Knowing how to correctly spell a word is part of really knowing a word. Accurate spelling (also known as orthography) is a key element of successful writing. In addition, recognising sound-spelling relationships and knowing how to pronounce a word based on its written form is also necessary for reading and speaking.
Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of English words are in fact spelt either phonetically or according to spelling rules. In fact, 70-80% of English words have a predictable spelling and only a very small number (about 3%) are so irregular that they have to be learnt separately. Fortunately, many of these irregularly spelt words happen to be very common words which tend to be learnt very early on and therefore their spellings rarely cause problems (e.g. one, the, was, what, would).
Basic English Spelling Rules
Here are eight basic English spelling rules which have few exceptions and which are relatively easy to learn and to teach:
Rule 1: A silent -e at the end of a word makes the preceding vowel say its name (if there is only one consonant between them): late, these, time, code, cute.
Rule 2: Words ending in a silent -e drop the e before a suffix beginning with a vowel: hoping, writing.
Rule 3: When a suffix is added, a final consonant + -y is changed to consonant + -i (or -ie if the suffix is -s): happier, easily, carries.
Rule 4: When the affixes -all, –full and –till are joined to a word or syllable, they drop an ‘-l’: always, hopeful, until.
Rule 5: After s, x, z, sh, ch, we add -es, not -s to make the plural: buses, buzzes, foxes, witches.
Rule 6: In one-syllable words of the CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) pattern, the final consonant is doubled before a suffix that begins with a vowel: hot-hottest; stop-stopping, win-winner.
Rule 7: “i before e except after c” (whenever it rhymes with me): believe, field, receive
Rule 8: -ck instead of -c at the end of one-syllable words: kick, rock, panic, traffic
It is also very important to be aware of the spelling differences between British English (BrE) and American English (AmE). AmE tends to simplify a number of spellings, such as: program (BrE programme), dialog (BrE dialogue) and traveler (BrE traveller). Many words which contain –our in BrE (particularly at the end of a word), are spelt with –or in AmE, such as: color, favorite and neighbor. The noun practice (BrE) and verb practise (BrE) are both spelt as practice in AmE.
Task 12.A
Which of the Basic English Spelling Rules (1-8) is illustrated by each of the following examples (a) – (h)?
Spanish Speakers’ Spelling Mistakes
There are also a number of spelling errors frequently made by Spanish speakers which do not fit with any of the previous rules.
Task 12.B
Identify the common spelling mistake in each of the following sentences and write the word correctly in the box beneath:
