Spelling Tips and Tricks

Spelling Trick

Example

I before E except after C and when it sounds like "ay."

Regular: Piece; Friend; Die

After C: Deceive; Receipt

Sounds Like "Ay": Neighbor; Weigh

English words that end in "y" become "ies" when pluralized.

Army → Armies

Bunny → Bunnies

In English, the letter Q is always followed by a U.

Frequent; Quiet; Quick; Equip

"Their" is a possessive word describing ownership. "There" is a word that describes direction. "They're" is a contraction of "they" and "are."

A man is standing over there.

The boys love their pet kittens.

Where are the girls? They're in the library.

If a word ends in a short vowel sound and a single consonant, double that consonant when you add a suffix to that word.

Big → Bigger; Ram → Ramming; Hog → Hogged; Bum → Bummed; Pen → Penned

Beware of "ough" and "augh." These are two of the most difficult letter combinations in the English language. They can sound like "off," "ooh," "aff," and "uff."

Cough; Rough; Draught; Through

When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking. This means that when two vowels are touching in a word, the first one is the one you hear.

Coat; Wait; Coal; Foal

Words that end in an F sound always change their Fs to Vs when they become plural.

Knife → Knives; Life → Lives; Half → Halves; Wife → Wives