Five Simple Rules
1. "I before E except after C" I was first
introduced to this little chant in the first grade and it has
served me well ever since. However, its simplicity is deceiving!
Remember this is American English and with that comes "the
exception to the rule!"
The Exception: "I before E except after C or with words that
make the long A": freight, beige, sleigh, weight, vein, reign,
and weigh.
Oh, one last thing, there is an exception to the exception:
either, neither, feint, foreign, forfeit, height, leisure,
weird, seize, and seizure.
Don't let the exceptions wear you out, the rule still works for
the majority of "ie" words.
2. "Dropping Final E" When adding a suffix ending
begins with a vowel to a word that ends with a silent "e", drop
the final "e":advancing, surprising, pricing, etc.
However, if the suffix begins with a consonant, keep the final
"e": advancement, likeness, princely
The Exception: If the silent "e" is preceded by another vowel,
drop the "e" when adding any suffix: argument, argued, truly.
This is to avoid confusion and mispronunciation, the final "e"
is kept in words where the final "e" is preceded by a soft "g"
or a soft "c": changeable, courageous, manageable, management,
noticeable. This is because of the rules of pronunciation that
take precedence over spelling rules.
3. "Dropping Final Y" When adding suffix to a word
that ends with y, change the "y" to "i" when it is preceded by a
consonant: supply becomes supplies, worry becomes worried, merry
becomes merrier.
The Exception: This does not apply to the ending -ing: crying,
studying. Also, it does not apply when the final "y" is preceded
by a vowel: obeyed, saying.
4. "Doubling Final Consonants" When adding a
suffix, doubling consonants at the end of words is sometimes
determined by the number of syllables. For example, double the
final consonant before adding a suffix that begins with a vowel
when the last syllable of the word is accented and that syllable
ends in a single vowel followed by a single consonant. Do not be
frightened by the complexity of the sentence. Here's an example:
"submit" is accented on the last syllable and the final
consonant is preceded by a vowel, (submit). We double the "t"
before adding, for instance, -ing or -ed: submitting, submitted.
Here's another example: flap contains only one syllable which
means that it is always accented. Again, the last consonant is
preceded by a vowel (flap, so we double it before adding, for
instance, -ing or -ed: flapping, flapped also referring,
referral, or beginner, beginning.
I have mentioned words with accented last syllables but what
about words where the accent falls on the first syllable. The
word "open" contains two syllables and the last syllable is
preceded by a single vowel, (open), but the accent falls on the
first syllable (OPen), not the last syllable, so we don't double
the "n" before adding an ending: opening, opened. This rule also
applies to words when the final consonant is preceded by either
another consonant or two vowels: or relented, relenting, or
dealer and dealing, also despairing, despaired.
The Exception: This rule does not apply to verbs that end with
"x," "w," "v," and "y," because these are consonants that cannot
be doubled: box becomes boxing, snow becomes snowing.
5. "Adding Prefixes" After all of that, the
simplest rule involves the addition of prefixes because adding a
prefix to a word does not change its spelling. Oddly enough, the
most often misspelled word is...misspell! When adding a prefix
you merely attach it to the word regardless of duplication of
consonant, syllabication, or accents: unnecessary, dissatisfied,
disinterested, misinform.