Spelling Rule 1
If a word ends in –y,
change the –y to –i to add
any suffix, except with
–ing or when –y follows a
vowel.
eg. carry – carried; carry – carrying; play –
played, playing
Spelling Rule 2
Always have 2
consonants follow a
short vowel sound before
adding –y, -ed, -ing or –
er.
eg. run – running; jump – jumper
Spelling Rule 3
-e goes away when –ing
comes to stay.
eg. come – coming fake – faking
Spelling Rule 4
When the words all, full
and till are used as
suffixes and prefixes,
one ‘l’ is dropped.
eg. already; fulfil; until
Spelling Rule 5
Drop the –e at the end of
a word when adding any
suffix beginning with a
vowel or –y.
eg. bake+ ing = baking; shake + y = shaky; nerve
+ ous = nervous
Spelling Rule 6
Keep the –e at the end of
a word when adding a
suffix beginning with a
consonant.
eg. price + less = priceless; move + ment =
movement
Spelling Rule 7
The prefixes –dis and –
mis never drop their ‘s’
even when added to a
word beginning with ‘s’.
eg. dis-ability; dis-satisfied; mis-understood; misspell
Spelling Rule 8
Words ending in –ce and –
ge drop the –e when
adding –ing, -er and –ed,
but keep the –e when
adding –able and –ous.
eg. notice – noticing – noticeable
Spelling Rule 9
One syllable word with
short vowel sounds
(a,e,i,o,u) are followed by
‘ck’; eg. pack, trick, stuck
‘k’ goes in front of ‘e’ and
‘i’; eg. keg, kiss. c’ goes in front
of ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘u’;
eg. cat, cot, cut
Spelling Rule10
‘k’, ‘g’ and ‘p’ are silent
at the beginning of a
word if followed by a
consonant (usually ‘n’).
eg. knee, gnaw, pneumonia
Spelling Rule11
Words ending in –e drop
the ‘e’ before a suffix
beginning with a vowel,
but retain it before a
suffix beginning with a
consonant.
eg. move/movable/ movement
Spelling Rule 12
When the suffix ‘ice’ or
‘ise’ is written after a
word, ‘ice’ is used for
nouns and ‘ise’ is used
for verbs.
eg. notice, practice (nouns)Exercise, practise
(verbs)
Spelling Rule 13
Adjectives ending in –le
after a consonant form
adverbs by dropping the –
e and adding –y.
eg. gentle = gently
Spelling Rule 14
‘i’ before ‘e’ except
after ‘c’ with the sound
of ‘eeee’ (exception
‘seize’).
eg. brief, receive
Spelling Rule 15
Most words of 2 or more
syllables ending in ‘l’
have only one final ‘l’
eg. initial, parallel,
fulfil.
1 syllable words = double l: full, ball, roll)
Spelling Rule16
Words ending in a single
consonant following a
long accented vowel do
not double the consonant
when adding a suffix.
eg. beat/beaten/beating/beater
Spelling Rule 17
Words ending in a single
consonant other than ‘l’,
but not accented on the
last syllable, do not
double the consonant
when adding a suffix.
eg. gallop/galloper/galloping
Spelling Rule 18
Words ending in a single
consonant following a
short vowel sound double
the consonant when
adding a suffix.
eg. bat/batted/batting/batter
Spelling Rule 19
Words ending in a single
‘l’ double the ‘l’ when
adding a suffix.
eg. chisel/chiselled/chiselling
Spelling Rule 20
To add ‘full’ as a suffix
to a root word drop one
‘l’.
eg. wonder – wonderful, help – helpful
Silent letters
Wrestling
Debt
Knight
Condemn
Wrinkle
Knight
Crumb
Lamb
Gnome
Honest
Knapsack
Dumbfound
Antonyms: words that are
opposite in their meaning
eg. up – down
Entrance – exit
Find – lose
Tight – loose
Catch – throw
Interior - exterior
Ascend – descend
Include – exclude
Tidy – messy
Men – women
Tiny - enormous
Synonyms: words that
have a similar meaning
eg. cold – freezing
Price – cost
Package – parcel
Allow – permit
Round – circular
Thief - robber
Scare - frighten
Stop – halt
reduce - minimise
Jump – leap
Repair - mend
Contractions: words that
have letters left out
with an apostrophe
eg. she’ll – she will
Isn’t
Aren’t
Needn’t
She’ll
Doesn’t
He’s
You’ve
They’ve
We’ve
Where’s
Plurals: a word is plural
when it stands for two or
more
eg. knife - knives
Elf - elves
Calf – calves
Shelf – shelves
Wolf – wolves
Hoof- hooves
Tooth - teeth
Child - children
Mouse – mice
Fungus - fungi
Anagrams: a word when
rearranged will make a
new word
eg. flow - wolf
Race - acre
Dare – dear
Lead - deal
Seat – east
Live - veil
Charm – march
Earth – heart
Groan – organ
Horse – shore
Battle - tablet
Homophones: words that
sound the same, but are
spelt differently, and have
a different meaning
e.g. piece/peace
Stationary/stationery
Poor/pour/paw/pore
Meet/meat
Current/currant
Desert/dessert
Vane/vein
Rode/rowed
Guest/guessed
Allowed/aloud
Dew/due
Homograph: a word that
is spelt the same as
another but has a
different meaning
i.e. ball (plaything, dance)
Organ
Patient
Light
Private
Course
Right
Litter
Watch
Trunk
Read
PREFIXES
Letter or group of
letters put at the
beginning of a word.
AAntiBiCoDeDis-
ExEnIlImInInter-
midmispreproreun-
SUFFIXES
Letter or group of
letters added at the end
of a word.
-able
-age
-al
-an
-en
-er
-est
-ful
-fy
-ible
-ion
-ish
-ist
-ive
-less
-ly
-ment
-ous
ROOT WORDS
Root words are words
from another language
which have been used to
form words in our
language.
Bi – twice
Dys – bad
Poly – many
Mono – one, alone