Spelling Rules Cheat Sheet

Concept

Rule

Examples

Vowel sounds

- Use one vowel to make a short vowel sound.

- Use two vowels together, or separated by one consonant, to make a long vowel sound.

- cat, dog, pet, sit, chart

- weak, coat, race, more

“ie” and “ei”

- Use “i” before “e” except after “c.”

- Use “ei” to form a long “a” sound.

- Understand the weirder formations.

- believe, grief, receive

- weigh, sleigh, neighbor

- either, neither, weird, foreign

Forming plurals

- Add “s” to most words.

- Add “es” to words ending in the following: s, x, z, ch, sh, or o preceded by a consonant.

- When “y” is preceded by a consonant, change it to “i” and add “es.”

- Understand the exceptions

- keys, socks, bananas

- churches, foxes, classes, potatoes

- parties, stories, tries

- women (woman), geese (goose), nuclei (nucleus)

Adding prefixes

- Add the prefix without changing the spelling of the root word, even if it creates double letters.

- misunderstood, misspell, unrelated, unnecessary

Adding suffixes

- Drop the final “e” from the root word only if the suffix begins with a vowel.

- Change a final “y” to an “i” unless the suffix begins with “i.”

- When a consonant (preceded by a single vowel) ends a one-syllable word or an accented syllable, double it before adding a suffix that begins with a vowel.

- Exceptions still exist to all the above.

-riding, guidance; securely, advancement

-emptiness, cozier; trying, carrying

-dipping, spotted, admitted

-memorize, volleying, manageable, truly