# Spelling Rules

https://langs123.com/en/english/foundations/spelling-rules/
CEFR B2–C1 · 2026-10-19 · CC BY 4.0, langs123 contributors (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

> Endings change the last letters of a word by rule (running, hoping, studies), and British and American spelling differ in set patterns. A final consonant doubles after one stressed vowel: begin → beginning, visit → visiting

## Cheatsheet

| Point | Rule | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Doubling | double the final consonant after one stressed vowel | begin → beginning / visit → visited |
| Silent e | drop it before a vowel, keep it before a consonant | hope → hoping / hope → hopeful |
| consonant + y | y becomes i, but stays before -ing | study → studied / study → studying |
| ie and ei | ie for /iː/, but ei after c | believe / receive |
| -able / -ible | -able after a whole word, -ible after a stem that is not one | comfortable / possible |
| Prefixes | both parts keep all their letters; in- becomes il-, im-, ir- | mis + spell → misspell / in + possible → impossible |
| Silent letters | some spellings keep a letter that is not pronounced | knee / lamb / night |
| British and US | British -our, -re, -ise; US -or, -er, -ize | colour (US: color) / centre (US: center) |
| Trap | -ful has one l, so -fully has two | She works carefully. |
| Sound /ʃn/ | -tion; -sion after l, n, r; -ssion after a short vowel | action / tension / mission |
| Same sound | the grammar of the sentence picks the spelling | The dog wagged its tail. / It's late. |
| Trap | two doubled pairs: cc and rr, cc and mm | occurrence / accommodate |

## Doubling the final consonant

| Word | Rule | Examples |
| --- | --- | --- |
| one syllable, one short vowel, one final consonant | double the consonant | run → running / big → bigger / stop → stopped |
| more than one syllable, stress on the last syllable | double the consonant | begin → beginning / prefer → preferred / admit → admitted |
| more than one syllable, stress earlier | write the word unchanged | visit → visited / offer → offered / open → opening |
| ending in one vowel and l, whatever the stress | British English doubles the l | travel → travelled (US: traveled) / cancel → cancelled (US: canceled) |
| ending in w, x or y | write the word unchanged | snow → snowing / fix → fixed / play → played |

- Doubling happens before a vowel suffix such as -ing or -ed; a consonant suffix joins the unchanged word. sun → sunny / sad → sadly

## Silent e before a suffix

| Suffix | Rule | Examples |
| --- | --- | --- |
| starts with a vowel: -ing, -er, -y | drop the e | hope → hoping / nice → nicer / noise → noisy |
| starts with a consonant: -ful, -ly, -ment | keep the e | hope → hopeful / love → lovely / manage → management |
| -able or -ous after ce or ge | keep the e, so that c and g stay soft | notice → noticeable / manage → manageable / courage → courageous |
| starts with a consonant, in a few words | drop the e | argue → argument / true → truly / whole → wholly |

## Changing y to i

| Word ending | Rule | Examples |
| --- | --- | --- |
| consonant + y before any suffix but -ing | y → i | study → studied / happy → happier / happy → happily / beauty → beautiful |
| consonant + y before -ing | keep the y | study → studying / carry → carrying / cry → crying |
| vowel + y | keep the y | play → played / enjoy → enjoyed / buy → buyer |
| vowel + y in a few words | y → i | say → said / pay → paid / lay → laid / day → daily |

## ie and ei

| Spelling | Rule | Examples |
| --- | --- | --- |
| ie | the usual spelling of the sound /iː/ | believe / piece / field / niece |
| ei after c | the sound /iː/ after c | receive / ceiling / deceive / receipt |
| ei for other sounds | the sounds /eɪ/ and /aɪ/ | neighbour / weigh / eight / height |
| ei in a few words | the sound /iː/ after a letter other than c: learn each word | seize / weird / either / neither |

