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Spelling rules for English

John C.D. Nissen, revised 23rd May 2005

Introduction

When Dr Johnson was asked to produce a dictionary for the English language, he was faced by the problem that there are about 44 sounds of the language which needed to be represented by 26 letters. The publishers wanted him to produce a single spelling for each word in his dictionary, so that the spellings would be become standardised. Up to that time there was no accepted standard. A name like "Shakespeare" could be spelt in over a hundred ways. And words came from Old English, from French (after the Norman Conquest in 1066), from Latin, and from Greek. To confuse the issue further, there was no standard pronunciation of words, and so Dr Johnson had to pick on a particular pronunciation for each word in order to decide on an appropriate spelling. In many cases the pronunciation of a word has changed since Dr Johnson's time, and the spelling he chose now seems inappropriate.

Another problem Dr Johnson had was that many words had more than one meaning, and he often decided to give such words different spellings - for example 'bred' and 'bread'. (A list of such "homophones" in American English is given in evaeaston.com/pr/homophones.html.) Yet he had only six vowel letters to use to cover the many vowel sounds in English. The result was that we have many different ways of representing vowel sounds using different combinations of letters and spelling rules.

Short vowels

A single vowel letter 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', or 'u' is used to produce the short vowel sounds /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/ and /u/, as in 'bat', 'set', 'big', 'fog' and 'cup'. A 'y' is normally used rather than 'i' for the short /i/ sound at the end of words ('taxi' being an exception), and is occasionally used for this sound in other parts of words of Greek origin, such as 'gym'.

Lengthening of vowels

A single vowel letter 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u', or 'y' before a single consonant generally denotes a short vowel sound. This sound is nearly always lengthened if there is an 'e', 'i' or 'y' following the consonant. This rule has many repercussions on spelling.

Often an 'e' is added following the consonant at the end of a word purely to lengthen the previous vowel, in which case the 'e' is silent. For example: 'fade', 'delete', 'side', 'robe' and 'cube'. We may denote these long sounds by /A/, /E/, /I/, /O/ and /U/ respectively, as they sound like the letter names. See table [1].

If a single vowel letter is followed by an 'r', the vowel sound is lengthened, but in a different way from the 'e' lengthening. A lengthening effect is also produced by a 'w'. But if the single vowel letter is followed two consonants, the first of which is neither an 'r' nor a 'w', then the vowel sound may be short or long. Sometimes a silent 'e' is added after two consonants to change or lengthen the vowel, e.g. 'paste' and 'taste'.

The most common way to change or lengthen a vowel sound is by adding another vowel letter, but there are usually several alternative combinations for producing a given sound. For example 'ee' is pronounced with a long /E/ sound, but there are several other spellings that may be pronounced /E/, see table [1]. However there is a rule for whether to use 'ie' or 'ei', see below.

The 'i' before 'e' rule

In words that contain a long /E/ sound, this may be spelt with 'ie', but not after 'c' when 'ei' is preferred. (This may because the 'c' is more visibly softened by an 'e' than by an 'i'.) But words containing a long /A/ sound are spelt with an 'ei' rather than an 'ie', perhaps because the sound of the diphthong /e-i/ suggests a spelling 'ei'.

Some other words have 'ei', giving various sounds: either and neither (/E/ or /I/); feint and weight (/A/); height (/I/); foreign and forfeit (/i/); leisure (/e/); seize (/E/); and weird (/E/ur/). See table [1].

Softening of consonant sounds

The hard unvoiced /g/ sound is generally softened (i.e. voiced /d/zh/ as with 'j') if the 'g' is followed by an 'e', 'i' or 'y'. Often a silent 'e' is added at the end of a word, to soften the 'g', as in 'age'. But where a short vowel sound is needed (as in 'bridge'), a 'd' is usually added to prevent the vowel being lengthened by the 'e' (so 'cadge' with short /a/ has the 'd' otherwise it would sound like 'cage' with long /A/).

The letter 'j' always has the soft sound /d/zh/. It is often used at the beginning of words, as in 'jump' and 'jet', or after a prefix, as in 'adjective' and 'rejoice'. The 'j' is less often used at other positions in the word, such as in 'banjo' or 'raj'. More often a 'g' with a silent 'e' is used, as in 'pigeon'.

If, on the other hand, the hard /g/ sound is retained when followed by an 'e' or 'i', a silent 'u' is added, e.g. 'guest' and 'guile'. A silent 'u' is also added in some other words, such as 'guard', which are of French origin.

