10 Common Rules and Confusing Words









Affect and Effect
Are and Our
Have and Of
It's and Its
Know and No
Lead and Led
Lose and Loose
Passed and Past
Quiet and Quite and
Quit








Than and Then
They're and Their
and There
To and Two and Too
Weather and
Whether
Were and Where and
Wear
Who's and Whose
Woman and Women
Your and You're

Affect (verb) - To influence something.

Effect (noun) – What an event causes.
◦ The politician hoped to affect his audience, but the
effect was the opposite of what he planned.
◦ The devastating effects of the hurricane affected
thousands of people.
◦ The effect of sunlight on mold is that it affects the
rate of growth.


Are (verb) - The plural present tense of “to
be”.
Our (pronoun) - Plural first person possessive
case.
◦ We are working hard for our money.
◦ Where are the rewards for our hard work?

Have (verb) - to hold or possess.

Of (preposition).
◦ I should have bought more of that ice cream.
◦ They must have left for good because of the
robbery.

It’s (contraction) - It is.

Its (possessive pronoun) - Belonging to it.
◦ We aren’t sure if it’s tame, so place its food in the
cage carefully.
◦ When it’s over, we will tell its story.


Know (verb) - to understand or have
knowledge about.
No (Interjection/Adjective) – Without; not
having any.
◦ I know there are no rules, but this is ridiculous!
◦ No, you don’t know the first thing about my
problems.


Loose (adjective/verb) - not tight; let go a
little.
Lose (verb) - to misplace.
◦ When I lose weight, my clothes are loose.
◦ Loose the rope, but don’t lose the horse.


Lead (noun/adjective) - a heavy metal.
Led (past tense verb) – having guided
someone or something.
◦ The fireman led the victims past the lead plated
beams that had fallen.
◦ The FDA led the fight to get lead-based paint
banned.

Passed (verb) – something that went by.

Past (noun) - a time after the present.
◦ In the past, I would have passed you in a bike race.
◦ After Lance was passed by the other riders, we
knew his victories were a thing of the past.



Quiet (adjective) - not loud.
Quite (adverb) - a bit.
Quit (verb) - to stop.
◦ We were quite surprised when the quiet man quit
after voicing his complaints.
◦ The children were actually quite quiet after they
quit playing that ridiculous Pictionary game.

Than (adverb) - a comparison.

Then (adverb) - following “if”.
◦ If you are smarter than I am, then you should be
able to solve this problem.
◦ Then the turtle, who was faster than the hare, took
a bow.

They’re (contraction) - they are.

Their (possessive pronoun) - belonging to
them.

There (pronoun) - not here.
◦ They’re going there to pick up their new puppy.
◦ Their new house is in the city, and they’re planning
on living there a long time.

To (preposition).

Two (adjective) - a number greater than one
and less than three.

Too (adverb) - also.
◦ You gave two dollars to the charity, too.
◦ To run two miles, you must concentrate and
breathe, too.

Weather (noun) - temperature, rain, etc.

Whether (conjunction) – a conditional word.
◦ Whether or not the weather is warm and sunny, we
will be going to the beach tomorrow.
◦ The weather will be whatever it is, whether or not
we do the rain dance.

Were (verb) - plural past tense of “to be”.

Where (adverb) - in a location.

Wear (verb) - to put on.
◦ What did the girls wear when they went where the
models were hanging out?
◦ That café is where we were when we saw the
waiters who wear top hats.


Who’s (contraction) - who is.
Whose (possessive pronoun) - belonging to
someone.
◦ Who’s the idiot whose car is parked across my
driveway?
◦ Who’s auditioning for the part of the boy whose
bike gets stolen?


Woman (noun singular) - one adult female.
Women (noun plural) - more than one adult
female.
◦ A tall woman is locked in the women’s restroom.
◦ What all women want is man who thinks like a
woman.


Your (possessive pronoun) - belonging to
you.
You’re (contraction) - you are.
◦ You’re not serious about cutting off all your hair,
are you?
◦ Your friend Anna said you’re coming to the concert
with us tonight.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
No words end in i,
u, v
Order of i and e
Making the “sh”
sound
Soft and Hard c
and g
All syllables must
have a vowel
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Ending with
double f, l, and s
Dropping the
second l
Changing y to I
When to add -es
Suffixes and silent
e
i, u, and v never come at the end of English
words.
We do not write happi; we write happy.
We do not write hav; we write have.
We do not write blu; we write blue.
EXCEPTIONS: flu.
"i" comes before "e" except after "c" or when
saying “a" as in neighbor or weigh.
Receive
Believe
Sleigh
EXCEPTIONS: weird.
"s-h" is used to say "sh" at the beginning of a word
or end of a syllable, but not at the beginning of a
syllable after the first one. "Ti", "si”, and "ci" are
used then.

Wish
Shape
Motion
Special
Tension

EXCEPTIONS: fashion.




“e", "I”, or "y" may make a "c" or "g" soft. Put an "e"
at the end of a word when you want the "c" or "g"
at the end to be soft. (rice or change) Keep the
"e" there when adding suffixes that begin with "a"
or "o". (changeable, noticeable). Add a “k” after
the “c” to end a word with a hard “c” sound

Cent vs. Can’t
Gentle vs. Goal
Recycle vs. Trick

EXCEPTIONS: Gimmick.





All syllables must have a vowel (a, e, i, o, u, or
y). That is why we have an "e" at the end of
apple, bottle, table, etc.
Hap-py
In-san-it-y
At the end of a one syllable word that has a
single vowel, "f", "l", and "s" are usually
doubled




Full
Will
Stuff
Dress
ll, full, and till are written with only one "l"
when combined with another syllable. (This
does not hold true for compound words like
pillbox)




Almost
Wonderful
Until
EXCEPTIONS (ing and er suffixes): Willing,
Killer.
Single vowel "y" at the end of a word changes
to "i" when a suffix is added, except for
suffixes that begin with "i." (cry...cries....but
crying. Double vowels do not follow this rule:
boys)


Shy -> shies ->shying
Lie -> lies -> lying
x“, “ch”, and “sh” are never followed by "s".





Excellent
Excited
Boxes
Churches
Wishes
When a word ends in a silent e, remove the e
before you add a suffix that begins with a vowel,
but keep the e when you add a suffix that begins
with a consonant.
Price -> priceless -> pricy
Scare -> scaring
EXCEPTION (Words ending with a soft c or g that
depend on the e to keep sound): Change ->
Changeling -> Changeable