The Top Ten Spelling Rules

The Top Ten Spelling Rules

by Liam Egan

​"i before e except after c" rule

• ​believe - receive

• As a basic rule this is great but what about ancient, leisure, neighbour

• ​We have a longer version of the rule: "i before e except after a long c but not when c is a "sh" sound and not when sounded like 'a' as in neighbour or weigh."( i before e rule) believe, achieve, (except after c),receive, ceiling (but not when c is sounded like sh) ancient, proficient not when sounded like 'a' ) eight, beige. But there are exceptions always exceptions so watch out for them.

Multiple Select

Words that follow the rule

• Niece

• protein

• conceive

• Baddie

• Caffeine

Multiple Select

Words that follow the rule

• Neither

• Receive

• Either

• Seize

• Chief

Multiple Select

Words that do not follow the rule

• niece

• Protein

• Conceive

• Baddie

• Caffeine

Multiple Select

Words that do not follow the rule

• neither

• Receive

• Either

• Seize

• Chief

​Changing -y to -ies or -s

• You might not know the spelling rule but you might know the spelling pattern - most people do.

  When the word ends in a vowel + y just add ‘s’ key → keys delay → delays trolley → trolleys (because we can't have three vowels in a row delaies x )

  If the word has a consonant before the ‘y’: remove the ‘y’ and add ‘ies’

• baby → babies

• company → companies

• difficulty → difficulties

Multiple Choice

What is the plural of Puppy

• Puppys

• Puppies

• Pupies

Multiple Choice

What is the plural for Family?

• Familys

• Families

• Family's

Multiple Choice

What is the plural for responsibility?

• Responsibilities

• Responsities

• Responsibilitys

Multiple Choice

What is the spelling rule for a plural?

• When there is more than one of the noun

• When the word ends in a consonant y, change the y to an i and add es.

• Add ies to all words if there is more than one

​Adding -es to words ending in -s, -ss, -z -ch -sh -x

• ​This was added centuries ago to stop the plural 's' clashing with these letters and it softens the 's' sound to a 'z' sound

• bus → buses

• business → businesses

• watch → watches

• box → boxes

• quiz → quizzes

Multiple Select

What letters do you look for at the end of a word to add 'es' to make it plural? Choose all that apply.

• s

• x

• z

• sh

• ch

Multiple Select

What words get an 'es' to make them plural?

• wish

• plant

• church

• book

• fox

​1:1:1 doubling up rule

• ​put - putting,

• big-bigger,

• quiz - quizzes,

• swim - swimming... 

  When a word has one syllable + 1 vowel next to 1 consonant we double up the final consonant with a vowel suffix:

• sit - sitter,

• big - biggest,

• tap - tapping,

• shop - shopper/shopping,

• fat - fatten, fattening,

• fatter, fattest...

  This happens in longer words when the stress is on the final syllable: begin (beGIN) - beginner, beginning refer (reFER) - referring, referred occur (ocCUR) - occurring, occurred, occurrence

Multiple Choice

Which of the following words has a final consonant that needs to be doubled?

• star+y

• art+ist

• mad+ly

Multiple Select

Which is correct?

• equiped

• equipped

Multiple Select

Which is correct?

• beginning

• begining

We usually drop the final silent "e" when we add vowel suffix endings, for example:

• write + ing → writing hope + ed = hoped excite + able = excitable joke - joker large - largish close - closing sense + ible = sensible opposite + ion = opposition imagine + ation = imagination

We keep the 'e' if the word ends in –CE or –GE to keep a soft sound, with able/ous courage + ous = courageous outrage + ous = outrageous notice + able = noticeable manage + able = manageable​

​Drop the ‘e’ rule

Multiple Choice

What is the correct spelling for hope + ing

• hopeing

• hopping

• hoping

Multiple Choice

What is the correct spelling for bake + ing

• backing

• baking

• bakeing

• bakking

Multiple Choice

What is the correct spelling of drive + ing?

