’ before ‘I’)

There are however several exceptions to this rule. Examples are: reign, heir, seize, weird. As
you can see, in all of these words, the letter ‘e’ goes before the letter ‘i’.

Dis and mis

Never double the ‘s’ of these prefixes. In some words, you may notice a second ‘s’, but
remember that it is the first letter of the next syllable.

So we have

Dismiss (NOT Dissmiss)

Misplace

Misunderstand

Dispel

Se and Ce
Se and sy are usually verb endings and ce and cy are usually noun endings. So the following
words are verbs: license, practise, advise, prophesy

And the following words are nouns: licence, practice, prophecy, advice

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Some useful spelling rules

The word promise is an exception to this rule. Although it ends in –se, it is a noun.

Note that this rule does not hold good when verb and noun are not spelt alike.

Us and ous
Nouns end in ‘us’. Adjectives end in ‘ous’.

So we have:

Nouns: census, phosphorus, genius

Adjectives: jealous, unanimous, tremendous

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Useful Spelling Rules – Part II

‘se’ and ‘ce’; ‘sy’ and ‘cy’

When two words, verb and noun, are spelt alike, ‘se’ and ‘sy’ are verb endings; ‘ce’ and ‘cy’
are noun endings. The following are therefore verbs: license, practise, prophesy, advise.

The following are nouns: licence, practice, prophecy, advice

Promise is an exception to this rule. It is a noun.

This rule does not hold good when verb and noun are not spelt alike, so ‘suspense’ and
‘hypocrisy’ are nouns.

The final ‘e’

1. When followed by ‘ment’

Till recently the final ‘e’ was dropped from words ending in ‘dge’. Example: judgment

Nowadays, it is not necessary to drop the final ‘e’ before ‘ment’. So you can write
‘judgement’, ‘acknowledgement’, ‘arrangement’ and ‘advertisement’. (See The Concise
Oxford Dictionary)

2. The final ‘e’ must be dropped before ‘able’.

Move; movable (NOT moveable)

Like; likable (NOT likeable)
The exceptions are words ending in ‘ge’ and ‘ce’. For instance

Change; changeable (NOT changable)

Peace; peaceable (NOT peacable)
3. The final ‘e’ is also dropped before ‘ous’, ‘age’ or ‘ish’.

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Useful Spelling Rules – Part II

Virtue; virtuous
Mile; milage (occasionally still: mileage)
Blue; bluish
Courage is an exception to this rule. We write courageous and not couragous.

4. The final ‘e’ is always dropped before ‘ing’ except when it is preceded by a vowel with
which it forms one sound.

Love; loving
Like; liking
See; seeing (Here the final ‘e’ and the preceding vowel forms one sound.)
Dye; Dyeing (Here the final ‘e’ and the preceding y forms one sound.)
Words ending in ‘c’ and ‘ck’

Words ending in ‘c’ take ‘k’ after the ‘c’ before adding ‘ed’or ‘ing’.

Examples:

Frolic; frolicked
Mimic; mimicked

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Some useful spelling rules

Rule 1

When a weak verb ends in a short vowel + consonant, the final consonant is not doubled to
form the past tense, unless the accent falls on the last syllable.

Budget – budgeted (NOT budgetted)

Offer – offered (NOT offerred)

Benefit – benefited (NOT benefitted)
Notes

Worship is an exception to this rule. Its past tense is formed by doubling the final consonant.

Worship – worshipped (NOT worshiped)

If the accent falls on the last syllable, the consonant is doubled even if the word ends in a
short vowel + consonant.

So we have

Occur – occurred (NOT Occured)

Transfer – transferred (NOT transfered)
Begin – beginning (NOT begining)
If the final consonant is ‘l’, it is always doubled.

Travel – travelled
Level – leveled
Parallel is an exception to this rule. Its past tense is paralleled (NOT parallelled). Nowadays
traveled is also considered correct.

Rule 2

Short monosyllables always double their final consonant.

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Some useful spelling rules

Shop – shopping
Let – letting
‘ie’ and ‘ei’

The general rule is ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’.

Examples are: siege, believe, friend

But receive, deceive, ceiling etc.
There are several exceptions to this rule.

Reign, neighbor, heir, seize, leisure, weird

Dis and mis

Never double the ‘s’ of these prefixes. When a second ‘s’ occurs it is the first letter of the
next syllable.

Examples are: dismiss (not dissmiss), misplace (not missplace)

dissent (dis-sent), misspell (mis-spell)

‘us’ and ‘ous’

Nouns end in ‘us’. Adjectives end in ‘ous‘. So we have:

Census, genius (nouns)

Jealous, tremendous,

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Spelling : capital letters

Capital letters are used at the beginning of the following kinds of words.

1. the names of days, months and public holidays. The names of seasons do not usually begin
with capital letters.

Sunday; Monday; Friday

January; March, August
Christmas; Easter;
summer; autumn; winter; spring
2. the names of people and places, including stars and planets

John; Mary; Alice

India; Tokyo; Paris; Singapore
Jupiter; Mars; Neptune
(But the earth, the sun and the moon)
3. people’s titles

Mr Smith; Dr James; the Chairman; the Managing Director

4. nouns and adjectives referring to nationalities and regions, languages, religions and ethnic
groups

He is French.
She is Spanish.
He is a Sikh.
Chinese history
5. the first word in the title of books, magazines, plays, pictures, magazines etc. Sometimes
other nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in the title also begin with capital letters.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or The adventures of Tom Sawyer

Gone with the Wind OR Gone with the wind
Spelling :-ly

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Spelling : capital letters

We normally change an adjective into an adverb by adding -ly.

Late – lately
Real – really
Right – rightly
Definite – definitely
Hopeful – hopefully
Complete – completely
Exceptions

There are some exceptions to this rule.

True – truly (NOT truely)

Full – fully (NOT fullly)
Due – duly (NOT duely)
Y and I

The final -y in an adjective changes to -i- before adding -ly.

Happy – happily
Merry – merrily
Easy – easily
Adjectives ending in consonant + le

-le changes to -ly after a consonant

Idle – idly
Noble – nobly
Adjectives ending in -ic

Adjectives ending in -ic, have adverbs ending in -ically.

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Spelling : capital letters

Tragic – tragically
Phonetic – phonetically
Exception

Public – publicly

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