Most of these tips have been drawn from The Concise Oxford Dictionary, unless otherwise indicated. Consult any dictionary for further assistance.
*Further indicates an increase of something immeasurable. Farther refers to a physical distance. Go to This or That for more clarification of confusing words.
The numbering is for discussion purposes and does not indicate any sort of order or priority.
1. I before E except after C or when sounding like A as in neighbor and weigh:
Beige, reign, heinous
Exceptions: seize, either, neither
The long I sound uses ei: height, kaleidoscope
2. When a suffix beginning with a vowel (such as -able, -ed, -er, -ing, -en, -ish) is added to a word ending in a consonant, the consonant is usually double if it is a single consonant preceded by a single vowel and comes at the end of a stressed syllable:
Bitten, preferred, dropped, trekking, beginning, permitted, forgotten
3. Double the L if the word ends in a stressed syllable:
Dispelled, gelled --- but not labeled, traveling, jeweler
Exceptions: paralleled, devilish
4. A final silent E is usually dropped when adding a suffix beginning with a vowel:
Bluish, bravest, continuous, refusal, queued, charging, icing, lunging, dosage, wastage, bony, icy, bouncy, lacy
Exceptions:
To see the difference: dyeing vs. dying, singeing vs. singing, routeing vs. routing
Ageing, bingeing, clueing, cueing acreage
Sometimes glueing, hingeing, spongeing, pricely, spacey
Words that end in -ee, -oe, -ye: Eyeing, fleeing, hoeing, shoeing, canoeing, tiptoeing
Words that end in -ce or -ge: Advantageous, courageous, knowledgeable,
noticeable, manageable, peaceable
Words that end in -dge: acknowledgment, fledgling
5. A final silent E is not usually dropped when the suffix begins with a consonant:
Useful, homeless, safely, movement, whiteness, lifelike, awesome
Exceptions: argument, awful, duly, ninth, truly, wholly
6. When adding a prefix (beginning of the word), don't change the spelling:
Unnecessary, misspelled, dissatisfied
7. If the last letter of a word is C, add a K before adding the suffix -ing, -er, or -y:
Panicky, panicking, picnicker, picnicking, picnicked
8. To make a word plural after an s, sh, ss, z, x, ch, add es. But if the ch makes a K sound as in stomach, just add s:
Books, boxes, pizzas, arches, stomachs, quizzes,
Usually only the letter Z is doubled: quizzes
For nouns ending in Y preceded by a consonant (or-quy), drop the y and add ies:
Rubies, soliloquies, trophies, babies --- but not boys, monkeys
For words ending in an O preceded by a consonant, add es:
Potatoes, tomatoes, heroes
9. Change Y to I before adding -ly, -ness, -age:
busy = business, easy = easily, scanty = scantily, wily = wiliness
10. Cannot versus can not (from AlexFiles.com): if you either could or could not do something, use two words. If you could not do something no matter what, then use one word, cannot:
Example: If I can not do something, then I can also do it. I can not write these words if I choose, but I also can.
I cannot know, however, who will read them.
11. Hyphenate words are not hyphenated when they are not followed by a noun:
Example: He is a well-known man. He does not enjoy being well known.
Please turn on the Christmas-tree lights; I love the glow from the Christmas tree.
Hyphenate where the double ee could be a problem: re-enact, re-enlist, re-enter
12. Apostrophe:
Singular possessive: girl's, boy's, child's, baby's, its, at the butcher's
Plural possessive: girls', boys', children's, babies'
When the last letter is an S, either option works: Charles', Charles's
Contractions: don't, can't, won't, it's, o'clock
Do not use the apostrophe to plural a number or an abbreviation: 1940s, POWs.
*It's common to misuse the apostrophe when using the word it in its possessive
form.