## Endings that sound alike

| Ending | Rule | Examples |
| --- | --- | --- |
| -able | after a stem that is a whole word | comfortable / readable / enjoyable |
| -ible | after a stem that is not a word | possible / visible / incredible / flexible |
| -ance / -ant | after a hard c or g | elegance / elegant / significance / significant |
| -ence / -ent | after a soft c or g | innocence / innocent / intelligence / agent |
| other stems | learn each word | importance / difference / independent / assistant |

- A noun in -ance goes with an adjective in -ant, and -ence with -ent. importance and important / difference and different

## Prefixes and suffixes

| Join | Rule | Examples |
| --- | --- | --- |
| prefix and word | both parts keep all their letters | dis + appear → disappear / un + necessary → unnecessary / mis + spell → misspell |
| negative in- before l | in- → il- | legal → illegal / logical → illogical |
| negative in- before m or p | in- → im- | possible → impossible / mature → immature / polite → impolite |
| negative in- before r | in- → ir- | regular → irregular / responsible → irresponsible |
| suffix -ful | one l at the end | care → careful / help → helpful / wonder → wonderful |
| -ly after l, also in -ful | keep the l and add ly | real → really / final → finally / beautiful → beautifully |
| -ly after -ic | add -ally | basic → basically / automatic → automatically / dramatic → dramatically |
| one exception: public | add -ly | public → publicly |

## Silent letters

| Spelling | Silent letter | Examples |
| --- | --- | --- |
| kn- | k | knee /niː/ · know /nəʊ/ · knife /naɪf/ |
| wr- | w | write /raɪt/ · wrong /rɒŋ/ · wrist /rɪst/ |
| gn- / -gn | g | gnaw /nɔː/ · sign /saɪn/ · foreign /ˈfɒrən/ |
| -mb | b | lamb /læm/ · climb /klaɪm/ · thumb /θʌm/ |
| -mn | n | autumn /ˈɔːtəm/ · column /ˈkɒləm/ |
| ps- | p | psychology /saɪˈkɒlədʒi/ · psychic /ˈsaɪkɪk/ |
| h at the start of some words | h | hour /ˈaʊə/ · honest /ˈɒnɪst/ · heir /eə/ |
| gh after a vowel | gh | night /naɪt/ · daughter /ˈdɔːtə/ · though /ðəʊ/ |
| -stle / -sten | t | castle /ˈkɑːsl/ (US: /ˈkæsl/) · listen /ˈlɪsn/ · whistle /ˈwɪsl/ |

## Compare: British and American spelling

| Pattern | British | US | Example |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| o or ou before r | -our | -or | colour (US: color) / honour (US: honor) / neighbour (US: neighbor) |
| re or er at the end | -re | -er | centre (US: center) / theatre (US: theater) |
| s or z in verb endings | -ise | -ize | organise (US: organize) / realise (US: realize) |
| s or z after y in verb endings | -yse | -yze | analyse (US: analyze) / paralyse (US: paralyze) |
| c or s in noun endings | -ce | -se | defence (US: defense) / offence (US: offense) |
| final ue | -ogue | -og | catalogue (US: catalog) / analogue (US: analog) |
| ae and oe in Greek and Latin words | ae / oe | e | anaemia (US: anemia) / manoeuvre (US: maneuver) |
| silent e before -ing and -ment | -eing / -ement | -ing / -ment | ageing (US: aging) / judgement (US: judgment) |

| Meaning | British | US |
| --- | --- | --- |
| the colour of ash | grey | gray |
| the rubber round a wheel | tyre | tire |
| the stone edge of a road | kerb | curb |
| a written order to pay from a bank account | cheque | check |
| a plan of events or a television show | programme | program |

- Oxford spelling writes -ize in British English and keeps -yse. organize / analyse
- Some verbs end in -ise in every variety of English. advise / exercise / revise / surprise
- British English writes a computer program with one m. a computer program
- One text keeps one variety of spelling. The colour of the centre is grey.

