Free The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules by John J Fulford

use the u , and the spelling still exists in modern Welsh. For example, cwm is a word that means a small valley. Although cwm is the only word of its type left in our dictionaries, it is quite popular in Welsh place names, and its English variation, combe , is very common in England.

     
    Spelling rule #1: The most common spelling is the use of the silent e to modify the o .

     
    In a smaller group are words that end in a simple o:

     
    Another small group consists of those words that end in oe:

     
    Spelling rule #2: The combination ow is usually used at the end of words. It does not change with suffixes or compounds.

     
    One exception to the rule is bowl , which used to be spelled boule.
    The only commonly used words that begin with ow are own and owe and their derivatives.

     
    Spelling rule #3: The combination oa is usually used in the middle of words:

     
    There are very few commonly used words that begin with oa, and only one that ends with oa.

     
    There are a few words that spell the long o as ou :

     
    Note that there are also a few words that manage to produce the o sound in even more interesting ways:

     

C HAPTER 28
    Using or, ore, oar, our
     
    T he or sound can be spelled in a number of ways, for example for, fore, and four, also soar, war, wharf, ought, taut, and caught . This variety of spellings should pose no problem because there is a pattern.
    Spelling rule #1: By far the most popular of these spellings is the simple or . It is used at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of words.

     
    Spelling rule #2: The ore spelling is also extremely common. It is always used at the end of a word:

     
    Note that furore is the British spelling. Americans spell the word without the e : furor .
    There is only one commonly used English word that begins with ore . It is ore .
    Spelling rule #3: The oa spelling and the ou spellings are usually found in the middle of a word.

     
    Note that the ou spelling can produce a variety of sounds, for example soup, source, sour, and journey . Quite often, the pronunciation will vary from region to region.
    Spelling rule #4: The ar spelling with the or sound is usually found after w, wh, and qu :

     
    The spellings aught and ought can both be used to produce the or sound without the r.

     
    A small group of words use the au spelling without the gh or the r to produce the same sound.

     

C HAPTER 29
    Using y, ee, i, ea ie, ey
     
    T here are seven different ways we can produce the long ee sound at the end of a word. This must seem rather excessive, but there is a pattern and there are surprisingly few anomalies.

     
    Sometimes the sound is the same but the spelling differs. Take that famous alcoholic beverage. In the United States and Ireland, it is spelled whiskey, but the Canadians, the Scots, and the English spell it whisky. The original Scots Gaelic word was uisge, and the Irish Gaelic word was uisce. Just to make it more interesting, the Scots call it scotch, a word that they never, ever use to describe things Scottish.

     
    Spelling rule #1: The most common way in which to produce the long e sound at the end of a word is by using the letter y :

     
    Note that almost any word can be made into an adjective by the addition of the y :

     
    A small group of words that end in y , however, have the long i sound:

     
    When the y follows a vowel at the end of a word, it is usually taking the place of the letter i , and thus forms a diphthong. The y is usually silent or sounded very faintly.

     
    When a word begins with a y , the letter is always a consonant. The exceptions are a few rare words like the archaic yclept and scientific words such as ytrium oxide.
    When the y appears within a word, that word is most probably of Greek origin and may have the long i sound, the short i sound, or a combination:

     
    Spelling rule #2: Another way in which the long e sound can be spelled is with ee .

     
    Fewer than one hundred commonly used English words end in ee .