28 spelling rules
letter q is always followed by u and together they say /kw/. The u is not considered a vowel here.
The letter c before e, i, or y says /s/ (cent, city, cycle), but followed by any other letter says /k/ (cat, cot, cut).
The letter g before e, i, or y may say /j/ (page, giant, gym), but followed by any other letters says /g/ (gate, go, gust). The letters e and i following g do not always make the g say /j/ (get, girl, give).
Vowels a, e, o, and u usually say their names/long sounds (a, e, o, u) at the end of a syllable (na vy, me, o pen, mu sic). (These are referred to as open syllables.) This rule helps students know how to divide unfamiliar vowel-consonant-vowel words and then pronounce the word correctly. (re port…rather than rep ort)
The letters i and y usually say /i/ (big, gym), but may say i (silent, my, type).
The letter y, not i, is used at the end of an English word (my).
There are five kinds of Silent final e's. (In short words such as me, she, and he, the e says e, but in longer words where a single e appears at the end, the e is silent.)
Silent Final e's should be thought of as "having a job."
Silent e #1: bake gene time/type code cute
(The job of the #1 Silent e is to make the vowel preceding it say its name.)
Silent e #2: love give blue true
(The job of the #2 Silent final e is to prevent us from ending an English word with a v or a u.)
Silent e #3: chance bodice charge allege
(The job of the #3 Silent final e is to soften a c or g.)
Silent e #4: lit tle cas tle bot tle dab ble fid dle
(The job of the #4 Silent final e is to prevent us from having a syllable with no vowel.)
Silent e # 5: are nurse raise bye ewe owe cause
Mrs. Spalding referred to the #5 Silent final e as the "No job e."
Mrs. Sanseri refers to the #5 Silent final e as the "Odd job E" and explains: "Any reason for a silent E not covered by the first four is lumped into this final category.
1. The E keeps a word that is not plural from ending in an 's'
Examples: dense (not dens), purse (not purs), false (not fals)
2. The E adds length to a short main-idea word. Ex.: awe, ewe, rye
3. The E gives a distinction in meaning between homonyms. Ex.: or/ore for/fore
4. The E is left over from Middle English or a foreign language where the final E was once pronounced. (treatise giraffe)"
There are five spellings for the sound /er/. Keep this sentence in mind:
Her nurse first works early.
In that, the spellings are in the descending order of usage in English.
The phonogram or may say /er/ when it follows w (work, worm, worthy). Also keep in mind that ar and or say /er/ at the end of some words (dollar, doctor).
The 1-1-1 Rule: Words of one syllable (hop), having one vowel followed by one consonant, need another final consonant (hop + ped) before adding endings that begin with a vowel. This rule does not apply to words with x since x has two sounds /ks/.
The 2-1-1 Rule:
Words of two syllables (be gin) in which the second syllable (gin) is accented and has one vowel followed by one consonant, need another final consonant (be gin + ning) before adding an ending that begins with a vowel. If the last syllable is not accented (en ter, prof it, bud get) do not double the final consonant before adding the ending.
The Drop-e Rule:
Words ending with a Silent final e (come, hope) are written without the e when adding an ending that begins with a vowel.
After c we use ei (receive). If we say a, we use ei (vein).
In the list of exceptions, we use ei.
Exceptions: Neither foreign sovereign seized counterfeit forfeited leisure. Plus: either weird protein heifer
In all other words, the phonogram ie is used.
(In school we were taught, "I before E, except after C, unless it says A as in neighbor and weigh.")
The phonogram sh is used at the beginning or end of a base word (she, dish), at the end of a syllable (fin ish), but never at the beginning of a syllable after the first one except for the ending ship (wor ship, friend ship).
The phonograms ti, si, and ci are the spellings most frequently used to say /sh/ at the beginning of a second or subsequent syllable in a base word (na tion, ses sion, fa cial).
Most often, consider the root or root word to help you choose the correct /sh/ spelling to use.
Examples: infect to in fec tious / collect to col lec tion / potent to po ten tial
music to mu si cian / space to spa cious / finance to fi nan cial
soci (companion) to so cial / ancien (old) to an cient
cruc (cross) to cru cial / speci (kind) to spe cial
The phonogram si is used to say /sh/ when the syllable before it ends in an s (ses sion) or when the base word has an s where the base word changes (tense, ten sion).
discuss to dis cus sion / compress to com pres sion / admis to ad mis sion
The phonogram si may also say /zh/ as in vi sion, di vi sion, oc ca sion, ex plo sion.
We often double l, f, and s following a single vowel at the end of a one-syllable word (will, off, miss). Sometimes rule 17 applies to two-syllable words like recess.
We often use ay to say a at the end of a base word, never a alone. (bay, day, decay)
Vowels i and o may say long i and long o if followed by two consonants (find, old).
The letter s never follows x. The phonogram x includes an s sound-/ks/.
Dismiss L Rule:
All, written alone, has two l's, but when used as a prefix, only one l is written (al so, al most).
Dismiss L Rule (part 2):
Till and full, written alone, have two l's, but when used as a suffix, only one l is written (un til, beau ti ful).
The phonogram dge may be used only after a single vowel that says its short sound (badge, edge, bridge, lodge, budge).
Change Y to I Rule:
When adding an ending to a word that ends with a consonant and y, use i instead of y unless the ending is ing or might split a phonogram.
city/cit ies beauty/beau ti ful play/player funny/fun ni est
multiply/mul ti ply ing rely/re li able cry/cried deny/denied
The phonogram ck may be used only after a single vowel that says its short sound (back, neck, lick, rock, duck).
Words beginning with the sound z are always spelled with z, never with s.
The phonogram ed has three sounds. If a base word ends in the sound /d/ or /t/, adding ed makes another syllable that says /ed/ (sid ed, part ed).
If the base word ends in a voiced consonant sound, the ending ed says /d/ (lived). If the base word ends in an unvoiced consonant sound, the ending ed says /t/ (jumped).
28. Words are usually divided between double consonants. For speaking and reading, only the consonant in the accented syllable is pronounced; the consonant in the unaccented syllable is silent (lit tle to lit le). |