Spelling

Spelling is the action of forming a word with the necessary letters and punctuation marks in a standardised manner.

Compared to some other languages, English has a somewhat looser connection between the way a word is spelt and the way it is pronounced. There are various historic reasons for these differences and some people have advocated spelling reform in order to regularise the language.

One reason for problems stems from the alphabet itself, a problem for which, somewhat oddly, we can blame the French. Prior to the Norman invasion English was progressing towards a phonetic spelling system with a sign for its many different vowel sounds. Following the invasion the French invaders insisted that only the vowel letters AEIOU should be used and the twenty-plus English vowel sounds had to somehow be shoe-horned into these letters.

English spelling today reflects Old English (12th century) pronunciation and 15th century spelling, not modern pronunciation, which is why there are so many apparent incongruences. One reason for this was the result of printers' - often Dutch immigrants - decisions in the early days of the printing press. The lack of fixed spellings, together with technical decisions regarding straight edges to columns, and so on, only contributed further to the situation.

Urban myth

An urban myth – often repeated by teachers and students alike – is that English spelling has no rules, is chaotic, at best irregular and so on.

However, as David Crystal points out, there are only around 400 everyday words with totally irregular spelling – and it is precisely the fact that they are so frequently encountered that is the origin of the myth. One particular computer analysis of 17,000 words showed that 84% were spelled according to a regular pattern – and only 3% were so irregular that they have to be learned by heart.

He goes on to point out that children at school are rarely taught how to spell, even though they are "rigorously tested" in spelling.

Many of the words that do not conform to spelling rules are among the most commonly used in modern English. Consequently, words such as do, done, give, said, of, people and have, though irregular, are so frequently used that even people with difficulty in spelling have no problem learning to write them correctly.

Some common spelling rules

"i before e except after c"

Many native English speakers confuse the combination ei and ie in words such as believe and ceiling.

• "ie": believe; chief; piece; etc.;

• "ei": ceiling; deceive; perceive; receive; etc.;

• ei followed by –gh and pronounced /ei/ as in ‘day’: eight; weigh; weight; etc.;

Note the following exceptions:

• "ei": caffeine, either, foreign, height, leisure, neither, seize and weird.
• "ie": flies, science, tried, etc.

final e

(Also see main article Silent e)

• Before suffixes that begin with a vowel (e.g. -ing; -able; -y; -ous), we usually drop the final -e of a word ending in -e: hope – hoping; write – writing; make – making; note – notable; shade – shady; fame – famous;

• Before suffixes that begin with a consonant (e.g. -ment; -ness; -ly; etc.), the final -e is not dropped: excite – excitement; definite – definitely; late – lately; complete – completeness;

y and i

• When we add an ending to a word that ends in -y, we usually change -y to -i: hurry – hurried; happy – happily; busy – business; easy – easier;

Except for endings beginning with -i (e.g. -ing; -ism; -ish): try – trying; baby – babyish

• We do not change -y to i after a vowel: play – played/playing; buy – buying; enjoy – enjoyment

Exceptions: say – said; pay – paid; lay – laid;

• We change -ie to -y before -ing: die – dying; lie – lying

Verbs ending in -ise and -ize

i. In British English these verbs can be spelt with either -ise or -ize. American English tends to use -ize: realise/realize (BrE) – realize (AmE);

• • The general rule is that verbs containing the Greek suffix -ize must always be spelt that way in American English but can also be spelt -ise in British English.

Some exceptions – these are written -ise even in American English: surprise (NOT XXXXsurprize); exercise; supervise; advise; revise; If in doubt, remember -ise is usually correct in British English.

• While on the subject of differences between British and US spellings, there are a number of common words which end differently:

• • -re in BrE (theatre, centre, litre, etc.) but -er in AmE (theater, center, liter, etc.);

• • -our in BrE (colour, honour, favour, etc.) but -or in AmE (color, honor, favor, etc.);

• • other words, such as sulphur in BrE (and sulphuric, sulphates, etc.) but - sulfur in AmE (and sulfuric, sulfates etc.);

Others

Everyday words that are especially confusing for students include the following:

• through vs though vs thought
• Wednesday

Exercises

There are several exercises and games which practise spelling, including:

• Crosswords
• Hangman
• Missing vowels
• Spelling dictation
• Word battleships

See also

• American English v. British English
• Consonant cluster
• Digraph
• Diphthong
• Etymology
• Homophone
• Latin alphabet
• Pronunciation
• Reading
• Schwa
• Silent e
• Silent letter
• Spell checker
• Spelling reform
• Trigraph
• Triphthong
• Vocabulary ELT games

External links

• Some phonetics rules
• Oxford Dictionaries: Spelling rules and tips
• Oxford Dictionaries: "i before e except after c"
• "The Classic Concordance of Cacographic Chaos" The Simplified Spelling Society
• Oxford Dictionaries: Are there any English words containing the same letter three times in a row?
• Twelve Top Spelling Tips The Collins English Dictionary