• drivving

• driving

• driveing

If a word ends in a consonant + Y, the Y changes to i (unless adding endings with "i" -ing -ish, which already begins with an i)

• beauty + ful → beauti+ful = beautiful, beautify, beautician

• happy + ness = - happiness, happily, happier, happiest angry + er =

• angrier, angriest, angrily, pretty: prettier, prettiest but prettyish

• ready: readily readiness dry: dried, BUT drying, dryish defy: defies,

• defied, but defying apply: applies, applied but applying

Poll

Will you change the y to an i in the word happy?

• Yes

• NO

Multiple Select

Which choices show the correct suffixes added to "happy"? Select all that are correct.

• happyier

• happier

• happyiest

• happiest

Multiple Choice

Which word shows the correct spelling?

• stayed

• stayied

• stayd

Poll

Would you change the y to an i in the word try?

• yes

• no

Multiple Choice

Which word is spelled correctly?

• families

• familys

​-f to -ves or -s

​Most words ending in "-f" or "-fe" change their plurals to "-ves"

• calf - calves

• half - halves

• knife - knives

• leaf - leaves

• loaf - loaves

• life - lives

• wife - wives

• shelf-shelves

Multiple Choice

Write the plural version of this word: calf

• calfs

• calvs

• calves

Multiple Choice

Write the plural version of this word: knife

• knives

• kniffs

• knifs

Multiple Choice

Write the plural version of this word: life

• lives

• livs

• lifes

Multiple Choice

Write the plural version of this word: half

• halfs

• halves

• halfes

​Words ending in -ful

The suffix –ful is always spelt with one L, for example:

grate + ful = grateful

faith + ful = faithful

hope + ful = hopeful

careful

helpful

useful

beautiful (notice the -y becomes -i)

Multiple Select

Which word is the odd one out?

• colourful

• helpful

• respect

• armful

Fill in the Blanks

Multiple Choice

Which of these words is spelt incorrectly?

• armful

• joyful

• carefull

• thoughtful

Multiple Choice

Which word means to be unsure of what to do?

• truthful

• delightful

• doubtful

• powerful

​Adding -ly

When we add -ly to words ending in -ful then we have double letters

• gratefully

• faithfully

• hopefully

We also add -ly to words ending in 'e'

• love + ly = lovely

• like + ly = likely

• live + ly = lively

• complete + ly = completely

• definite + ly = definitely

​Exception

BUT not truly (true + ly) This is a common misspelled word.

We change the end 'e' to 'y' in these -le words

• gentle → gently

• idle → idly

• subtle → subtly

Multiple Choice

Add 'ly' to Angry

• Angrilly

• Angerily

• Angrily

• Angriley

Multiple Choice

Add 'ly' to Beautiful

• Beatifully

• Beautyfully

• Beautifully

• Beautifuley

Multiple Choice

Add 'ly' to Necessary

• Necesarily

• Necesariley

• Neccessarily

• Necessarily

Multiple Choice

Add 'ly' to Hopeful

• Hopfully

• Hopefuly

• Hopefulley

• Hopefully

​When we add "all" to the beginning of words we drop the l

• all + so = also

• all + most = almost

• although

• always

• almighty

• already

​alright (all right as two words is used in more formal English) altogether (note that altogether and all together do not mean the same thing. Altogether means ‘in total’, as in there are six bedrooms altogether, whereas all together means ‘all in one place’ or ‘all at once’, as in it was good to have a group of friends all together; they came in all together.)

Multiple Choice

The six members of the secret club _____ decided to recruit new members.

• all together
• altogether

Multiple Choice

Five o'clock in the morning is _____ too early to leave a warm, cozy bed.

• all together
• altogether

Multiple Choice

Layla, Linda and Rafa'a decided to go to the movies _____.

• all together
• altogether

Multiple Choice

Pizza with sausage and pepperoni is _____ too greasy.

• all together
• altogether