Study Zone

Some suggestions to improve your spelling

Everyone who has difficulty with spelling words correctly can derive some comfort from knowing that some very good writers have been notoriously bad spellers. It’s also comforting to bad spellers to know that this business of spelling seems to have little to do with intelligence. It has more to do with how we remember things. Some people, once they’ve seen a word spelled correctly, will never misspell that word again, those are the people who, if you ask them how they spell a word, they will first say, “wait a second. Let me write down.” If you are not a strong visual learner, but learn in other ways, you will have to learn some other tricks to become a strong speller.

The following suggestions about spelling are only that- suggestions. Spelling, like vocabulary building, is ultimately a personal matter, and only a planned and sustained effort to improve spelling will have the desired results.

Homonyms and Plurals

Homonyms are words that sound alike or nearly alike but different meanings and different spellings: affect-effect, they’re-their-there, the list goes on and on. Our section on common confusables contains words that people find confusing.

Creating plurals in English is usually quite simple; just add s to the end of the word. Sometimes, however, it isn’t that easy and the rules can be a bit perplexing. We have also dealt with the formation and spelling of plurals that should prove helpful.

British and American spellings

Writers who grow up in England, India, Canada, the Barbados, or any place where spelling habits conform to British preferences will be perplexed with American usage of English words. It will be appropriate for us to follow the British

	American spelling	British spelling
	Canceled	Cancelled
	Center	Centre
	Check	Cheque
	Color	Colour
	Criticize	Criticise
	Gray	Grey
	Humor	Humour
	Judgment	Judgement
	Labor	Labour
	Realize	Realise
	Theater	Theatre
	Tire	Tyre
	Valor	Valour

Some rules before you spell it right

Rule #1: “I before E except after c”

This rule, designed to help us remember how to spell words such as receive and chief, seems so promising in its simplicity at first.

• achieve, believe, bier, brief, hygiene, grief, thief, friend, grieve, chief, fiend, patience, pierce, priest
• ceiling, conceive, deceive, perceive, receipt, receive, deceit, conceit

But then things get complicated: it doesn’t work with words pronounced ”ay” as in neighbour, freight, beige, sleigh, weight, vein and weigh and there are many exceptions to the rule: either, neither, feint, foreign, forfeit, height, leisure, weird, seize and seizure.

Still, the rule is relatively simple and worth remembering.

Rule #2: “Dropping final E”

When adding an ending to a word that ends with a silent e, drop the final e if the ending begins with a vowel

• advancing
• surprising

However, if the ending begins with a consonant, keep the final e.

• advancement
• likeness

(However, if the silent e is preceded by another vowel, drop the e when adding any ending: argument, argued, truly.) Exceptions: to avoid confusion and mispronunciation, the final e is kept in words such as mileage and words where the final e is preceded by a soft g or c: changeable, courageous, manageable, management, noticeable. (The word management, for example, without that e after the g, would be pronounced with a hard g sound.

Rule #3: “Dropping final y”

When adding an ending to a word that ends with y, change the y to i when it is preceded by a consonant.

• supply becomes supplies
• worry becomes worried
• merry becomes merrier

This does not apply to the ending –ing, however.

• crying
• studying

Nor does it apply when the final y is preceded by a vowel.

• obeyed
• saying

Rule # 4: “Doubling final consonants”

When adding an ending to a word that ends in a consonant, we double that consonant in many situations. First, we have to determine the number of syllables in the word. Double the final consonant before adding an ending that begins with a vowel when the last syllable of the word is accented and that syllable ends in a single vowel followed by a single consonant.