Producing the /k/ sound

The 'c' is used to produce the /k/ sound when it is followed by 'a', 'o' or 'u' and would not be softened, as in 'cat', 'cot' and 'cut'. Otherwise a 'k' is generally used, as in 'keep' and 'kit' (and in 'make' and 'bike' where there is a silent 'e'). However when the /k/ is followed by a /w/ sound, 'qu' is nearly always used, as in 'queen', 'acquire' and 'sequel'.

A 'k' is used at the ends of words if preceded by a consonant sound such as 'n', 'l', 's' or 'r' (as in 'ink', 'sulk', 'ask' and 'dark'), otherwise 'ck' is normally used (as in 'thick', 'lock' and 'luck' - all with short vowel sounds).

There are a few words where the /k/ is produced by 'ch', such as 'choir', 'Christmas' and 'anchor'.

Doubling of consonant letters

The letter 'l' is often doubled at the end of a word with a stressed syllable, as in 'all', 'recall', 'tell' or 'foretell'; however we have exceptions such as 'until' and 'fulfil'. The letter 's' is often doubled in a similar way, as in 'pass', 'less' and 'undress'. The letter 'f' is doubled in words like 'stuff' and 'riff', and the letter 'z' is doubled in words like 'jazz' and 'fizz'. Other letters are rarely doubled in this way.

But most consonant letters can be doubled in certain circumstances. Doubling most commonly occurs to ensure that a vowel is kept short. For example the 'gg' in 'exaggerate' ensures that the 'a' is a short /a/ sound. However there are numerous counter examples when doubling seems unnecessary (such as the 'mm' in 'accommodate') and even more examples when doubling might have been expected (such as 'p' in 'proper' to keep the 'o' short). Doubling has gradually decreased over the centuries.

Doubling often occurs when endings (suffixes) are added to a word, to prevent a vowel change from short vowel to long vowel. Thus 'rob' (to steal) has doubling for 'robbed', 'robbing', and 'robber'. By contrast, the word 'robe' (a costume) has a verb 'to robe' (put on a costume), and no doubling for 'robed' or 'robing'. Similarly 'strip' has doubling for 'stripped', to keep the short /i/ sound, but 'stripe' does not need it for 'striped', nor does 'steep' for 'steeper', because the vowel is already long. There are several rules for doubling as follows.

Words that have a stressed last syllable with a single vowel (thus with short vowel sound) and ending in a single consonant have that consonant doubled when the suffix begins with a vowel. For example, 'commit' becomes 'committed' or 'committing'. But when the suffix begins with a consonant, there is no doubling, hence 'commitment'.

Words ending in an unstressed syllable, such as 'happen', do not have doubling, thus 'happening', 'opening', etc. The final vowel sound is not changed, because it is still to be schwa (or may be swallowed completely and sound /happning/, /opning/, etc.).

However, words ending in unstressed syllable sounding /el/, have 'l' doubled in British English, but not in American English, e.g. 'travelling' in British English, but 'traveling' in American English.

Words ending in two or more consonants in a blend (such as 'lk') or digraph (such as 'ck'), do not have doubling. Thus 'silk' becomes 'silken', 'fast' becomes 'fastest', 'kick' becomes 'kicking', and 'wash' becomes 'washed'.

Doubling occurs when there is the same consonant at the end of one syllable and the beginning of the next, e.g. 'hiccup'. Doubling also occurs because of prefixes, see below.

Losing 'e' when suffix added

The 'e' at the end of a word is usually lost when an ending is added which begins with a vowel (so 'like' becomes 'liking'), but kept when it begins with a consonant (so 'manage' becomes 'management'). A few words are allowed either way (so that 'judge' becomes 'judgment' or 'judgement', 'age' becomes 'aging' or 'ageing', and 'like' becomes 'likable' or 'likeable'). And a few words keep the 'e' (such as 'mileage') or change it to an 'i' ('prestigious'). However the 'e' is lost if it is following a vowel, whatever the ending (so 'true' becomes 'truly').

Changing 'y' into 'i'

The 'y' following a consonant at the end of a word is changed to 'i' for any suffix other than 'ing' (to avoid an 'ii'). Thus 'study' becomes 'studied' but also 'studying'; 'busy' becomes 'busily' but also 'busying'. But if the 'y' follows a vowel, and therefore modifies the vowel sound, the 'y' needs to remain for any suffix that is added. Thus 'play' becomes 'played' and 'playing'.

