English Spelling

For intermediate to advanced students

by Viv Quarry (www.vivquarry.com)

 

1.         Some words are irregular and you have to learn the plural forms.

 

child Þ children, woman Þ women, person Þ people, man Þ men, sheep Þ sheep

fish Þ fish, have Þ has, go Þ goes, do Þ does, shelf Þ shelves, knife Þ knives, wife Þ wives

half Þ halves.

 

2.         Some nouns (especially abstact nouns) are uncountable and have no plural form.

 

information, data, poor, insurance, bread, software, unemployed, inflation, butter, cheese etc.

 

3.         Spelling of most verbs and nouns in the plural or third person 'S'

 

If the word ends in 'S', 'Z', 'SH' or 'CH', add 'ES' or 'ED'

 

bus Þ buses, fizz Þ fizzes, church Þ churches, watch Þ watches / watched

kiss Þ kisses, wash Þ washes, pass Þ passes / passed

(other words just add 's' or 'ed' - paint Þ paints / painted)

 

If the word ends in CONSONANT + Y, the 'Y' changes to 'IES' or 'IED'

country Þ countries, party Þ parties, fly Þ flies, study Þ studies / studied

 

For most other words, and words ending in VOWEL + 'Y', add 'S' or 'ED'

 

book Þ books, student Þ students, boy Þ boys, day Þ days,

wear Þ wears, speak Þ speaks, live Þ lives, play Þ plays

 

4.         Words of one syllable (one vowel between two consonants)

 

If a word has one vowel between two consonants and ends in E, the middle vowel has a long sound.

 

cape, tape, mate, fate, pane, came, made

 

fine, pine, wine, dine, write, bite, white

 

cope, pope

 

cure, cute, plume

 

If the word has a long vowel sound, there is a single consonant  with suffixes.

 

fined, pining, wining and dining, writing, biting, whiter

coping

cured, cutely, plumed

 

If a word of one syllable has two vowels between two consonants it will usually mean a long vowel sound and no doubling of the final consonant.

 

need Þ needing, fear Þ feared, great Þ greater

If a word of one syllable ends in two consonants it will usually mean a long vowel sound and no doubling of the final consonant.

 

kind Þ kinder, fast Þ faster, wash Þ washing

 

If there is no 'E' on the end, the middle vowel has a short sound.

 

cap, tap, mat, fat, pan, cam, mad

 

fin, pin, win, din, writ, bit, wit

 

cop, pop

 

cut, plum, put

 

If the word has a short vowel sound, double the final consonant with suffixes

 

Capped, tapping, matted, fatter, panning

Finned, pinning, winner, dinner, written, bitter, witty

Copper, popping

Cutting, putting

 

5.         Words of two syllables

 

If a word of two syllables ends in a consonant and the stress is on the final syllable, double the final consonant.

 

preferÞ preferred, permit Þ permitting, refer Þ referred, admit Þ admittance

 

If the stress is on the first syllable, no double consonant.

 

enter Þ entered, benefit Þ benefited, visit Þ visiting

 

Don't forget that with words ending in 'Y', don't drop the 'Y' when adding 'ING'.

 

study Þ studying, play Þ playing, deny Þ denying

 

6.         There are some differences between British and American spelling.

 

Words which end in 'ER' in American English, end in 'RE' in British spelling

center (USA) Þ centre (UK)

theater (USA) Þ theatre (UK)

centimeter (USA) Þ centimetre (UK)

 

Final 'L' is usually doubled in British English

traveling (USA) Þ travelling (UK)

quarreled (USA) Þ quarrelled (UK)

canceling (USA) Þ cancelling (UK)

 

Some nouns are spelt differently in British and American English

traveler's checks (USA) Þ traveller's cheques (UK)

For more information on the differences between British and American spelling and grammar, see Viv's worksheet on USA v UK English.

COMMONLY MISSPELLED WORDS

 

Here is a list some of the most commonly misspelled words in English. These are the correct spellings. Reading over the list probably won't improve your spelling much, but choosing a few words which you find difficult, and writing them out correctly a few times may help you.

 

