In the English language, we come across a lot of words every day. Some are easy to spell whereas some are very difficult. It can be a common thing for anyone who is trying to memorize tough-to-spell words, that they are wildly different and difficult to pronounce.
Moreover, the pronunciation of the same words sometimes differs as per American and British English.
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It was Shakespeare’s time when the spellings of the English words were becoming standardized. The spelling of the English words was very phonetic or at least you can say they were clear. For instance, it was really confusing for the English speakers to pronounce the words like knife and knee with the ‘k’ in the beginning. But fortunately, we don’t have to worry about the spelling and pronunciations anymore as we have few thumb rules which will help us in learning the proper pronunciation and you won’t be facing any word which is difficult to spell.
Using these common spelling rules teachers can effectively teach students of different grades.
List of 4 Basic Spelling Rules in English
Let’s get started with all the spelling rules which will help you in understanding how to spell difficult words.
Spelling rule 1: I Should Come Before E, Except After C
This rule states that the letter I must come before letter E except after C unless it will sound like A., For instance, you can look at the example to better understand it.
- Neighbor or Weigh
You would also find many exceptions to this rule and hence it is better to think of it as a guideline. This thing can be really helpful with the words.
- Working with I before E
- Would you like to have a piece of cake?
- Mohana would believe anything that you might say to her.
- Swaminathan family members are planting grass on the football field.
Working – I must come before E except after C.
- Danny received an A grade on this maths test.
- Jerry could easily spot some spiders on the ceiling.
- You could never expect such deceit from your friends.
Tip: It’s a good idea to memorise these common exceptions to the rule.
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Spelling Rule 2: You must add Suffixes to Words that End in Y
If a word is ending in Y and you are adding a suffix that starts with E then the Y will change to I.
You can check the set of examples given below which will help you in understand the spelling and also memorizing them.
- Cry – cried – crier
- Dry – dried – drier
- Lay – laid (note the irregular spelling: no E)
- Baby – babies
- Family – families
- Ugly – ugliest
- This could be the dustiest old house you would ever see if you don’t clean it before noon.
- It can be considered as the universal fact that the best bakers always make the flakiest pie crusts.
- Your soup just needs the tiniest pinch of salt and then it would taste just perfect.
- You must not use seawater as it dries out your skin.
Spelling Rule 3: The Word Ending in Y will not change with suffix -ing.
This basic rule is very easy to understand. You can see that when you add the suffix -ing to the word ending in Y then it will not change. For instance, check the examples.
- You can see the baby has been crying for almost an hour.
- The minute we brought in the new puppy, our mother began laying down sheets of newspaper.
- You should try to spend some time tidying the room before the guests arrive.
Spelling Rule 4: If you find two consonants before Y in a word then change the Y to I and add suffix -ly. You can check the words give below
- Sloppy – sloppily
- Happy – happily
- Scary – scarily
Conclusion:
With these spelling rules, you can easily understand the formation of various words/ spellings. We hope you find this blog interesting and useful.
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