Spelling words in English is not as easy as ABC. It involves learning letter sounds and rules for blending them, forming words and changing their meaning to fit into sentences. A learner must read a lot of books, articles, newspapers and magazines written in English to get familiar with these rules.
A learner should not rely on information posted on social media, phone texts and comics to learn English spelling rules. These spellings are usually suited for informal communication while the English spelling of words is obscured. Here are some common spelling rules that learners should know.
CLICK HERE to Improve Spelling and Reading Skills with 10 BOOKS OF SHORT STORIES with rimes.
Spelling rules for consonant sounds
CH starts a word – champ, check, chip, choose, chump
CH ends a word after a consonant – branch, perch, pinch, orchard, lunch
TCH ends a word after a vowel – watch, fetch, snitch, notch, clutch
CK ends a word after a short vowel – back, deck, sick, clock, duck
K ends a word after a consonant i.e. l, r, s, w – walk, perk, risk, hawk
F, L and S are doubled in words with one syllable – staff, wall, pass
Rules for vowel sounds
‘y’ as long ‘i’ and long ‘e’
‘y’ sounds like long ‘i’ at the end of a word with no other vowel. e.g. shy, dry, sty, fly
It sounds like long ‘e’ in an unstressed syllable e.g. family, lucky, study, key
‘oi’ or ‘oy’
‘oi’ is used in the middle of words e.g. toil, boil and ‘oy’ is used at the end of words. e.g. toy, boy
‘ou’ or ‘ow’
The letters ‘ou’ are used in the middle of words e.g. house, loud and ‘ow’ are used at the end of words. e.g. how, allow
Exception to the rule:
When a word ends in ‘l’ or ‘n’, use ‘ow’ in the middle. e.g. prowl, town
‘i’ before ‘e’ or ‘e’ before ‘i’
‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ is the general rule for most words in English. e.g. friend, shield, achieve, ceiling, perceive, conceit
Exceptions to the rule:
‘i’ before ‘e’ when:
‘c’ sounds like ‘sh’. e.g. ancient, efficient, deficient, proficient
‘ie’ sounds like long ‘i’ and short ‘e’. e.g. science, society, anxiety
‘e’ before ‘i’ when ‘ei’ sounds like:
‘ei’ sounds like long ‘a’. e.g. weight, neighbour, vein, freight, foreign
long ‘e’. e.g. seize, either, neither
long ‘i’. e.g. height
short ‘e’. e.g. weird, their, leisure
When you buy something through our retail links, we may earn commission and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
- Homophones: Learn same sound words in sentences with detailed word list
- EAR words: Use this word list with examples to master the trigraph
- TCH words: From catch to ketchup, learn the trigraph with word list and examples
- IGH words: From high to insight, learn the trigraph with word list and examples
- DGE words: Conquer the trigraph with word list and examples
See also:
You must be logged in to post a comment.