E12

Spelling Rules:
1. the "i before e except after c" rule
believe - receive
As a basic rule this is great
but what about ancient, leisure, neighbour/neighbor
We have a longer version of the rule:
" i before e except after a long c but not when c is a "sh" sound and not when sounded like a as in neighbour or weigh."
( i before e rule) believe, achieve, (except after c),receive, ceiling (but not when c is sounded like sh) ancient, proficient
not when sounded like a ) eight, beige
But there are exceptions always exceptions so watch out for them.
2. Changing "y" to "ies"
When the word ends in a vowel + y just add ‘s’
key ? keys
delay ? delays
trolley ? trolleys
(because we can t have three vowels in a row delaies x )
If the word has a consonant before the ‘y’:
take off the ‘y’ and add ‘ies’
baby ? babies
company ? companies
difficulty ? difficulties
3. Adding -es to words ending in -s, -ss, -z -ch -sh -x
This was added centuries ago to stop the plural s clashing with these letters and it softens the s sound to a z sound
bus? buses
business ? businesses
watch ? watches
box ? boxes
quiz ? quizzes

4. 1:1:1 doubling up rule
put - putting, big-bigger, quiz - quizzes, swim - swimming...
When a word has one syllable + 1 vowel next to 1 consonant we double up the final consonant with a vowel suffix:
sit - sitter, big - biggest, tap - tapping, shop - shopper/shopping, fat - fatten, fattening, fatter, fattest...
This happens in longer words when the stress is on the final syllable:
begin (beGIN) - beginner, beginning
refer (reFER) - referring, referred
occur (ocCUR) - occurring, occurred, occurrence

5. Drop the ‘e’ rule
We usually drop the final silent "e" when we add vowel suffix endings, for example:
write + ing ? writing
hope + ed = hoped
excite + able = excitable
joke - joker
large - largish
close - closing
sense + ible = sensible
opposite + ion = opposition
imagine + ation = imagination
6. Changing the "y" to "i" when adding suffix endings.
If a word ends in a consonant + Y, the Y changes to i (unless adding endings with "i" -ing -ish, which already begins with an i)
beauty+ful > beauti+ful =beautiful, beautify, beautician
happy + ness = - happiness, happily, happier, happiest
angry + er = angrier, angriest, angrily,
pretty: prettier, prettiest but prettyish
ready: readily readiness
dry: dried, BUT drying, dryish
defy: defies, defied, but defying
apply: applies, applied but applying

7. "-f" to "-ves" or "-s"
Most words ending in "-f" or "-fe" change their plurals to "-ves"
calf - calves
half - halves
knife - knives
leaf - leaves
loaf - loaves
life - lives
wife - wives
shelf - shelves