YourWritingGuru.com

Learn these quick reminders and you'll find spelling to be less of a problem:

1) A single long vowel is generally followed by a consonant followed by another vowel.

        take/taking; Peter; bite/biting; rope/roping; use/using

2) A single short vowel is generally followed by a single consonant with no following vowel or by a double consonant.

        mat/matting; bet/betting; sit/sitting; nod/nodding; put/putting

        The final consonant before a suffix stays single, however, if the word is accented on the first syllable:

target/targeting; cancel/canceled

3) A double E or O, whether long or short, is generally followed by a single consonant.

        meet/meeting; greet/greeting; boot/booted; root/rooted; book/booked; foot/(flat-)footed

4) When adding a suffix that begins with a consonant, generally keep the final E.

        use/useful; care/careless

        Exceptions: true/truly; argue/argument; judge/judgment

5) A final Y that sounds like a long E changes to I before -NESS, -LY.

merry/merrily

A final Y following a consonant changes to I before any prefix that doesn't begin with I.

sunny/sunnier; happy/happily; hurry/hurrying

A final Y in a noun before a vowel stays Y in the plural.

day/days; delay/delays

A final Y in a noun before a consonant changes to IE in the plural.

emergency/emergencies; secretary/secretaries

6) Nouns that end in O following a consonant often add an E in the plural.

potato/potatoes; tomato/tomatoes; hero/heroes

Nouns that end in O following a vowel don't add an E in the plural. Musical terms of Italian origin ending in O also don't add an E in the plural.

radio/radios; stereo/stereos
solo/solos; piano/pianos; soprano/sopranos

7) And who could forget "I before E, except after C..."

believe; piece; relieve

receive; deceive; ceiling

... "or when sounded like A, as in neighbor or weigh"?

eight

Or like I, as in height.

8) Words that end in a hard C take a K before the suffixes -ING, -ED, and -Y

panic/panicking/panicky; picnic/picnicking; frolic/frolicking

9) -ABLE and -IBLE: If a related word ends in -ATION, the correct suffix is -ABLE. If a related word ends in -ION or -IVE, the correct suffix is -IBLE.

durable/duration; irritable/irritation; permissible/permission; dismissible/dismissive