Spelling Rules

You may have heard that English doesn’t have rules for spelling and English words come from many
different languages and various methods of spelling them have been used. There are few rules but you
have to be on the lookout for the exceptions.

Here we have compiled six of the most commo

n rules and for the most part they’ll help you spell words correctly. There are plenty of exceptions to
these rules.

1. “I” before “E” except “C”

- Write “IE” unless followed by a “C”
- Write “EI” when a word requires a long “a” sound.
- Example: of “E” before “C”
She was fierce.
She likes to piece together a puzzle.
- Example of “EI” after “C”
The ceiling fell.
2. Change the “Y” to an “I” before adding suffixes beginning with “E”
- When a suffix begins with an “E” and the word ends in “Y” you change a “Y” to an “I” before
adding the ending. Suffixes that begin with “E” include “ED”, “ES”, “ER” and “EST”.
- Suffixes beginning with the letter “E”
Cry + ed = cried
Sky + es = skies
Worry + ed = worried
- Do not change the “Y” to “I” when adding the suffix “ING”
Change cry in to crying.
Change worry in to worrying.
- Two consonants with “Y” and suffix “LY”
- When two consonants come before “Y” it is necessary to change the “Y” in to “I” before
applying the suffix “LY”
Lucky + ly = luckily.
Happy + ly = happily.
3. The silent “E”
- IF “E” appears at the end of the word followed by a consonant then its silent.
- “E” changes how the vowel before the consonant sounds.
- Makes a short vowel long.
- Example: Bite
Vowel “I” is long.
Remove “E” and it makes a different word with a different sound.
The word becomes “BIT” with the short “I” vowel.
- To add a suffix like “ED” to a word with a silent “E” you usually drop the “E” and add the
suffix.
 - Example:
Care becomes cared.
Share becomes shared.
4. Add “ES” after, “S”, “Z”, “SH”, “CH”, “X”.
- When pluralizing a word you use “ES” after these letters or letter combos.
Fix becomes fixes.
Wish becomes wishes.
- Most other words will use an “S” in the plural form.
Cow becomes cows.
Car becomes cars.
5. Double consonant and suffixes.
- Many words that has double consonants have suffixes.
- Example: tossed, mopped, ripped etc.
6. “U” follows “Q”
- In almost all the English words letter “U” follows “Q”
- Example: “QU” combo in words.
Queen, aqua, quick etc.