The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules

(^) The ew is not often found in the middle of a word.
(^) Spelling rule #4: The oo spelling is usually found in the middle of a word:
(^) Note that the double o is quite rare at the beginning of a word, though there are some scientific words
in this group.
(^) There are barely a dozen words that have the double o at the end. About half of these are exotic words.
(^) A single o may sometimes have the oo sound, with or without the silent e, but there are not many such
words.
(^) Spelling rule #5: There is another very large group of words that uses the ou spelling to produce the
oo sound. Excluding words that contain the suffix ous, we have about sixty words. However, many
of these words are recently assimilated French words, or words of French origin that have not yet
been anglicized.
(^) There are many other words in this group that may be considered fully assimilated, no matter their
origin.
(^) Spelling rule #6: The ou is almost always used in the middle of a word. Few words start or finish
with ou.
(^) Note that there a several other ways to produce the oo sound in English.
Many scientific words use the oe diphthong, but not always with the oo sound. For example,
onomatopoeia or coelacanth. Which leaves us with just two words in this group—canoe and shoe.
The eau combination is used in only one word and its derivatives—beauty, beautiful, beauteous,
beautician.
The iew combination is used in only one word and its derivatives—view, interview, review, purview.
The ough spelling with the oo sound is used in only one word and its derivative—through and
throughout.
The wo group consists of just a tiny group of words.