English Spelling Rules and Common Mistakes

English spelling is famously illogical. Even native speakers commonly misspell words.
Interestingly, ‘misspell’ is a word which is often misspelled!

1. When To Double Consonants

If a word ends with a short vowel sound plus a consonant, and the stress is on the
last syllable, then the final consonant is doubled if you add an ending which starts
with a vowel.

First of all, this rule applies to all one-syllable words which end with a short vowel plus a
consonant. For example,

hot -> hotter

jar -> jarring
sad -> saddest
cut -> cutting
win -> winner

Because of the way English spelling connects to English pronunciation, if a word has one
syllable, and it ends with one vowel and one consonant, then you need to double
the final consonant. But, this depends on sounds, not spelling. So, if the final consonant
is w or y, don’t double it, because the words are written with a consonant, but the sound
isn’t pronounced as a consonant.

draw -> drawing

grey -> greyer

If a word ends with two consonants, or with a consonant plus vowel, then don’t
double any consonants:

think -> thinking

write -> writer

If a word has two or more syllables, then you also need to think about the stress. If the
stress is on the last syllable, and the word ends with a short vowel plus a
consonant, then you need to double the final consonant; for example:

occur -> occurring

commit -> committee
forget -> forgetting

However, if the stress is not on the last syllable, you don’t double the final
consonant; for example:

happen -> happening

discover -> discoverer
water -> watery
2. IE vs EI

There’s a well-known rule here: “i before e except after c.” That means that in most
cases, i goes before e, but after the letter c, put e before i:

piece
field
achieve

receipt
ceiling
conceive

But, there are exceptions. One of the exceptions has its own rule: e goes before i to
make an /eɪ/ sound. For example:

neighbour
weigh
eight

Other exceptions are true exceptions; they don’t follow any rule and you need to
remember them. Here are some of the most common exceptions to this rule:

agreeing, albeit, atheism, ancient, being, caffeine, deify, either, feisty, Fahrenheit,
foreseeing, forfeit, heir, height, heinous, kaleidoscope, leisure, neither, neighbor,
onomatopoeia, protein, reign, reinvent, reissue, reinforce, reinstall, science, surveill,
species, sleigh, sovereign, their, therein, veil, vein, weigh, wherein, weird, monotheism.
3. E vs ES in Plurals

You can see that sometimes, you need to write plurals with es. But, when do you add -es
to make a plural, instead of just -s?

It depends on the last letter of the word. If a word ends in -s, -ss, -z, -ch, -sh, or -x, then
you make the plural by adding -es. For example:

glasses
buses
quizzes
beaches
dishes
boxes

*There's one exception to this rule. If the -ch ending is pronounced with a 'k' then add -s
(stomach – stomachs)

Some single nouns ending in -s or -z require more than the -es to form their plural
versions. To pluralize these nouns, you must double the -s or -z before adding the -es.
Some examples include:

gasses
fezzes

Okay, but what about tomatoes? That has a plural with -es, but it doesn’t fit the rule you
just saw. There’s one more rule: if a word ends in a consonant plus -o, then the plural
is written with -es. For example:

potatoes
heroes
mosquitoes
volcanoes

However, if a word ends with a vowel plus -o, then the plural is written only with -s,
like this:

videos
radios

The most common exceptions to this rule are

logos
pianos
kilos
photos
zeros

*All of these rules also apply when you add -s to a verb.

4. Dropping a Final -e

This rule is about adding a suffix to a root word which ends with -e. For example, true ends
with -e. When you add the suffix -ly, the -e disappears. Change also ends with -e, but
when you add the suffix -able, the -e doesn’t disappear. Whether the -e disappears or not
depends on two things: the spelling of the root word, and the suffix you are adding.

Firstly, the -e can only disappear if you add a suffix which starts with a vowel, like
-able, -ible, -ing, -ity or -ed. For example:

achievable
taking
activity

However, if a word ends with -ue, then you can sometimes drop the -e, even if the suffix
begins with a consonant. For example:

truly
argument

Even when you’re using a suffix which starts with a vowel, you don’t always drop the -e. If
the word ends -ce and the ending has an /s/ sound, or if a word ends -ge and the
ending has a /dʒ/ sound, then you might need to keep the -e in order to keep the
pronunciation the same. For example:

manageable
encouragement
graceful
unpronounceable

As always, these rules have exceptions. Even if a word ends -ce or -ge, you still drop
the -e when you add an -ing suffix.

One important exception is the word ageing, which can be spelled both ways: with an -e
(ageing in British English) or without (aging in American English).

Also, you don’t drop the -e if this would change the pronunciation. For example, the word
agree needs to keep two -e’s in order to keep its pronunciation:

agreeing
agreement
agreeable
5. Commonly Misspelled Words

Finally let’s look at some words which are very commonly misspelled, even by native
English speakers.

These spellings are not consistent, and you need to remember them as exceptions.

accommodation
conscious
committee
guarantee
independence
embarrassed
millennium
possession
correspondence
harassment

These are difficult because they aren’t very consistent. Why does embarrass have two -r’s,
but harass only has one? It’s not logical; you have to remember them.

In words like conscious or guarantee, the relationship between the spelling and the
pronunciation is strange, even by English standards.

It’s rare that the letters ‘sci’ make a /ʃ/ sound. There are many words with the letters ‘sci’,
but normally, these letters make a /saɪ/ sound—like science—or a /sɪ/ sound—like
discipline.

It’s similar with guarantee. Normally, the /g/ sound is produced by the letters ‘ge’ or ‘gi’.
There’s only one other word family where ‘gua’ makes a /g/ sound. The word guard, and
words made from it, like guardian, are the only other words which behave like this.

Finally, what’s the problem with independent?

This is difficult because there are two endings which have the same pronunciation: A-N-C-
E and E-N-C-E.

So, you have audience with an ‘e’, but ambulance with an ‘a’; competence with ‘e’, but
clearance with ‘a’, interference with ‘e’, but importance with ‘a’.

You can’t hear the difference between these two endings. Again, you have to remember
the spellings.

However, it’s not all bad news: there is some logic here. Important is written with an ‘a’, so
the noun importance keeps the same spelling. Interfere ends with an ‘e’, so again the noun
keeps the same spelling.