• Submit is accented on the last syllable and the final consonant is preceded by a vowel, so we double that t before adding, for instance, an –ing or –ed: submitting, submitted.
• Flap contains only one syllable which means that it is always accented. Again, the last consonant is preceded by a vowel, so we double it before adding, for instance, an –ing or –ed: flapping, flapped. This rule does not apply to verbs that end with “x”, “w”, “v” and “y”, consonants –that cannot be doubled (such as “box”[boxing] and “snow”[snowing]).
• Open contains two syllables and the last syllable is preceded by a single vowel, but the accent falls on the first syllable, not the last syllable, so we don’t double the n before adding an ending: opening, opened.
• Refer contains two syllables and the accent falls on the last syllable and a single vowel precedes the final consonant, so we will double the r before adding an ending, as in referring, referral. The same would apply to begin, as in beginner, beginning.
• Relent contains two syllables, but the final consonant is preceded by another consonant, so we do not double the t before adding an ending: relented, relenting.
• Deal looks like flap(above), but the syllable ends in consonant preceded not by a single vowel, but by two vowels, so we do not double the final l as in dealer and dealing . the same would apply, then, to despair: despairing, despaire

Rule #5: “ Adding prefixes ”

Generally, adding a prefix to a word does not change its spelling. For some reason, the word misspelling is one of the most often misspelled word in English. Unnecessary, dissatisfied, disinterested, misinform

Plural

Noun forms

The plural form of most nouns is created simply by adding the letter s.

• more than one snake=snakes
• more than one ski=skis

Word that end in –ch, x, s or s-like sounds, however, will require an –es for the plural:

• more than one witch=witches
• more than one box=boxes
• more than one gas=gases
• more than one bus=buses
• more than one kiss=kisses
• more than one Jones=Joneses

There are several nouns that have irregular plural forms. Plurals formed in this way are sometimes called mutated (or mutating) plurals.

• more than one child=children
• more than one woman=women
• more than one man=men
• more than one person=people
• more than one goose=geese
• more than one mouse=mice
• more than one barracks=barracks
• more than one deer=deer

And, finally, there are nouns that maintain their Latin or Greek form in the plural. (see media data and alumni, before.)

• more than one nucleus=nuclei
• more than one syllabus=syllabi
• more than one focus=foci
• more than one fungus=fungi
• more than one cactus=cacti(cactuses is acceptable)
• more than thesis=theses
• more than one crisis=crises
• more than one phenomenon=phenomena
• more than one index=indices(indexes is acceptable)
• more than one appendix=appendices(appendixes is acceptable)
• more than one criterion=criteria

A handful of nouns appear to be plural in form but take a singular verb:

• The news is bad.
• Gymnastics is fun to watch.
• Economics/mathematics/statistics is said to be difficult. (“Economics” can be sometimes be a plural concept, as in “The economics of the situation demands that…..”)

Numerical expressions are usually singular, but can be plural if the individuals within a numerical group are acting individually:

• Fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money.
• One-half of the faculty is retiring this summer.
• One half of the faculties have doctorates.
• Fifty percent of the students have voted already.

And another handful of nouns might seem to be singular in nature but take a plural form and always use a plural verb:

• My pants are torn. (Nowadays you will sometimes see this word as a singular “pant” [meaning one pair of pants] especially in clothing ads, but most writers would regard that as an affectation.)
• Her scissors were stolen.
• The glasses have slipped down his nose again.

Special cases

With words that end in a consonant and a y, you’ll need to change the y to an i and add es.

• more than one baby=babies
• more than one gallery= galleries

(Notice the difference between this and galleys, where the final y is not preceded by a consonant.)

• more than one reality=realities

This rule does not apply to proper nouns:

• more than one day=days

Words that end in o create special problems.

• more than one potato=potatoes
• more than one hero=heroes

……however……

• more than one memo=memos
• more than one cello=cellos

……and for words where another vowel comes before the o……

• more than one stereo=stereos

Plurals of words that end in –f or – fe usually change the f sound to a v sound and add -s or –es.

• more than one knife=knives
• more than one leaf=leaves
• more than one hoof=hooves
• more than one life=lives
• more than one self=selves
• more than one elf=elves

There are, however, exceptions

• more than one dwarf=dwarfs
• more than one roof=roofs.