CHAPTER 34

Using er, or, ar, re, our

These five endings should pose no problem. This is because we use only three of them. Two hundred

years ago, Noah Webster eliminated both the re and the our from American English and simplified the
whole matter. The British still cling to numerous words spelled with the imitation French our ending
—colour, labour, honour, neighbour. In the U.S. we have only a handful—compare hour, four, tour.

(^) The re ending also illustrates a difference between British and American spelling. On the other side of
the Atlantic, they spell about three dozen words with the r before the e—millimetre, centre, theatre, etc..
In the U.S., we have reduced it to fewer than half a dozen commonly used words that are spelled with the
re only so that they will conform to the soft and hard c and g rules:
(^) Spelling rule #1: The er ending is used for occupations or for persons who carry out an action:
(^) Spelling rule #2: The or ending is used with root words that end in t or s:
(^) During the 18th century, there was a period when French spellings were fashionable and a number of
words were spelled with either or or our:
(^) Note that words with a soft c or a soft g will naturally need the er ending to retain the correct sound:
(^) If the word ends in a silent e, it will usually take the er ending:
(^) Comparative adjectives usually end in er.
(^) Spelling rule #3: The vast majority of words ending in ar are adjectives:
(^) However, there are about sixty nouns that also end in ar:
(^) Note that sometimes the different spelling indicates a different meaning:
A sailer is a type of ship, but a sailor is a seaman.