On the other hand, words ending in 'ie' have it changed to 'y' for the addition of 'ing'. Thus 'die' becomes 'dying' and 'lie' becomes 'lying'. Again, the 'ii' is to be avoided. (But 'taxi' becomes 'taxiing', and 'ski' becomes 'skiing'.)

Spelling for sounds /s/ and /z/

The 's' is an ending for plurals, for possessive, for third person singular of verbs, and, always with an apostrophe, as in abbreviation for 'is'. It sounds /s/ after an unvoiced consonant, otherwise /z/. So the /z/ sound is often spelt an 's' or apostrophe 's', rather than 'z' or 'zz'.

Plurals, and the third person singular of regular verbs, are generally formed by adding an 's' or an 'es' (sounding /i/z/). For words ending in a vowel and a 'y', add 's' (so 'toy' becomes 'toys'), but for words ending in a consonant and a 'y', change the 'y' to 'ies' (so 'try' becomes 'tries').

Verbs ending in long /I/ and /z/ tend to be spelt with 'ise' in British English, and 'ize' in American English, e.g. 'standardise' and 'standardize'.

The letter 'z' is used for the /z/ at the beginning of words, as in 'zoo', and at the end of words, such as 'jazz'. There are a few words with 'z' in other positions, such as 'amaze', but mostly an 's' is used, as in 'phase', 'raise', etc.

Prefixes

Adding a prefix rarely changes spelling, so: 'spelled' becomes 'misspelled'; 'satisfied' becomes 'dissatisfied'; 'necessary' becomes 'unnecessary'; and 'mode' becomes 'commode' and then 'accommodation'. Thus prefixes often result in doubling. But note that 'misinform' and 'disinterested' have the 'mis' and 'dis' pronounced with a short /i/ despite being followed by an 'i'.

Latin prefixes can often result in doubling. Examples include words starting with 'ad' (as in 'address'), 'ab' (as in 'abbreviation'), 'ac' (as in 'accept'), 'al' (as in 'allow'), 'ap' (as in 'appoint'), 'con' (as in 'connect'), 'com' (as in 'commit'), 'oc' (as in 'occasion'), 'op' (as in 'opposite'), 'in' (as in 'innate'), 'im' (as in 'immediately') and 'ir' (as in 'irresistible').

Note that the prefix 'co' or 'pre' before a words beginning with a vowel may be hyphenated to make the pronunciation clear, e.g. 'co-ordinate' and pre-empt'.

Silent consonant letters

There are many English words whose spellings have to be learnt individually because they have silent consonant letters, see http://evaeaston.com/pr/sl-pattern.html. For example there are words with 'mb' where the 'b' is silent (such as 'bomb' and 'comb'), words with 'gn' where the 'g' is silent (such as 'gnome'), and so on.

Note that the middle consonant of three is often silent, such as: the 'k' in 'asked' and 'handkerchief'; the 't' in 'Christmas' and 'castle'; and the 'p' in 'temptation', 'attempt' and 'jumps'. This rule can be considered to apply in 'listen' and 'fasten', sounding /l/i/s/en/ and /f/ah/s/en/, when the 'en' is treated as a single consonant without schwa. The rule does not apply when there is an /s/ on both sides, and so the middle consonant has to be heard to separate them, as in 'asks', 'fasts' 'lists', 'wisps' and 'texts'. It may not apply for plurals, so 'bums' and 'bumps' sound different - however in that instance the difference is mainly due to /z/ /s/ distinction. In 'fifths' the middle consonant /th/ may be silent.

French words

Some French word endings have a silent 't', as in 'debut', 'ballet', 'depot', 'beret' and 'mortgage'. (The word 'mortgage' is derived from old French 'mort' for 'dead', so 'mortgage' meant 'dead pledge'.) Some other French words have silent endings, e.g. 'corps', 'coup', 'rendezvous' and 'Sioux'.

French words have the 'p' silent before 'n' in words such as 'pneumatic'. The 'u' is effectively silent after 'q' and 'c' in some words such as 'quarter' and 'biscuit'.

Greek words

Words of Greek origin have /f/ spelt 'ph', as in 'phone' and 'photo'. They often have /k/ spelt 'ch', as in 'chronic' and 'chorus'. Also there is often a silent 'h' with 'r', as in 'rhythm'; and a silent 'p' with 's' or 't', as in 'psalm' and 'pterodactyl'.

References

[1] Table of spellings - mapping phonemes to graphemes - for British English, 'received pronunciation' (RP). It is available by request from the author. Please email me or use the form {on the support page. Please email me} or use the form {on the support page}.

[2] For American English vowels, see evaeaston.com/pr/vowels.html.