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Spelling Rules and Generalizations

This page will tell you all about spelling rules and generalizations. There are 44 phonemes represented by different spelling patterns.

Great Links

• Check out:  44 Phonemes
• The 44 English Phonemes
• Please check out my Sound Wall page!
• Check out – Listen, Practice, and Master all the Sounds!
• Teach spelling rules along with the UFLI stories:  Spelling Rules Lessons 42-53 and Spelling Rules Lessons 69-76
• Check out the frequency for each spelling, such as long /A/. The most frequent spelling of long a is at the end of open syllables, as in ba-con; the second most frequent is a_e as in bake. The attached PDF also shows the probability that when you see a word with, for example, a_e, it says long /A/ 78% of the time. (22% of the time, it says something else, e.g., /a/ in have.)  Spelling Frequency Spelling

Jump down to… 

Consonants

Vowels

Vowel Teams

Diphthongs

Spelling

Definitions and Generalizations About Consonants

voiced and unvoiced sounds. Voiced is when the vocal cords vibrate. Here is a COOL trick. Have your students firmly cover their ears and say all the letter sounds. The ear has to be flattened out and blocked directly by the hand; long hair must be moved out of the way. There is a vibration or ringing when these voiced sounds are made.

When s is after an unvoiced consonant, it is pronounced as /s/ – hats, laughs, what’s, moths. When the letter ‘s’ is after a vowel, between 2 vowels, or after a voiced consonant, it is pronounced as /z/ – logs, tubes, passes.

Consonant blends – make 2-3 sounds – br, cl, spl, sp, thr, squ, gl, pl. . .

Consonant digraphs – 2 letters make 1 sound

th – is pronounced /th/ as in thumb (unvoiced) at the beginning and ending of most words, and when followed by a consonant, as in mouthful. Th makes a hard sound or is voiced when it is between 2 vowels (together, mother, father) and at the beginning of functional words – the, them, they.

consonant wh – the h is silent—whale, wheel, whip  Here is a trick to determine if the spelling is wh or w! Put your fingers outside of your lips to feel your breath. Now say wh words such as whale, what, whisper. You can FEEL the puff of air. Now say non-wh words such as word, water, way. There is no puff of air! (Or have the students hold a tissue near their mouth. If the tissue blows, that’s what!

ch can make 3 sounds – chase, Christmas, chef

q is always followed by u. Technically, qu is not a consonant digraph, but it is often grouped with them.

Is it c or k? K takes i and e – kit, Ken. C takes the other 3 – cat, cot, cut.

Use -ck for the /k/ sound at the end of 1 syllable words after one short vowel. back, deck, sick, clock, chuck  Why does doc, pic, croc, arc, sync end in c? Because these are abbreviated forms of words.

Use -c for the final /k/ sound when the word has two or more syllables. music, traffic, historic, Atlantic.  

Here’s a worksheet/activity to make. I saw this on Facebook. Students should use magnets or cutouts of ck, k, and ke and slide down each column as they read each word.

Double final ff, ll, ss, and zz after one short vowel – ball, tell, mill, cull, doll; staff, cleff, stiff, doff, gruff; pass, press, miss, cross, muss, buzz, frizz  There are some exceptions, like bus – which originated from the French word omnibus, gas/gasoline, or when s sounds like z as in is/was or f sounds like v as in of. A trick to teach students is that function words like is, this, was stay as short as possible. Content words like off, pill, less are longer because they are more important.

If you cannot double s or z, always add an e (se – ze) freeze, sneeze; house, rose

Use -tch for the /ch/ sound at the end of a 1 syllable word after 1 short vowel. patch, etch, ditch, blotch, clutch. It is there to touch the short vowel. (Exceptions: such, much, which, rich)

Use -dge on the end of a word for the /j/ sound after 1 short vowel. It is there to touch the short vowel. badge, edge, bridge, fudge, dodge

-c has the soft sound /s/ before e, i, y. center, city, cyclone

-g is soft /j/ sound before e, i, y. gentle, ginger, gym

-j is never used at the end of a word.  If -dge cannot be used, use ge. age, serge, gouge

To represent /j/ in the middle of words, use ge, gi, gy, except in the root ject – legislator, margin (Exceptions: pajama)

Never end a word with a v – always use -ve no matter what the vowel is. have, grove, believe, relative. Proper names can end with v, though. Bev.

Follow the letter -g with a -u when it comes before an e or an i in order to keep the hard sound for g.  guest, guess, guide, guitar

Silent Letters 

• cl-: Often related to a clinging or closing motion, a sharp or sudden sound, or covering something.
  • Examples: clamp, clasp, clench, cling, clutter, clap, clank, clatter, cloud.
• fl-: Generally associated with movement, often of a fast or erratic nature, or a flash of light.
  • Examples: flap, flick, flicker, fling, flit, flutter, flow, flurry, flash.
• gl-: Frequently connected to light, vision, or a shiny quality.
  • Examples: glimmer, glisten, glint, glitter, glow, gleam, glance, glare, glass.
• gr-: Often conveys something unpleasant or low and rumbling.
  • Examples: groan, growl, gruff, grump, grunt, grate, grumble.
• sn-: Typically related to the mouth or nose.
  • Examples: sniff, sniffle, snore, snort, sneer, snout, snuzzle.
• sl-: Often suggests slippery, smooth, or downward motion. It can also suggest something negative or lazy.
  • Examples: slide, slick, slither, slip, slouch, slow, slush, slop, slime.
• sp-: Can suggest a sudden, bursting action or something scattered.
  • Examples: spit, spatter, spark, splash, spurt, spread.
• st-: Can be found in words that relate to stability or firmness.
  • Examples: stable, stalwart, staunch, steadfast, steady, stiff.
• str-: Denotes things that are long, thin, or stretched out.
  • Examples: straight, string, strap, stream, stretch, strand.
• sw-: Often associated with a swaying or swinging motion.
  • Examples: sway, swing, swirl, sweep, swerve, swish.
• tw-: Conveys a twisting or turning movement.
  • Examples: twist, twirl, twine, twiddle, tween. 

• -ash: Words describing a forceful, destructive contact.
  • Examples: smash, crash, bash, dash.
• -ack: Words referring to abrupt contact or sound.
  • Examples: smack, whack, crack, thwack.
• -ump: Refers to a round or compact shape or a thudding sound.
  • Examples: bump, clump, dump, jump, hump, lump.
• -itter, -utter: Can suggest a repetitive or shaky action.
  • Examples: flitter, glitter, flutter, mutter, sputter, stutter.

Generalizations About Vowels

Distinguishing between short /e/ and /i/ can be tricky. Have students put their hand under their chin. Have them say pig/peg. The jaw drops further down with /e/ words.

Did you know that when two consonants follow a vowel, the vowel is short? jumping, fudge

when l is followed by a, it makes the short o sound – ball, fall, hall, tall, call, walk, talk, salt

welded or glued sounds – groups of letters whose distinct sounds are difficult to separate when segmenting words. ank, ink, onk, unk, ang, ing, ong, ung, am, an, all

atypical long vowels – old (cold, gold), ind (find, blind), ild (wild, child), ost (ghost, most), olt (bolt, colt), old (cold, bold)

3 sounds of y – yellow, sky, baby (/y/at the beginning of words, long i at end of 1 syllable words, long e at the end of 2 syllable words)

r-controlled vowel or bossy r ~ r next to a vowel controls the vowel – car, corn. The vowel is neither long nor short. ir, ur, er makes the same sound! Her turn first! Her bird burps.

• ir usually occurs in nature words (bird, fir, birch), clothing words (shirt, skirt), number words (first, thirteen). If you hear /m/, /d/, /t/, or /th/ after the /er/ sound, the spelling is usually ir (squirm, squirt).
• ur usually occurs in words associated with pain (hurt, burn, turmoil, burden, blurt), words with ture (nature, immature), and days of the week (Thursday, Saturday).
• er is most common and usually occurs at the end of words (her) and is a suffix (faster, slower)

wa – water, watch, want, wash ~ sounds like wo

war – sounds like wor – warm

wor – sounds like wer – worm, worst, work

An idea from Moats (2000) is to create words using the same two consonants to demonstrate the changes in the vowel sounds. Check out my Sound Wall page. For example, use b/t:

• beet
• bit
• bait
• bet
• bat
• bite
• bot
• but
• bought
• boat
• book
• boot
• about
• abort
• Bart
• Bert

Silent e makes the vowel say its name, not its sound.

cake                 Pete                  hide                  lone                  tube

• Silent e helps keep some words from looking like plurals, as in please ~ not pleas, and house ~ not hous.
• Also, v does not appear at the end of words, so the silent e gives these words orthographic regularity, as in dove, love, shove, have.
• In addition, e indicates when the letter g or c stands for its soft sound, as in cage or race.

How do I know if I use silent e or a vowel digraph? Learn the words as homophones!

• main/mane
• pain/pane
• maid/made
• bail/bale
• Gail/gale
• mail/male
• pail/pale
• sail/sale
• tail/tale
• pair/pear/pare
• gait/gate
• hear/here
• beat/beet
• peat/Pete
• right/write
• might/mite
• sight/site/cite
• road/rode
• coal/Cole
• roam/Rome
• Joan’s/Jones
• loan/lone
• boar/bore
• moat/mote

Generalizations Pertaining to Vowel Teams

ai is most often followed by n or l.  rain, sail, complain, retain

 -oa is almost always used in 1 syllable words and not in 2 or 3 syllable words. boat, roast, etc.

-ie The e is reversed after c receive, ceiling – I before e except after c or when sounding like “a” as in neighbor or weigh. 

eigh is a rare spelling for long a. The following mnemonic will supply you with the most common words in which it occurs. Eight neighbors weigh as much as a freight of sleighs.

oe is a rare spelling for long oo. The following mnemonic will supply you with the most common words in which it occurs. Joe hit his foe with the toe of his shoe while in a canoe.

A long o vowel team activity/worksheet to make. I saw this on Facebook. Have students use cutouts or Fundations magnets of oe, oa, and ow. They slide down each column with the correct letters and read each word.

Generalizations About Diphthongs

Diphthongs make 2 vowel sounds in 1 syllable.

-oi– is used in the middle of words – spoil

-oy is used at the end of a syllable – oyster, boy

-au– is used in the middle of words – cause

-augh is a very rare spelling for /au/. The following mnemonic will supply you with the most common words in which it occurs. The haughty naughty daughter caught the cat and taught him how to slaughter.

-aw– is used at the end of a word or in the middle if the word ends in a single n or l. pawn, lawn; crawl, shawl

-ou is used in the middle of words – house

-ow is used at the end of words or in the middle if the word ends in a single n, l, or er. down, growl, shower

-ew comes at the end of a syllable. chew, blew

-ue comes at the end of a syllable. ue is a rare spelling for long oo, and the following mnemonic will supply you with the most common words in which it occurs. Sue got glue on her blue dress.

-ui is a very rare spelling for long oo. The following mnemonic will supply you with the most common words in which it occurs. A waiter on a cruise spilled fruit juice on a man’s suit and got bruised in the eye.

when ough is followed by t, it makes the /aw/ sound as in bought, if not, it makes the long o sound as in dough

2 sounds of oo – school, moose, book, cook  – The long sound of oo as in “boot” occurs more frequently than the short sound as in “book.” So, when a child is stuck on an oo word, have them try the long sound first!

2 sounds of ow – snow, plow

Spelling Rules 

F L S Rule – Words of one syllable ending in f, l, or s after one vowel usually end in double ff, ll, or ss.  Exceptions: if s sounds like z as in was; or if f sounds like v as in of.

Doubling Final Consonant – Words of one syllable – ending in one consonant after one vowel, double the final consonant before a suffix beginning with a vowel. NOT when the suffix begins with a consonant. 

big bigger bigness;  fret fretting fretful 

Doubling Final Consonant – Words of more than one syllable. ending in one consonant after one vowel – double the final consonant before a suffix beginning with a vowel if the last syllable is accented 

begin be gin”  beginning  open o’pen  opening 

Silent E  Words ending in silent e, drop the e before a suffix beginning with a vowel, but do NOT drop the e before a suffix beginning with a consonant: 

hope  hoping  hopeful; excite excited excitement 

Regular Plurals  The most common way of forming the plural of nouns is to add s to the singular: dog dogs, elephant elephants, table tables 

Plural of nouns ending in s, x, z, ch, sh. Nouns ending in s, x, z, ch , and sh form the plural by adding es to the singular: gas gasses, torch torches, tax taxes, thrush thrushes, topaz topazes. Every syllable has a vowel, and you can hear the extra syllable. 

Plurals of nouns ending in y Nouns ending in y after a vowel form the plural by adding an s: boy boys, play plays 

Nouns ending in y after a consonant form the plural by changing the y to i and adding es. baby babies 

Plural of nouns ending in o Nouns ending in o after a vowel form the plural by adding s:  studio studios

Plural of nouns ending in f or fe Form their plurals regularly by adding s: roof roofs, fife fifes.  Some of them form the plural by changing the f or fe to ves: leaf leaves, knife knives 

Possessives  The singular possessive of nouns is formed by adding ‘s to the singular: Tom’s knife – the child’s toy 

The plural possessive is formed by adding an apostrophe to a plural ending in s: the rabbits’ burrows – the boys’ knives  And by adding ‘s to a plural not ending in s:  men’s voices – women’s work – children’s laughter 

The possessive of personal pronouns does not require an apostrophe. The form of the word indicates possession:  his, her, their 

The possessive form of an indefinite pronoun does require an apostrophe:  one’s,  anybody’s, everybody’s, somebody’s, anyone’s, no one’s, every one’s 

Plurals of letters, figures, and signs The plurals of letters, figures, and signs are formed by adding an apostrophe s: cross your t’s Not: is, us, 7s But: i’s, u’s, 7’s 

Some plurals are irregular – men, teeth, feet, mice, fish, deer. . .

Rule for ie and ei  Put i before e, except after c, or when sounded like \a\ as in neighbor and weigh. 

 The suffix – ful The suffix – ful differs from the word full. The suffix never has two l’s: joyful, harmful, sorrowful 

The suffix – ly  When the suffix – ly, is added to a word, the spelling of this base word does not change:  soft +ly = softly  safe + ly= safely  hopeful + ly = hopefully 

Past tense ed has 3 sounds – after t or d it makes the ed sound and makes the ed syllable: painted, wanted, crowded, sounded. When the verb ends in a voiced sound other than /d/, the ending is pronounced as /d/ as in called, screamed, yelled, listened. When the verb ends in a voiceless consonant other than /t/, the ending is pronounced as /t/ as in asked, laughed, fixed, bumped.

Final y after a vowel remains unchanged when adding any suffix. pay + ed = payed  pay + ment = payment pay + able = payable

Final y after a consonant changes to i before any suffix pity + ful = pitiful              copy + ed = copied

Except suffix beginning with i – ist, ing, ish – copy + ist = copyist                           copy + ing = copying

The prefixes dis and mis are placed before a word without altering its spelling:  dissatisfy, mislead

Prefixes changed for euphony The final consonant of a prefix may change to match the following letter or a letter more easily blended with it. The changed form is easier to say and more pleasing to the ear. Examples:

con- → col-, com-, cor-

• collide (con + lide)

• collect (con + lect)

• commute (con + mute)

• compress (con + press)

• corrode (con + rode)

• correlate (con + relate)

Rule: “con-” becomes “col-” before “l,” “com-” before “m/p/b,” “cor-” before “r.”

2. in- → il-, im-, ir-

• illegible (in + legible)

• illegal (in + legal)

• impossible (in + possible)

• immature (in + mature)

• irregular (in + regular)

• irresponsible (in + responsible)

Rule: “in-” changes to match the first consonant of the root:

• “il-” before “l”

• “im-” before “m, p, b”

• “ir-” before “r”

3. ad- → ac-, af-, ag-, al-, an-, ap-, ar-, as-, at-

• accumulate (ad + cumulate)

• affect (ad + fect)

• aggression (ad + gression)

• allocate (ad + locate)

• annex (ad + nex)

• appoint (ad + point)

• arrive (ad + rive)

• assimilate (ad + similate)

• attend (ad + tend)

Rule: “ad-” assimilates to match the first consonant of the root.

morphology – Prefixes, Suffixes, Roots by Grade

check out this suffix pdf – Most Common Suffixes

65% of suffixes we use are s, ed, es, ing.

Remember, there are no spelling changes when we add a consonant suffix – s, ful, less, ly ment, but drop the final e in the base word for a vowel suffix – ed, es, ing, ive, y.

Home   Spelling Rules and 44 Phonemes

Spelling Rules and 44 Phonemes

Copyright 05/04/2012

Edited on 10/25/2025

Reference

Mnemonic sentences came from Project Read.

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