A ?

O spenns Et
\, , Dio you wiie ii rignr?
English spelling is notoriously dilficult, largely because ii has not changed in Lhe way the pronunciation
has over the centuries. There are, however, a few basic rules which can help, although lhese ofcourse
have their own exceptions!

1 One-syllable words with one consonant and one vowel at the end - double the consonant before adding -ed, -er, -est, -ing, -ish, -y, except for after w and x (boxing, rowing)

frt>fitting / r.lr.>runny / faL>fatter / big>biggest I log>logged

o If -y follows a consonant, change it to ie; if -y follows a vowel, there is no change; there is also no change in the case of -ing endings (they have to have 2 syllables)

funny>funnier / ciLy>cities / heavy>heaviest / carry >carried / but play>played

3 British English vs American English

-our>-or(colour>color) / -re>-er(theatre>theater) / -etle->-eLe- (traveller>lraveler)

These are not realiy mistakes, but are regarded as such if their use is inconsistent. Students should
use one or other system, but not mix them.

4 -i before -e except after -c (achieve vs receive) or when sounded like a (neighbour), ite (height)

achieve/believe/ceiling/deceive/liege/receive/siege

Exercise A
There are 20 common spelling mistakes in the following British English passage (nol all covered by the
above rules!). Identify and correct them.

Dear Jos6, 1 prettiest

I'm writting to let you know that things are fine here in London. I've been studing 2 there are
at the Queen's School for a month now. I have the prettyest teacher in the school, and J tiniest
their are only 12 students in our class. The accomodation is oK, but my room must 4 centre
be one of the tinyest in the city! It's half an hour to the center by tube, which is 5 annoying
anoying, but there's a park just round the corner where I go joging dayly. I have t) jogging
made quite a lot of freinds, but most of them are foreign. It's very difficult to get to 7 daily
know English people. They are not the friendliest people in the world, and even in 8 friends
the pubs they are suspicious ifyou try to start talking to them to practice your LI robbed
English. You know how I like meeting new people! And it's not very safe to walk I0 cities
around at night in this neighborhood either - my room-mate was robed the other 11 break
day - they call it mugging here. I suppose it's no worse than the big cityes back home, 1 2 travelling
though. arrange
when are you comming over to visit? we've got a two-week brake at Easter, and T4 studying
we could go up to Scotland. I haven't done much traveling yet, and want to see as 15 accommodation
much of the countryside as I can before leaving. Let me know soon so that I can get 16 practise
on with trying to arange things. I'7 neighbourhood
Regards to the family, 18 coming
Yours sincerly, 19 sincerely
Anton 20 writing