CHAPTER 40

Using le, el, al, il, ol, ul, yl

When we consider that all these endings make more or less the same sound, this is an extraordinary

range of possibilities. A careful look will show that there are quite valid reasons and there is a pattern to
it all. It is obvious that poor pronunciation often leads to confusion between these endings. The al suffix,
for example, can be easily distinguished if it is clearly pronounced, but the el suffix is all too often slurred
into a le or a schwa sound. The three most common endings are le, el, and al. The problem is simplified if
we bear in mind the difference between an angel and an angle.

Spelling rule #1: If the root ends in a soft c or a soft g, it cannot be followed by le or al, it must
therefore use el:

(^) Spelling rule #2: If the ending follows a hard c or a hard g, it cannot be el and must therefore be
either le or al:
(^) Spelling rule #3: The vast majority of words ending in al are adjectives:
(^) Note that words ending in the silent e will lose the e before the al:
(^) Spelling rule #4: A large majority of words ending in cle or ckle are nouns:
(^) In English spelling, the le never follows the letters m, n, r, v, and w. Only six words use sle:
(^) The following consonants are usually followed by le: b, d, f, g, p, and z. There are a few exceptions:
The letter t may be followed by le, el, or al:
(^) The yl ending is found mainly on scientific words such as pterodactyl and chlorophyl, leaving us with
only two commonly used words—sibyl and idyl.
Very few words end in ul. If we exclude almost two hundred words that end in ful (useful, beautiful,
etc.) and words containing the diphthongs au and ou (haul, maul, ghoul, foul, etc.), we are left with only
four ul words:
(^) Words ending in ol are also quite rare. If we exclude words containing the diphthong oo (school, wool,
etc.), we are left with fewer than two dozen ol words, and one third of these are chemical terms: