English Spelling

For intermediate to advanced students

by Viv Quarry (www.vivquarry.com)

child Þ children, woman Þ women, person Þ people, man Þ men, sheep Þ sheep

fish Þ fish, have Þ has, go Þ goes, do Þ does, shelf Þ shelves, knife Þ knives, wife Þ wives

half Þ halves.

information, data, poor, insurance, bread, software, unemployed, inflation, butter, cheese etc.

If the word ends in 'S', 'SH' or 'CH', add 'ES'

bus Þ buses, church Þ churches, watch Þ watches,

kiss Þ kisses, wash Þ washes, watch Þ watches

If the verb ends in CONSONANT + Y, the 'Y' changes to 'IES'

country Þ countries, party Þ parties, fly Þ flies, study Þ studies

For most other words, and words ending in VOWEL + 'Y', add 'S'

book Þ books, student Þ students, boy Þ boys, day Þ days,

wear Þ wears, speak Þ speaks, live Þ lives, play Þ plays

If a word has one vowel between two consonants and ends in E, the middle vowel has a long sound.

cape, tape, mate, fate, pane, came, made

fine, pine, wine, dine, write, bite, white

cope, pope

cure, cute, plume

If the word has a long vowel sound, there is a single consonant with suffixes.

fined, pining, wining and dining, writing, biting, whiter

coping

cured, cutely, plumed

If a word of one syllable has two vowels between two consonants it will usually mean a long vowel sound and no doubling of the final consonant.

need Þ needing, fear Þ feared, great Þ greater

If a word of one syllable ends in two consonants it will usually mean a long vowel sound and no doubling of the final consonant.

kind Þ kinder, fast Þ faster, wash Þ washing

If there is no 'E' on the end, the middle vowel has a short sound.

cap, tap, mat, fat, pan, cam, mad

fin, pin, win, din, writ, bit, wit

cop, pop

cut, plum, put

If the word has a short vowel sound, double the final consonant with suffixes

Capped, tapping, matted, fatter, panning

Finned, pinning, winner, dinner, written, bitter, witty

Copper, popping

Cutting, putting

If a word of two syllables ends in a consonant and the stress is on the final syllable, double the final consonant.

preferÞ preferred, permit Þ permitting, refer Þ referred, admit Þ admittance

If the stress is on the first syllable, no double consonant.

enter Þ entered, benefit Þ benefited, visit Þ visiting

Don't forget that with two syllable words ending in 'Y', don't drop the 'Y' when adding 'ING'.

study Þ studying

Words which end in 'ER' in American English, end in 'RE' in British spelling

center (USA) Þ centre (UK)

theater (USA) Þ theatre (UK)

centimeter (USA) Þ centimetre (UK)

Final 'L' is usually doubled in British English

traveling (USA) Þ travelling (UK)

quarreled (USA) Þ quarrelled (UK)

canceling (USA) Þ cancelling (UK)

Some verbs ending in 'Z' in American English are sometimes spelt with 'S' in British English

realize (USA) Þ realise (UK)

organize (USA) Þ organise (UK)

Some nouns are spelt differently in British and American English

traveler's checks (USA) Þ traveller's cheques (UK)

For more information on the differences between British and American spelling and grammar, see Viv's worksheet on USA v UK English.

COMMONLY MISSPELLED WORDS

Here is a list some of the most commonly misspelled words in English in alphabetical order. These are the correct spellings. Reading over the list probably won't improve your spelling much, but choosing a few words which you find difficult, and writing them out correctly a few times may help you.

a lot, absence, abundance, accessible, accidentally, acclaim, accommodate, accomplish, accumulate, achievement, acquaintance, across, address, advertisement, aggravate, alright, anoint, annual, apparent, appearance, argument, atheist, athletics, attendance, auxiliary, balloon, barbiturate, bargain, basically, battalion, beggar, beginning, believe, benefitted (UK), benefited (US), biscuit, bouillon, boundary, Britain, broccoli, business, calendar, camouflage, cantaloupe, cemetery, chagrined, challenge, characteristic, changing, chief, cigarette, climbed, collectible, colonel, colossal, column, coming, committee, commitment, comparative, competent, completely, concede, conceive, condemn, condescend, conscientious, consciousness, consensus, consistent, continuous, controlled, coolly, corollary, convenient, correlate, correspondence, counselled (UK), counseled (US), councellor (UK), counselor (US), courteous, courtesy, criticize, deceive, defendant, deferred, definitely, dependent, descend, description, desiccate, desirable, despair, desperate, develop, development, difference, dilemma, dining, disappearance, disappoint, disastrous, discipline, disease, despair, dispensable, dissatisfied, dissipate, dominant, drunkenness, easily, ecstasy, efficiency, eighth, eligible, embarrassment, enemy, entirely, equipped, equivalent, escape, especially, exaggerate, exceed, excellence, excellent, exhaust, existence, expense, experience, experiment, explanation, extremely, exuberance, fallacious, fallacy, familiar, fascinate, February, fictitious, finally, financially, forcibly, foreign, forfeit, formerly, forty, fourth, fulfill, fundamentally, gauge, generally, genius, government, governor, grievous, guarantee, guerilla, guidance, handkerchief, happily, harass, height, heinous, hemorrhage, heroes, hesitancy, hindrance, hoarse, hoping, humorous, hypocrisy, hypocrite, ideally, idiosyncrasy, ignorance, imaginary, immediately, implement, inadvertent, incidentally, incredible, independence, independent, indicted, indispensable, inevitable, influential, information, inoculate, insistent, insurance, intelligence, intercede, interference, interpret, interrupt, introduce, irrelevant, irresistible, irritable, island, jealousy, jewelry, judgment, judicial, knowledge, laboratory, legitimate, leisure, length, lenient, liaison, license, lieutenant, lightning, likelihood, likely, liquefy, loneliness, losing, lovely, luxury, magazine, maintain, maintenance, manageable, maneuver, marriage, mathematics, medicine, memento, millennium, millionaire, miniature, minuscule, minutes, mischievous, missile, misspelled, mortgage, mosquito, mosquitoes, murmur, muscle, mysterious, narrative, naturally, necessary, necessity, either, neighbor, neutron, ninety, ninth, noticeable, nowadays, nuisance, obedience, obstacle, occasion, occasionally, occurred, occurrence, official, omission, omit, omitted, opinion, opponent, opportunity, oppression, optimism, ordinarily, origin, outrageous, overrun, panicky, parallel, parliament, particularly, peaceable, peculiar, penetrate, perceive, performance, permanent, permissible, permitted, perseverance, persistence, physical, physician, picnicking, piece, pilgrimage, pitiful, planning, pleasant, portray, possess, possessive, potato, potatoes, practically, prairie, preference, preferred, prejudice, preparation, prescription, prevalent, primitive, privilege, probably, procedure, proceed, professor, prominent, pronounce, pronunciation, propaganda, psychology, publicly, pursue, quandary, quarantine, questionnaire, quizzes, realistically, realize, really, recede, receipt, receive, recognize, recommend, reference, referred, relevant, relieving, religious, remembrance, reminiscence, repetition, representative, resemblance, reservoir, resistance, restaurant, rheumatism, rhythm, rhythmical, roommate, sacrifice, sacrilegious, safety, salary, sapphire, satellite, scenery, schedule, secede, secretary, seize, separate, sergeant, several, shining, similar, simile, simply, sincerely, skeptic, skeptical, skiing, soliloquy, sophomore, souvenir, specifically, specimen, sponsor, spontaneous, statistics, stopped, strategy, strength, strenuous, stubbornness, subordinate, subpoena, subtle, succeed, success, succession, sufficient, supersede, suppress, surprise, surround, susceptible, suspicious, syllable, symmetrical, synonymous, tangible, technical, technique, temperature, tendency, themselves, theories, therefore, thorough, though, through, till, tomorrow, tournament, tourniquet, tragedy, transferred, truly, twelfth, tyranny, unanimous, undoubtedly, unnecessary, until, usage, usually, vacuum, valuable, vengeance, vigilant, village, villain, violence, visible, warrant, Wednesday, weird, wherever, wholly, yacht, yield, zoology

Are there any words in this list you often use but spell them incorrectly? Try to learn the correct spelling. The tips on Viv's Learning Vocabulary worksheet may help you. You can also use Viv's Bon Database to organise and test words you can't remember how to spell.

Test your spelling, then check the answers in the list above

On-line spelling tests

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