English Spelling Rules (2024)

Here are some of the basic English spelling rules you should definitely know about.

First of all:

Common spelling mistakes

14 of the Most Commonly Misspelled Words in English

Click Here for Step-by-Step Rules, Stories and Exercises to Practice All English Tenses

The complete list of English spelling rules

Lesson1: the "Magic" E

Lesson 2:hom*ophones

Lesson3: Kn- and Wr- at the Beginning of Words

Lesson4: Silent H

Lesson5: -mn and -mb Combinations at the End of Words

Lesson6: Silent G and Silent P

Lesson7: Pronunciations of -ough

Lesson8: Common English Prefixes

Lesson9: Common English Suffixes

Lesson10: C, K, CK, and QU

Lesson 11: Word Ending Sounds V, J, and Long E

Lesson 12: Double Letter Endings -ll, -ff, -ss, -zz

Lesson 13: I Before E Except After C

Lesson 14: Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

Lesson 15: Forming Adverbs

Lesson 16: -able or -ible

Lesson 17: -ance or -ence and -ancy or -ency

Lesson 18: -ious or -eous

Lesson 19: -sion, -tion, or -cion

Lesson 20: Differences between British and U.S. English

Specific spelling rules for verb tenses

Whendealing with tenses, we often need to change the spelling of theverb.

So here you have the commonly used English spelling rules forverbs:

• Howto add "ing" to a verb
• Howto add "s" to a verb
• Howto add "ed" to a verb

For general tips and advice read: How to Improve YourSpelling, a Guide for Students

Read the rules and make sure to practice them at the ExercisesSection.

Anothergood way to improve your spelling is reading.

That way you see thewords again and again and get familiar with their spelling. So visittheEnglishShort Stories section, too.

Now, let's go over to some more general spelling rules:

Spelling rule #1:S orES?

Thenormal rule to make regular plurals in English, or to change a regularverb to the he/she/it form (also known as the third person singular),is to add Sto the end of the word.

For example:

• One dog --> Lots of dogs
• I work --> She works
• A car --> Some cars
• You like tea --> She likes coffee

Butsometimes we need to add ES instead. When the word ends in: CH, SH, X,SS (and ZZ, but this isn't common), then we have to add ES.

For example:

• I watch TV every night. --> He watches TV at the weekend.
• I have one wish. --> The genie gave him three wishes.
• Can you fix this? --> A mechanic fixes cars.
• Give me a kiss! --> She gave her daughter lots ofkisses.

Spelling rule #1B: the problem withY

Students are often confused by the letter Y.

Sometimesit is removed from the end of the word before the word is changed intoa plural or third person singular form, and sometimes it isn't.

So what's the rule?

There are two types of letters in English. Vowels (A, E, I, O, U) andconsonants (all the other letters).

If a word ends in Y, and before the Y there is a consonant (forexample, fly, try, spy) then the Y is removed, and IES is added.

For example:

• I want to fly a kite. --> A pilot flies a plane.
• He was a spy. --> The spies were caught.
• Try this exercise. --> Sarah tries very hard in herlessons.

If the word ends with a vowelthen Y (for example, play, tray,toy) then simply an S is added.

For example:

• I used to play with dolls. --> She plays with otherchildren.
• He has a new toy. --> The dog has lots of toys.

Spelling rule #2: doubling consonants

Some words which end in consonants double the last letter when suffixes(extra letters) are added to the end of the word.

For example:

• hot --> hotter
• swim --> swimming

However, this doesn't always happen.

So what's the rule?

If a word ends in a consonantthat has one vowel before it, then the last consonant is doubled.

For example:

• travel --> traveller(British English spelling)
• big --> biggest

This does not usually happen with words with more than one syllableending in ER or OR. (Of course, there are exceptions!)

For example:

• fur/ furry / furred
• plot / plotted/ plotter

But:

• miser/ misery /miserly
• target/ targeted
• bigot/bigoted
• travel/ traveler(American English spelling)

Be careful!

If a word has two vowels before the last consonant, or there are twoconsonants at the end, the last letter isn't doubled.

For example:

• old --> oldest
• shoot --> shooter

Spelling rule #3: the disappearingE

If a verb ends in E, then the E is removed before adding ING to the endof the word.

For example:

• make--> making
• come--> coming

Clickhere for the complete list of rules on English plural nouns.

Studentsoften make mistakes with spelling in English. There are other Englishspelling rules, but these are the most basic ones.

What's Next?

1. Practice,practice, practice with the Exercises

2. Improveyour spelling by readingShort Stories