## Sound patterns: -tion, -cede, -ary

| Spelling | Rule | Examples |
| --- | --- | --- |
| -tion | /ʃn/ after consonants and most vowels | action / option / station / solution |
| -sion | /ʃn/ after l, n and r | compulsion / tension / version |
| -ssion | /ʃn/ after a short vowel | mission / passion / discussion / permission |
| -sion | /ʒn/ after a vowel | decision / television / occasion |
| -cian | a person with a skill | musician / electrician / magician / politician |
| -cess | the usual ending | success / access / process |
| -ceed | three verbs only | exceed / proceed / succeed |
| -cede | every other verb | precede / recede / concede |
| -sede | one verb only | supersede |
| -ary / -ery / -ory | one sound, three spellings: learn each word | necessary / cemetery / category |

- The noun procedure has one e after c, while proceed has two. a safe procedure

## Words that differ only in spelling

| Words | Rule | Examples |
| --- | --- | --- |
| their / there / they're | their shows who owns something, there shows a place or begins there is, they're is they are | They lost their keys. / The keys are there. / They're late. |
| your / you're | your belongs to you, you're is you are | Is this your bag? / You're right. |
| its / it's | its belongs to it, it's is it is or it has | The cat licked its paw. / It's cold. |
| whose / who's | whose asks about an owner, who's is who is or who has | Whose bag is this? / Who's coming? |
| to / too / two | to goes before a verb or a place, too means also or more than enough, two is the number 2 | I want to go. / It's too hot. / I have two sisters. |

| Words | Rule | Examples |
| --- | --- | --- |
| affect / effect | affect is a verb, effect is a noun | Noise can affect sleep. / The effect was big. |
| advice / advise | advice is a noun, advise is a verb | Take my advice. / I advise you to wait. |
| breath / breathe | breath is a noun, breathe is a verb | Take a deep breath. / Breathe slowly. |
| practice / practise | practice is the noun, practise is the verb in British English | Football practice is at six. / I practise every day. |
| licence / license | licence is the noun, license is the verb in British English | I have a driving licence. / The council will license the shop. |
| lose / loose | lose is a verb, loose is an adjective | Don't lose your keys. / These trousers are loose. |
| past / passed | passed is a verb form, past is a noun, adjective, preposition or adverb | She passed the exam. / It's past nine o'clock. |
| stationary / stationery | stationary is an adjective, stationery is a noun | The car was stationary. / I need some stationery. |
| principal / principle | principal is an adjective, principle is a noun for a rule | Her principal aim is to win. / It is a matter of principle. |
| quiet / quite | quiet is an adjective, quite is an adverb | The room is quiet. / It's quite late. |

- US: American English writes practice and license for both noun and verb.

## Borrowed words

| Kind | Rule | Examples |
| --- | --- | --- |
| accent in an everyday word | the accent is optional | café / cafe, naïve / naive |
| accent that separates two words | keep the accent | résumé ≠ resume / exposé ≠ expose |
| gender of the person | -é for a man, -ée for a woman | fiancé ≠ fiancée / protégé ≠ protégée |
| plural of a borrowed noun | some keep the plural of the source language: see Plurals | analysis → analyses / criterion → criteria |

## Word division at the end of a line

| Case | Rule | Examples |
| --- | --- | --- |
| between syllables | the line breaks after a syllable | com-puter / win-dow / hos-pi-tal |
| prefix or suffix | the line breaks at the join | un-able / walk-ing / care-ful |
| one-letter first syllable | break after a later syllable, or keep the word whole | elec-tric / about / enough |
| hyphenated compound | the line breaks at the hyphen | well-known / mother-in-law |

## Typical errors

| ✗ | ✓ | Rule |
| --- | --- | --- |
| begining | beginning | begin has the stress on its last syllable |
| hopeing | hoping | drop the silent e before a vowel suffix |
| studyed | studied | y becomes i after a consonant |
| freind | friend | friend has ie for the sound /e/ |
| carefull | careful | -ful has one l |
| realy | really | real ends in l, so -ly gives two |
| occurence | occurrence | double c and double r |
| accomodate | accommodate | double c and double m |
| seperate | separate | separate has par |
| definately | definitely | definite keeps its e before -ly |
| recieve | receive | ei after c |
| untill | until | until ends in one l |
| wich | which | which starts with wh |