a lot, absence, abundance, accessible, accidentally, acclaim, accommodate, accomplish, accumulate, achievement, acquaintance, across, address, advertisement, aggravate, alright, anoint, annual, apparent, appearance, argument, atheist, athletics, attendance, auxiliary, balloon, barbiturate, bargain, basically, battalion, beggar, beginning, believe, benefitted (UK), benefited (US), biscuit, bouillon, boundary, Britain, broccoli, business, calendar, camouflage, cantaloupe, cemetery, chagrined, challenge, characteristic, changing, chief, cigarette, climbed, collectible, colonel, colossal, column, coming, committee, commitment, comparative, competent, completely, concede, conceive, condemn, condescend, conscientious, consciousness, consensus, consistent, continuous, controlled, coolly, corollary, convenient, correlate, correspondence, counselled (UK), counseled (USA), councillor (UK), councellor (UK), counsilor (USA), councelor (USA), courteous, courtesy, criticize, deceive, defendant, deferred, definitely, dependent, descend, description, desiccate, desirable, despair, desperate, develop, development, difference, dilemma, dining, disappearance, disappoint, disastrous, discipline, disease, despair, dispensable, dissatisfied, dissipate, dominant, drunkenness, easily, ecstasy, efficiency, eighth, eligible, embarrassment, enemy, entirely, equipped, equivalent, escape, especially, exaggerate, exceed, excellence, excellent, exhaust, existence, expense, experience, experiment, explanation, extremely, exuberance, fallacious, fallacy, familiar, fascinate, February, fictitious, finally, financially, forcibly, foreign, forfeit, formerly, forty, fourth, fulfil (UK), fulfill (USA), fundamentally, gauge, generally, genius, government, governor, grievous, guarantee, guerrilla, guidance, handkerchief, happily, harass, height, heinous, haemorrhage (UK), hemorrhage (USA), heroes, hesitancy, hindrance, hoarse, hoping, humorous, hypocrisy, hypocrite, ideally, idiosyncrasy, ignorance, imaginary, immediately, implement, inadvertent, incidentally, incredible, independence, independent, indicted, indispensable, inevitable, influential, information, inoculate, insistent, insurance, intelligence, intercede, interference, interpret, interrupt, introduce, irrelevant, irresistible, irritable, island, jealousy, jewellery (UK), jewelry (USA), judgment, judicial, knowledge, laboratory, legitimate, leisure, length, lenient, liaison, license, lieutenant, lightning, likelihood, likely, liquefy, loneliness, losing, lovely, luxury, magazine, maintain, maintenance, manageable, manoeuvre (UK), maneuver (US), marriage, mathematics, medicine, memento, millennium, millionaire, miniature, minuscule, minutes, mischievous, missile, misspelled, mortgage, mosquito, mosquitoes, murmur, muscle, mysterious, narcissist, narrative, naturally, necessary, necessity, either, neighbour (UK), neighbor (USA), neutron, ninety, ninth, noticeable, nowadays, nuisance, obedience, obstacle, occasion, occasionally, occurred, occurrence, official, omission, omit, omitted, opinion, opponent, opportunity, oppression, optimism, ordinarily, origin, outrageous, overrun, panicky, parallel, parliament, particularly, peaceable, peculiar, penetrate, perceive, performance, permanent, permissible, permitted, perseverance, persistence, physical, physician, picnicking, piece, pilgrimage, pitiful, planning, pleasant, portray, possess, possessive, potato, potatoes, practically, prairie, preference, preferred, prejudice, preparation, prescription, prevalent, primitive, privilege, probably, procedure, proceed, professor, prominent, pronounce, pronunciation, propaganda, psychology, publicly, pursue, quandary, quarantine, questionnaire, quizzes, realistically, realize, really, recede, receipt, receive, recognize, recommend, reference, referred, relevant, relieving, religious, remembrance, reminiscence, repetition, representative, resemblance, reservoir, resistance, restaurant, rheumatism, rhythm, rhythmical, roommate, sacrifice, sacrilegious, safety, salary, sapphire, satellite, scenery, schedule, secede, secretary, seize, separate, sergeant, several, shining, similar, simile, simply, sincerely, sceptic (UK), skeptic (USA), sceptical (UK),skeptical (USA), skiing, soliloquy, sophomore, souvenir, specifically, specimen, sponsor, spontaneous, statistics, stopped, strategy, strength, strenuous, stubbornness, subordinate, subpoena, subtle, succeed, success, succession, sufficient, supersede, suppress, surprise, surround, susceptible, suspicious, syllable, symmetrical, synonymous, tangible, technical, technique, temperature, tendency, themselves, theories, therefore, thorough, though, through, till, tomorrow, tournament, tourniquet, tragedy, transferred, truly, twelfth, tyranny, unanimous, undoubtedly, unnecessary, until, usage, usually, vacuum, valuable, vengeance, vigilant, village, villain, violence, visible, warrant, Wednesday, weird, wherever, wholly, yacht, yield, zoology

 

Choose ten words that you think you may need to write, and try to learn the spelling.

A Spelling Test

(taken from the site: http://www.sentex.net/%7Emmcadams/spelling.html - no longer on-line)

 

Put a tick next to the word which you think is spelt correctly (ask Viv or use a dictionary to check).

1.     annoint                                                anoint

2.     coolly                                                   cooly

3.     supersede                                           supercede

4.     irresistible                                           irresistable

5.     developement                                     development

6.     hygiene                                               hygene

7.     seperate                                              separate

8.     tyranny                                                tyrrany

9.     harrass                                                harass

10.   desiccate                                             dessicate

11.   indispensable                                     indispensible

12.   recieve                                                receive

13.   pursue                                                 persue

14.   reccomend                                          recommend

15.   desperate                                            desparate

16.   liquify                                                   liquefy

17.   seize                                                    sieze

18.   cemetary                                             cemetery

19.   subpoena                                            subpena

20.   definately                                            definitely

21.   ocassion                                              occasion

22.   consensus                                          concensus

23.   inadvertant                                          inadvertent

24.   minuscule                                           miniscule

25.   judgment                                             judgement

26.   inoculate                                             innoculate

27.   drunkenness                                       drunkeness

28.   occurence                                           occurrence

29.   dissipate                                              disippate

30.   weird                                                    wierd

31.   alot                                                       a lot

32.   accomodate                                        accommodate

33.   embarrassment                                  embarassment

34.   ecstacy                                                ecstasy

35.   repetition                                             repitition

36.   battalion                                              batallion

37.   despair                                                dispair

38.   irritable                                                irritible

39.   accidently                                            accidentally

40.   liaison                                                  liason

41.   memento                                             momento

42.   brocolli                                                 broccoli

43.   millennium                                          millenium

44.   yeild                                                     yield

45.   existence                                             existance

46.   independent                                        independant

47.   sacreligious                                        sacrilegious

48.   insistent                                               insistant

49.   excede                                                exceed

50.   privilege                                               priviledge