The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules

CHAPTER 14 Soft and Hard c There are times when the c is soft, as in city, and other times when it is hard. as in cat. Understan ...

team. ...

CHAPTER 15 Combinations Using c The letter c is one of the most interesting letters in the alphabet. It has often been denounced ...

(^) After the letter s the c becomes silent if it is followed by e or i: (^) But if the sc is followed by a, o, or u, it will so ...

CHAPTER 16 Soft and Hard g Many writers lump the c and g together when explaining hard and soft sounds. Although they are simila ...

(^) Note that mathematicians and computer experts sometimes argue among themselves regarding the word gigabyte. Since it does no ...

CHAPTER 17 Changing the y to i Here is one of those spelling rules that we all remember quite well, though we sometimes get a li ...

CHAPTER 18 Using qu Plus a Vowel It is quite common to hear English spelling rules dismissed as either nonexistent or so riddled ...

CHAPTER 19 The i Before e Rule There is one spelling rule that everybody remembers—at least the first two lines. Some of us can ...

Spelling rule #3. ...or when sounding like ay. There are fewer than three dozen commonly used words that are spelled ei and soun ...

CHAPTER 20 Using k, ck, ic, ac To the student of English there must be times when the letters c and k appear to be interchangeab ...

(^) A historical note: Less than two hundred years ago, public and domestic were spelled publick and domestick. ...

CHAPTER 21 Using ch and tch Hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of English words contain the digraph ch. It can be used at the beg ...

CHAPTER 22 Using j, ge, dge The letter j is a very underused letter. About seventy-five percent of the time, when we hear the j ...

CHAPTER 23 Using oy and oi While the long vowel sounds produced by oy and oi are exactly the same, there is a logical reason to ...

CHAPTER 24 Using ay and ai The long vowel sounds produced by ay and ai are exactly the same, but there is a logical reason to us ...

CHAPTER 25 Using au and aw These two syllables are similar in sound and could cause confusion. This is because the w in many of ...

CHAPTER 26 Using ou and ow Since the ou and ow combinations often make the same sound, it would seem that there is little differ ...

CHAPTER 27 Using oe, ow, oa The long o sound can be spelled in a number of ways, for example, throat, throne, though, throw, hoe ...

CHAPTER 28 Using or, ore, oar, our The or sound can be spelled in a number of ways, for example for, fore, and four, also soar, ...