SOME BASIC RULES

English spelling is not easy to learn. There are some rules but often there are many exceptions to the rule. Some spellings and pronunciation appear to be illogical. It is therefore important that certain spellings are learnt.

Vowels and consonants

There are twenty-six letters in our alphabet. Five are vowels and the rest are consonants. The vowels are A, E, I, O, U. All words have to contain at least one vowel. (‘Y’ is considered to be a vowel in words like ‘rhythm’ and ‘psychology’). Consonants are all the other letters that are not vowels. So that a word can be pronounced easily, vowels are placed between consonants. No more than three consonants can be placed together. Below are two lists. The first contains words with three consecutive consonants and in the second are words with two consecutive consonants. The sets of consonants are separated by vowels:

• (a)Christian, chronic, school, scream, splash, through.
• (b)add, baggage, commander, flap, grab, occasion.

Plurals

To form a plural word an ‘s’ is usually added to a noun. But there are some exceptions. If a noun ends in ‘y’, and there is a consonant before it, a plural is formed by changing the ‘y’ into an ‘i’ and adding ‘-es’:

berry	–	berries
company	–	companies
lady	–	ladies
nappy	–	nappies

If the ‘y’ is preceded by another vowel, an ‘s’ only is added:

covey	–	coveys
monkey	–	monkeys
donkey	–	donkeys

If a noun ends in ‘o’ and a consonant precedes the ‘o’, ‘-es’ is added to form a plural:

hero	–	heroes
potato	–	potatoes
tomato	–	tomatoes

If there is a vowel before the ‘o’, an ‘s’ only is added:

patio	–	patios
studio	–	studios
zoo	–	zoos

It would be difficult to add an ‘s’ only to some words because it would be impossible to pronounce them. These are words that end in ‘ch’, ‘sh’, ‘s’, ‘x’ and ‘z’. In this case an ‘e’ has to be added before the ‘s’:

brush	–	brushes
buzz	–	buzzes
church	–	churches
duchess	–	duchesses
fox	–	foxes

Verbs

When a verb ends in ‘y’ and it is necessary to change the tense by adding other letters, the ‘y’ is changed into an ‘i’ and ‘es’ or ‘ed’ is added.

He will marry her tomorrow.

He was married yesterday.

A dog likes to bury his bone.

A dog always buries his bone.

‘Long vowels’ and ‘short’ vowels

There is often a silent ‘e’ at the end of the word if the vowel is ‘long’:

bite, date, dupe, hope, late.

Each of these words consists of one syllable (one unit of sound). If another syllable is added, the ‘e’ is removed:

bite	–	biting
date	–	dating
hope	–	hoping

If there is no ‘e’ at the end of a word, the vowel is usually ‘short’:

bit, hop, let

If a second syllable is added to these words, the consonant is usually doubled:

bit	–	bitten
hop	–	hopping
let	–	letting

There are, of course, some exceptions. If the ‘e’ is preceded by a ‘g’ or a ‘c’, the ‘e’ is usually retained. To remove it would produce a ‘hard’ sound instead of a ‘soft’ one:

age	–	ageing
marriage	–	marriageable
service	–	serviceable

Adjectives and adverbs

When forming an adverb from an adjective, ‘ly’ (not ‘ley’) is added. If there is a ‘y’ at the end of the adjective, it must be changed to an ‘i’:

adjective	adverb
beautiful	beautifully
happy	happily
quick	quickly
slow	slowly

If a word ends in ‘ic’, ‘-ally’ is added to it:

enthusiastic

–

enthusiastically

‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’

This rule seems to have been made to be broken. Some words keep to it but others break it. Here are some that follow the rule. All of them are pronounced ‘ee’ – as in ‘seed’.

no ‘C’ in front	after ‘C’
grief	ceiling
niece	deceive
piece	receive

Exceptions to this rule are:

either, neighbours, vein, neither, seize, weird

AVOIDING COMMON MISTAKES

Because some words do not follow any rules, there are many words in the English language that are frequently misspelled. These words have to be learnt. Following is a list of the most common:

absence	abysmal	acquaint	acquire
accept	across	address	advertisement
aggravate	already	alleluia	ancient
annual	appearance	archaeology	arrangement
auxiliary	awkward	because	beginning
believe	beautiful	business	character
carcass	centre	ceiling	cemetery
cellar	chameleon	choose	collar
committee	computer	condemn	conscious
daily	deceive	definitely	demonstrative
description	desperate	develop	diarrhoea
difference	dining	disappear	disappoint
discipline	desperate	dissatisfied	doctor
doubt	eerie	eight	eighth
embarrass	empty	encyclopaedia	envelope
exaggerate	exceed	except	exercise
excitement	exhaust	exhibition	existence
familiar	February	fierce	first
foreigner	forty	fortunately	frightening
fulfil	government	glamorous	gradually
grammar	grief	guard	haemorrhage
haemorrhoids	harass	height	honorary
humorous	idea	idle	idol
immediately	independent	island	jewellery
journey	khaki	knowledge	label
laboratory	labyrinth	lacquer	language
league	leisure	liaison	lightning
lonely	lovely	maintenance	massacre
metaphor	miniature	miscellaneous	mischievous
miserably	misspell	museum	necessary
neighbour	neither	niece	ninth
noticeable	occasion	occur	occurred
occurrence	omit	opportunity	opposite
paid	paraffin	parallel	particularly
playwright	possess	precede	precious
preparation	procedure	preferred	privilege
probably	profession	professor	pronunciation
pursue	questionnaire	queue	receipt
receive	recognise	restaurant	rhyme
rhythm	said	schedule	science
scissors	secretary	separate	sergeant
similar	simile	sincerely	skilful
spaghetti	smoky	strength	subtle
succeed	surprise	suppress	temporary
thief	though	tragedy	tried
truly	unnecessary	until	usage
usual	vacuum	vehicle	vigorous
vicious	wavy	Wednesday	watch
weird	woollen	womb	yield

Homophones

Some words that are pronounced in the same way are spelt differently and have different meanings. They are called homophones. Here are some examples:

air	gaseous substance	heir	successor
aisle	passage between seats	isle	land surrounded by water
allowed	permitted	aloud	audible
altar	table at end of church	alter	change
bare	naked	bear	an animal
bark	sound dog makes covering of tree trunk	barque	sailing ship
bow	to bend head	bough	branch of tree
bread	food made from flour	bred	past tense of breed
by	at side of something	buy	purchase
		bye	a run in cricket awarded by umpire
caught	past tense of ‘catch’	court	space enclosed by buildings
cent	monetary unit	sent	past tense of ‘send’
		scent	perfume
check	sudden stop to inspect	cheque	written order to bank to pay money
council	an administrative body	counsel	to give advice
current	water or air moving in a particular direction	currant	dried fruit
ewe	female sheep	yew	a tree
		you	second person pronoun
dear	loved; expensive	deer	animal
faint	become unconscious	feint	to make a diversionary move
herd	a group of cattle	heard	past tense of ‘hear’
here	in this place	hear	to be aware of sound
hole	a cavity	whole	something complete
idle	lazy	idol	object of worship
know	to have knowledge	no	opposite of yes
passed	past tense of ‘pass’	past	time gone by to pass by
peace	freedom from war	piece	a portion
peal	a ring of bells	peel	rind of fruit
place	particular area	plaice	a fish
poor	opposite of rich	pore	tiny opening in skin
		pour	tip liquid out of container
quay	landing place for ships	key	implement for locking
rain	water from clouds	reign	monarch’s rule
		rein	lead for controlling horse
sail	sheet of material on a ship to travel on water	sale	noun from the verb ‘to sell’
sea	expanse of salt water	see	to have sight of
seam	place where two pieces of material are joined	seem	to appear to be
sew	stitches made by needle and thread	sow	to plant seeds
		so	indicating extent of something
sole	fish underneath of foot	soul	spirit
some	a particular group	sum	the total
son	male offspring	sun	source of light
stake	wooden stave	steak	cooked meat
suite	furniture piece of music	sweet	confectionary dessert
tail	end of animal	tale	story
threw	hurled	through	pass into one side and out of the other
tire	to become weary	tyre	rubber covering on a wheel
to	in direction of	too	as well or excessively
		two	the number
vain	conceited	vein	vessel in body for carrying blood
		vane	weathercock
waist	middle part of body	waste	rubbish or uncultivated land
weather	atmospheric conditions	whether	introduces an alternative

More homophones

‘Their’, ‘there’ and ‘they’re’

‘Their’ is a possessive adjective. It is placed before the noun to show ownership:

That is their land.

‘There’ is an adverb of place indicating where something is:

There is the house on stilts.

‘They’re’ is an abbreviation of ‘they are’. The ‘a’ has been replaced with an apostrophe:

They’re emigrating to Australia.

‘Were’, ‘where’ and ‘wear’

‘Were’ is the past tense of the verb ‘to be’:

They were very happy to be in England.

‘Where’ is an adverb of place:

Where is your passport?

‘Wear’ is the present tense of the verb ‘to wear’:

The Chelsea Pensioners wear their uniform with pride.

‘Whose’ or ‘who’s’

‘Whose’ is a relative pronoun which is usually linked to a noun:

This is the boy whose father owns the Indian restaurant.

‘Who’s’ is an abbreviation of ‘who is’:

Who’s your favourite football player?

‘Your’ and ‘you’re’

‘Your’ is a possessive adjective and is followed by a noun. It indicates possession:

Your trainers are filthy.

‘You’re’ is an abbreviation for ‘you are’:

You’re not allowed to walk over that field.

Homonyms

Some words have the same spelling but can have different meanings. This will usually depend on the context. The pronunciation can also change. These words are called homonyms.

bow (noun)	a tied ribbon or part of a violin	bow (verb)	to incline the head
calf	the fleshy part of the leg below the knee	calf	a young cow
refuse	rubbish	refuse	to show obstinacy
(noun)		(verb)
row	a line or an argument	row	to argue angrily
(noun)		(verb)	to propel a boat using oars
train (noun)	a mode of transport long piece of material attached to the hem of a dress	train (verb)	to instruct or teach

THE DICTIONARY

Spelling

Use a dictionary frequently to check your spelling. Don’t guess the spelling of a word. Look it up. It is helpful to keep a list of words that you have misspelled so you can learn them.

Parts of speech

A dictionary not only tells you how to spell a word. It also tells you what part of speech the word is. Sometimes the word appears more than once as it has different meanings and can be used as a different part of speech. Look at the following examples:

land (noun)	(a)	the solid part of the earth
	(b)	a country
land (verb)	(c)	to go ashore or bring a plane down to the ground
fast (verb)	(a)	abstain from eating
fast (noun)	(b)	the act of going without food
fast (adjective)	(c)	firmly attached
fast (adverb)	(d)	quickly

Letters after the word identify the part of speech:

n. = noun a. = adjective adv. = adverb v. = verb

The verb is often followed by ‘t’ or ‘i’:

• ‘v.t.’ stands for verb transitive. A transitive verb takes an object.
  
  He wrote a letter. (The object of the verb ‘wrote’ is the noun, ‘letter’.)
• ‘v.i.’ stands for verb intransitive. This means that the verb does not take an object.
  
  She writes beautifully. (There is no object.)

Many verbs can be used both transitively and intransitively – as in the above examples. In this case the verb will be followed by v.i & t.

Derivations

The dictionary will often give the derivation of a word. English is a rich language that owes much to other languages. Some words like ‘rendezvous’ are obviously French and have been kept in their original forms. Others like ‘galley’ have been adapted from several languages.

If you have time, browse through a dictionary looking at the derivation of some of our words. It can be a fascinating and rewarding experience.

THE THESAURUS

A thesaurus can also be very useful. It will help you to find an alternative word (synonym) for a word that you have used too much. Words are shown alphabetically and beside each will be a list of words that could replace the word you want to lose. Of course, not all the synonyms will be suitable. It will depend on the context.

Using a thesaurus is an excellent way of adding to your vocabulary. It is useful to keep a list of words that you have found so that you can use them again and in this way increase your knowledge. Here is a list of synonyms that could be used instead of the overworked adjective ‘nice’:

agreeable, attractive, delicious, delightful, enjoyable, pleasant, pleasing

Roget’s Thesaurus

This is the most famous thesaurus; it has two main sections. The second part lists words alphabetically and identifies the parts of speech. After the words are numbers. These refer to the first part where the synonyms for the different parts of speech will be given.

Other thesauri

There are many smaller versions including pocket ones and these can be found in most bookshops.

CHECKLIST

• Double the consonant after a short vowel sound when adding more letters.
• Learn commonly misspelt words.
• Use a dictionary to check spelling and find the meaning of words.
• Use a thesaurus to widen your vocabulary.

EXERCISES

• 1.What is the plural form of the following words?
  lady, company, monkey, tomato, boa, princess, dance
• 2.Add ‘-ing’ to the following words:
  dine, live, hit, hop, skip, write, mate, mine
• 3.Form adverbs from the following adjectives:
  happy, joyful, kind, angry, wonderful, clear, quick, careless
• 4.Correct the following sentences:
  • (a)I no you are their.
  • (b)I can sea to ships on the see.
  • (c)Did you now there house is too be sold?
  • (d)Hear is you’re packed lunch.
  • (e)Their is a whole in your jacket.
  • (f)You can go to London two.
  • (g)The teacher kept in the hole class.
  • (h)The violinist took a bough.
  • (i)Because of the wind, the bow of the tree broke.
  • (j)She past threw the crowd.
  • (k)He through the ball.
  • (l)Know milk was left today.
• 5.In the following passage fill in the missing words:
  . . . were no ships on the . . . that morning. She could . . . the white foam as the waves crashed on the shore. She would .. . when ... car arrived as it would drive ... the gate. Idly, she ... a stone into the .... The ... of the trees on the cliff . . . swaying in the wind. It was . . . cold ... sit still. Kicking off her sandals, she noticed she had . . . holes in her socks. She had intended to . . . her new ones. Her hair ribbon had also come undone and crossly she tied it in a . . . and stood up, holding her shoes. . . . she could . . . the car.
• 6.What do the following letters stand for?
  n. v.t. v.i. a. adv.
• 7.Find synonyms for the underlined words in the following passage:
  It was a nice day so the children decided to have a picnic. They walked along the cliff path and climbed down to the beach. The waves crashed on the shore as they ate their pleasant lunch.

See pages 174-5 for suggested answers.