spelling

Words in English are not always spelled as they are pronounced. Spelling in English follows some basic rules and the majority of English words (around 75%) follow these rules. You can learn the rules but there are always exceptions to the rules that need to be learned too.

The main basic spelling rules of English relate to: prefixes and suffixes; spelling and plurals; doubling letters; dropping and adding letters; verb forms. This section focuses on British English but also covers some basic differences in spelling between British and American E.

Spelling: prefixes

When there is a prefix, we do not normally add or take away more letters:

dis + obey → disobey	mis + spell → misspell
dis + satisfied → dissatisfied	over + hear → overhear
in + humane → inhumane	super + human → superhuman
in + sane → insane	un + natural → unnatural
inter + national → international	un + sure → unsure
mis + rule → misrule	under + pass → underpass

Prefixes il-, im-, ir-

We commonly change the prefix in- to il-, im- or ir- when the first letter of a word is l, m, p, or r.

in becomes il- before l	in becomes im- before m or p	in becomes ir- before r
illegible illiterate illogical	immoral immature impossible	irrelevant irresponsible irreplaceable

Spelling and plurals

There are rules for the plurals of regular nouns and the -s forms of regular verbs.

The general rule is add -s:

bring → brings day → days ear → ears smile → smiles speak → speaks town → towns

If the ending is pronounced as ‘ch’ /tʃ/ or ‘s’ /s/, we add -es /ɪz/:

noun plurals	verb -s forms
bus → buses	cross → crosses
church → churches	fetch → fetches
kiss → kisses	guess → guesses

If a word ends in an -e, we add an -s:

base → bases face → faces judge → judges lose → loses

If the word ends in a consonant plus -y, we change -y to i and add -es:

noun plurals	verb -s forms
baby → babies	marry → marries
opportunity → opportunities	reply → replies

We add -es to some words ending in -o:

noun plurals	noun plurals/verb -s forms
tomato → tomatoes	echo → echoes
cargo → cargoes	embargo → embargoes
hero → heroes	go → goes (go [n] = attempt)

However, some words ending in -o only require -s: videos, discos, pianos, memos, photos.

For some nouns ending in -f or -fe, we form the plural by changing the -f or -fe to -ves:

loaf → loaves shelf → shelves thief → thieves wife → wives

See also:

• Forming the plural of nouns

Spelling: doubling consonants

We often double the final consonant of a word (b, d, g, l, m, n, p, r, t) when a suffix beginning with a vowel is added (-ed, -er, -est, -ing):

hop + -ed → hopped	slim + -ing → slimming
red + -ish → reddish	thin + -er → thinner
rub + -ed → rubbed	travel+ -er → traveller
sit + -ing → sitting	wet + -er → wetter

When we add a suffix to a word with more than one syllable, we double the consonant only when the word ends in a stressed syllable (the stressed syllable of the base form is in bold):

admit + -ing → admitting	prefer + -ed → preferred
forget + -ing → forgetting	transmit + -ed → transmitted
occur + -ence → occurrence	upset + -ing → upsetting

Compare, however, visit or enter where the spoken stress is on the first syllable:

visit → visiting	enter → entered
Not: visitting	Not: enterred

Note too that in each case the vowel before the last consonant is a short vowel.

Warning:

We don’t double the final consonant before a suffix:

– if the word ends in two written consonants, e.g. export = exported, find = finding, insist = insisted, lift = lifted, persist = persistence

– if there are two written vowels together in the word, e.g. meeting, rained, weaken, trainer, repeated.

Irregular forms and exceptions

Warning:

Some monosyllabic words ending in -s are irregular. We normally do not double the -s, although some doubled forms will be seen. For example: busses and buses; gasses and gases. (Busses and gasses are not common.)

Some words, several of them ending in l, with more than two syllables, have a double consonant even though the last syllable is not stressed; for example, labelling, traveller, equalled, handicapped, programmed.

In American English the single consonant spelling is usually more common: labeling, traveler.

Spelling: dropping and adding letters

The final -e

We often drop the final -e when a suffix beginning with a vowel is added to a word:

approve + -al → approval	hope + -ing → hoping
fame + -ous → famous	invite + -ation → invitation
hate + -ed → hated	note + -able → notable

Warning:

We keep the -e in dyeing (from dye) and singeing (from singe) to differentiate them from similar words e.g. dying (from die) and singing (from sing).

When a suffix begins with a consonant (e.g. -less, -ful, -ly, -ment) we do not normally drop the -e:

definitely excitement forceful hopeless lately widely

Sometimes we do drop the -e:

argue → argument	true → truly
due → duly	whole → wholly

Some words have alternative forms with or without an -e: for example, acknowledgement or acknowledgment, and judgement or judgment.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/spelling