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SPELLING TIPS
Most of these tips have been drawn from The Concise Oxford Dictionary, unless otherwise indicated.  Consult any dictionary for further assistance.  

*Further indicates an increase of something immeasurable.  Farther refers to a physical distance.  Go to This or That for more clarification of confusing words. 


The numbering is for discussion purposes and does not indicate any sort of order or priority. 


1.  I before E except after C or when sounding like A as in neighbor and weigh:           Beige, reign, heinous

          Exceptions: seize, either, neither

          The long I sound uses ei: height, kaleidoscope

2. When a suffix beginning with a vowel (such as -able, -ed, -er, -ing, -en, -ish) is added to a word ending in a consonant, the consonant is usually double if it is a single consonant preceded by a single vowel and comes at the end of a stressed syllable:

          Bitten, preferred, dropped, trekking, beginning, permitted, forgotten

3.  Double the L if the word ends in a stressed syllable:

          Dispelled, gelled ---  but not labeled, traveling, jeweler

          Exceptions: paralleled, devilish

4.  A final silent E is usually dropped when adding a suffix beginning with a vowel:

          Bluish, bravest, continuous, refusal, queued, charging, icing, lunging, dosage, wastage, bony, icy, bouncy, lacy

          Exceptions:

          To see the difference: dyeing vs. dying, singeing vs. singing, routeing vs. routing

          Ageing, bingeing, clueing, cueing acreage

          Sometimes glueing, hingeing, spongeing, pricely, spacey

          Words that end in -ee, -oe, -ye: Eyeing, fleeing, hoeing, shoeing, canoeing, tiptoeing

          Words that end in -ce or -ge: Advantageous, courageous, knowledgeable,             
            noticeable, manageable, peaceable           Words that end in -dge: acknowledgment, fledgling

5.  A final silent E is not usually dropped when the suffix begins with a consonant:

          Useful, homeless, safely, movement, whiteness, lifelike, awesome

          Exceptions: argument, awful, duly, ninth, truly, wholly

6.  When adding a prefix (beginning of the word), don't change the spelling:

          Unnecessary, misspelled, dissatisfied

7.  If the last letter of a word is C, add a K before adding the suffix -ing, -er, or -y:

          Panicky, panicking, picnicker, picnicking, picnicked

 

8.  To make a word plural after an s, sh, ss, z, x, ch, add es.  But if the ch makes a K sound as in stomach, just add s:

          Books, boxes, pizzas, arches, stomachs, quizzes,

          Usually only the letter Z is doubled: quizzes

          For nouns ending in Y preceded by a consonant (or-quy), drop the y and add ies:

          Rubies, soliloquies, trophies, babies --- but not boys, monkeys

          For words ending in an O preceded by a consonant, add es:

          Potatoes, tomatoes, heroes

9.  Change Y to I before adding -ly, -ness, -age: 
         busy = business, easy = easily, scanty = scantily, wily = wiliness 10.  Cannot versus can not (from AlexFiles.com): if you either could or could not do something, use two words.  If you could not do something no matter what, then use one word, cannot:

          Example: If I can not do something, then I can also do it. I can not write these words if I choose, but I also can.             I cannot know, however, who will read them.    11.  Hyphenate words are not hyphenated when they are not followed by a noun:

          Example: He is a well-known man.  He does not enjoy being well known.

          Please turn on the Christmas-tree lights; I love the glow from the Christmas tree. 

         Hyphenate where the double ee could be a problem: re-enact, re-enlist, re-enter

12.  Apostrophe:

          Singular possessive: girl's, boy's, child's, baby's, its, at the butcher's

          Plural possessive: girls', boys', children's, babies'

          When the last letter is an S, either option works: Charles', Charles's

          Contractions: don't, can't, won't, it's, o'clock

          Do not use the apostrophe to plural a number or an abbreviation: 1940s, POWs.

          *It's common to misuse the apostrophe when using the word it in its possessive
             form.