Cerritos College Court Reporting Program
Prepared by Professor Sherry Perkins
The material in this handout has appeared repeatedly on past examinations.
It’s all quite relevant, and well worth every minute of your valuable study time.
The importance of spelling cannot be overestimated. Bad spelling is a principal cause of failure among examinees.
It is impossible in this brief resume to supply a set of easy rules for all cases and all exceptions. However, we can give you some guidance that will almost certainly raise your test score.
We offer here a set of rules and a word list based on our study of many tests.
After working through the sample test questions with these rules in mind, we suggest that you make a list of any words that you have misspelled. Further study of this list should then give you a big boost.
We also suggest that you find in your local library such books as “Words
Frequently Misspelled,” and “Spelling Word Lists,” for supplementary work.
I COMES BEFORE E
EXAMPLES: FRIEND, BELIEF, NIECE, GRIEVE
EXCEPT AFTER C
EXAMPLES: DECEIT, CEILING, CONCEIVE, RECEIPT
OR WHEN SOUNDED LIKE AY
EXAMPLES: VEIN, NEIGHBOR, FEIGN, HEINOUS
EXCEPTIONS
: EITHER, NEITHER, HEIGHT, FOREIGN, SOVEREIGN, FORFEIT,
SEIZE, COUNTERFEIT, FINANCIER
ADD ES
TO WORDS ENDING IN S, SH, X OR Z
EXAMPLES: RUSH, RUSHES; SUCCESS, SUCCESSES; BENCH,
BENCHES; FOX, FOXES
AND TO WORDS ENDING IN Y AFTER A CONSONANT, BUT
FIRST CHANGE Y TO I
EXAMPLES: TRY, TRIES; ARTERY, ARTERIES; COMMUNITY,
COMMUNITIES
EXCEPTIONS: KEYS, ATTORNEYS, MONKEYS AND DONKEYS
ADD S ALONE
TO ANY OTHER WORDS WHERE S IS NEEDED
EXAMPLES: BOY, BOYS; CHAIR, CHAIRS; FRIEND, FRIENDS;
WANT, WANTS; DECIDE, DECIDES
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Cerritos College Court Reporting Program
Prepared by Professor Sherry Perkins
FINAL L IS DOUBLED
FOLLOWING A SINGLE VOWEL IN WORDS OF ONE
SYLLABLE
EXAMPLES: FALL, BELL, SILL DOLL, HULL
FOLLOWING A SINGLE VOWEL IN WORDS OF MORE THAN
ONE SYLLABLE, WHEN THE STRESS FALLS ON THE LAST
SYLLABLE.
EXAMPLES: RECALL, FORETELL, DISTILL
FINAL L IS SINGLE
FOLLOWING MORE THAN ONE VOWEL IN WORDS OF ONE
SYLLABLE
EXAMPLES: BAIL, REAL, SOUL, FEEL
FOLLOWING MORE THAN ONE VOWEL IN WORDS OF MORE
THAN ONE SYLLABLE WHEN THE STRESS FALLS ON THE LAST
SYLLABLE
EXAMPLES: CONCEAL, IDEAL, DETAIL
FOLLOWING A SINGLE VOWEL IN WORDS OF MORE THAN
ONE SYLLABLE, WHEN THE STRESS FALLS BEFORE THE LAST
SYLLABLE
EXAMPLES: MARGINAL, ALCOHOL, DISMAL
These are syllables that are added to a base word to make a new word.
Some common suffixes:
-able
-ment
-less
-ful
-ed
-ness
-ly
-ing
-er
-ous
You can add these suffixes to some base words without changing the spelling of either the base word or the suffix.
BASE WORD SUFFIX
EXPEND
ROAR
READ
USE
SINK
COUNT
LOVE
ARRANGE
GLAD
PERIL
ABLE
ED
ER
FUL
ING
LESS
LY
MENT
NESS
OUS
NEW WORD
EXPENDABLE
ROARED
READER
USEFUL
SINKING
COUNTLESS
LOVELY
ARRANGEMENT
GLADNESS
PERILOUS
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Cerritos College Court Reporting Program
Prepared by Professor Sherry Perkins
However, some base words must be changed slightly before you can add the suffix. Here are some rules for these changes.
IN WORDS ENDING IN E
DROP THE E WHEN THE SUFFIX BEGINS WITH A VOWEL
EXAMPLES: LIKE, LIKABLE; LOVE, LOVED; TRACE, TRACER
OR AFTER DG
EXAMPLES: JUDGE, JUDGMENT; ACKNOWLEDGE,
ACKNOWLEDGING
IN WORDS ENDING IN Y
CHANGE Y TO I AFTER A CONSONANT IN WORDS OF MORE
THAN ONE SYLLABLE
EXAMPLES: LOVELY, LOVELIER; ACCOMPANY,
ACCOMPANIMENT; TARDY, TARDINESS; LEVY, LEVIED
BUT KEEP THE Y WHEN YOU ADD ING
EXAMPLES: RALLY, RALLYING; FRY, FRYING; REPLY, REPLYING;
DESTROY, DESTROYING
AND WHEN YOU ADD LY OR NESS TO WORDS OF ONE
SYLLABLE
EXAMPLES: SLY, SLYLY, SLYNESS; SHY, SHYLY, SHYNESS;
DRY, DRYLY, DRYNESS
EXCEPTIONS: FAT, FATTER; HOP, HOPPING; WED, WEDDING
OR IF IT FOLLOWS A SINGLE VOWEL IN WORDS OF MORE THAN
ONE SYLLABLEAND THE STRESS REMAINS ON THE SAME
SYLLABLE
EXAMPLES: REFER, REFERRED; CONTROL, CONTROLLED
5.
These are syllables that go in front of a base word to make a new word. Some common prefixes:
Ab com en ir per
Ac con il mal pro
Ad de im mis re
Bi dis in over under
You can add any prefix to a base word without changing the spelling of either the prefix or the base word.
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Cerritos College Court Reporting Program
Prepared by Professor Sherry Perkins
EXAMPLES:
PREFIX
AB
AC
AD
BI
COM
CON
DE
DIS
EN
IL
IM
IN
IR
MIS
MAL
OVER
PER
PRE
BASE WORD
NORMAL
COMPANY
JOIN
LATERAL
MISSION
DENSE
CENTRALIZE
ORGANIZE
LACE
LEGIBLE
POSSIBLE
SINCERE
RATIONAL
SPELL
FORMED
DO
FORM
TEXT
NEW WORD
ABNORMAL
ACCOMPANY
ADJOIN
BILATERAL
COMMISSION
CONDENSE
DECENTRALIZE
DISORGANIZE
ENLACE
ILLEGIBLE
IMPOSSIBLE
INSINCERE
IRRATIONAL
MISSPELL
MALFORMED
OVERDO
PERFORM
PRETEXT
PRO
RE
NOUN
FLEX
PRONOUN
REFLEX
UNDER GO UNDERGO
The foregoing rules are listed in the order of their importance for you. Should they seem more than you can handle, I suggest that you memorize at least the following: all three points of (1); the first two points of (2) (the third point is practically selfevident); and the first two points of (3) (because if you know when to double the final l, you can leave it single for all the words that do not fit into these rules.)
If you memorize these eight short statements, you will have taken a big step towards success in any spelling examination. Then study (4) carefully, and try to think of additional words you can make by using a base word and a suffix. Check your result, and if you have made mistakes, study it again until getting the right answer comes naturally. Go over (5), too, but you needn’t put so much effort into it. The important thing here is to be able to recognize a prefix when you see it.
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